Square Galaxy

The following facts refer to the Dow Jones Industrial Average:

• Almost one year ago, the stock market hit an all time high.
• Since then, it has fallen over 29%.
• Today, it closed below 10,000 points. (source)
• And closed about 3.5% lower than where it closed last Friday.
• Which is more than 11% lower than where it closed a month ago.
• This is a 4 year low.
• At one point today, the stock market was down by 800 points.
• Which was the worst intra-day fall since Black Monday in 1987. (source)
• But it rallied near the end of the day, to close with a loss of 370 points. (source)
• This is the 19th largest single-day point loss ever.
• The 1st largest point loss occured one week ago.
• The 1st, 8th, 9th, 17th, and 19th worst single-day point losses have call occured in the last month. (source)
• In the last month, shares of Hewlett-Packard have dropped by almost 9%.
• Shares of Apple, IBM, and Dell have all dropped more.
• The utilities and medial sectors have fallen the most, dropping more than 5% today.
• While the transportation industry has dropped the least with less than a 1% drop.

Update Oct 7:

• On October 7, the stock market dropped another 508 points.
• This is the 5th worst single-day point loss ever.
• Adding today to the list, the 1st, 5th, 9th, 10th, 18th, and 20th worst single day losses have all occurred in the last month.
• It has dropped almost 13% in the last week.
• It has dropped almost 2000 points in the last month, or almost 16% of its value.
• And almost a 33% drop in the last year.  Think about that!  It has dropped by a whole third in just a year!

I got a letter in the mail which read:

Your student loans serviced by UHEAA have been paid in full… Congratulations on paying off your student loans.

I actually paid it off a couple of months ago, I’m not sure why it took them so long to figure it out. It always feels good to be debt free.

Today I passed one of those big trailer hauling semis, and I started to wonder about what it might be carrying. Bread that I might buy at the grocery store? My next couch? Fertilizer for the farm down the road?

Then I started to think about how incredibly not aerodynamic the trailer is. Anyone who has participated in a pine wood derby knows that a big block on wheels isn’t the best way to go. If you’ve felt the wind come off the end or sides of one of these trucks as it drives by, then you have felt the energy that is lost because of the inefficient design of the big box trailer.

I suppose they are made that way because that is the most inexpensive way to make a trailer. But with diesel prices near $5 per gallon, maybe it’s time to re-think that.

If big-rig trucks were more aerodynamic, then they would get better gas mileage. If they get better gas mileage, then that reduces the cost of delivery for the products they are delivering. This, in turn, can keep consumer prices slightly lower. Lower prices helps the economy.

So much of our economy depends on the distribution of goods, that maybe it is time to think uniquely about making our means of distribution more affordable.

(Image source)

Hillary Clinton recently ended her bid for the presidency. She has incurred over $20 million of debt from her campaign, the largest presidential campaign debt in history. I guess it’s a good thing that she is out–think of what she would have done had she managed more than just a campaign budget… like the national budget? Scary.

Dear Wells Fargo,

I really want a bank that just keeps my money safe and accessible. I don’t want you calling me many times selling some soft of subscription package to your many programs. I signed up for the national do-not-call list, which means that I really don’t like being bothered my various offers made by calling me. Just because I bank with you, doesn’t mean that I really want to be bothered by you.

Tonight you called me, hiding the caller identification of the source call. Thats just plain sneaky, and something I wouldn’t expect from a bank that I would like to trust.

If you call me, I will refuse any offer you present. Please stop calling me. I told that last caller not to call me again. If I receive any more phone calls from you that do not directly concern my financial accounts, I will strongly consider moving my funds to a different institution.

July 17, 2008 update:
BOB, in comment 10180, was very nice to describe to me Wells Fargo’s privacy policy. According to his suggestion, I went to their website and found my privacy settings already set to the following:

My Wells Fargo Privacy Settings

So my question now is the following? Were my privacy settings always prohibiting contact? Or were they changed by the Wells Fargo representative who called me last with whom I requested that they no longer call me?

The good news is that I haven’t been called in quite a while. Also, now I know that any calls I may receive in the future are in contradiction to my privacy settings and against Wells Fargo’s privacy policy.

Does anyone know where I can find similar privacy settings on the Discover Card website?

Update July 24 Today I received another phone call which introduced itself as being associated with Wells Fargo. When I asked the guy if he was aware that I had specified in my Wells Fargo privacy settings that I wish not to be contacted, he asked me what privacy settings I was talking about, and then he suggested that my system was incorrect.