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rbcgerard

1,651 karma · joined August 14, 2013

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rbcgerard··on I've spent the last two years building a new email client
That’s a setting in outlook
rbcgerard··on Using GnuCash as a Freelancer to Track Finances and Prepare Taxes
While I take your point, I often see people who don't really understand accounting avoid the topic entirely by fully outsourcing the preparation of their financial statements. This often leads to disaster because I've noticed that if you're not really on top of your outsourced service provider, they get sloppy/lazy and make lots of mistakes.
rbcgerard··on Ask HN: Who do you trust most with your data?
Check out https://cryptomator.org
rbcgerard··on 'Striking weaknesses' in adult financial skills
I’ve noticed some weird anomalies as well like if there is a small, medium, and large size package the large sized package isn’t always the cheapest per unit - as they assume customer will just assume the largest packages has the lowest per unit price
rbcgerard··on Martin Shkreli sentenced to seven years in prison for defrauding investors
not saying that he didn't defraud his investors - just pointing out that I was under the impression that his fraud did not economically harm his investors (which is rarely the case in these prosecutions) and puts his sentence in a different light to a certain extent...
rbcgerard··on Martin Shkreli sentenced to seven years in prison for defrauding investors
I vaguely recall that his investors actually made money - he lied to them, but actually made them money....
rbcgerard··on Location-based ads are growing
Apparently not very well

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/10/mac_address_randomi...

rbcgerard··on Location-based ads are growing
Why can’t Apple have sone sort of WiFi annonimization so I’m not broadcasting a unique signal all the time?
rbcgerard··on More art is being produced and sold than ever before, at ever higher prices
I was told that a while back Bulgari (and probably some other high-end jewelers) operated one of the largest illicit money transfer networks - primarily for bribery.

Want to bribe a public official? Give his wife a $100k bracelet, and mention that it can be returned anywhere in the world for CASH (less a 10% “restocking fee” of course). Then you might mention how nice it would be to spend a weekend in Geneva - and coincidentally there is a branch of that jeweler just down the street from some very discreet Swiss bankers (back when they were discreet)...

rbcgerard··on How Banks Could Control Gun Sales If Washington Won’t
I don’t think so
rbcgerard··on Money Laundering via Author Impersonation on Amazon
More than likely he borrowed money and despite the entity structure, personally guaranteed it (which is typical for most small business loans)
rbcgerard··on How Banks Could Control Gun Sales If Washington Won’t
not the same - weed is illegal under federal law
rbcgerard··on How Banks Could Control Gun Sales If Washington Won’t
except its not legal in the eyes of the federal government and hence bank regulators, so not apples to apples.
rbcgerard··on Don't use VPN services
Who do I trust more Comcast (ISP) or F-secure (VPN)? Pretty easy answer...
rbcgerard··on A Tiny Hedge Fund Made 8,600% on a Vix Bet
The reason people laughed in these people’s faces is that trade they had on cost ~10% a month and their time horizon was ~2.5years? Hmmmm
rbcgerard··on How a Single Mechanical Failure Sparked 625 MTA Delays (2016)
It drives me crazy that train info isn’t out at street level
rbcgerard··on After alleged 'bait and switch,' Nevada DMV cancels $78M IT contract
I’d start with asking the questions: who was responsible for the contract and it’s implemntation, and what were their motives, incentives, qualifications and abilities. Then I would ask the same question, but what would the IDEAL motives, abilities, incentives and qualifications of that person be? Then try bridging those gaps....
rbcgerard··on Why it costs so much to be poor in America
That’s exactly what I meant by cross selling - many bank accounts are actually priced at a loss with the hopes of also getting you to sign up for a credit card or car insurance
rbcgerard··on Why it costs so much to be poor in America
I don’t know the breakdown, but it’s: banking software, mailed account statements, debit cards, phone support centers, websites, bank branches, compliance, ATM networks, check processing etc.

Obviously some of these costs scale very cheaply, but there is quite a bit that goes into a modern bank account+ some customers are costlier than others (lost of call center calls/lost debit cards for example)

rbcgerard··on Why it costs so much to be poor in America
It was an average - but it was just for checking accounts
rbcgerard··on Why it costs so much to be poor in America
On the banking side, some of it is fairly straight forward - the estimates I’ve seen say it cost ~$100-$500 for a bank to administer a checking account annually. The current net interest margin banks earn on your money in the US is 3.15%.

Which means if a bank charges no fees - and it costs them $315 to administer your account - you need to maintain a $10,000 balance for them to break even.

Once you understand that dynamic - you understand that banks that want to offer low balance free checking - need to either make it up on fees or on cross selling opportunities...

rbcgerard··on Paul Bocuse, Celebrated French Chef, Dies at 91
I don’t believe the point of the antedote was that they brought him a replacement piece of silverware.
rbcgerard··on Driving a Car in Manhattan Could Cost $11 Under Congestion Plan
??? They NEED to drive in from NJ CT etc instead of taking public transit?
rbcgerard··on Driving a Car in Manhattan Could Cost $11 Under Congestion Plan
A couple of things to note:

1) is who is actually causing the congestion in NYC - its my understanding that the bulk of the congestion is caused by non-NYC residents

2) a large unaddressed component is parking - the large amount of free parking available, especially to non-residents, creates a distorting subsidy in favor of commuting in many areas.

If you want to read a great book on the broader subject, check out Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt http://tomvanderbilt.com/books/traffic/

rbcgerard··on Driving a Car in Manhattan Could Cost $11 Under Congestion Plan
Also not noted is the portion of people driving in new york city that do not live in new york city...
rbcgerard··on Driving a Car in Manhattan Could Cost $11 Under Congestion Plan
Except that many (most?) of the people driving around New York city do not live in the city.

We don't even let people from outside the city send their kids to school there.

rbcgerard··on Airbus Handed A380 Lifeline With $16B Emirates Order
Singapore Airlines is a premium carrier that that is known for conisitently maintaing a young fleet, the take away is not that Singapore was getting rid of 10yo planes but that they did not buy more as replacements.

http://www.airfleets.net/ageflotte/Singapore%20Airlines.htm

rbcgerard··on Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
Newark?
rbcgerard··on The case against GDP: time to change the way we measure the wealth of nations
except you can't account for debt without accounting for assets.

Japan, Greece, and Italy have the highest portion of debt to GDP (235%, 182%, 133%) except that Japan and Italy are very rich countries, Greece less so...

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