Author: DOuG pRATt

More American Madness

My American Madness post four days ago, about a movie depicting a run on a bank in 1932, turned out to be very prophetic, because of the run on Silicon Valley Bank in San Francisco, leading to its collapse yesterday.

A good friend who lived in San Francisco for many years sent this note:

The bank in the Bay Area failing made me nervous. Of course it was a special kind of bank, but the FDIC only bailing out people with less than 250K made me sit up. Knowing that and seeing people who are very worried are two different things.

This was my reply:

Yeah, I’ve been following news of the Silicon Valley Bank failure. Here we are, exactly 90 years after FDR became president during the worst of the Great Depression, and a run on a bank continues to be a very real and existential threat to depositors. Losing the private insurance on my IRA’s, which after the maturity dates will be covered only up to the FDIC limit of a quarter mil, was a concern before, but it’s certainly much more of a concern for me now.

SVB’s failure is being blamed by some pundits on the Fed’s “too rapid and overly aggressive” interest rate increases, but to me that’s political axe-grinding. There had to have been underlying problems caused by bad financial management at the bank. Its very mission, catering to tech startups and tying it into investment banking, made it much more susceptible to failure than a chartered commercial bank should be. A 5% federal funds interest rate being considered excessive is possible only because banks enjoyed a 0% rate, or close to it, for such a long time following the Great Recession.

As I have been saying here and elsewhere for years, the Fed should have started raising rates gradually a long time ago. My issue was primarily with artificially low interest rates putting too much money into Wall Street, but now it’s hitting commercial banking, albeit with close ties to shadow banking.

I met with my (very conservative mutual savings) bank last month to discuss renewing my IRA CD’s. My jaw dropped seeing what they would earn at 4.3%, compared to the 2.5% I’ve been getting for the past five years. It seems likely the rate will go up to 4.5%. I was initially delighted seeing the numbers, but now I’m worried that the bank could possibly run into trouble.

Running With Scissors Swords

My marathon running days are over, but having run about a dozen of them, the premise for Samurai Marathon intrigued me.

If not a truly great movie experience, Samurai Marathon is only a couple steps away from being one, due to the weak scenes portraying Commodore Perry. It’s available for free on YouTube Movies & TV, with commercials.

Note: The subtitles are out of sync and get progressively worse later in the video.

Walmart Beats Amazon!

I’m miffed at Amazon for ending Kindle magazines and newspapers. Even before that announcement I was annoyed to see the only place taking pre-orders for the Max Fleischer’s Superman (1941-1943) Blu-ray set isn’t Amazon, it’s Walmart.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Max-Fleischer-s-Superman-1941-1943-Blu-Ray/1574573807

Update: Amazon now has a listing, but Walmart’s price is $4 less.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BXQM8FTK/

Update: Amazon’s price now matches Walmart’s.

That’s the Way the Kindle Crumbles

The end of magazine subscriptions through Amazon…

Dear Amazon Customer,

Thank you for being a valued Amazon Newsstand magazine subscriber. We are writing to inform you that we have made the decision to stop selling print magazine subscriptions on Amazon as of March 9, 2023.

According to our records, here are your subscription(s):

The New Yorker

Starting today, you will no longer be able to purchase new subscriptions or renew your existing subscription(s) through Amazon. For the subscription(s) you’ve already purchased, you will continue to receive all remaining issues in your subscription term unless you decide to cancel.

You can continue to manage your subscription(s) through Amazon until June 5, 2023, 11:59PM PST. After that date, all customer service inquiries for any remaining active subscriptions will be serviced directly by the publisher. More details on the publisher customer service options will be shared in the coming months.

Publishers have provided alternative subscription options for your magazine(s) when your current Amazon subscription expires. Visit the Your Memberships and Subscriptions page on Amazon for more details at https://www.amazon.com/yourmembershipsandsubscriptions. Select digital magazine subscriptions are also available in Kindle Unlimited. Visit https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/fd/ku-aycr-magazines for more information.

If you have any questions or require assistance, please visit the Newsstand FAQ page or contact customer service.

Sincerely,
Amazon Newsstand Team

… including Kindle edition newspapers and magazines.

Dear Amazon Customer,

Thank you for being a valued Amazon Kindle Newsstand subscriber. We are writing to inform you that we have made the decision to stop selling Kindle magazine and newspaper subscriptions on Amazon.

According to our records, here are your monthly subscription(s):

The New York Times – Daily Edition for Kindle

Fantasy & Science Fiction

You will continue to receive your issues through September 4, 2023 unless you decide to cancel. After that date, you will no longer be able to renew your subscription(s) through Amazon. You will still be able to read all issues that have already been delivered to you by visiting Your Kindle Library. If you wish to continue receiving content from a publisher directly, please visit their website for alternative subscription options. Visit the Your Memberships and Subscriptions page on Amazon for more information at: https://www.amazon.com/yourmembershipsandsubscriptions.

Select digital magazine subscriptions are also available in Kindle Unlimited. Visit https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/fd/ku-aycr-magazines for more information.

If you have any questions or require assistance, please visit the Newsstand FAQ or contact customer service.

Sincerely,
Amazon Newsstand Team

The New Yorker stopped offering a Kindle edition a long time ago, but I was mostly reading the print copies anyway. I’ve been reading The New York Times on Kindle ($20/month) for only the past six months, and being blissfully free of ads and comments, it’s the only way I read the NYT. Now I’ll be forced to subscribe online in the way that I wanted to avoid.

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction has been in the news recently, being one of the genre magazines receiving AI-generated story submissions. I’m mostly a Sci-Fi guy, and not so much into Fantasy. I’m not sure what I’ll do about my F&SF subscription.