Current Events in October 2013

This story’s all about the Benjamins: the U.S. $100 bill is changing again. On Oct. 8, the Federal Reserve shipped its first batch of the new currency (known as Benjamins) to banks across America.

Ben Franklin’s face will look the same as always, only surrounded by new (and hopefully hard-to-counterfeit) security features, including Liberty Bells printed in color-changing ink and hologram-bedecked ribbons woven into the paper itself. Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell said the new security features should make the $100 bill “easier to authenticate, but harder to replicate.”

Counterfeiting paper money has always been more complicated than merely printing pages on a photocopier. The “paper” US currency’s printed on is actually more like a cottony fabric, woven from fibers with very specific colors and textures (look at a dollar bill through a strong magnifying glass; you’ll see what we’re talking about). This cloth-like paper is made only by Crane & Company in a (presumably heavily guarded) facility somewhere in Massachusetts.

In the U.S., you’ll occasionally find relatively small-scale counterfeiters who bleach authentic one- and five-dollar bills and then reprint the cottony dollar paper in higher denominations; the $20 bill is the most common counterfeit denomination in America. But counterfeit hundreds are the most common fake U.S. currency found overseas, and the Benjamin’s new security features are likely intended to thwart foreign more than domestic counterfeiters.

Top counterfeiter: Peru 

This year, Peru won the dubious honor of becoming the world’s top source of counterfeit U.S. cash. But for the majority of the time since the fall of the Soviet Union (and end of Soviet subsidies to various Communist countries throughout the world), the main foreign source of fake U.S. money has been North Korea, long suspected to be the world’s primary producer of the so-called “superdollar” or “supernote”—a counterfeit U.S. $100 bill of such high quality that its fake status can only be detected by sophisticated forensic analysis.

Superdollars are even printed on counterfeit paper which, to ordinary human senses, looks and feels just like genuine Crane and Company currency paper, and printed in authentic-looking color-shifting ink.

The security features in the new improved circa-2013 Benjamins, with their hologram ribbons and color-shifting Liberty Bells, will hopefully thwart whoever’s behind the superdollar and other problematic high-quality counterfeits—at least for the time being.

A Silicon Valley tech start-up known for its Internet-connected home thermostats is branching out into the Internet-controlled smoke-detector business, too.

If you’re a consumer who enjoys connecting as much of your technology as possible to your smartphone, this is great news because “Yay, a new frontier in convenience for home safety devices!” And if you’re a hacker with mischievous or outright malicious intent, this is great news because “Yay, a new frontier of wifi-connected home safety devices I can hack!”

In 2011, Nest released its successful Nest Thermostat, which has been credited with increasing energy efficiency by adjusting itself to its owners’ specific energy needs.

The forthcoming smoke alarm, called Nest Protect, is intended to solve a more serious problem with conventional smoke alarms, according to Nest co-founder Matt Rogers: due to smoke alarms’ tendency to do things like go off while people are cooking, or wake people up with annoying high-pitched chirp noises after the batteries run low in the middle of the night, people tend to disconnect their alarms or remove the batteries, so if there’s an actual fire the smoke alarm stays silent and the end result is who-knows how many preventable fire deaths each year. (If you’re wont to humblebrag, now would be a good time to frown, look confused and then say “Smoke alarms going off while cooking? For all the many meals I’ve made, I’ve never heard of such a thing.”)

Like the Nest thermostat, Nest Protect can be monitored by a smartphone app, which will send alerts to your phone in the event that your battery runs low or the alarm goes off; in the latter case, it’ll also give you a button you can press to call 911.

Be careful

For anyone who decides to get a wifi-connected thermostat or smoke alarm, we offer the same warning we give to anyone with a wifi-controlled baby monitor, pacemaker, automobile or anything else connected to wifi: make sure your connection is well-guarded against hackers.

To offer just one cautionary tale, last August a Texas family reported that an anonymous somebody managed to hack into their home baby-monitoring system to watch and heckle their deaf daughter. Hackers breaking into your home smoke alarm might find fewer opportunities to outright spy on your family, but that’s the only good thing to be said about the scenario.

Beats is launching a new music streaming service, Beats Music, in the U.S. “within the next few months,” President and COO Luke Wood said today.

Beats acquired the MOG streaming service for $14 million in July 2012 to help develop Beats Music, which Wood said will aim to be different by focusing on "a very specific idea,” namely, the curation of music.

“We’re talking about real depth of personalization and knowing who I am, who you are, what we’re listening to, what we like, what we’ve listened to before and then offering up music that is highly relevant to our taste profile,” said Wood.  “If you really love music, we want something that can go deep with you for a really long time. And that requires a perfect harmony between the algorithm and human curation. Between the man and the machine.”

Beats Music will be accessible from iOS, Android, and the Web. Windows 8 support will arrive after the initial launch, he said. He didn't say what will happen to MOG after Beats Music launches.

Many diehard music fans are addicted to MOG, which streams at 320 kbps, said to be the highest of the streaming services. It has a library of 16 million songs. 

AARP has sounded the alarm. Older workers in New York City are experiencing age discrimination in the workplace in unprecedented numbers, it says. The senior advocacy group bases the claim on a recent survey.

"New York City's 50-plus residents are facing very serious issues related to their age in the workplace, that's a huge concern to AARP and it ought to be for candidates and elected officials in the city as well," said Beth Finkel, state director for AARP in New York.

The AARP survey found 46% of the people 50 and over it interviewed said they were concerned about age discrimination at work. Twenty-six percent said they had not been hired for a job because of their age. Twenty-four percent said they were denied a promotion or raise because of age. Twenty-three percent said they had been fired, laid off or forced out of a job since turning 50, 27% were encouraged to retire and 23% said they had to listen to snide comments about their age.

Against the law

A number of federal and state laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of age, the same as they bar sex and race discrimination. And while it's easy to make age discrimination charges, proving it in court is often not that easy.

A former investigative reporter for KNBC-TV in Los Angeles is suing the station and owner, Comcast/NBC Universal, claiming that his frequent complaints of ageism in the newsroom led to his dismissal.

According to The Wrap, a website covering Hollywood, 70-year old Frank Snepp filed suit, claiming he observed a pattern of discrimination against older employees. At one point, he says he was passed over for promotion, with the job going to a “younger, less qualified” employee.

Prove it

How do you prove age discrimination? Attorneys who handle these types of cases say it helps if you can document a pattern of abusive behavior.

For example, if there are repeated references to an employee's age, that can be considered evidence of discrimination. Even more subtle interaction with your superior – for example a question about your retirement plans – can be a red flag.

The burden of proof, however, is on the employee. If you are in that situation, document cases of discriminatory treatment and, if there are witnesses, write down their names.

Vague signs

Lawyers say other behavior may be more vague and therefore, harder to prove. For example, if younger employees appear to be getting the best assignments and the promotions, that could be a sign of age discrimination. If you suddenly find you can't do anything to please your supervisor, it might be that you are being held to a different standard.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act is the federal law that stakes out what is acceptable in the workplace regarding age and what isn't. It applies to employees who are at least 40 years old and who work for private employers with 20 or more employees or state and local governments.

It covers every aspect of the workplace, including job advertisements, interviewing, hiring, compensation, promotion, discipline, job evaluations, demotion, training, job assignments, and termination. While plaintiffs have to produce documentary evidence the U.S. Supreme Court has given them the benefit of the doubt, holding that the law prohibits practices and policies that are seemingly neutral but have a disproportionately negative impact on older workers.

AARP says its survey of New York City voters found that 50% believe they will have to delay their retirement for financial reasons. That, in itself, may be one reasons older employees are increasingly sensitive to the age issue.

Of course, a shaky economy and tough job market is placing stress on younger workers as well, making workplace friction much more likely. To avoid litigation, employers should make every effort to ensure the friction doesn't develop along age lines.

What to do

If you believe you have been a victim of age discrimination you may find that you need legal advice. If you have been terminated – in your mind unjustly – it's wise to not sign anything until after you have the document reviewed by an employment attorney.

If you have not been fired but feel you are being harassed or otherwise discriminated against because of your age, the law requires you to report it to someone in the company and give them the opportunity to rectify the situation. If they don't find a remedy to the situation and the harassment continues, you may then file a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or a comparable state agency.

AARP, meanwhile, is trying to make age a top-tier issue in the New York City mayoral campaign. It's sponsoring a series of debates and voter engagement efforts. It notes that AARP members are expected to account for half of all votes cast in the NYC General Elections.

Yahoo is getting to look a lot like Gmail. Yahoo unveiled a major redesign of its email today, offering Gmail-like threaded conversations and Flickr photos as background themes.

Jeffrey Bonforte, Yahoo's SVP of Communication Products, said the changes were timed to coincide with Yahoo Mail's 16th birthday and are intended to make the service not only more elegant but also more efficient. 

"Things you do all of the time like search, starring, and deleting are now one-click actions that appear when you hover over an email. We also wanted to give you more breathing room in your inbox, so you can collapse the left-hand toolbar to be more productive," Bonforte said in a posting on Yahoo's company blog.

As party favors, Yahoo is throwing in features previously reserved for Premium Mail Plus customers. Disposable email addresses, enhanced filters and automatic message forwarding are now available for everyone. Yahoo is also increasing storage to 1 terrabytes (TB), enough to last several lifetimes for just about any user. 

It's part of an effort by CEO Marissa Mayer to boost user engagement with Yahoo's products. Yahoo mail is an especially vital element, as it can serve as a gateway to other Yahoo services.  

There's also a big of window dressing in the new design. 

"We wanted to bring a little inspiration into your inbox — dress it up a bit if you will.  We’re doing that by introducing visually rich themes, including curated Flickr photos, for your browser, smartphone and tablet. Choose a new photo theme in one place, and it will apply across all your devices. After all, your inbox doesn’t have to be a plain white box with text dropped into it," Bonforte said.

Pumpkins, princesses, zombies and witches will dominate the landscape this Halloween, according to the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) 2013 Top Costumes Survey.

More than 5 million adults say they plan to dress as a witch this year, while 2.9 million will dress as a Batman character. Tiny tots have exclaimed they want to be a princess (3.8 million), an animal (2.8 million) or a Batman character (2.5 million).

Fido and fluffy will be fashionable as well, with 7.9% of those asked dressing their furry friends as a pumpkin. Hot dog, cat, and devil costumes follow for pet favorites.

Big bucks

Revelers are expected to spend $2.6 billion on Halloween costumes, according to the NRF survey -- $1 billion on children’s costumes, $1.2 billion on adult costumes and $330 million on pet costumes. The average person will spend $75.03 on Halloween candy, costumes and decorations for total spending of $6.9 billion.

“Halloween is a long-standing tradition that kids and adults alike look forward to every fall,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Consumers can bet retailers are prepared with all their needs.”

“While traditional favorites top the list this year, there’s always the chance of seeing over-the-top, unique costumes on Halloween,” Prosper Insights Consumer Insights Director Pam Goodfellow said. “Costumes with clear pop culture references that mimic hit TV show characters or celebrities could easily surprise us all.”

Concern that illness caused by strains of Salmonella Heidelberg are associated with raw chicken products produced by Foster Farms at three facilities in California has prompted the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to issue a public health alert.

FSIS is unable to link the illnesses to a specific product and a specific production period.

Raw products from the facilities in question bear one of the establishment numbers inside a USDA mark of inspection or elsewhere on the package:

• “P6137”
• “P6137A”
• “P7632”

The products were mainly distributed to retail outlets in California, Oregon and Washington State.

This public health alert is being issued after an estimated 278 illnesses were recently reported in 18 states, predominantly in California. The outbreak is continuing.

The investigation is continuing and FSIS says it is prepared to take additional actions or expand the investigation based on new evidence.

A pullback in consumer spending last month as measured by Gallup Daily tracking.

Self-reports by U.S. consumers of daily spending averaged $84 throughout September, compared with August's $95. September marks the lowest monthly figure since February, while the August average had been the highest in any month in five years. Still, the September average remains above the levels Gallup measured from 2009-2012, and is the highest for any September since 2008.

Each day from Sept. 1-30, Gallup asked consumers to report how much they spent the prior day, excluding major purchases such as a home or car and normal household bills. The data give an estimate of discretionary consumer spending.

Significant, but nor surprising

In the six years Gallup has tracked spending, the September estimates have typically been lower than the August estimates. Thus, the decline is not unexpected, although it is a significantly larger decline than what had been recorded in prior years.

In fact, the one-month decline of $11 ranks among the largest Gallup has measured since 2008. Declines of that magnitude are more commonly found between December and January, reflecting the typical surge in spending around the holidays and the pullback the following month. The other recent major declines in spending came near the beginning of the 2008-2009 recession.

In addition to the typical August to September decline, the drop in spending could have been influenced by the decline in Americans' confidence in the economy over the course of the month.

Charting the declines

Self-reported spending declined by an average $15 among upper-income and $10 among lower- and middle-income consumers in September.

However, the $10 decline for those in the lower- and middle-income brackets was concentrated among those whose annual household incomes range between $60,000 and $90,000. Spending among this group declined from $122 per day in August to $87 in September. There was a smaller $6 decline, from $81 to $75, among those in the $24,000 to $60,000 range, and no change among those whose incomes are less than $24,000 per year.

Spending in September fell below the $100 mark for those between the ages of 30 and 49 for the first time since March. It also dipped below $100 for those aged 50 to 64, men, and parents of young children. The declines tended to be greater among groups whose spending is usually higher than that of other groups.

What it all means

The August increase in spending, observed in Gallup's self-reported measure and in government estimates, was clearly an encouraging sign for the economy. Spending estimates from Gallup and the government seem to indicate that consumers are moving beyond the "new normal" period of more limited spending observed from 2009 to 2012.

However, the higher spending levels Gallup measured in August were not sustained in September. With consumer spending such a key component of U.S. economic growth, the pullback suggests a full recovery from the recession may still be a ways off.

To the extent consumers' decreased spending is tied to concerns about the larger economy, driven to a large degree by the run-up to, and commencement of, a federal government shutdown, it suggests the effects of the government's budget stalemate go well beyond the temporary halting of non-essential government services.

And progress toward a full economic recovery may be on hold until the government successfully addresses the budget situation, as well as the coming Oct. 17 deadline to raise the federal debt limit.

It may not be gloom and doom, but small-business owner optimism dipped during September.

According to the National Federation for Independent Business, the decline of 0.2 from August put the reading at 93.9, due in large part to a significant increase in pessimism about future business conditions.

Overall, four components of the Small Business Optimism Index improved, four fell and two were unchanged from August.

Analysts believe it's to early to measure the impact of the government shut-down on the small-business sector, but say it's possible that the pending “crisis” affected the economic outlook. The October reading is expected to reveal the full effect of Washington’s actions -- or lack of them -- on the small-business sector, which has remained cautious throughout the recovery.

An omen?

“The change in this month’s Index was little more than ‘statistical noise,’ but the drop in outlook for future economic conditions is evidence that many owners are keeping an eye on Washington,” said NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg. “Prospects for politicians and policymakers ‘getting it right’ are low, and job creators are rolling their eyes and shaking their heads thinking, ‘This is certainly not the way to run the largest enterprise in the world.’

Twenty-four percent of owners surveyed in September named regulations and red tape as their No. 1 business problem, 18% cited taxes, and 17% cited “poor sales.” Only 2% reported that financing was their top business problem.

Index components

A review of the September indicators is as follows:

• Job Creation. Job creation was down in September. NFIB owners reduced employment by an average of 0.1 workers per firm in September after August’s slight gain (0.08 workers added on average) following three months of negative numbers.
• Hard to Fill Job Openings. Twenty percent of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period (up 1 point), and 14% reported using temporary workers, down 2 points from August. Most of the jobs “created” will likely be dominated by part-time workers as owners hedge their hiring while they try to fathom the health care law regulations and penalties.
• Sales. The net percent of all owners reporting higher nominal sales in the past three months compared with the prior three months was unchanged at negative 6%. The net percent of owners expecting higher real sales volumes rose 3 points to 8% of all owners. This is welcome news as improved sales expectations are needed to trigger hiring and new inventory orders, but this trend is a bit inconsistent with the larger deterioration in expected business conditions.
• Earnings and Wages. Earnings trends worsened a bit in September, falling 2 points to negative 23%. Three percent of owners reported reduced worker compensation and 20% reported raising compensation, yielding a net 17% reporting higher worker compensation (up 2 points). A net 13% plan to raise compensation in the coming months, up 1 point. With a net 17% raising compensation but only a net 1% raising selling prices, profits will continue to be under pressure.
• Credit Markets. Credit continues to be a non-issue for small employers, 6% of whom say that all their credit needs were not met in September, up 1 point from August. Twenty-eight percent of owners surveyed reported all credit needs met, and 53% explicitly said they did not want a loan (64% including those who did not answer the question, presumably uninterested in borrowing).
• Capital Outlays. In September, the frequency of reported capital outlays over the past six months rose 2 points to 55 %. The percent of owners planning capital outlays in the next three to six months rose 1 point to 25%.
• Good Time to Expand. In September, only 8% characterized the current period as a good time to expand (up 2 points). The net percent of owners expecting better business conditions in six months was a net negative 10%, 8 points worse than August’s reading.
• Inventories

         The pace of inventory reduction continued in September, with a net negative 7% of all owners reporting growth in inventories, 2 points down from August. For all firms, none reported stocks too low, a historically “satisfied” reading.
         Plans to add to inventories were unchanged from August at a net 2%, a bit inconsistent with the expectations for sales growth.

• Inflation. Fourteen percent of the NFIB owners surveyed reported reducing their average selling prices in the past three months (down 2 points), and 14% reported price increases (down 3 points). The net percent of owners raising average selling prices was 1%, down 1 point. As for prospective price increases, 21% plan on raising average prices in the next few months (up 1 point), and 2% plan reductions (down 1 point). A net 19% plan price hikes, up 1 point.

The September report is based on the responses of 773 randomly sampled small businesses in NFIB’s membership, surveyed throughout the month.  

Americans are mired in debt, from college loans to credit card bills. The numbers don't lie.

But there may be an interesting story developing behind those numbers. While their parents continue to struggle with making ends meet – making poor financial decisions along the way – today's teens and young adults appears to be shaping up as “the thrifty generation.”

A survey by McGraw Hill Federal Credit Union shows only one in 20 of this group uses a credit card. For nearly 60%, cash is a primary payment method, followed by debit cards at 36%. Most notably, nearly 70% expect to cover part of the cost of college, and 60% say they have a plan for college expenses.

Instead of shopping for the newest designer labels, young people are frequenting thrift stores. Getting a bargain is now cool.

“Teens today are learning from the mistakes of adults,” said Shawn Gilfedder, President and CEO of McGraw Hill Federal Credit Union. “Five years out from the recession, the job market does not look that hopeful for them, even with a college degree. They're recognizing that responsibility first resides with themselves.”

History repeating itself?

It's a familiar pattern. The World War II generation, which grew up during the Great Depression, adopted thrifty patterns that persisted throughout their lives. This group of young people coming of age in the last five years has experienced the worst economic environment since the Great Depression.

Gilfedder says it's no surprise their experience over the last five years would shape their view of money. But the experience itself is not enough to create a lasting benefit.

“Today’s young consumers have an awareness of student loans and higher education costs,” Gilfedder said. “We’re seeing heightened financial self-responsibility, which is not the same as financial literacy. As young consumers pursue higher education and careers, there needs to be an increased focus on financial preparedness at home and in the classroom.”

Hot button issue

Indeed financial literacy is a hot button issue today, pushed primarily by the financial services industry. Non-profits are also playing a role.

“The recent recession and continued economic uncertainty has exposed an urgent need for effective financial literacy education,” said Leslie E. Linfield, Executive Director and Founder of the Institute for Financial Literacy, a non-profit group offering financial literacy resources.

Gilfedder's credit union, based in New Jersey, offers financial literacy resources, including monthly seminars to educators to earn professional credits.

Filling the financial literacy gap

“About three years ago we recognized there was a huge gap in financial education,” he said. “When the state of New Jersey mandated financial literacy education in public schools we stepped in to share a lot of our experiential learning from our membership base.”

Seminar topics range from money management, understanding and responsible use of credit, achieving and financing higher education, developing a spend plan or budget; total costs of buying and maintaining a vehicle; and planning for a secure financial future. Monthly financial literacy seminars are available to students, their families, and the community.

Gilfedder says there are two ways to become financially literate. One is formal education – taking part in seminars or studying financial topics in a classroom setting – the approach some school districts are increasingly taking. The other is learning from experience – their own and from a trusted adult.

“Unfortunately our society has made money a rather complicated process and it doesn't have to be that complicated,” Gilfedder said. “If you don't have a plan you should look for the opportunity to sit down with a Certified Financial Planner of someone who has experience working as a financial advisor. Starting out early in the process can save you years of pain.”  

If you’re one of the 15,000 New Yorkers who used Airbnb to rent out your home for awhile, watch out: the state attorney general’s office is trying to find you.

Airbnb said Monday that it’s fighting a subpoena demanding that it give the AG’s office the names of all 15,000 Empire State residents who rented out space over the website. The AG crackdown doesn’t appear to be based on complaints by any Airbnb customers; instead, the rationale is that Airbnb “landlords” are in violation of state hotel laws.

Trouble for Airbnb “landlords” is nothing new; not only are there the inherent risks involved with granting total strangers access to your home and any valuables within, there’s also the fact that many residential leases forbid subletting and temporary rentals, so temporary Airbnb “landlords” can find their own landlords evicting them as a result. (In fairness to the landlords, they themselves can be fined for running an illegal hotel, if they allow their tenants to do so.)

But the New York attorney general’s subpoena request is the most far-reaching Airbnb crackdown yet. That said, even if Airbnb fails in its appeal, and is forced to turn over its customer list, this doesn’t necessarily mean every New Yorker who rented a space on Airbnb is in trouble. Just last week, courts overturned a fine that had been levied against Manhattan resident and Airbnb user Nigel Warren for renting space in his apartment.

In a blogpost discussing the New York subpoena, Airbnb’s global policy director David Hantman said that “We believe the Attorney General [of New York] is only seeking to target an incredibly small number of bad actors who abuse the Airbnb platform. That’s a goal we all share. Bad actors like illegal hotel operators and slumlords aren’t part of our vision and have no place on Airbnb and we hope we can work with State leaders to weed out these individuals.”

Or maybe not: the attorney general’s office hasn’t said whether it merely seeks to stop “bad actors” or all Airbnb rentals.

Airbnb has until the end of day today (Monday) to comply with the subpeona.

In 2005 the world became a better place for chocolate lovers, after the Journal of the American College of Cardiology first suggested that chocolate (in moderate amounts) is actually good for you and your heart, because its main ingredient – cocoa – naturally contains a beneficial class of chemicals called “flavanols.”

Though as early as 2003, the Journal of the American Medical Association noted that dark chocolate (as opposed to milk chocolate, white chocolate or even dark chocolate consumed along with milk) contained enough antioxidants to help patients suffering from high blood pressure.

And in the ten years since, researchers from various institutions continue discovering more health or nutritional benefits said to come from flavanols: everything from improving blood flow in the brain to reducing the amount of bad cholesterol in the bloodstream.

But even if all these claims are true, not all chocolate products – nor even all dark chocolates – confer such health benefits. Problem is, the process of converting raw cocoa into refined chocolate often removes the flavanols as well. (Not to mention: even when your chocolate does contain plenty of flavanol, it can also have enough sugar and fat to offset any advantage from the flavanols, anyway.)

Flavanol preservation

The trick, then, is for chocolate manufacturers to work out a production process that preserves as many flavanols as possible. This week, Swiss chocolate company Barry Callebaut (the largest chocolate producer in the world, supplying such well-known companies as Cadbury) announced a new form of flavanol-rich dark chocolate called Acticoa that’s specifically supposed to improve blood pressure and heart health, and is expected to go on sale in a few months.

Acticoa chocolate (whose Callebaut-owned official webpage is still under construction) is not new; it’s been available for sale since at least 2010, when Callebaut started selling Acticoa products alleged to help prevent wrinkles and other symptoms of aging.

The recent surge of interest in Callebaut’s forthcoming heart-healthy chocolate is generating new interest because last month, the EU Commission approved Callebaut’s request to claim health benefits on its packaging. (A similar approval process is required for food manufacturers in the US—fish, for example, has always contained omega-3 fatty acids, alleged to confer heart benefits, but not until 2004 could fish sellers in America specifically claim that eating fish might reduce your risk of heart disease.)

A September press release by Barry Callebaut said that as a result of the EU Commission’s ruling, “Barry Callebaut now has the proprietary right to use the cocoa flavanols claim within EU countries [and] will be able to use the claim for its ACTICOA cocoa and chocolate products which retain most of the cocoa flavanols naturally present in the cocoa bean.”

Will future chocolate manufacturers be able to make similar claims, if they start producing chocolate that keeps most of its flavanols? We’ll have to wait and see.

Nuance is an interesting company that specializes in programs that move data from one platform to another. Their PaperPort and PDF Converter programs translate printed documents into digital and PDF formats, while their fast-growing Dragon translates speech into text.

While much of their software is written for large enterprise users, there are also consumer versions that are sold directly to consumers or, quite often, bundled into packages provided with scanners and other hardware.

PDF Converter Professional 8, for example, is offered for $99 but a scaled-down version is often included free with new printers and scanners. Likewise, Dragon is offered in a professional, enterprise version but also sold individually for consumers who want to dictate their thoughts rather than typing. A version for cars, called Dragon Drive, and will soon be included as an option in new cars. 

Not always so lucky

All of this sounds pretty good and, in fact, we have used PDF Converter Professional at ConsumerAffairs for years with no problems. The latest version is running on my Windows 8 computer, and is routinely used to scan large and small documents into PDF format using a Brother MFC-8860 printer/scanner.

Not everyone is so lucky, though. And some consumers tell us they get scant help from Nuance when problems arise, although the company assures us there is a solution.

"PDF Professional 7 - It's a great product with fatal flaw: any change to my computer configuration, including plugging in a USB device like a thumb drive or camera, sets off the activation program and after a certain number of activations, the program tells me that I have installed the software on too many computers," said Ed of Oakland, Calif., in a recent complaint. "It is installed on one computer, and I'm not talking about changing motherboards here; any USB device triggers this. Support? There isn't any. I've actually bought this program twice and just had my second one run out of activations."

We initially thought Ed must be mistaken, since our computer is routinely reconfigured, ripped apart and generally upended as we test various products and try to duplicate problems consumers complain about.

But then we found this from Brian of Evansville, Ind.:

"I noticed a disturbing trend with all my Nuance software. Each package would launch and work well the day (and week) of installation. The next time I launched the software I would receive an message that I need to activate the software. I presumed the activation did not complete for some reason and I did as instructed. One day, several months later, I attempted to launch OmniPage and I received an error message stating my software had been activated on too many computers," Brian said.

"I did some research online and found the answer from one frustrated user. He learned that Nuance takes a snapshot of your PC at the time of install. This snapshot is stored on their servers and each time you start their program it sends your current system footprint to the server to see if they match. ... If you update your BIOS, add ram, add a HD, plug in any USB thumb drive or any USB device for that matter, download patches for Windows, Office, or any Nuance product, or you add new software to your system, you have changed your digital footprint and the system prompts you to activate the software."

Newer version available

We asked Nuance about this and the company says the problem has been solved.

"The situations described were accurate relative to our activation methods prior to the most recent versions of our software," said Jeffrey J. Segarra, Senior Director, Imaging Product Management. "For customers with older software versions, Customer Support is setup to quickly address this issue and get customers back up and running. They can be reached at 800-654-1187."

Segarra said new customers should not experience the problem: "Current versions of our software no longer use the activation method causing these situations. To completely eliminate the issues described, we encourage all customers to upgrade their software."

The updates should solve the problem and perhaps keep consumers from going down another path that might prove just as frustrating. Brian, for example, added a final parting note to his complaint: "I am looking for open source replacements for all Nuance products. I hope I can find them for the Window OS. I may need to move to some flavor of Linux and I am willing to make the move if there are open source product out there that work."

We wish him well but be forewarned: many of the most popular Linux distros, like Mint and Ubuntu, are abysmal at out-of-the-box scanner support. You can spend hours tweaking drivers and settings only to have everything wiped out by the next OS update. There are some adequate Linux open source scanner-to-PDF programs but they're not much good if you can't get your scanner to work.

Installing the latest version of Nuance's software sounds like a much simpler fix. 

The complaint against the payday loan industry is longstanding. Consumer advocates charge these small, short-term loans end up trapping borrowers in a cycle of debt.

Unlike a revolving credit line, like a credit card, or an installment loan with a set number of monthly payments, a payday loan must be paid back, in full, in a short period of time, usually two weeks.

But in two weeks, the consumer still almost always has the same problem – a lack of money. So to pay back the loan they have to take out another two-week loan. Each time they have to pay a fee, so the total cost of their “small, short-term” loan rises as their indebtedness stretches into months, at what amounts to triple-digit interest rates.

In the early 2000s the U.S. Department of Defense discovered payday lending was a growing problem for military personnel, who were becoming burdened with debt. As a result Congress, in 2007, passed a law capping the interest rate on loans to military personnel at 36% APR, effectively outlawing payday loans to those in uniform.

Long campaign against the industry

Consumer groups like the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) have lobbied long and hard to extend these curbs payday lending nationwide. They stepped up those effects after major banks got into the payday loan business. CRL says the efforts are beginning to pay off.

Within the last month four major federal agencies — the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) all took significant actions against all types of payday lenders, including banks that support payday loans. At the same time, many states have taken aggressive stands against individual payday lenders. 

“Payday loans, regardless of whether made by banks, stores, or online, are designed to create a destructive cycle of debt.” said Diane Standaert, senior legislative counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending. “Payday loans drain over $3 billion in fees a year, mostly due to churning individuals every payday.”

Until recently regulatory efforts against the industry yielded only modest results. A total of 13 states enacted laws banning or heavily regulating payday loans but some companies simply set up shop online, allowing residents of those states to complete the transaction remotely. Other affiliated with Indian tribes, claiming immunity from state and federal regulations.

'Writing on the wall'

But opponents of payday lending point to recent developments they say put the industry on the defensive. In fact, CRL says “the writing is on the wall.”

At about the same time the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals ruled that online payday loans made by CashCall to Iowa residents are subject to the state’s consumer protection laws. CashCall had argued that its loans were shielded by tribal sovereign immunity.

On September 25 the U.S. Justice Department proposed a settlement with national banks involved in the processing of payday loans. The following day the CFPB ruled that tribal payday lenders must respond to requirements of a civil investigation.

A bad week

Completing a bad week for the payday loan industry, FDIC, on September 27, fired off letters to the banks it supervises, reminding them of their responsibility to ensure they are not facilitating fraudulent or other illegal activity.

Adding to the industry's recent pain, New York and a number of other states, where payday lending is outlawed, has ruled residents of those states who took out online payday loans don't have to pay the money back, dealing heavy losses to the companies that made these loans. 

Finally, the FDIC and Office of Comptroller of the Currency are finalizing rules for bank payday loans, and the CFPB is considering a rule that could apply to all types of payday loans. Industry critics are having a hard time concealing their optimism that the tide is running out on payday lending.

“Regulators at all levels have shown that payday lenders are not above the law, and neither are the banks that abet them,” said Gary Kalman, CRL executive vice president for federal policy.

“How's your dog?” That's how a monologue by comedian George Carlin opened, but we won't go into that here. However, the question has some real value.

Experts at Newcastle University, in the United Kingdom say monitoring a dog's behavior could be used as an early warning sign that an older owner is struggling to cope or that his or her health is deteriorating.

These researchers are using movement sensors to track normal dog behavior while the animals are both home alone and out-and-about. Providing a unique insight into the secret life of man's best friend, the sensors show not only when the dog is on the move, but also how much he is barking, sitting, digging and other key canine behaviors.

By mapping the normal behavior of a healthy, happy dog, Dr. Cas Ladha, PhD student Nils Hammerla and undergraduate Emma Hughes were able to set a benchmark against which the animals could be remotely monitored. This allowed for any changes in which might be an indication of illness or boredom to be quickly spotted.

Drawing conclusions

Project leader Ladha says the next step is to use the dog's health and behavior as an early warning system that an elderly owner may be struggling to cope.

"A lot of our research is focused on developing intelligent systems that can help older people to live independently for longer," explains Ladha. "But developing a system that reassures family and carers that an older relative is well without intruding on that individual's privacy is difficult. This is just the first step but the idea behind this research is that it would allow us to discretely support people without the need for cameras."

"Humans and dogs have lived together in close proximity for thousands of years, which has led to strong emotional and social mutual bonds,” Behavior imaging expert Nils Hammerla adds. "A dog's physical and emotional dependence on their owner means that their well-being is likely reflect that of their owner and any changes such as the dog being walked less often, perhaps not being fed regularly, or simply demonstrating 'unhappy' behavior could be an early indicator for families that an older relative needs help."

How it works

Designed to provide an indicator of animal welfare in an age when dogs are increasingly left alone for long periods of time, the team created a hi-tech, waterproof dog collar complete with accelerometer and collected data for a wide range of dog breeds.

"In order to set the benchmark we needed to determine which movements correlated to particular behaviors, so in the initial studies, as well as the collars, we also set up cameras to record their behavior," explains Ladha.

Analyzing the two data sets, the Newcastle team was able to classify 17 distinct dog activities such as barking, chewing, drinking, laying, shivering and sniffing.

The team also assessed the system against different breeds.

"This had to work for all dogs," said Ladha, "so the challenge was to map distinct behaviors that correlated whether the collar was being worn by a square-shouldered bulldog or a tiny chihuahua."

"This is the first system of its kind which allows us to remotely monitor a dog's behavior in its natural setting,” Hammerla said. "But beyond this it also presents us with a real opportunity to use man's best friend as a discreet health barometer. It's already well known that pets are good for our health and this new technology means dogs are supporting their older owners to live independently in even more ways than they already do."

Want to buy a new car online? It's not easy. Sure, you can go to eBay Auto or AutoTrader and buy just about any kind of used car you can imagine, but new cars are still sold only through dealers.

That's not about to change but General Motors is currently testing a program that would let you conduct the entire car-buying process online. You would still be buying through a local dealer but the new program, called Shop Click Drive, may be just the thing for those who want the convenience of shopping from home, or who want to avoid dealing with car salesmen.

Five cars

Automotive News reports that about 100 dealers in eight states have been participating in the pilot program. And although they've only sold five cars entirely online, GM says the program has generated total sales of about 900.

In other words, most people do part of the process online but end up completing the transaction through the dealer, which removes a potential stumbling block, as dealers are not very eager to give up their role in the car-buying process.

"It's one thing to buy headphones online; it's quite another to buy a $30,000 car," Automotive News quoted a Michigan dealer as saying. 

For its part, GM insists it has no desire to cut the dealers out of the transactions, it's just trying to open up another sales channel that will benefit both the consumer and the dealer.

A GM spokeswoman told the trade publications the company plans to roll the program out nationwide by the end of the year.

So if you just can't stand the thought of trooping over to the dealership to haggle over a car, just wait a few months. 

Microsoft, like everyone else, would like to get bigger in the daily deals/on-site discount game, as a way of attracting users to its Bing search engine. Its latest effort is a new Bing Offers feature that is currently being tested in the Seattle market. It lets Bing Offers users link their credit cards to their Microsoft accounts.

To redeem online offers, consumers simply swipe their credit card, without having to print coupons or show QR codes on their phones.

Bing Offers is sort of Microsoft's answer to Groupon and LivingSocial. It offers the same general type of deals on entertainment, food and recreation. 

I decided to check it out, assuming that Bing, like everyone else, already knew everything about me and would show me deals that it targeted to me based on what it had learned from Big Data. But somehow, offers of Brazilian waxes and laser hair removal sessions weren't quite what I had in mind. Hair restoration, maybe.

Nevertheless, Microsoft may be on the right track with its effort to link Bing Offers to credit and debit cards. Microsoft has joined Bank of America, Discover, Deem, Facebook, First Data, Linkable Networks, LivingSocial, MasterCard, and others to create The CardLinx Association, a group of companies that aims to “reduce consumer and merchant friction for payment-enabled offers and ads” and to promote the growth of card-linked offers.

In Seattle, Microsoft is now working with Pizza Hut, Mooyah Burgers, Buca Di Beppo and a number of other vendors. The Bing Offers team expects to roll the service out to other U.S. cities “soon,” it said.

For the first few days, the virtual shutdown of the federal government was something of a ho-hum story outside Washington. Does it really matter if the feds stay home? 

The answer starts to become clear this week, as the shutdown begins to be felt in the real estate sector. With the IRS and other agencies closed, income verification and other vital data can't be obtained, which means mortgage applications can't be processed.

Real estate and new-car sales -- both heavily dependent on the ability to confirm buyers' income -- have been the mainstays of the struggling economy. If they begin to slow down, things could get rocky. 

In Arizona, where the real estate market has just started to recover, transactions are reported at a standstill, as vital information remains unavailable.

"It's the tax transcripts and Social Security number verifications which aren't available," says Duke Pyle of Academy Mortgage Corporation, in an Arizona Family report.  This is bad news not only for home buyers and sellers but also for Realtors, who work on commission.

"If I can't close home loans with my buyers than I don't get paid, so everybody in the housing industry income is going to be affected, said Realtor Lisa Bartlett.

Underwriting

Besides income vertification data, there's the little matter of federal underwriting. The Federal Housing Administration (FDA) insures homes for low- and middle-income first-time home buyers. It has a skeleton staff of 68 employees working during the shutdown, hardly enough to handle the thousands of applications submitted daily.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee nearly half of all U.S. mortages, are working regularly. 

Much depends on where buyers are in the timeline. It normally takes several weeks to close a transaction, so for those who are in the early or middle of the process, the disruption may be minor if the shutdown is resolved within the next week or so. 

And then there's the looming debt ceiling. Failure to raise the debt ceiling could cause the U.S. to default for the first time in history. House Speaker John Boehner, appearing on one of the weekend talk shows, said a default could cause an economic crisis worse than that of 2008.

After all these years, the envelope-stuffing come-on is still alive and well, according to New Jersey Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman, who has just announced a $130,000 settlement with a company that promised big bucks from stuffing envelopes at home.

“This settlement should serve as a clear cautionary note to consumers,” Hoffman said. “When an offer seems too good to be true -- especially if it’s a work-at-home ad offering thousands of dollars in return for little work -- it may very well be a scam, designed to enrich a con artist while wasting your money and time.”

David Brookman and his company, Capital Enterprises, Inc., lured consumers through ads that promised, “Get Paid From Mailing Our Special Letters From Home! Potential Earnings Of Up To $5,000 Or More Weekly!”

Instead, investigators said that, of Brookman’s approximately 13,000 customers, only 45 – less than 1 percent – ever made more than $100 from the envelope stuffing program. Approximately 11,000 made no money at all. The most any consumer ever made from Brookman’s work-from-home scheme was $520 over a 10-month period.

Meanwhile, according to the state’s lawsuit against Brookman, consumers who signed up for the work-at-home program had to pay a registration fee. After paying the fee, they found the terms and conditions substantially changed, often including a requirement to make further payments.

“Schemes like these prey on economically stressed consumers who are lured by the promise that they can make good money by working at home,” said Eric T. Kanefsky, Director of the State Division of Consumer Affairs. “Unfortunately, it is often those who can least afford to get ripped off, that are themselves victimized. We are committed to stopping work-at-home and other scam artists.”