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BLOG TECHNICAL TIPS: eg, where are the links/RSS Feed?
By Ed Mierzwinski - 11/2/2009 Hi, while our technical staff is upgrading the U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog functionality, here are some tips. (1) Links are not appearing until you click Read More (bottom right). We're working on that. (2) Subscribe to RSS by clicking the RSS icon in your browser link window at top of page. MORE. (3) You should now be able to register as a blog user and post comments. Look under my picture where it says: "tell us what you think." That's the first upgrade. More to come in next few months.
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Committee votes to open the Fed!
By Ed Mierzwinski - 11/20/2009 Last night the House Financial Services Committee approved a PIRG-backed amendment opening the secretive Federal Reserve Board to greater public scrutiny. The bi-partisan Ron Paul (R-TX)-Alan Grayson (D-FL) amendment was passed 43-26 over the objections of Fed Chairman Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Geithner and committee chair Barney Frank (D-MA). U.S. PIRG Tax and Budget Reform Advocate Nicole Tichon: “We applaud the House Financial Services Committee for supporting this bipartisan call for unprecedented transparency into the elusive workings of the Federal Reserve. For too long, taxpayers have been blind, reluctant investors in a system largely controlled by bankers to benefit bankers. They deserve to know where the trillions of dollars have gone.” More background (Click "READ MORE" for links). The vote on Paul-Grayson suggests that residual anger at the regulators -- at their incompetence in allowing the financial collapse made worse by their actions to bail out Wall Street with money from taxpayers on Main Street -- still simmers on Capitol Hill. Unfortunately, too many members are still listening to big banks, small banks, credit unions, the Chamber of Commerce, car dealers, hedge fund operators and other powerful special interests who oppose important elements of reform. Nevertheless, this vote is still a big step.
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Overdrawn! The Movie, tonight only, on Capitol Hill!
By Ed Mierzwinski - 11/19/2009 I am speaking on an expert panel tonight following a 5:30 PM screening in Rayburn House Office Bldg Rm 2220 of the movie Overdrawn! Click "Read more" for links). It's a documentary by filmmaker/consumer Karney Hatch. Reform champions Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Eric Halperin of the Center for Responsible Lending are both in the movie.
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Voluntary meat inspection? A bad idea.
By Ed Mierzwinski - 11/19/2009 I haven't had a chance to read Sen. Kristin Gillebrand's (D-NY) new e. coli testing bill explained today in the New York Times story"Senate Bill Would Require E. Coli Testing." [CLICK "READ MORE" FOR LINKS] So, I don't know how good it is. But I can say this. I know how bad industry's defense is as reported in the story: "A trade group, the American Meat Institute, said the testing that the new legislation would require was unnecessarily repetitive because slaughterhouses voluntarily conduct their own spot checks." Voluntary e. coli testing. That's been going well for the American people, hasn't it? One was interviewed in the story: "Stephanie Smith, a 22-year-old former dance instructor who was left partly paralyzed two years ago by E. coli that officials traced to hamburger." I recently commented (LINK) on a proposal for vountary airline safety regulation. Even failed former SEC chairman Chris Cox admitted after the Wall Street collapse that for investment banks, "voluntary regulation doesn’t work." And, it won't work for slaughterhouses either.
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WSJ: Gift card? No, Give me cash; WP-Comment on gift card rules
By Ed Mierzwinski - 11/19/2009 Neal Templin, who writes for the Cheapskate column over at the Wall Street Journal, recommends today "Gift Cards Are Useful; Give Me Cash:" [Click "READ MORE" for LINKS"] The stry points out what we always say: gift cards may have unfair fees and decline in value, you may lose them (even in a drawer so they aren't fully emptied), and you cannot use them everywhere. He asks "So why have gift cards grown in popularity when we already have something better sitting in our wallets? The answer is a combination of consumer psychology and opportunistic retailers and card issuers. Consumers see giving cash as crass, and retailers have taken advantage of that to push gift cards."
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Ed Mierzwinski
U.S. PIRG Consumer Program Director
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