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 Lately,
it seems like there’s a constant stream of throwaway literature
from banks in my home and office mail. It’s odd, because I
certainly registered with the DMA to opt out of all of this direct
marketing poundage. I call it throwaway because that’s what
I do with it. But it nevertheless keeps on coming. Why aren’t
these banks listening to their customers?
If my personal banker was paying attention, someone might have
figured out that I had parked several hundred thousand in my checking
account after selling my last house. It sat there for a year (stupid
me) while I decided what to do with the renovation of my new house,
finally underway. Wouldn’t you think that someone might have
noticed that balance and called to give me a couple of ideas for
short term investments? (It lay fallow for 16 months until I started
to give it in big chunks to contractors and engineers.)
Still, my personal banker, Chase, is spending time and money bombarding
me with stuff I don’t want or need. And they must think I
fell off a turnip truck because they’re trying to boondoggle
me into thinking I requested this stuff. For instance: I’ve
had three communiqués from a telephone banking executive
(I won’t embarrass this guy by mentioning his name –
which is probably phony anyway.) In each case, he has thanked me
for my recent inquiry for a variety of stuff: A BETTER BANKING BROCHURE
which I supposedly requested. And thanked me for the opportunity
to serve me. That Telephone Banking Executive in Houston Texas (my
former home) out on the Old Katy Road, would have had a better chance
with me if he had just mentioned Luther’s Barbecue. At least
we would have had something in common.
But now I need to ask you, am I missing something? Let me tell
you what happened with our Wall Street and Banking cover story this
month. We had slated the fabulous Christina Gold, president of Western
Union Financial Services, for the cover spot. An interview was tentatively
scheduled following their January board meeting in NYC. As you may
have read, the parent corporation, First Data Corp, decided to spin
off the division into a separate standalone division with Christina
at the helm, and now she needs to keep a low profile, so no story.
This didn’t quite obscure the fact that their earnings were
down 14%, but the news of Christina and the spin-off spiked the
stock up to a new high!
And then, there was cover #2, Diana Taylor, the State Banking Supervisor
who was frozen out of her announced appointment to Federal Banking
Supervisor because the National Rifle Association is mad at her
boyfriend, Mayor Mike Bloomberg. So, regretfully, her office reneged
on the interview because of her suddenly overwhelmingly busy schedule.
Cover #3 was Amy Butte, the young dynamo NYSE CFO who had done
some high-profile and well-regarded moves during her two-year tenure
there. But ooops...the week of the interview was also the week she
resigned and no interview no way.
So we called our good friend, Mickie Siebert. She always has her
ear to the ground. We asked Mickie, is it them, or is it us? Maybe
we’re feeling a little insecure. And as much celebrity and
press coverage as she has had, she still managed to captivate and
amaze us with her razor sharp mind. She thinks marketers just don’t
give us no respect! You can read all about it as well as some of
her other observations in her guest column. Let us know what you
think about all of this: etg@womensbiz.us.
Elaine Taylor-Gordon
Publisher and President
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HELEN
CHAITMEN
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If
there’s anything we’ve learned in the past few
years, it’s that we can’t trust anybody. In the
old days, we believed the audited financial statements of
the New York Stock Exchange companies in which we invested,
fantasizing that these investments would fund our retirement.
Then we had the shocking news of widespread corporate corruption
and we had to re-adjust our expectations.We came to accept
the fact that companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco falsified
their financial statements.
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We learned to accept the fact that Kenneth Lay, or Jeffrey Skilling,
or Dennis Kozlowski would play games with the numbers at our expense.
We convinced ourselves that we were naïve to invest in companies
that expanded rapidly in the 1990’s.
But then we had another shock. The old stalwart insurance company,
AIG, played similar games. Now we know that we can’t even
trust Hank Greenberg to run his company in an honest manner. Why
then should we trust IBM, or Chase Manhattan Bank, or Chevron? The
answer is we shouldn’t.
In the old days, we believed that if we ate broccoli instead of
French fries, our bodies would fight cancer and assure us a healthy
old age. Widespread medical studies and articles in fashion magazines
fed this belief. We felt comforted, in our deprivation, that we
were resisting temptation for a greater good.
Now, based on a recent study dwarfing in size and scope all of
the previous studies, we know that there is no scientific evidence
that we can prolong our lives by eating foods we’ve convinced
ourselves assure our health even if they taste lousy.
So how can we assure our everlasting well-being? The answer is
that we just have to go it alone and follow our own instincts. Maybe
that means we should eat the foods we enjoy eating, in moderation
if we enjoy being thin. And maybe that means that we should put
our money in things that bring us pleasure, such as houses, and
cars, and clothes and jewelry. And forget IRA’s, 401k’s,
and savings plans.
If you invest in jewelry, you can enjoy wearing it; you can insure
it against loss; and you can sell it when you get tired of it or
need the money – either at one of the big auction houses,
or privately, or on ebay.
If you invest in real estate, you can derive pleasure from living
in a beautiful home; you can insure it against loss; and you can
sell it when you need to move. If the real estate market is in a
down cycle when you need to sell, you will benefit by being able
to buy a less expensive home to replace it. If you die when the
real estate market is in a down cycle, you won’t need to worry
about whether you got your money out of the real estate.
In brief, the answer seems to be enjoy the present and the future
will take care of itself.
Helen Chaitman is a partner and litigator specializing in
banking litigation at Phillips Nizer. You can contact her by e-mail
at hchaitman@PhillipsNizer.com.
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