Sunday, April 21, 2013

21 April 2013


Birthdays
James McAvoy b. 1979
Kate Vernon b. 1961

Mr. McAvoy was in the first Narnia film and played a young Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class. Ms. Vernon was on Lost and Battlestar Galactica.

Many happy returns to them both.




Predictor: Los Angeles Times Magazine, published 3 April 1988

Predictions (reality): Here is what they thought would happen concerning the international financial situation.

Automatic language translation with our Japanese bosses. (See yesterday's post about the AT&T ads. This hasn't happened yet, but it could.)

Students learn Japanese in school. (They can at some schools. Few do. Fear of Japanese domination of our economy was at its peak about 25 years ago. Now we fear China, a country that wasn't even on the financial radar when this article was written.)

Los Angeles – along with New York and Tokyo – is one of the three major financial cities in the world. (According to the Telegraph, this isn't even close to right. They list San Francisco and Chicago in the worldwide top ten, but do not mention L.A.)

It costs $25 extra to talk to a personal teller. (How can this possibly make financial sense? Who would pay such a ridiculous premium?)

Money has bar codes that show to whom they have been issued. (Somewhere, Alex Jones is having a conniption fit just because he senses someone is even typing these words. The "mark of the Beast" freaks would explode.)

India surpasses the United States in cigarette production. (True, but the U.S. is fourth behind China, India and Brazil.)

Large companies have moved smaller scale offices to the suburbs to be closer to their employees. (Making life easier for employees? That's commie talk, my friend. People should think they are lucky to have jobs. If large groups of people start thinking companies are lucky people are willing to sell their time so cheaply, well... then the revolution comes.)

(Audible shudder.)

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

This Monday we get a prediction from Popular Mechanics, so no matter how far off base it is, the illustration will be cool.


Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

2 comments:

  1. "It costs $25 extra to talk to a personal teller. (How can this possibly make financial sense? Who would pay such a ridiculous premium?)"

    Actually, I believe NCNBofA started charging $3 for teller transactions a while ago. And Private Banking people pay that type of premium all the time. Not to mention that several brokerage firms charge just about that for live-brokered transactions.

    At worst, that's half true, at least amongst the plutocracy.

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Ken thanks for stopping by. I'm sure you are right and I expect it's more than just one bank pulling this nonsense. If they could figure out a way to charge you per breath you take, they would do it.

      But I would say $3 vs. $25 doesn't count as half true, more like one tenth true. The amount of money makes a significant difference. $25 for a few minutes face time is what you expect at sports cards conventions or expensive strip clubs.

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Traveler! Have you news... FROM THE FUTURE?