tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54780182144757692232024-02-20T00:04:24.012-08:00DonMcNay.comDon McNay is an author and award winning, syndicated columnist who views life with a rock and roll attitude. He is the author of The Unbridled World of Ernie Fletcher. Don’s columns appear in the Richmond (Kentucky) Register and syndicated to over 200 cities. McNay has Master’s degrees from Vanderbilt University and the American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa. He is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University and was inducted into the EKU Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 1998.Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.comBlogger146125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-50108316872696602682012-05-25T13:54:00.001-07:002012-05-25T13:54:16.001-07:00<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: grey; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 14px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Obituary for Laurence R. Dry, Jr., M.D., J.D.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 14px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 14px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: grey; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 14px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Laurence Revelle Dry, Jr. died on Thursday, May 17, 2012 at the Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was 72.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 14px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 14px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: grey; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 14px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">The son of Laurence Revelle Dry, Sr. and Mary Minetta Cron Dry, Larry was born on September 9, 1939, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He graduated from the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: grey; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 14px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">military boy’s school, Shattuck School, in Faribault, MN in 1957, received his B.A. from Carleton College in Northfield, MN in 1961, and later received his M.D. from Northwestern University in Chicago, IL in1966. While practicing as a General/Vascular Surgeon in Oak Ridge, TN, Larry attended the University of Tennessee Law School and received his J.D. in 1988. He practiced law in Oak Ridge, TN, until his death. He was a Major in the US Army.<br /><br />Larry was an avid reader who enjoyed traveling and spending time with his family. He loved the outdoors and spent a lot of time fishing, hunting, and competing in field trials with the Labrador Retrievers he bred. He enjoyed the warm climate of the Florida Keys and invited friends and family to accompany him fishing on No Name Key. His most recent pursuit was playing poker and he made two appearances in the World Series of Poker. Known for his hearty laugh, he enjoyed life to the fullest and lived it his way.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /><br />Larry is survived by wife, Wanda McClure Dry, son Laurence (Carrie) R. Dry III, daughters Julie (Kenny) Mitchell, Mollie (Joe) Lacher, and Wendy Dry, and sister Carolyn Dry. He is also survived by granddaughters Alison and Lauren Dry, and Sara and Emma Mitchell.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /><br />A memorial service will be held from 1:00-4:00 pm (EST) Friday, May 25th, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 212 N Tulane Ave, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /><br />Visitation will be held Saturday, May 26th from 10-12 pm (CST) [11-1 pm (EST)], and funeral services at 12:00 pm (CST) [1pm (EST)] May 26th at H.E. Pruitt Memory Chapel, 202 N Main St, 26th in Jamestown, Kentucky. A burial service will follow at the Ballenger-Carnes Cemetery, Jump Off Road, Jamestown, KY.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br /><br />In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be sent in Larry’s honor to: Carleton College, Gift Accounting, 1 North College Street, Northfield, MN 55057, (email: giftaccounting@carleton.edu), or to the Cemetery fund at: Nina McClure, Bank of Jamestown, P.O. Box 6, Jamestown, KY 42629.</span>Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-89513318685300603462010-01-04T17:55:00.000-08:002010-01-04T17:57:57.661-08:00Video of What to Do When you Win the Lottery.This You Tube video with Greg Stotelmyer of ABC36 in Lexington, Ky and Don McNay, author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: What To Do When You Win The Lottery gives a great 2 minute summery of how to handle a jackpot. <br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwUKC3YPYNE&feature=youtube_gdata"></a>Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-62618759089879240252010-01-03T11:36:00.000-08:002010-01-03T11:39:55.410-08:00Jobs & Projects at RRP InternationalI am passing along information about positions at RRP International. Although I am an owner in the company, there is a rigidly defined selection process that cannot be short circuited. <br /><br />Thus, sucking up to me will not help you and will probably hurt you. I do want to pass the information along and get some quality candidates. <br /><br />Don<br /><br />RRP International, a media production and publishing company based in Central Kentucky, has an immediate need for people who can complete the following tasks or serve in the outlined positions within the organization. <br /><br />The following projects will be done on a “project” basis.<br /><br /> You will be paid a flat amount, in three unequal installments. A small stipend to start, a payment in the middle and the bulk of the payment at completion. Payment amount will be a negotiated contract. <br /><br /><br />1. Website design. We are looking for someone who can design an “easy to read and easy to update” website that is user friendly. Please include links and examples of previous work if you are interested in this project.<br /><br />2. Book editing and coordination. The ideal candidate (or candidates) will have excellent grammar skills. Preference will be given to candidates with experience as a book editor or a copy editor for a newspaper or other publication. Also should have the skill set to work with the publisher in overall book design. <br /><br />3. Someone who can transcribe dictation. A person who has worked in as “rewrite writer or editor” in a newsroom would be an ideal candidate. <br /><br />It is not important for either of these candidates to live in Central Kentucky, or even in the United States. This work can be done remotely. <br /><br />If you are interested in being considered for one of these projects, please send a resume with references and links to any previous work to:<br /><br />RRPInternational@gmail.com by January 15, 2010. We will contact you no later than January 16, 2010 if we are interested in working with you. <br /><br />The following are skill sets we are looking for in candidates for a full or part time position. They should live in, or be willing to locate to, Central Kentucky. These skill sets be combined into one position or multiple, part time positions. <br /><br />The pay level will be entry level or slightly above entry level. <br /><br />Some of the tasks can be considered “work at home,” while others require “in office” or “in studio” work.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Tasks include:<br /><br /><br />1. Scheduling and coordinating guests on a radio show, scheduling and coordinating appearances for authors and media personalities. <br /><br />2. Someone with excellent phone skills.<br /><br />3. Someone with excellent office skills, especially written communications. <br /><br />4. Someone who can edit and produce audio and video podcasts and is on the cutting edge of communications technology.<br /><br />5. Someone who can maintain a constantly updated web site.<br /><br />6. Someone who is willing to travel and coordinate speaking and media appearances.<br /><br />7. Someone who is willing to do general tasks, such as going to the post office and purchasing supplies. <br /><br />8. Bookkeeping and accounting skills are not necessary but could be helpful in the position or positions selected. <br /><br />9. Someone with flexible scheduling and who is able to meet deadlines. <br /><br />10. Someone with a proven record (please provide examples and references) of a strong work ethic, even if they are not in the media field. <br /><br />11. Someone who works well under pressure. <br /><br /><br />Please send a resume and a cover letter noting which of the tasks are most suited to your particular skill set. If selected, you will be contacted no later than January 16, 2010. At that point, we will arrange a time for you to complete a series of skill tests, which will be done online. After the tests are evaluated, candidates will be chosen for a face to face interview. <br /><br />Send the information to RRPInternational@gmail.com Deadline is January 15, 2010.Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-71575664708421847712009-07-05T15:44:00.000-07:002009-07-05T15:45:23.240-07:00Tom Leach: A Nice Guy Finishing First<span style="font-weight:bold;">Tom Leach - A Nice Guy Finishing First. <br /><br />"Where hustle's the name of the game,<br />and nice guys get washed away like the snow and the rain." <br /><br />-Glen Campbell <br /></span><br />Baseball legend Leo Durocher said, "Nice guys finish last." <br /><br />In the cutthroat worlds of sports and sports broadcasting, that is often true. Colleges are stocked with coaches who will do "whatever it takes." Getting ahead in broadcasting often means stepping over or on anyone in your way. <br /><br />Then there is Tom Leach. <br /><br />I've been friends with Leach, the voice of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, for over 25 years. For three years I was part of a radio show he hosted. I've watched him rise from a second banana radio man to become one of the top broadcasters in the country. <br /><br />Tom was a nice guy when he started in the business and he is a nice guy now. A really grounded guy. Fame and fortune have never gone to his head. He is married to Robin Rabbeth Leach, a longtime television news anchor in Lexington. Robin is as friendly and grounded as Tom. I once wondered, "Did anyone tell these them they were celebrities?" <br /><br />I guess not.<br /><br />Tom has had one career goal: To be the voice of the University of Kentucky Wildcats. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of legendary Kentuckians like Caywood Ledford and Claude Sullivan. Tom worked hard. He found big-time mentors like Kentucky journalism legend Al Smith and Jim Host, the sports marketing wizard. He stayed focused and found himself in the position he wanted.<br /><br />Not many people can say they are living the dream. Tom truly is. <br /><br />Tom's personality is key. In radio, more than any other medium, the listener feels an intimate connection to the host. The listener wants to feel like he is having a one-on-one conversation with the host. <br /><br />Tom has an ability to connect with average Kentuckians. He is one of us. <br /><br />Tom's had an entrepreneurial streak, too. He created Tom Leach Productions, which books his television and radio commercials and speaking engagements. And in a couple of weeks, Tom will have a new title: Author. <br /><br />He is releasing Rich Traditions, a biography of Kentucky football coach Rich Brooks. <br /><br />Tom and I have talked throughout the writing process. The book promises to be a good one. <br /><br />I don't know Coach Brooks, but his story is compelling. The Kentucky football program was a mess when he got there. Brooks was not the first choice of fans and was unpopular with segments of the Lexington media. Brooks turned the program into a winner, going from losing records and NCAA probation in the beginning, to bowl games the last three years. His teams don't have bail bondmen and criminal attorneys on the speed dial. <br /><br />Like Tom Leach, Brooks seems to be a nice guy. The kind of coach you want you son to play for. <br /><br />Tom goes through every facet of Brooks’ life, noting how Brooks turned Oregon's program from a also-ran to an annual contender. <br /><br />Tom is going into a great year to be a Kentucky broadcaster. The football team looks good and the basketball team, under new coach John Calipari, will compete for the national championship. Coach Cal is an exciting interview and the post-game shows with Tom will be entertaining.<br /><br />I'm really glad to see Tom doing so well if, for no other reason, he is a such a good role model. We've all seen announcers and coaches let fame go to their heads and become absolute jerks. <br /><br />Young people who follow sports may think that being a jerk and getting to the top go hand-in-hand. <br /><br />Tom is a someone whom a parent can point to: A good person at the top of his profession. To finish first, you don't have to be obnoxious. You just need a dream and the drive to go for it. <br /><br />Like Tom Leach has done. <br /><br />To pre-order a copy of Rich Traditions, go to : <a href="http://www.clarkpublishing.com/ClarkPub.asp?subdeptid=274&deptid=48">http://www.clarkpublishing.com/ClarkPub.asp?subdeptid=274&deptid=48</a><br /><br />Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the founder of McNay Settlement Group, a structured settlement and financial consulting firm, in Richmond, Kentucky. <br /><br /> He is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win The Lottery. You can write to Don at don@donmcnay.com or read his award winning column at www.donmcnay.com. He is a frequent guest on television and radio talk shows. <br /><br /> McNay is a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Round Table.Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-55771883652270723202009-04-12T12:26:00.000-07:002009-04-12T12:29:05.003-07:00Byron Crawford & Jim Jordan: Whose Going to Fill Their Shoes<a href="http://www.richmondregister.com/viewpoints/local_story_101211504.html?keyword=topstory">http://www.richmondregister.com/viewpoints/local_story_101211504.html?keyword=topstory</a><br /><br /><br />aByron Crawford and Jim Jordan: Who’s Going to Fill Their Shoes?<br /><br />Who's going give their heart and soul<br />To get to me and you<br />Lord I wonder, who's going fill their shoes?<br /><br />-George Jones<br /><br /><br />This April 14th marks the day when former Louisville Courier-Journal columnist Byron Crawford enters the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame. <br /><br />It is also the month that former business editor and columnist Jim Jordan was laid off by the Lexington Herald-Leader. <br /><br />Two of Kentucky’s greatest journalists are no longer published on a regular basis. <br /><br />Crawford’s and Jordan’s careers were prematurely ended by the collapsing economics of newspapers chains. <br /><br />Chains have been impacted by technological changes and by how people gather news. Combined with high debt loads and the management slowness to adapt, some papers have made the decision to offer retirement packages and lay off some of their biggest stars.<br /><br />Crawford and Jordan being two of them. <br /><br />The papers lost key employees, but Kentucky lost more than that. We lost voices of wisdom and perspective, with a lot of common sense thrown in. <br /><br />As George Jones says, “Who’s going to fill their shoes?”<br /><br />It will be hard to find new journalists with the mindset of Byron and Jim. They stayed at their papers for decades. They are institutions in their respective cities. They knew everyone and every source. They put in incredible hours. <br /><br />Byron traveled every inch of Kentucky and cranked out three columns a week. Jim did many different things, including stints as Business Editor. He wrote a great column and was a guy you would see covering fires on Thanksgiving so that the rest of the staff could have the day off. <br /><br />They are two of the nicest guys you will ever meet. Very grounded and down to earth. <br /><br />Large newspapers have been criticized for employing some “ivory tower” journalists who don’t understand the values and cultures of the cities they live in. <br />You can’t say that about Byron and Jim. They had their fingers on the pulse of the average Kentuckian in a way that few have, or ever will have, again.<br /><br />I don’t know how you fill shoes like that. <br /><br />Byron and Jim could be very tough journalists. When Byron saw wrong, he never hesitated to use his large forum and correct it. When Kentucky Central Insurance, an extremely influential company in Lexington, started to crumble, Jim was the one who told us about it. <br /><br />Both of them knew how to capture personalities and make those personalities come through in print. <br /><br />I know first hand about their talents. Jim and Byron wrote feature stories about me. <br /><br />Jim’s 1989 feature connected on every level. He was able to explain my complicated business and my complicated personality in a way that any reader could understand. Shortly after his feature, I wound up in Forbes, Financial Planning and several other big time magazines. My business became a national business because Jim Jordan could tell my story better than I could. <br /><br />Byron Crawford wrote a column about my mid-life move back into journalism. He tied it to a column I wrote about two of my high school history teachers. And, in a way, that got me and my column on the map. <br /><br />There is a great story in every person. Byron Crawford and Jim Jordan understood that. <br /><br />Like former Comment on Kentucky host, Al Smith, Byron became my mentor. Byron said people on the far extremes of the political spectrum might make the most noise, but don’t represent what Middle America is thinking.<br /><br />It’s tempting to play to the extremes since they are yelling the loudest. Byron reminded me that they don’t represent common thought. <br /><br />In days like now, where you have Rush, O’Reilly and Ann Coulter on one side, and Keith Olberman on the other, it’s easy to forget that there is middle. The fastest way to get attention is to make lots of noise. Byron and Jim never operated by that principle. <br /><br />I’ve always appreciated what Byron, Jim and Al Smith have done to push my career along. The don’t want me to pay them back. They want me to find and mentor the next generation of great journalists. <br /><br />I’m a big fan of Samantha Swindler, the editor of the Corbin newspaper, and of Stephenie Steitzer at Byron’s old paper, the Courier-Journal. I see the journalistic fire in both and I do what I can to help them.<br /><br />I’m hoping that when they stop writing, many years in the future, that the first question that comes up will be “Who’s going to fill their shoes?”<br /><br />Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the founder of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Kentucky. He is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You When The Lottery. You can write to Don at don@donmcnay.com or read his award winning, syndicated column at www.donmcnay.com. McNay is Treasurer for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Round Table.Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-58572506655087407092009-03-29T18:22:00.000-07:002009-03-29T18:23:48.698-07:00Stop the Financial Services "Super Czar"Stop the Financial “Super Czar” <br /><br />May God bless and keep the Czar...far away from us!<br /><br />-Fiddler on the Roof<br /><br /><br />There has been talk about appointing a new “systemic risk regulator.”<br /><br /> This “Super Czar” would oversee all of the financial services industry.<br /><br />We had a “Super Czar” last year. His name was Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.<br /><br />“Hank” Paulson came to Congress with a two page proposal. He asked for $700 billion in bailout money and unlimited power to spend it any way he pleased.<br /><br />If that is how a Czar acts, I don’t want another one. <br /><br />After some hearings and two votes, Congress gave him what he asked for.<br /><br />Now we are spending billions to clean up mistakes that “Hank” made. AIG is one of them. <br /><br />We don’t need a super regulator. We don’t need a super anything. <br /><br />I don’t agree with FDIC Chief Shelia Bair, who is strongly promoting the super regulator concept, but she said something that I wholeheartedly buy into: We need companies that are not “too big to fail.”<br /><br />I don’t want an unelected bureaucrat to have nearly as much power as the President of the United States.<br /><br />I can vote a President out of office. I can’t get rid of a federal bureaucrat that easily. <br /><br />If someone is going to control my financial future, I want to be able to hire and fire them. <br /><br />Our founding fathers set up a system where Congress and the President of the United States were in charge. <br /><br />I’ve read the constitution many times and I’ve never seen any mention of systemic risk regulators or “Super Czars.”<br /><br />If you read the Declaration of Independence, you can see that the founding fathers did not like the concept of government without representation. <br /><br />I don’t like it either. <br /><br />For many years, we had a system that worked. Banks did banking, insurance companies sold insurance and brokerage houses handled stocks and bonds<br /><br />Then everyone got greedy. They all got into each other’s businesses.<br /><br />I can’t find one example of a company that did it well. <br /><br />If you look at the Wall Street companies going broke, most did well in their core businesses. When they got into unchartered waters, they screwed up.<br /><br />AIG is a classic example. Its insurance companies are regulated by state insurance commissioners. AIG’s insurance companies are sound and maintain high ratings. The state commissioners keep a close eye on them. <br /><br />AIG insurance companies were part of a larger company with a “financial products” division. The financial products division was unregulated, lost billions of dollars, needed a couple of taxpayer bailouts, and its executives are now trying to collect $165 million in “performance bonuses.”<br /><br />For several decades, AIG would have been prohibited from forming a “financial products” division. It didn’t happen until 1999.<br /><br />No financial products division, no AIG bailout. No billions of taxpayer dollars down the drain.<br /><br />There was a second chance to fix things. <br /><br />When AIG came to Washtington looking for a bailout last year, the simplest solution would have been to let the financial products division fail and let the AIG insurance companies go on. <br /><br />If the financial products division had gone down, they wouldn’t be taking a $165 million bonus. We also would have saved billions in bailout money. <br /><br />Our “Super Czar” Hank Paulson, let them stay in business. <br /><br />I have not had a lot of faith in how Washington has handled itself. There has been a trend for two decades for “bigger and better.” That is how we wound up with companies that considered “too big to fail” <br /><br />The AIG bonuses has been a landmark for the American people making Washington do something they didn’t want to do . A lot of officials in Washington and on Wall Street would have been happy to let the bonuses be paid quietly. The current Treasury Secretary was for the idea. <br /><br />The public is mad and starting to pay attention. . The voice of the average American is being heard by its elected officials. <br /><br />I doubt that voice would get the same attention from an unelected “Super Czar.” <br /><br />Our founding fathers built the country on the idea of representative government. <br /><br />Before Washington creates another layer of bureaucracy between itself and the American people, our leaders might want to go back and read the documents that created our country. <br /><br />Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the founder of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Kentucky. He is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You When The Lottery. You can write to Don at don@donmcnay.com or read his award winning, syndicated column at www.donmcnay.com. McNay is Treasurer for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Round Table.Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-19494637799762341412009-03-16T12:45:00.000-07:002009-03-16T12:47:34.859-07:00Powerball Jack and The Wall Street Bailouts<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/powerball-jack-and-the-wa_b_175407.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/powerball-jack-and-the-wa_b_175407.html</a>Powerball Jack and the Wall Street Bailouts<br /><br />I just look at myself to find<br />I've learned the hard way every time<br /><br />- Jim Croce<br /><br /><br />For 27 years, I’ve worked with people who receive large sums. I also wrote a book about lottery winners. <br /><br />Just like the current crowd on Wall Street, the majority of people who get a large sum of money blow through it in a short period of time. <br /><br />The key question in both cases is: Why?<br /><br />It’s easy to figure out Wall Street. Greed and ego dominate. The compensation system was set up to pay incredible bonuses for short term results. <br /><br />Ego and “showing off” can be a problem for lottery winners, but they are not motivated by greed. The winnings usually bring them from poverty to wealth. The hard job is for them to hang on to what they have.<br /><br />Hanging on to what you have should not be a hard job. However, it’s been said that roughly 90% of lottery winners run through their money in five years or less.<br /><br />Although Wall Street is now running through millions in five seconds or less, they formerly had a good track record for a long time. <br /><br />Somewhere along the way, Wall Street became the financial version of “Powerball” Jack Whitaker.<br /><br />Jack is the Hurricane, West Virginia, man who won a $290 million Powerball in 2002 and said he was “cleaned out” four years later.<br /><br />Along the way, his wife left him. He was sued hundreds of times. His granddaughter died of a drug overdose and he was robbed of $600,000 in cash that he brought to a strip club.<br /><br />I thought Jack was way out of control until I saw the people at AIG and Citigroup. A more refined version of avarice, but the same out of control factor. <br /><br />There are other parallels with Powerball Jack and the people on Wall Street. Both thought that the money would never run out. Jack had $290 million. Wall Street companies were “too big too fail.”<br /><br />Both were subject to external pressures. The first thing that anyone getting a large sum of money should do is to keep that news to himself. As my late father, a professional gambler, said, “Don’t be flashing your roll in public.” <br /><br />Jack won on Christmas Day of 2002. He immediately held a news conference. The story was carried around the world. Everyone with a hard luck story found his way to Jack’s door.<br /><br />He found the pleas of strippers and liquor store owners to be particularly compelling. <br /><br />When John Thain at Merrill Lynch dropped over a million dollars decorating his office, he was obviously compelled to “flash his roll” in public. <br /><br />Powerball Jack had the moral high ground on AIG and the gang on Wall Street. He did a lot of stupid stuff, but it was with his own money. <br /><br />Wall Street was using money that should have gone back to their stockholders. After blowing that, they are using taxpayer’s money. <br /><br />There are ways to keep people from blowing through a lottery jackpot. People can set up a trust and not draw publicity to themselves. They should take the payments over a period of years or a lifetime. They should make a budget and not deviate from it.<br /><br />I never liked all the fancy products that Wall Street was peddling. They seemed too risky, especially for people who are getting a “once in a lifetime” lump sum. <br /><br />The goal is hanging onto the money for the rest of their lives. The best strategy is simple. Put some money in the bank, get monthly income from an immediate annuity, and pay off all debt.<br /><br />Basically, the same thing our parents and grandparents did when they retired. They wanted to live out their days without stress. <br /><br />It was a pretty good plan. You don’t see foreclosures on houses with paid off mortgages. <br /><br />Some would try to move my clients to the risky stuff that Wall Street offered. <br /><br />The strategies were complicated and hard to understand. My dad once asked me, ‘Why is options trading legal and betting on the Bengals illegal?” I didn’t have a good answer.<br /><br />Dad didn’t live long enough to see stuff like credit swaps and mortgage backed derivatives. He made his money gambling. But he kept it in a local bank.<br /><br />Which is not such a bad idea. <br /><br />The key to preserving a lump sum is to put a number of “buffers” and controls in place to keep people from going crazy. You don’t want them to have too much freedom.<br /><br />Powerball Jack is the poster child for what too much freedom can do to you. <br /><br />It’s time Wall Street learned the same lesson.<br /><br />If the Wall Street compensation system was based on long term returns to shareholders, instead of annual bonuses, it would control some of the craziness. If we made corporate officers personally liable for losses, like those of us on Main Street are, there would be more reasonability and responsibility. <br /><br />If we made CEO’s pay for their own office decorations and private jets, you wouldn’t see any more $40,000 toilets. <br /><br />If the people on Wall Street knew that no one would ever be there to bail them out, ever again, they would be less inclined to gamble with instruments they don’t really understand. <br /><br />After Powerball Jack became the object of ridicule, he seemed to have learned his lesson. The people of Wall Street have become the object of ridicule, too. Maybe they can learn a lesson in humility from Jack.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the founder of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Kentucky. He is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You When The Lottery. You can write to Don at don@donmcnay.com or read his award winning, syndicated column at www.donmcnay.com. McNay is Treasurer for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and a lifetime member of the Million Dollar Round Table. </span>Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-38449015988229695232009-03-09T20:29:00.000-07:002009-03-09T20:30:33.162-07:00The Positive Economics of Food Stamps<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/the-positive-economics-of_b_173335.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/the-positive-economics-of_b_173335.html</a>Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-40951338546518326002009-03-03T10:23:00.000-08:002009-03-03T10:24:42.268-08:00Looking for Bailout Love in All the Wrong Places<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/looking-for-bailout-love_b_171456.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/looking-for-bailout-love_b_171456.html</a>Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-39450149238497236042009-02-24T10:18:00.000-08:002009-02-24T10:19:50.569-08:00The Search for a Bailout End Game<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/the-search-for-a-bailout_b_169496.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/the-search-for-a-bailout_b_169496.html</a>Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-8287959560542670592009-02-21T22:15:00.000-08:002009-02-21T22:16:30.469-08:00How to Get The Credit Card Collectors To Stop<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/how-to-get-the-credit-car_b_167791.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/how-to-get-the-credit-car_b_167791.html</a>Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-66633587072502158102009-02-01T13:22:00.001-08:002009-02-01T13:22:41.760-08:00James Street & The All American Attitude<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/consumer-confidence-and-a_b_161274.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/consumer-confidence-and-a_b_161274.html</a>Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-87884261822975959932009-01-24T11:35:00.001-08:002009-01-24T11:35:50.486-08:00We need a Rehab Program for Spenders.<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/we-need-a-rehab-program-f_b_160589.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/we-need-a-rehab-program-f_b_160589.html</a>Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-64185942803825605462009-01-11T20:18:00.001-08:002009-01-11T20:18:49.484-08:00A Wall St. Style Scandal on Lexington Ky's Main St.<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/a-wall-street-kind-of-sca_b_157006.html"></a>Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-7792064103530211952009-01-11T17:24:00.000-08:002009-01-11T17:25:05.524-08:00The Post Crazy Economy<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-mcnay/the-post-crazy-economy_b_156572.html"></a>Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-89563851019728196052009-01-01T10:17:00.001-08:002009-01-01T10:17:57.774-08:00Note about Don McNay in Angie Fenton's column<a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090101/COLUMNISTS18/901010325">http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090101/COLUMNISTS18/901010325</a>Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-65268194067155927632008-12-13T00:51:00.001-08:002008-12-13T00:51:42.512-08:00Jimmy V and the Closed WalletFaded photographs,<br />Covered now with lines and creases<br /> <br />-Dennis Yost and the Classics IV<br /> <br />Former ESPN announcer and basketball coach Jim (Jimmy V) Valvano set up a foundation for cancer research after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in June of 1992.<br /> <br />June, 1992 was when my father found out he, too, had terminal cancer. He and Jimmy V were of similar age, personality and outlook on life. <br /> <br />From the time they were diagnosed, dad and Jimmy V both fought against cancer like they were an entry at the race track. They never met, but when dad was doing better, it seemed like Jimmy V was improving, too. <br /> <br /> Dad took strength from Valvano's motivational presence. I'm convinced that Valvano's emotional February 21, 1993 speech at North Carolina State inspired dad to live for another week. That speech fired dad up from his deathbed.<br /> <br />We buried my dad on March 4, 1993. I came home that night to watch the ESPY awards where Valvano gave one of the most extraordinary, inspiring and heart-touching speeches ever given.<br /> <br />Recently, ESPN devoted a week to raise money for cancer research. ESPN called it the "Jimmy V" week and they kicked it off by replaying Valvano's 1993 ESPY speech.<br /> <br />I was watching the speech and suddenly tears started running from my eyes.<br /> <br /> I'm one of those guys who cries about once a decade. Yet I can't stop crying as I watch a 15 year old replay of Jim Valvano. <br /> <br />He was still raising money for cancer, a disease that directly impacted my family. It brings back every emotion of connecting with my father. I reached for my wallet.<br /> <br />Then I stopped.<br /> <br />Like a lot of people, I've cut back significantly this year. I've been generous in the past, but now a tougher nut to crack.<br /> <br /> I don't know what the future is going to be like. Even though I am better off than most people, I want to be careful. Just like many other people. <br /> <br />I realized that if I hesitated on a cause so personal, it must be hell for the other charities raising money.<br /> <br />I'm not the only person thinking twice about giving money to charity. Or about spending money.<br /> <br />Most people have the same kind of hesitation that I have. And this compounds the financial crisis problem. <br /> <br />People are afraid to spend money, so retailers sell less and lay people off. Retailers are selling less, so factories and manufacturers quit making goods and lay people off. People quit buying houses and cars, and those sectors lay people off.<br /> <br />Fearful people stop giving money to charity, so those charitable organizations cut services and lay people off. With fewer people paying taxes, government starts cutting services and laying people off.<br /> <br />Then people get more scared because they see all their neighbors getting laid off. They tighten their belts even further and the cycle goes into another round. Then they get laid off.<br /> <br />It all comes down to confidence. A year ago, Jimmy V's foundation would have had my money before they cut to commercial. A year from now, it might be the same story.<br /> <br />Right now, there is little chance. I want to see if we have hit bottom. <br /> <br />It often takes something monumental to shift the spiral. The Great Depression really didn't end until World War II. In previous recessions, gimmicks like wage and price controls, tax cuts and stimulus plans were used to try to halt economic slowdowns. They rarely worked. <br /><br />We need for the markets to run their natural course. Things will bottom out and people will get their confidence back.<br /> <br />We stalled the bottoming out by throwing billions of tax dollars at Wall Street.<br /> <br />The public is smarter than Washington gives them credit for. They saw through the $700 billion bailout as a gift from Washington insiders to Wall Street insiders. People on Main Street realized that none of the $700 billion would be helping them.<br /> <br />Thus, we have a crisis in confidence. I'm hoping that new presidential leadership helps. But people have to get this recent crisis behind us. We need to find out what mistakes were made and make sure they don't happen again. <br /> <br />To paraphrase Jim Valvano, we must never, ever, ever give up until we fix the problems that got us in this mess.<br /> <br />Someday, we will get our confidence back. When that happens, the Jimmy V foundation will be getting my donation.<br /> <br />Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC, is the Founder of the McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Kentucky. He is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read his award winning, syndicated financial column at www.donmcnay.comDon McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-65614707325001017302008-11-27T06:38:00.000-08:002008-11-27T06:39:51.953-08:00Son of a Gambler's Guide to Holiday Books<a href="http://digg.com/business_finance/Don_McNay_Son_of_a_Gambler_s_Guide_to_Holiday_Books"></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Son of a Gambler’s Guide to Holiday Books <br /><br /><br />It’s a lesson to me, the ablers and the beggars and the thieves<br /><br />-The Grateful Dead <br /><br />If you read my book, Son of a Son of a Gambler, you’ll know that my childhood was filled with beggars, thieves and other unusual characters.<br /><br />But not nearly as unusual as the characters Ed McClanahan has encountered in his life. <br /><br />Ed was one of the “Merry Pranksters,” a group typified by author Ken Kesey and other legends of the 1960’s counter-culture. Ed novel, The Natural Man, is a literary classic and, like Son of a Son of a Gambler, based in my old stomping ground of Northern Kentucky. <br /><br />Ed recently released O The Clear Moment, and it is a great read. It is nine autobiographical short stories from a guy who has led a really interesting life. It is funny, insightful and one you won’t put down.<br /><br />Another book that I didn’t put down was Sniper Bid, Rick Robinson’s follow-up to his hit novel, The Maximum Contribution. Both of the novels are based on Rick’s insights as a former Congressional aide and Congressional candidate. If you have someone who likes political thrillers, this is one to put in his stocking. <br /><br />There are good guys and bad guys in the world of business, and Joe Nocera writes about both. I wrote about Good Guys and Bad Guys when the book was released earlier, but the book has received wide notice lately as Joe, a business columnist for the New York Times, has been the voice of reason and common sense during the financial crisis. <br /><br />Joe’s been on highbrow shows like Bill Moyers Journal, and less than highbrow shows, like The Colbert Report. No matter the venue, Joe has interesting things to say. <br /><br />I mentioned recently on Facebook that I wished Joe had been Treasury Secretary instead of our current Secretary, Hank Paulsen. Someone noted that would make him, “Joe the Treasurer.”<br /><br />“Joe the Writer” is as good as they come. <br /><br />Although I read hundreds of books a year (I really do), business books are at the top of my charts. <br /><br />I previously reviewed the hardback version of The Success Effect by John Eckberg. The paperback edition is updated and is out in time for the holidays. John interviewed a number of business leaders, such as Donald Trump. He asked the people he interviewed what books they had on their nightstand and what music they listen to.<br /><br />I once used John’s idea in one of my columns. I asked the question to a number of well-known Kentuckians. It told me a lot about each of them. <br />I’ve been catching a lot of new business book releases recently and one I really like is The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. There are about 50 biographies of Buffett and I have read almost all of them. This is the best. It gives a lot of detail about Warren Buffett the man, not just Warren the money-making machine. It’s 976 pages, but they go by quickly. <br />Ted Turner is another hero of mine. But I don’t recommend his recently released autobiography. Ted has lived a fascinating life, but he is not an introspective guy. A better book about him is Ted Turner: It Ain't As Easy as It Looks, which came out in 1997. <br />I did a chapter in Son of a Son of A Gambler about my father’s friendship with Larry Flynt. And Dad also knew Hugh Heffner. <br />Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream, by Steven Watts, is a stunningly great biography of Hefner. Watts is a history professor at the University of Missouri. He has written excellent biographies of Henry Ford and Walt Disney. As in his previous books, Watts views Hefner from a biographical perspective but also notes Hefner’s impact on popular culture and history. <br />It is only proper that the son of a gambler and daughter of a gambler be on the same wavelength. I read Martha Frankel’s highly acclaimed, Hats & Eyeglasses: A Family Love Affair with Gambling, when it was released earlier this year. This riveting story is about her childhood as the daughter of a gambler and her addiction to poker playing. <br />About a month ago I connected with Frankel via Facebook. She had just purchased a copy of Son of a Son of a Gambler and, to answer the John Eckberg question, she had it on her nightstand. <br />The hardback copy of Hats and Eyeglasses is available for the holidays and paperback is coming soon. You might want to get both. Martha has known a few ablers, beggars and thieves in her lifetime, too.<br /><br />Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the founder of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Kentucky. He is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win The Lottery. You can read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.com or write to him at don@mcnay.comDon McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-58293026244558444122008-11-10T19:26:00.000-08:002008-11-10T19:28:12.717-08:00John Daly, Wall Street Bailout and Bottoming OutJohn Daly, Wall Street Bailout and Bottoming Out<br /><br />One little problem that confronts you, <br />got a monkey on your back.<br />Just one more fix, Lord, might do the trick.<br /><br />-Lynyrd Skynyrd <br /><br /><br />I saw a pathetic story about golfer John Daly and how he continues to screw up his life. He has blown through millions of dollars, drinking problems, multiple wives and a potentially great golfing career. He is signing autographs at Hooters to make a few bucks. <br /><br />People in the addiction world say that before an addict can get help, they have to “bottom out.” They have to reach their lowest point. Then they can get help and turn their lives around<br /><br />John was never able to hit bottom. There has always been another corporate sponsor or another fan to buy him a drink. Hooters is his latest enabler. <br /><br />It’s hard to come up with a more inappropriate sponsor for John Daly than Hooters. They need to cut John loose and let him bottom out. Or be ready for when he drops over dead in one of their bars. He needs help, but Hooters is not the place to get it. <br /><br />When I think about John, I also think about the Wall Street Bailout. <br /><br />We made a mistake in not letting Wall Street hit bottom, too. <br /><br />I was a fervent opponent of the bailout. Someone called into a radio show I was on and asked me what would happen if we didn’t do the bailout. I said some companies would fail and the S&P 500 would drop by about 50%. <br /><br />Once we hit that bottom, we could start the process of repairing and climbing back up the ladder.<br /><br />Just like addicts do. They hit the bottom and reassess their lives. Many go on to productive and wonderful lives. <br /><br />They just needed to hit the bottom first. <br /><br />The quicker Wall Street bottomed out, the quicker we could have started the recovery. Instead, we enabled it to the tune of $700 billion. <br /><br />There was no particular strategy to the enabling. We propped up some companies and let others fail. Instead of letting the stock market drop hugely overnight, it has been dropping over time, with no signs of hitting a bottom. Bad companies with bad management are allowed to make the same mistakes that got them into trouble in the first place. <br /><br />No one on Wall Street is getting it. Instead of taking the $700 billion and making sure that it trickles down to Main Street, they are using it to buy other banks. They spend a lot of time talking about bonuses for their bigwigs. <br /><br />A company getting taxpayer bailout money should not be handing out bonuses. A company getting taxpayer bailout money shouldn’t be buying other companies or paying dividends to stockholders. <br /><br />There is a word for companies that need a government handout: Broke. Why should people get bonuses for managing a broke company? Or for managing a company broke?<br /><br />If my business in Richmond, Kentucky goes broke, no one gives me a bonus. They tell me to find another job. Creditors take my house, car and cash. It’s the small business version of bottoming out. Very painful, but sobering. <br /><br />Most of us in smaller businesses have bottomed out several times. Once we hit bottom, we figure out what we did wrong. We don’t make the same mistakes, and we often come back stronger than ever. <br /><br />Both Wall Street and John Daly need to go through that period of bottoming out and self-examination. Neither one has. If we keep enabling them, neither one will. <br /><br />At least Daly recognizes that he screwed up. Wall Street doesn’t seem to get it. Many businesses remind me of addicts who think one last fix can cure their problems. More companies, from many industries, are trying to get a piece of the bailout money or get a bailout of their own.<br /><br />We have to let some companies bottom out. We need to let them truly examine how they got in trouble in the first place. We need for them to shed their bad habits and replace them with good ones.<br /><br />The alternative is to have the economic equivalent of John Daly - Years of resources being wasted while we hope for a turn around that never happens. <br /><br />We’ve learned lessons by watching addicts. We’ve learned lessons by watching countries, like Japan, prop up their economies. We know what to do. We just need leaders with the guts to do it. <br /><br />Its time to let Wall Street bottom out. It is the only way it will truly bounce and rebound. <br /><br />Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC, is the founder of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Ky and an award winning, syndicated, financial columnist. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read what he has written at www.donmcnay.com. McNay is Treasurer of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the author of Son of Son of a Gamblers: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win The Lottery.Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-3265012591693355052008-11-08T20:34:00.000-08:002008-11-08T20:35:15.862-08:00Max Cleland's Chance for RevengeMax Cleland’s Chance for Revenge <br /><br />“Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats”<br /><br />-Carrie Underwood <br /><br />It’s certain now. Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss did not get a majority for re-election. <br />If he wants to hold on to his Senate seat, he will have to defeat challenger Jim Martin in a run off election on December 2. <br /><br /> It will be a day for patriotic Americans to even the score. Chambliss does not deserve to sit in the United States Senate. <br /><br />The Senate seat previously belonged to Max Cleland. Six years ago, Chambliss got in the gutter to steal it from him.<br /><br />I’m stunned to see that John McCain is planning to campaign for Chambliss. Cleland , <br /> (ironically, like John McCain) is a bona fide American hero. His valor during the Vietnam war resulted in his becoming a triple amputee. After a life in public service, he was elected a United States Senator from Georgia.<br /><br />In the Senate, Cleland served honorably and well. And in 2002, Max was the victim one of the most disgusting smear campaigns in American history. <br /><br />When the country was recovering from the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, <br />Saxby Chambliss ran a campaign that claimed that Max Cleland was somehow helping Osama Bin Laden. He based his convoluted “evidence” on some Senate procedural vote that wasn’t the slightest bit relevant. <br /><br />In the 2002 climate of fear, Chambliss’s lies and distortion worked. Now it is 2008, it is time for Chambliss to face the music. <br /><br />I want to hear Chambliss’s explanation now. What he did in 2002 doesn’t work six years later. <br /><br />It is time for Chambliss to atone for his sins.<br /><br />One of the biblical 10 commandants is not to bear false witness. Chambliss will have to answer to God someday but on December 2nd, he needs to answer to the people of Georgia. <br /><br />I’m hoping the rest of the country pitches in to defeat Chambliss. I also hope that John McCain starts to act like the John McCain of 2000 instead of the one we saw this year and puts patriotism over party. <br /><br />Having a Vietnam War hero like McCain campaign against the man who smeared Max Cleland is an outrage. <br /><br />I don’t know much about the challenger Martin. I really don’t need to. I would vote for Larry the Cable Guy or Homer Simpson if they were running against Saxby Chambliss. <br /><br />Chambliss got in the Senate with a dirty trick and he needs to go home. <br /><br />Cleland’s loss was a low point in American politics. How you can question the patriotism of a man who left several body parts in Southeast Asia? Why did voters go for it? <br /><br /> It inspired candidates in other states to pick out phony charges and run negative ads. If you can get away with smearing Max Cleland’s patriotism, you could get away with anything. <br /><br />2008 is the time to make it stop. Once and for all. <br /><br />Cleland is a real hero, with real accomplishments, who dedicated his life to serving his country. He was brought down by a guy who smudged the truth.<br /><br />Actually he wasn’t brought down, he just had to leave the Senate. It takes more than Saxby Chambliss to bring Max Cleland down. I met Cleland after his Senate career, when he was traveling the country, helping like minded candidates. It can't be easy for a triple amputee to be barnstorming the country. It would be simple for Max Cleland to sit home and let others lead the charge.<br /><br />That is not Max Cleland’s style.<br /><br />Chambliss cheated to get his Senate seat.<br /><br />I want Chambliss, and every other politician, to think before the next time they cheat. <br /><br />Don McNay is the founder of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Ky. He is the author of the Unbridled World of Ernie Fletcher. You can read his award winning column at www.donmcnay.com or write to him at don@mcnay.com. He is Treasurer of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-65472126039559445842008-11-02T10:35:00.000-08:002008-11-02T10:36:36.552-08:00Credit Cards in the world of taxpayer-owned banks <br /><br />“meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.<br /><br />-The Who<br /><br />The American people ponied up $700 billion to supposedly bail out some big banks on Wall Street. So far, we have not seen the banks what banks are supposed to do, lend people money. Instead they are doing the thing that Wall Street raiders do, take over other companies.<br /><br />Bush and Paulsen encouraged bad behavior in their bailout bill. They gave big banks money and tax incentives to gobble up small banks. They made sure that their buddies on Wall Street were taken care of. <br /><br />Most big banks didn’t need bad behavior encouragement. They’ve been able to do harmful things long before the government started subsiding them. <br /><br />Some of the biggest abuses come in the way that banks have handed out credit cards. Now that I, like every other American taxpayer, indirectly owns part of the Wall Street banks, I want to talk to them about how they have been acting.<br /><br /> I want to do is to throw credit card companies off every college campus. Is it any wonder that the banks needed a $700 billion bailout? What kind of business gives huge lines of credit to students who don’t have jobs? <br /><br />I always thought that you had to have a job to get credit. Not anymore. I have a college student in my household. He has minimal income, no assets and big student loans. However, the credit card companies love him. He gets ten times more mail than I do. All of them “pre approved” credit cards. All go straight in the trash. <br /><br />Its bad for the college students to run up debt before they have jobs. Its bad for the nation to have a generation of college graduates paying off high interest credit cards instead of saving money to buy houses and cars. <br /><br />Giving cards to college students couldn’t have been that great of a business or the banks wouldn’t have needed a bailout. <br /><br />I saw an article in the New York Times that said that credit cards were the next problem area for the banks. <br /><br />DUH! <br /><br />We’ve had years of students, people coming out of bankruptcy and people with no income getting tons of credit cards. Usually with interest rates and fees that would make a loan shark blush. <br />Since they are getting multi million dollars bonuses, executives at Wall Street banks should have figured out what most of us know. Broke people don’t pay loans back. <br /><br />You can charge them all the interest and fees that you want. If they don’t have any money, they are not going to give any to you. Especially if you are an unsecured debtor like a credit card.<br /><br />People will make an extra effort to hang on to secured debts, like their houses and cars. The credit cards will be last in line. <br /><br />We are now in an economy where a lot of people who were barely hanging on will get closer to the edge. You see people losing their jobs or going from high paying jobs to minimum wages. You see people who counted on the value of their house or 401k plan being suddenly disappointed. <br /><br />We see a lot of people worried about feeding their families and keeping a roof over their heads. <br /><br />When it comes to feeding your family or paying your credit card, the family is going to win every time.<br /><br />I hope the banks factored that reality in before the came up with the $700 billion figure. They might want to hang on to some of that taxpayer cash instead of using it to buy other banks. <br /><br />As bad as people are projecting, it will get worse. Recent events will change how people feel about debt. <br /><br />People who got stuck with high interest credit cards aren’t going to be in a hurry to pay them off. Even if they can. <br /><br />Banks had two things going for them in collecting credit card debts. They could shame people by embarrassing them in front of their neighbors and they could threaten to hurt their credit scores.<br /><br />Its going to be hard for a bank that was bailed out by taxpayers to shame anyone into anything. Since people with good credit can’t get loans, there is no incentive for someone with bad credit to even bother. They can default on their debt and make the banks come after them. <br /><br />I’ve tried to collect from someone who was determined not to pay me. It was expensive, time consuming and I never did get all my money. Try multiplying that by a few million people. That is what the big banks are going to be dealing with.<br /><br />From a moral standpoint, I want banks to clean up their act in the credit card department. Since many of the bankers work for me, and the rest of the American taxpayers, I’d like to protect my investment by making sure the credit card issuers get out of the stupidity game.<br /><br />I can’t afford to give them another $700 billion.<br /><br />Don McNay is the founder of McNay Settlement Group and the author of the book Son of a Son of A Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win the Lottery. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.com . McNay is a cotributor to the Huffington Post and Treasurer of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />.Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-10354770562356965382008-10-27T08:53:00.000-07:002008-10-27T08:54:49.448-07:00$700 billion in taxpayer dollars to kill small banks$700 billion in taxpayer dollars to kill small banks<br /><br />“Like a thief in the night, it cuts like a knife” <br /><br />-Marty Brown <br /><br /> I was opposed to the Wall Street bailout from day one. <br /><br />We were asked to trust the Bush administration, with no track record for truthfulness, to send $700 billion to Wall Street, not Main Street. <br /><br />Bush, Paulsen and Wall Street want to stick it to Main Street even further. <br /><br />It appears that the $700 billion will be used for Wall Street banks to take over small banks, in small towns.<br /><br />Like the one I live in. <br /><br />The bailout supporters made two arguments. The $700 billion was supposed to stop a financial meltdown. After we bailed out Wall Street, it was supposed to open a floodgate of credit for Main Street. <br /><br />It didn’t come down that way. <br /><br />The meltdown continued, even after the bailout. <br /><br />I’m waiting for that cash flow to come roaring into small towns. Like mine. It hasn’t happened and, according to a stunning New York Times column by Joe Nocera, the money is not coming soon. <br /><br />The $700 billion may never see Main Street. Unless you count Wall Street banks gobbling up Main Street banks. <br /><br />Unlike other countries, such as England, the United States did not REQUIRE that banks taking government bailout money lend it out! Lending is not required, just “encouraged.” The banks can do what they want with it. <br /><br />If I was a running a bank, my primary “encouragement” is to make money for my shareholders. If I can take government money and use it for something more profitable, I am going to do it. <br /><br />Like any businessperson would.<br /><br />The most profitable thing banks can do is take government money and buy up another bank. We saw it happen last week and will see it happen many more times. <br /><br />It’s what Bush and Paulsen wanted all along. They snuck a provision in the bailout bill that gave BILLIONS in tax breaks for big banks to buy other banks. <br /><br />Bush and Paulsen want to reshape the banking industry to allow only big Wall Street banks to survive. A tax expert, quoted by Nocera, said “It couldn’t be clearer if they had taken out an ad.” <br /><br />Nocera, who supported the bailout bill, said that the rationale that the bailout would make banks start lending again, is “Treasury’s version of the weapons of mass destruction.” <br /><br />I feel duped. I feel deceived. I want to vote against a congressman who supported the bailout, but my congressman saw the bailout’s flaws and voted “no.” <br /><br />I like small banks. They are an important part of my business and my life. <br /><br />Starting in high school, I’ve always had a personal relationship with my banker. A small town bank put me in business and another kept me in business. I want to know that the person I’m talking to is a final decision maker. I don’t want a committee or a computer in New York to decide for them.<br /><br />The gang on Wall Street has lost trillions and put the nation in economic peril. I don’t want to do my banking with them. <br /><br />I’ll take my chances with a banker who knows me, knows my business and knows my family. It’s worked so far. I suspect if you surveyed other Main Street business people (I am actually three doors from Main Street, but close enough), most would feel the same way. <br /><br />Small town banks have not been hurt as badly as Wall Street banks. Most were not playing the sub-prime game. None of their officers get million dollars bonuses. And I am sure the officers don’t get tens of millions to leave when they lose their stockholders’ money. <br /><br />In other words, they are personally responsible for the lending decisions they make. Unlike the people on Wall Street, they can’t screw up and expect a golden parachute at the end. <br /><br />I trust the small bank business model more than I trust what they are doing on Wall Street. I don’t want Wall Street taking over small town banks. I don’t want them to use taxpayer money to take the bank and I especially don’t want the Wall Street banks to get billions in tax credits to do it. <br /><br />I want them to lend money to people on Main Street. Someone told me that was what the $700 billion was all about. <br /><br />People say we can fix it when we get a new President and new Treasury Secretary. That is three months. By then dozens of mergers and takeovers will have taken place. <br /><br />We need to act now. <br /><br />Once you allow a bank to be gobble up other banks, just like when you invade a country, it is almost impossible to undo the damage. <br /><br />Especially when that damage was based on misleading information. <br /><br />Don McNay is the Chairman of McNay Settlement Group and the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When you Win the Lottery. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.comDon McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-10563924135856213882008-10-26T14:37:00.000-07:002008-10-26T14:38:14.323-07:002008 - The Year of the Outsider2008 - The Year of the Outsider <br /><br /><br />“I come from down in the valley, where mister when you’re young, they bring you up to do, what your daddy done”<br /><br />-Bruce Springsteen<br /><br /><br />Just like 1932, 2008 is a year when we will realign “Insiders” and “Outsiders.” <br /><br />Insiders tend to be white, well-educated males from high income backgrounds. Religion, personality and regionalism narrow Insider ranks even further. <br /><br />2008 will change things. We will either have an African-American President or a female Vice President. Being a Wall Street hotshot doesn’t carry the weight that it did a few months ago. Lobbyists are losing their clout with politicians who can raise money on the Internet. <br /><br />Outsiders who eventually become Insiders learned to play the game of Life by different rules. They buck conventional wisdom and knock down the doors that are closed to them. <br /><br />Obama is a good example. He was encouraged to stay in Congress and wait his turn. Instead, he took the risk of running for President after only three years in the Senate. <br /><br />It was a risk that paid off. <br /><br />One of the fascinations of Obama’s campaign is that he got the nomination without a lot of Insiders involved. <br /><br />Win or lose, his campaign changed how modern campaigns are run. <br /><br />It reminds me of William Jennings Bryan’s presidential campaign in 1896. Bryan ran a campaign that was different from any presidential candidate before him. But every candidate after him copied his style.<br /><br />Under the new system, there will be a lot of political bosses looking for someone to boss. Candidates can ignore them and still win. <br /><br />Some people spend their lives trying to be Insiders. They suck up, toe the line and hope that Insiders will tap them to join the ranks. <br /><br />It’s uncommon for that ‘tap’ to happen. Once earned, power and privilege are rarely given away. Insider status is often handed down from generation to generation. <br /><br />Unless you want to stay in the same career that your daddy did, you are going to have to buck the system. <br /><br />Many of my friends are trial lawyers, journalists, and entrepreneurs. Those are natural professions for people who want to change the status quo. <br /><br />Almost all great musicians are Outsiders. Rock and roll, country and rap have their roots in rebellion. <br /><br />Outsiders are the driving forces in almost every profession. It took an Outsider like Bill Gates to go against the establishment at IBM. Then Google came after Gates when Microsoft became the Insider. <br /><br />There is one group that I have never understood -- people who are Outsiders but think they are Insiders. <br /><br />I know a young, disabled couple who identify deeply with the establishment. The couple has no money and no hope of getting any. They get every kind of government benefit available. <br /><br />One of their hobbies is to call into talk radio programs. They rail for lower taxes, despite the fact that they don’t pay any. They get incited about estate taxes, although no one in their family has a taxable estate. They vote for political candidates who want to take away their benefits and their right to the jury system. <br /><br />There are thousands like them, but I suspect that number is diminishing. <br /><br />Most people do not like to rock the boat. It is easier to act the same way as everyone around you. It takes a crisis to get people to switch.<br /><br />1932 was our last great economic crisis. It also broke some long standing political habits. <br /><br />Up until 1932, African-Americans overwhelming supported the Republican Party. The Republican Party has always been seen as the party closer to Big Money, but that really was the case in the 1920’s. <br /><br />Although few African-Americans in 1932 had wealth, the Republicans were the party of Lincoln. It took the Great Depression to put a dent in that voting pattern. <br /><br />Bringing in Outsiders does not always make things better. Insiders have experience and knowledge that is difficult to replace. There is also the chance, like in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, that the Outsiders take on so many of the Insiders’ characteristics that it is impossible to tell them apart.<br /><br />We will soon learn how it plays out.<br /><br />Don McNay is the Chairman of the Board for McNay Settlement Group and the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler. Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win the Lottery. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.comDon McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-54531604269800718692008-10-22T19:20:00.000-07:002008-10-22T19:21:11.335-07:00Don McNay on POTUS 08 on XM RadioI am taping a segment with Tim Farley on XM radio on Thursday morning. It is on POTUS 08, Channel 130. I am not sure what time(s) the interview will air but you can listen on their web site or download the podcast on ITunes. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.xmradio.com/onxm/channelpage.xmc?ch=130"></a> I'm on to talk about the only political column I have written in the past couple of months, Mitch McConnell and the 24 year itch<br /><br />I wrote it on October 5, but it went unnoticed with the economic crisis going on. It was based on research I did while I was in graduate school at Vanderbilt. A producer at XM radio is a fellow Vanderbilt graduate (although she noted it was LONG after I graduated) and spotted it. <br /><br />As Brian Wilson once said, "be true to your school." I am fornutate that so many Eastern Kentucky University and Vanderbilt graduates have wound up in the media.Don McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5478018214475769223.post-69450087300993580612008-10-19T20:37:00.001-07:002008-10-19T20:37:57.833-07:00When 401k came into our lives.<br /><br />When 401(k) came into our lives <br /><br />“Running on Empty. Running into the sun but I’m running behind.”<br /><br />-Jackson Browne <br /><br />Internal Revenue Code section 401(k) is the only section of the US tax code that the average people can cite. They know it has something, and often everything, to do with whether or not they can retire with dignity. <br /><br />The adoption of section 401(k) in 1982 turned out to be one of those big moments that changed everything. <br /><br />401(k) plan investments are a primary driver of the investment markets. It is the employee retirement benefit that most companies offer. <br /><br />These plan investments are also the reason that many people are pacing the floors at night, watching their retirement get delayed or destroyed. <br /><br />Until 401(k) came along, pension plans were usually defined benefit plans.<br /><br />A defined benefit pension is one that gives you a set number of dollars for set period of time. It usually pays out over the course of your lifetime after retirement. <br /><br />With a defined benefit plan, the employer takes responsibility for making sure pension money is safe and properly invested. <br /><br />With the advent of the 401(k), employees with little or no investment experience were required to pick among investment options offered by an employer.<br /><br />Employees were put in the position to fail. Many have. <br /><br />It is up to the employer to pick what investment company handles the employee’s money. If the employer picks a dog, with few options, the employee is out of luck. <br /><br />Even worse, many companies push their employees to use 401(k) money to buy stock in the company they work for. <br /><br />If the company goes broke, people lose their jobs and their retirement savings, too. <br /><br />There are a lot of people hurting. It is sad to watch retired people, or people close to retirement, lose 40 or 50% of their 401(k) plan’s asset value in one year. They will never be able to make that back up.<br /><br />There is a second major problem -- Not putting enough money in the 401(k) to begin with. <br /><br />401(k) plans give people too much freedom. <br /><br /> I’ve always encouraged people to put the maximum amount into a 401(k) plan. Few do. Many put in little or nothing at all.<br /><br />Now they are looking at a bleak retirement. <br /><br />Defined benefit plans encouraged people to stay at the same company. 401(k) plans do not. <br /><br />I’ve watched tons of people change jobs and then blow the 401(k) money before they started their new job. <br /><br />90% of people with a lump sum of money will run through it in five years or less. The same statistic holds true for 401(k) rollovers as it does for lottery winners. <br /><br />I am appalled that both presidential candidates have proposals that will make it easier for people to blow their 401(k) money. <br /><br />There are a variety of ideas the presidential candidates are completely ignoring.<br /><br />One would be to make it easy, and cost efficient, for employers to go to defined benefit plan and guaranteed income plans. That would make sure that our retirees have money for the rest of their lives. <br /><br />Second would be to change the way 401(k) plans are administered. Take them out of the employer’s hands and let employees invest in whatever, and with whomever, they like. Just like they do with their IRA accounts. <br /><br />When historians study the cause of the economic meltdown, they will see that the change from defined benefit plans to 401(k) plans in 1982 was a factor. It was one of many shifts where dramatic changes were made in people’s lives and liberties. People didn’t realize just how dramatic until years later. <br /><br />If we are going to keep from running behind, 401(k) is one of those things that we need to fix.<br /><br />Don McNay is the Chairman of the Board for McNay Settlement Group and author of the book, Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win The Lottery. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.comDon McNayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03645803746618312893noreply@blogger.com0