Leaving Las Vegas

Weekend Edition.

The semi-annual trip to Vegas a couple of weeks back, a few observations.

One; the economy is in high gear. Plenty of building and growth in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, from Henderson to Summerlin, huge growth. Las Vegas home prices are growing fastest among major markets, topping long-reigning leader Seattle. Southern Nevada home prices rose 13 percent in August from a year earlier, compared with a 6.2 percent rise nationally.

Las Vegas is thriving under a population boom, 4.9 people on average have moved to Las Vegas every hour over the last year. The population expansion in Nevada over the last year was nearly three times the national average and placed the city at second for fastest-growing population rate in any state.

Of those new residents, 34 percent came from California  attracted to the neighboring state’s affordable homes, growing tech sector and reputation as a business-friendly state.

But, only 23.5 percent of Nevadans have a bachelor’s degree or higher, making it the 45th lowest state for this level of educational attainment. Companies are having a difficult time finding qualified labor.

Two; what is the deal with tattoos in Las Vegas? Not just arm tattoos, but full body tattoos. There are 625 tattoo parlors in Vegas, you can spend up to $1,000 on a quality tattoo.

Three; To my St. Lawrence friends – The four-team college hockey Las Vegas Invitational tournament, featuring UConn, Air Force, Western Michigan and St. Lawrence, will be played January 4-5, 2019 at T-Mobile Arena. My reservations have been made, perhaps a reunion golf tournament Friday morning January 4? Stay tuned.

Four; Blackjack – Do you hit when you have a two or three showing when the dealer has a anything but a four, five, six? One of the great mysteries of gaming. This ruined me at the Blackjack table.

HAPPY AUTUMN EQUINOX -

 39 days until Election Day

 55 days until Thanksgiving

 95 days until New Year’s

COLLEGE CHRONICLES – Colleges and universities are wrestling with a rise in sexual-assault claims, lawsuits brought by those accused of assault and conflicting directions from courts and the federal government on how to handle them.

Some schools have found the problem so vexing they have outsourced investigations and hearings. A small group of schools have also started experimenting with alternative dispute resolutions that avoid formal hearings.

#METOO - A record number of women running for office in America. The #MeToo movement taking down men worldwide. Ireland voting two-to-one to legalize abortion. Some Silicon Valley companies promising to make 50% of their workforce female. Young women increasingly dominating men in high school and college classrooms.

What's happening: Everywhere you look, women are rising and forcing results.

This is sparking debate about whether this is a landmark, '60s-style liberation and empowerment — but on a global stage.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who successfully pushed for legislation mandating sexual harassment training in the Senate: "There was bound to come a moment when the unfairness of it all bubbled over into electoral success. ... Why does it suddenly feel like a mass movement — a.k.a., a global juggernaut? I would say that a lot of women have been waiting in the wings wondering if they can do it, and suddenly they are."

Katie Couric, who recently examined gender equality in a National Geographic episode called "The Revolt," adds: "It feels like a historic, watershed moment. ... Think of what we can accomplish when more than half the population has a real seat at the table.”

It's not just politics. Tech companies are trying to improve their perpetual gender imbalance, the Financial Times reports, by "training staff in unconscious bias, ... insisting that shortlists include women, improving referral incentives, ... enhancing maternity rights and showcasing female role models on social media."

The data:

After upsetting headlines about harassment in Silicon Valley, women feel increasingly empowered and hopeful. Tech companies are taking steps to improve figures for women in their workforces, which range from 45% at Pinterest to 35% at Facebook to 26% at Microsoft, according to Recode.

Women will account for 55% of the full-time undergraduates in U.S. colleges this fall, according to a Department of Education projection,  men the "new minority on campus."

A record number of women are running for Congress this fall, and the N.Y. Times calculates that roughly half of the women running in primaries have won so far. This Democratic primary season "is defined by women trouncing men," with women winning in 69% (45 of 65) of races where they faced a male non-incumbent.

From the Senate, Klobuchar cites this stark statistic: More than 1,900 men have been U.S. senators. Only 52 women have been senators in the history of the country — and 23 are serving today.

The trend looks like a third spike in the century-long women's revolution:

The themes — the rise of women politicians, outrage against sex crimes, the secularization of Europe — aren't new. If you include Anita Hill's 1991 Senate appearance during the confirmation hearing for Justice Clarence Thomas, they go back decades. But they are a culmination.

Leandra Zarnow, a history professor at the University of Houston, traces it back four decades, "reflecting persistent activism by women to make inroads into politics and policy, before and ever since women leaned on the United Nations to declare 1975 International Women’s Year."

Zarnow tells us that what we are watching is different, a long time coming, and around the world — "a global upsurge of outrage and engagement around women’s rights that feels different because of its hefty volume and tone."

The first wave, going back to the 19th and early 20th centuries, brought women the right to vote. After the suffragettes, the second acknowledged wave started in the 1960s and took up pay, sex, reproduction, abortion and general equality.

After that, gender historians divide, identifying third and even fourth waves. But we're clearly witnessing a distinct and powerful societal shift.

SMALL LIES MATTER - What a terrible day for the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. The confirmation hearing of Brett Kavanaugh turned into a battle of raw partisan strength — and a repudiation of the idea that judges are independent from politics.

It’s true that there is no way to resolve this nomination without creating anger. The allegations against Kavanaugh are too grave, and his denial is categorical. One side will be left feeling embittered.

Choose your networks:

POTUS RULES OF LEADERSHIP – Leadership books are filled with calls for brutal candor, hiring people more talented than yourself, and collaboration as a force multiplier.

But President Trump’s lessons of leadership, like his approach to the presidency, are radically and ruthlessly different.

1). Your brand should piss someone off. The worst thing you can be is milquetoast, bland. He wants some people to have a viscerally negative response to him and what he’s doing, because he bets that’s going to harden support on the other side.

2). Crisis is a powerful weapon — fire it indiscriminately. "Forget planning," a source said. "Wake up every morning, survey the battlefield, let your gut instinct lead you to a crisis to exploit, bet that no one else can thrive in the chaos the way you can. Ratchet up the pressure until everyone else's pipes burst."

3). You can create your own truth. Just keep repeating it.

4). Accuse the accuser. A source who's spent hundreds of hours working with Trump puts it this way: "He has a history of accusing people of whatever he’s being accused of. Collusion? Democrats colluded on the dossier! Blue wave? Red wave coming!"

5). Fear trumps friendship. Trump wants his inferiors to fear him and hold him in awe. He likes watching them duke it out in front of him.

6). Loyalty trumps talent. Case in point: Michael Cohen. No serious person would employ Michael Cohen as their personal attorney — a point Trump has belatedly acknowledged himself. But as Cohen used to say, he'd "take a bullet" for Donald Trump. Oops.

7). Never admit you are — or did — wrong.  Trump’s #MeToo advice, per Bob Woodward's "Fear": "You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women. If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you’re dead."

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Steve Lesniak …famous wine sommelier; Susan Sarandon (72) New York, NY; Bruce Springsteen (69) Wilton, CT.

SUMMER BOX OFFICE - Here's to summer movie revenue totaling $4.39 billion, up 14% from last year. ComScore says it'll be the fifth best summer on record. How 'bout that?

It definitely removes the bad taste from last year, which was the worst summer for movie revenue in more than a decade...

The industry is still worried about attendance. If you divide summer revenue by the average YTD ticket price of $9.27, we've seen about 473 million moviegoers. Sure, that's up 10% from last summer, but it's still the second-worst summer attendance since 1992.

Well, as long as Disney keeps churning out the hits it will be okay okay. It's got the top spots on domestic summer charts—Avengers: Infinity War raked in something like $679 million, plus Incredibles 2 snagged $597.1 million. Juggernaut.

MARKET WEEK – SiriusXM is acquiring Pandora (which is still around and still quite popular) for $3.5 billion. Remember, it's been a thinly-veiled courtship...SiriusXM invested $480 million in Pandora just 15 months ago.

Why it makes sense: The competition is ballooning (h/t Apple and Amazon). But Pandora's still kicking, even if Spotify's the name in the news more frequently.

FYI, Pandora has 70 million monthly active users in North America, while Spotify has 55.8 million. SiriusXM has 36 million.

China and the United States imposed new tariff hikes on each other’s goods and Beijing accused Washington of bullying, giving no sign of compromise in an intensifying battle over technology that is weighing on global economic growth.

U.S. regulators went ahead with a planned 10 percent tax on a $200 billion list of 5,745 Chinese imports including bicycles and furniture.

China’s customs agency said it responded at noon by beginning to collect taxes of 5 or 10 percent on a $60 billion list of 5,207 American goods, from honey to industrial chemical.

Welcome to the last trading day of the third quarter.

Tesla shares are slumping premarket on the news that the SEC is suing Elon Musk for securities fraud. The stock is already down 10% for the past three months.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is on pace for its best quarter in nearly five years, and the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note is heading for a fifth straight quarterly climb.

The S&P 500 has risen 7.2% so far this quarter and is on pace for its largest quarterly gain since the last quarter of 2013.

Advanced Micro Devices shares have added 117% in the third quarter, on track for their best period since 1975. The semiconductor firm is up 217% for the year and is the S&P 500's best performer in 2018.

 A fifth straight quarterly advance for the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield would be its longest such streak since 2013.

Market Week Quiz - This week, several companies changed or added new names. Which of the following did not happen?

a) Weight Watchers will now go by "WW"

b) Alibaba shortened its name to just "Baba"

c) Dunkin' Donuts will remove the word "Donuts" from its logo and branding

d) AT&T will call its new ad and analytics unit "Xandr"

 Answer: below

HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA - Summer's over. Let's talk ice stuff. With the NHL season begins next week (10/3: Capitals-Bruins), let's review what's gone down in the three months since Ovi and Co.'s celebration circuit.

Our picks: Red Wings, another non-playoff year ahead, the same fate for the Anaheim Ducks.

Toronto Maple Leafs in the East, San Jose Sharks in the West – The Cup goes to San Jose.

Major offseason stories:

Barry Trotz heads to Long Island: Trotz coached the Caps to their first-ever Stanley Cup, asked for a pay raise, and quit when management wouldn't budge. Just two weeks later, Trotz was named head coach of the New York "Brooklyn Is So Over" Islanders.

Speaking of the Islanders: In the biggest move of the offseason, 27-year-old center John Tavares left to sign with his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs, who instantly became betting favorites to win the cup. They're stacked.

All the Erik Karlsson drama: An Ottawa Citizen report last week details the sad and sordid off-ice drama involving the Senators defenseman, his former teammate Mike Hoffman, and their respective partners. It involves allegations of an extended campaign of cyberbullying and the shipping off of Hoffman in June — to two teams in the same day. Karlsson has been traded to San Jose.

PEDs? PEDs. The NHL doled out a 20-game suspension to lovable Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug policy. Schmidt, who vehemently denied any wrongdoing, is just the sixth player since 2007 to run afoul of the NHL's PED policy, which has faced its fair share of criticism in the past.

HAT TRICK - A hat trick is one of the NHL’s rarest achievements with only 81 during the 2017-18 season, or roughly one in 6.4 percent of games. That’s more rare than a shutout, with 144 in 2017-18, or one in 11.3 percent of games, or a shorthanded goal, of which there were 211 last season, or one in 16.6 percent of games. Of the 7,552 goals scored last season, 250, or 3.3 percent, were scored in a hat trick.

The greatest player of all-time, Wayne Gretzky, had 50 regular season hat tricks in his career, or one in 3.4 percent of his games. Active players Brian Gionta, Paul Stastny, Claude Giroux, and Nicklas Backstrom, all with over 200 career goals, each have one regular season hat trick. The point is that hat tricks are rare because they’re difficult.

The NHL started off with a bang from a hat trick perspective in 1917-18, the league’s inaugural season, as Hall of Famers Cy Denneny and Joe Malone both tallied seven that season. Denneny finished with 25 hat tricks while Malone retired with 18. Denneny was the league’s sole career leader in hat tricks from the second season, in 1918-19, until the 1955-56 season when Maurice “Rocket” Richard tied him with 25.

Richard took the lead two seasons later, in 1957-58, and remained the all-time leader until the 1970-71 season when Bobby Hull surpassed him with 27 tricks. Hull’s 28 career hat tricks were tops until Phil Esposito took over during the 1977-78 season and he led until Gretzky passed him during the 1984-85 season with 34 and has held the lead since.

By individual seasons, Denneny and Malone’s seven hat tricks in 1917-18 remained the most in a single season until the 1980-81 season when Bossy surpassed them with nine. That record lasted less than a season when Gretzky had 10, a record that remains.

NHL ON NBC - The NHL's history with broadcast TV hasn't exactly been sparkling. The league regularly schedules playoff games that overlap; Wednesday Night Rivalry games are often between, well, not rivals; and it feels like the same five teams get all the nationally-televised games.

NBC and the league are finally making changes this season.

NBC's family of networks will broadcast more games than ever this year. They're also going to feature more Western Conference teams and do away with the silly faux rivalry stuff. Two matchups that will delight the entire nation:

An intrastate showdown between Sean Couturier's Flyers and Sidney Crosby's Penguins.

The perennial one-playoff-series-and-out St. Louis Blues against the Nashville "Yes, we're a hockey town" Predators' absurd blueline.

Progress! But there are, naturally, still plenty of head-scratchers.

The Blackhawks, a team that has been in clear decline the past few years, will host the Winter Classic. Again. (2) The rebuilding Rangers will play five nationally televised games. (3) Three of the best Western Conference teams (Vegas, San Jose, Winnipeg) have a grand total of zero games on NBC.

TIGER 1.0 vs. 2.0 - When Tiger 1.0 was winning, he was a cold-blooded assassin. All business. Cut out your heart, show it to you pumping, and that was it ... Fans really never got a chance to know the guy, and when we found out stuff about his personal life, we were like, "who the hell are we even rooting for?"

This Tiger 2.0 guy — I mean, that shot of him and Rory McIlroy walking up 18 and the gallery just streaming in behind them ... that visual of the golf fans surrounding Tiger Woods and him being in the middle of the fandom and feeling comfortable about it ... That's a visual that I think nails down what we're loving about Tiger 2.0. He’s a dad ... he's showing actual human emotion. But, he is still weird.

GOLF’S SUPER BOWL - The end of the golf season has taken a few unexpected turns. Tiger Woods won a tournament for the first time in more than five years. Tiger and longtime frenemy Phil Mickelson are now apparently buddies. And heading into this weekend, the U.S. is seen by many as the favorite in the Ryder Cup, a competition in which it has long been a doormat for Team Europe.

Wood's win at the Tour Championship--the huge crowds surging toward him on the course, and the TV ratings that challenged the NFL--was a reminder that, in golf, there's Tiger and then there's everyone else. It was also a reminder that, while golf has a whole new generation of stars, it has not figured out the post-Tiger future.

The Ryder Cup is underway this morning at Le Golf National in France. There is little doubt that this is a strong, unified, well-organized U.S. team.  But the U.S.'s problem may be how physically strong it is. Its top players hit the ball a long way--but not necessarily that straight. Le Golf National, however, is a shortish course with narrow fairways and long rough. If you turn on the TV this morning and see the American players wandering around in the tall grass, it may bode ill for the U.S. team's hopes of repeating its 2016 win at Hazeltine.

The Swami Says: Euros will win again on their turf, 15 ½ to 12 ½.

SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS –

NFL Football Pick of the Week – Sunday 9/30, 8:20 PM ET, NBC: Time for Carrie Underwood to get a better NBC Sunday Night Football theme song. Also, we have the Baltimore Ravens (2-1) at Pittsburgh Steelers (1-1-1). A HUGE game for Big Ben they must win or the season is in trouble, they do Steelers 20 Ravens 17. (Season to date 1-2)

College Football Pick of the Week – Saturday 9/29, 7:30 PM ET, ABC: #4 Urban Liars (4-0) at #9 Penn State University (4-0), The Nittany Lions are favored by 3.5 in Happy Valley, the Liars will cover the spread and win this key Weak Ten East matchup; Liars 50 Lions 45. (Season to date 2-2)

D-III Football Pick of the Week – Saturday 9/29, 2:00 PM ET, HGTV:  #10 UW-Whitewater Warhawks (2-0) at #23 UW-La Crosse Eagles (2-1). A battle of the D-III Wisconsin powerhouses, Warhawks all the way, Warhawks 37 Eagles 28.  (Season to date 2-2)

SCIAC Game of the Week (football) – Saturday 9/29, 1:00 PM PT:  University of La Verne Leopards (0-2, 0-0) at Claremont-Mudd Republicans (1-2, 0-0).  The SCIAC season begins at David Drier Field, we like the Leopards in an upset, ULV 28 Republicans 24. (Season to date 2-1)

MLB Game of the Week – Saturday 9/29; Los Angeles Dodgers (88-71) at San Francisco Giants (73-86), it is down to the rivalry to see if the Dodgers play in October, not this time, Giants 4 Dodgers 2.

Season to Date (42 -28)

ON THIS DATE - Today also marks 476 years since an explorer named Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo — who, incidentally, might be either Spanish or Portuguese — became a hero to all sorts of people who have to attend work conferences, by coming up on the San Diego Bay while looking for a mythical passage across North America called the Strait of Anián.

Next Blog:  October 8 - The Young and Not Restless

Until next time, Adios

Claremont, California

September 28, 2018

#IX-11-379

CARTOON OF THE WEEK – Mike Kuckovich

RINK RATS POLL –

What do these letters mean?  PMP, CSM, CISM, CRISC, ITILv3F, MCSE, CGEIT

____  The genetic code of the common cold

____  An individual who has too many higher education degrees

____  A new gambling game in Las Vegas

____  A lousy manager

QUOTE OF THE MONTH – "Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all." – Aristotle

Market Week Quiz -
Answer: Alibaba isn't changing its name

Thirty Six

This writer has just begun his thirty sixth year of teaching. It began with Business Mathematics at Tompkins-Cortland Community College and continues today at the University of La Verne as a cherished vocation.

Changes, many: naturally in technology, this past summer I taught students from São Paulo Brazil, Shenzhen China, London England, Portland Oregon, Santiago Chile, Glendora California. It is amazing how the world has shrunk. My teaching platforms include online via Blackboard, WebEx and Skype, “on ground” face-to-face, and hybrid, a combination of online and face-to-face.  Changes in administration of higher education: funding by debt (both student and institution), for profit competition, and government entitlements.

But through all these changes the students have remained the same: challenging, driven for success, nervous about the future, eager to learn. I maintain a database of every student I have taught (thank you Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston's development of VisiCalc). The number totals 4,976 students. To this day I hear from many in that data base, filling me in on their lives and asking for feedback and information.

All the hassles, egos, lack of accountability and common sense in higher education does not begin to change my thanks and respect to all those 4,976 students and their making teaching the most rewarding occupation I have had.

NOW, your Case Study is due at Midnight tonight!!

THE CRISIS, A DECADE LATER - This coming Saturday, Sept. 15th, marks exactly ten years since Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, further plunging the financial industry and the American economy into the worst crisis since the Great Depression. The economy is now remarkably stronger with joblessness at just 3.9 percent after spiking above 10 percent in 2009. Economic growth is now around a 3 percent pace. Politics aside, President Barack Obama and President Trump both deserve credit some here.

 The failure of Lehman Brothers exposed how cavalier the world had been towards risk. Since then the world has retreated from risk, reshaping institutions, attitudes and the economy. But risk-taking never disappears, it just changes shape, to slip past the institutional and psychological defenses erected after the last crisis. That is already happening.

Banks are no longer the power brokers on Wall Street. Profits, assets and influence have moved from investment banks such as Goldman Sachs to money-management giants such as BlackRock and Vanguard. These firms were once sleepy clients of Wall Street. Today they direct huge flows of capital and capture the lion’s share of the finance industry’s fees.

Countless investors lost faith in financial markets—and never got it back. On Sept. 1, Barry Popik received a check for $35.98. That legal settlement is all that’s left of the $25,000 he invested in Lehman Brothers. But money is not all that Mr. Popik and an untold number of others lost. Their faith in the fairness of financial markets is also broken.

The financial crisis changed home buying forever. It was easy—too easy—to buy a house during the boom years. Not today. Lenders have tightened their standards, and many banks now view mortgages as a side service to offer to a small group of wealthier customers rather than a big-volume revenue generator.

The new mortgage kings are companies you've probably never heard of. The home-lending business has shifted to specialized mortgage lenders that fall outside the banking sector. Such nonbanks now have 52% of U.S. mortgage originations, up from 9% in 2009. They symbolize both the healthy reinvention of the mortgage market—and how the growth in that market almost exclusively has been in its less-regulated corner.

What will trigger the next crisis? The person who predicts the next financial crisis, and there will be at least one, should get credit for luck rather than forecasting skill. A decade of extraordinarily low interest rates has created multiple distortions in the global economy and financial system. Any of those can unwind painfully but predicting what factors would trigger a global downturn is near impossible. Potential threats include bad student loans, a euro exodus, China’s debt levels, Tom Brady retiring, and earthquakes.

COLLEGE CHRONICLES – Purdue University Global will no longer require its faculty members to sign a nondisclosure agreement. The university drew scrutiny after reports that professors had to sign a four-page document prohibiting them from discussing such things as "course materials" and "methods of instruction." The contract also included a one-year non-compete clause. Administrators say the requirement was a legacy of Kaplan University, the for-profit institution that Purdue University acquired this year to create Purdue Global. Before the NDA was dropped, our Goldie Blumenstyk wrote some smart observations on what its presence signaled about corporate influence in higher education.

SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW? - Harvard University topped The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings for the second straight year, followed by its Cambridge neighbor, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Yale University, Columbia University and the California Institute of Technology round out the top five.

The WSJ/THE rankings emphasize how well a college will prepare students for life after graduation.

POLITICS 101 - Days until the 2018 election: 57.

Upcoming election dates — Sept. 11: New Hampshire primaries. — Sept. 12: Rhode Island primaries. — Sept. 13: New York (state-level) primaries.

3-2-1 RULE - When it comes to keeping your digital files safe, you should follow the 3-2-1 Rule.

Coined by photographer Peter Krogh and now so widely respected that the government recommends it, the rule goes like this: Have at least three copies of everything, on at least two different types of media, at least one of which should be somewhere else.

Two of those three are pretty easy. Buy a big honkin’ hard drive and back your stuff up every once in a while and keep your laptop out of the bathtub. Your third place should be a cloud-storage service.

In general, cloud storage works in two ways. One is the everything-everywhere method: You download an app, which adds a folder to your computer that connects to your cloud storage. Anything you add to or change in that folder automatically uploads, then can be downloaded to your other devices. (Some apps let you choose which folders or files download to a given device.)

The other approach is to upload everything once, then manage it all through web and mobile apps instead of keeping it synced to your local machine. I mostly use the second method, since I don’t want the same photo potentially taking up space on five devices.

I like four of the biggest services: Dropbox , Google Drive, Microsoft ’s OneDrive and Apple’s iCloud. Each offers some storage free, and lots more for a few bucks a month. Using any of them is better than using none, but they have important differences. Not all will be for you.

iCloud (5GB free, 2TB for $10/month): If you have an iPhone and/or Mac, you’re likely already using iCloud to sync contacts, calendars, notes and messages across your Apple devices. There’s also a good chance you’ve gotten those nagging messages about how you’re almost out of storage.

If you upgrade, starting at $1 a month for 50GB of space, iCloud becomes a full-on backup and sync tool for every file on every Apple device you own, which you can access in Finder on your Mac or the Files app on iOS. Problem is, you have to download files every time you want to access them, which will fill your hard drive fast.

iCloud shows little love for non-Apple devices, too. The iCloud web app stinks, and iCloud for Windows is far more complicated to use than other services.

OneDrive (5GB free, 1TB for $7/month): OneDrive checks all the cloud-storage boxes—works on lots of devices, easy enough to use, stores all your files—but doesn’t offer much in the way of uniquely great features. I like On Demand, which can show you synced files as if they’re local but won’t download them until you open them. On the other hand, I dread using its slow web interface. You can’t beat the price: $7 a month gets you a terabyte of storage plus a full Microsoft Office 365 subscription with Word, Excel and the rest.

OneDrive is designed primarily for people who use Microsoft and Windows products every day. Still, it’s friendlier to other platforms than iCloud is.

Google Drive (15GB free, 2TB for $10/month): Drive’s best features are Google’s best features. You can search for the text of handwritten notes or find a picture just by describing it. The new Quick Access bar guesses, surprisingly accurately, what you might be looking for every time you open the app.

There’s also no better place to put your random files if you already work in Google Docs and store your pictures in Google Photos. It doesn’t have tags or labels for organizing your stuff, though—Google would rather you just search.

Dropbox (2GB free, 1TB for $10/month): Dropbox is the only one of these services not owned by a tech giant—that neutrality offers some advantages. It has a huge number of integrations that allow you to edit Microsoft Office and AutoCAD files, send huge attachments in Gmail or quickly share things in Slack.

Dropbox is particularly good at managing multiple devices by only downloading the files you need on each one and not cluttering your hard drive with the rest. Dropbox’s version history even keeps past iterations of your files, too, to save you from a bad edit or accidental delete. I don’t care for Dropbox’s super-sparse interface, but it’s an impressively robust tool.

Your best choice will be the one that meshes with the products you already use. You may end up paying for a couple of different services. Most of my data is in Google Drive, for instance, but I have a free Dropbox account because its sharing and preview tools are so good. When I need to quickly send someone a folder full of photos, that’s what I use. I also pay a buck a month to keep my iPhone backed up through iCloud.

Whichever you choose, put as much of your digital life in there as possible. All four services offer up to a terabyte or two of space—more than enough for all your old documents and low-res photos from yesteryear.

Don’t even worry about organizing at first. Step one is just getting everything off your laptop. All four services make that easy. Google Drive and iCloud can even monitor your entire computer, uploading everything they find. Just note, the initial run might take a day or two.

Do the same with your phone, too. For iPhones, iCloud can move all your photos to the cloud and free up space automatically. Dropbox and Google Drive also offer camera backup, sucking up all your photos into the cloud. (Once they’re up there, you can delete all the space-hogging stuff from your phone.) Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive all have built-in document scanners, so you can file things away just by taking pictures with your phone. You should also use iCloud or Google Drive to back up your phone in case it ends up in the toilet.

Eventually, you might come to think of your cloud storage, not your ever-messy Downloads folder, as a sort of digital home base. When you take a picture of a bill or scan a business card, stick it in cloud storage. All your stuff will be easier to search for and more useful when you find it.

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Warren Buffett (88) Omaha, NB;  Tommy Lee Jones (72) Austin, TX; Claudio Muñoz…famous Accounting Professor;  Scott Winterburn ….famous athletic director.  

MODERN LOVE - In America more than a third of marriages now start with an online match-up.

Research has found that marriages in America between people who meet online are likely to last longer; such couples profess to be happier than those who met offline.

Negative emotions about body image existed before the internet, but they are amplified when strangers can issue snap judgments on attractiveness. Digital dating has been linked to depression. ... 10% of all newly created dating profiles do not belong to real people.

The internet is the second-most-popular way for Americans to meet people of the opposite sex and is fast catching up with real-world 'friend of a friend' introductions.

BUFFETTOLOGY - These 10 skills require ZERO talent:

- Being on time

- Work ethic

- Putting in effort

- Being optimistic

- Being passionate

- Being teachable

- Being prepared

- Doing extra

- Being encouraging

- Taking responsibility of one’s own life and everything in it.

MARKET WEEK – The decade that followed the financial crisis brought huge amounts of easy money that propelled markets sharply higher. In the decade to come, investors will have to reckon with a potentially rockier wind-down of those policies.

Monetary policy makers are at a crossroads as the 10th anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse approaches this month. Central banks in the U.S., Europe, Japan and China still have balance sheets totaling more than $20 trillion and that, in aggregate, continue to grow. But HSBC estimates that these balance sheets are stabilizing relative to gross domestic product and are set to start shrinking by that measure later in the year.

The move to pull away that support for global markets would come at a time when many assets are already trading at high prices relative to history and investors are wondering how much longer the bull market can last.

“If QE was designed to encourage risk-seeking behavior in investors then its reverse is showing signs of an increase in risk aversion,” said HSBC researchers, led by Steven Major, in a research report.

After stemming the biggest fallout from the crisis, policy makers sought to help the global economy rebound by keeping rates at record lows and buying up large swaths of the financial markets through quantitative easing programs meant to boost the economy.

That has been a key factor behind the robust stock market gains during the longest U.S. bull market on record because it fueled risk-taking behavior among investors, many analysts believe. The size of the bond market also exploded during this period, as low rates fueled a borrowing frenzy.

Now, the Federal Reserve has already begun to shrink its balance sheet. The Bank of England has been raising interest rates. The European Central Bank has signaled that it may stop buying up assets by the end of the year.

The unprecedented nature of central banks’ post-crisis actions means no one knows exactly how their reversal will impact markets. But it’s clear that what central banks gave to investors during the first 10 years after the crisis, they are set to starting taking back during the next 10 years.

The tightening job market in August delivered workers the largest single-month wage boost in nearly a decade as the economy added 201,000 jobs, the government reported Friday.

"Average hourly earnings rose 2.9 percent over the previous year — up from July's 2.7 percent and the biggest jump since June 2009. The unemployment rate was 3.9 percent, unchanged from July. The numbers paint an improving portrait of the economy two months ahead of the midterm elections.

COAL - Despite heightened concerns about climate change and a slowdown in financing, coal remains king in power generation, accounting for as much of the world’s electricity as it did two decades ago.

U.S. exports of coal more than doubled in 2017 and are set to grow this year, according to the Energy Information Administration. With their economies growing, countries across Asia and Africa are expected to increase their use of coal for expanding power generation through 2040.

Government officials in developing countries, many of whom say they want to curb the use of coal to combat climate change, often face the challenge of doing so without slowing economic growth.

NBA SCHEDULE - Christmas Day schedule: Celtics vs. Sixers (mouth-watering), Bucks vs. Knicks (hopefully Giannis jumps over Tim Hardaway's entire body again), Thunder vs. Rockets (Haha, Melo), Lakers vs. Warriors (because of course).

SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS –

NFL Football Pick of the Week – Sunday 9/16, 4:25 PM ET, CBS: New England Patriots (1-0) at Jacksonville Jaguars (1-0). Early test for both clubs, can the Jags defense limit Brady. Nope, Pats 28 Jags 17 (Season to date 0-1)

College Football Pick of the Week – Saturday 9/15, 3:30 PM ET, CBS: #5 LSU Tigers (2-0) visit #7 Auburn Tigers (2-0). At home, too much defense, LSU no can do; Auburn 35 LSU 27. (Season to date 0-1)

D-III Football Pick of the Week – Saturday 9/15, 1:00 PM ET, HGTV: St. Lawrence University Saints (1-1) at #5 SUNY Brockport Golden Eagles (2-0). How good is Dan Puckhaber’s Saints, we will soon find out. Golden Eagles are a Empire 8 powerhouse. SUNY 38 Saints 21.   (Season to date 0-1)

SCIAC Game of the Week (women’s volleyball) – Wednesday 9/12, 7:00 PM PT:  University of La Verne Leopards (4-4, 0-0) visit #11 California Lutheran Regals (6-2, 0-0). The SCIAC opener for both teams, La Verne needs to get off to a good start against one of the teams they need to beat out for playoff consideration. Leopards win 3 – 2. (Season to date 1-0)

MLB Game of the Week – Saturday 9/15; Los Angeles Dodgers (78-65) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (79-64). Two playoff battling teams, with three weeks left, a key game: Dodgers win 6 – 4.

Season to Date (34 -23)

ON THIS DATE - 130 years on this date George Eastman received a patent for his camera that used roll film and registered his trademark of Kodak.

DRIVING THE WEEK - President Trump will observe the Sept. 11th anniversary on Tuesday at a Flight 93 memorial service ... Senate this week expected to confirm Charlies Rettig to head the IRS ... Senate Banking has a hearing on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. on countering Russia and on Thursday at 10:00 a.m. on implementation of S. 2155 (115), the "Implementation of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act" ... Apple on Wednesday expected to roll out several new versions of the iPhone, among other products.

Monday: First day of Rosh Hashanah; World Suicide Prevention Day; earnings (Sonos)

Tuesday: 17th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks; JOLTS

Wednesday: Apple's annual event; Global Climate Action Summit; Fed's beige book released

Thursday: CPI; jobless claims; Turkey's central bank is expected to hike interest rates; earnings (Kroger)

Friday: Retail sales; consumer sentiment

Next Blog:  September 17 - #MeToo Update, Words of the Month

Until next time, Adios

Claremont, California

September 10, 2018

#IX-10-378

CARTOON OF THE WEEK – The New Yorker

RINK RATS POLL –

What do these letters mean?  PMP, CSM, CISM, CRISC, ITILv3F, MCSE, CGEIT

____  The genetic code of the common cold

____  An individual who has too many higher education degrees

____  A new gambling game in Las Vegas

____  A lousy manager

QUOTE OF THE MONTH – "Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all." – Aristotle

Rink Rats is a blog of weekly observations, predictions and commentary. We welcome your comments and questions. Also participate in our monthly poll. Rink Rats is now viewed in Europe, Canada, South America and the United States.

Posted at Rink Rats The Blog: First Published – May 3, 2010

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