Hawaii's Banks Stand Up to Financial Poo Storm

The November 24th Associated press headline about Hawaii’s banks http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081124/BUSINESS/811240329/1071 should make everyone feel very lucky they live Hawaii. In fact, when I googled this headline it showed it being published in media all over the world. This is a very big feather in our States' papale (hat)! The only other state I have checked out as having a stellar banking system is Vermont! (Maybe were not such a bunch of sub third world hillbillies after all!)
Not only that, for the most part our island residents have strong work ethics and even stronger saving habits. I had heard from a reliable source many years ago, that Hilo had the highest per capita savings rate in the state. Now that high savings rate may have a lot to do with the lack of places to spend the money but nevertheless it is something to be very proud.
If readers are so inclined and have an internet connection, a site called Bankrate.com rates every banking and credit union in the United States. First Hawaiian Bank is rated as a 5 star bank with Bank of Hawaii earning a solid 4 stars. I will not sling any mud towards the others banks but will urge anyone NOT in these two banks to check out their institution to see how it rates. If anyone is tempted by the great yields being advertised by certain local institutions on checking and savings then I definitely urge you to take a little side trip to the internet and check it out. With the FDIC under a lot of stress these days I would not want my money in any bank with less than 4 stars. This year alone, over 22 banks have gone under FDIC receivership and many more are waiting in the wings for 2009.
With our two stellar banks there is NO reason to be stuffing the Bank of Sealy. At least with these two we can earn their pathetic 2% interest rate.
And that’s how you tell the difference between a sick bank and a healthy bank. The interest rate yield. If the ad says 4% on checking accounts, then run my friend, run fast to your computer and check the health of your bank. Now is not the time to be chasing high yields. High yields, especially attached to checking accounts are a huge red flag. That’s like your keiki with a 105 degree fever. Not good.
There are hundreds of “Zombie” banks in the US stumbling and lurching like legions of undead. Citibank is a prime example. Deemed to Big to Fail they got bailed out with no embarrassing questions to the CEO, (unlike the Automaker bosses and their private jet itineraries). It is a bit like a brain dead accident victim being kept alive by a heart and lung machine. I suspect that the major shareholder, the Saudi Prince, Al Waleed must have thrown a tantrum and made some ugly threats about the oil spigots if his pet bank didn’t get hooked up to the cash transfusion. Paulson and Bernanke pulled out the checkbook and hooked up the massive IV bag and did it over the weekend without the glaring scrutiny of Congress and CNBC cameras. Clever and sneaky, those ones.
If I were a UAW worker I might just be dusting off a rusty pitchfork and loading up the F150 for quick drive to Washington so I could run my mouth off about that little bailout thingy.

Santa Pause and the End of Sport Shopping

Can it really be that we have entered the age of the Shopacolypse? What sport will replace America's favorite past time now? The retail numbers came in today on CNBC and they exceeded everyone's forecasts to the downside. And today, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald blasted us with news that Domino's Pizza, here for twenty years, has done the belly flop. I am sure many more will follow around here, which is a bad thing since Hilo has such a dearth of retail and dining choices as it is. My prediction for the next door closing will be the last mainland entry into the Hilo dining scene; IHOP. That place never had a chance against Ken's Pancake House.. With their high prices, bad service, and crappy food it was a sure road to pau hana. I'm certain they are hanging on by their bacon drippings. Everytime, I walk past that place, which is not very often, I see a deserted dining room and hands in empty apron pockets. The vibe from that place tells me that the mall will be looking at yet another vacant spot. I have lived on the Hilo side for nearly 14 years and have never seen that mall fully rented. Mainland corporate headquarters must get a big fat tax deduction for that loser.
So, here we be not even 6 days post Halloween, shelves are freshly stocked with Christmas paraphanalia, sparkly, streaming things adorn the ceilings, store owners wring their paws anticipating the annual runup of seasonal profits to closeout the year and deplete the inventory pile. But will we be blowing our dollar wads at Wally World, Macy's and Ross this season? From where I sit, the wallets have not only slammed shut, they have been superglued and tossed in the Bank of Sealy for safe keeping along with the rest of the meager life savings. It may be covered in fuzzy mold by the time it gets pulled out again as me thinks we are in for long ride down the Financial Doom tunnel. There is a light at the end of it but it looks like someone is holding one of those tiny little keychain flashlights from ten miles away.

I saw this trainwreck coming over a year ago, when I caught wind of the subprime mortgage fiasco. I have already done all the hand wringing, fretting, bitching, rice and macaroni hedging and wallet slamming. I am sure I drive everyone around me to the brink of Prozac prescriptions and bong hits with my hyper tightwadding and endless cost cutting measures. But like I said in another post, it is all about the Survival of the Thriftiest these days.

For the majority of folks, whether its the debt money or cash money, times are bleak and getting dimmer. Credit limits are getting battened down by Visa and Mastercard Corp and bad news daily from the Doom-O-Sphere keeps plenty folks on the edge of their diapers worried about who will get the dreaded pink slip next. The weekly jobless numbers continue to exceed expectations to the downside, sending the Dow ever deeper into the darkest reaches of Bear country. I have a client, super secure job with the state, she works in family court. After I delivered her custom tailored suits, yesterday, she exclaimed that I may not see her for a long time due to this recession. When folks with jobs that secure are worried, you know the holiday season is going to be pretty darn bleak.

Will all this bad news cancel the kind of Christmas many have come to expect for the last 50 plus years? How will we deal with the expectations of piles of gift wrapped presents under those artificial twinkling trees come Christmas morning? Will Santa be put on on indefinite Pause and be looking at an early retirement with his depleted 401K? Will folks be hitting garage sales and Sally's Shop (Salvation Army) hunting for used Gameboys, ratty old Malibu Barbies and Wii's ? Maybe this will be everyone's first big lesson in Downsizing 101? Can there be any tasty morsels rattling around here in this bottomless doom pit that can keep our eyes focused on that tiny little flashlight?

So take a taste of this cookie-I will always remember a gift I once received from a fellow tightwadder; Heather Brady was her name. She was an old school New Englander, Boston raised, a classic yankee tightwad. She could clutch a pile of dollars tighter than any girl I ever knew. She is a wildly brilliant artist, accepted at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, but never attended due to the cost. (Instead, she became an organic veggie roadie chef for the band "The Cure".) One Christmas, back in my wasted twentysomething daze I shared a house with Heather and other good chick friends. That year she had found a small jewelry box, among other trash treasures, at Goodwill for maybe a dime. She did a makeover on that little box with her outrageous style and creative flair, wrapped it up in recycled paper and put my name on it under our puny little Christmas tree. I have always cherished that present for everything that it represented. (Mind you, it wouldn't win any awards, but it was the soul of that present that held me.) Heather was never my best friend or anything but she made a huge impression on me with her style, class and creativity while being an uber frugalist. This, my friends, is that speck of light at the end of the tunnel: Creativity and innovation. Keep your eyes on it. It will make a comeback and it may just lead us out of the dark endless tunnel of Great Depression 2.0

Creativity and innovation are the qualities that once made the United States such a powerful economic force. In the last ten years or so, we have allowed the Pigmen of Wall Street, those overeducated, twentysomething, brash, Redbulled and Blackberried, Jamie Dimon wannabes, to channel all that creativity into wierd, inscrutable financial instrument products that somehow morphed into some kind of mega-maniac monster of infinite destruction stomping out wealth around the world. This monster and its co-creator, the Federal Reserve, will not stop until every material thing is in their possession and you and I are on a life sentence of Debt Bondage. Thomas Jefferson warned about it long ago and I have quoted that in a previous post. Go read it again.

It is damn near impossible to have any imagination and creativity when all of your life forces are sucked out of you by the exhaustion of debt slavery. But for us to fight back we must stir up these creative juices within us. For many of us, we will have no choice but to resort to creativity and imagination just to put food on the table if nothing else. I can tell you that picking vegetable out of my garden and serving it to my hungry boymen is one of the most soul satisfying endeavor I have ever done. It reaches into the depths and connects me to this earth. It is how God intended us to live. There is NO excuse for anyone not to grow at least one food thing. Green beans love Hawaii, can grow year round, and require little attention. Start with one thing, if time is a factor and soon you will be hooked! It is the ultimate act of creating.

I do know one thing, here at my computer in this mortgage free chicken hale on this remote rock in the Pacific, is that Creativity and Innovation will save our souls. The ability to create things from nothing with our own hands will spark our minds . With this can turn our mountains of trash into treasures. We can plant tiny little seeds and have food to eat. We can take a piece of crummy fabric and sculpt it into a wearable work of art. We can breathe new life into a discarded appliance. We can resurrect a rusting bicycle. A sheet can be torn up and turned into a rug with an old toothbrush. These acts cost nothing but ingenuity and a trip to the Recycling Center or the county dump. (Their is actually a movement of dumpster divers called Freegan !) This can put us on the road to feeling whole and worthwhile again. From this we can give birth to businesses and self employment.

Has shopping at Macy's or Walmart and coming home with that one thing you just had to have, did it ever make you feel worthwhile for more than 5 minutes? Did the feeling last long enough to make it onto the credit card statement? Western civilization is awaking from a long drunken credit card binge, and the hangover is a BITCH. But you already know that as you pop another Tylenol for the migraines. These days are over for the mass majority, as we delever out of this mess. My hope is that "Living within the Means" will be the new way cool for all.

If you do have any kalas to spend this year, and cannot muster the creative forces within, then for the sake of your local economy, spend it at places like Village Toy Shop on Waianuenue Avenue, Hilo Art and Glass, The Cutlery, Basically Books, The Book Gallery, Divas Boutique, Hana Hou, Sig Zane, Bobby Lyn's, MidPacific Wheels, and Sportsline. Go to these locally owned places first. At least you can feel you are doing a good thing for your economy. There are so many outstanding little shops in Hilo that desperately need your kalas. Walmart is doing very well, they DO NOT NEED YOUR dollars, they are a multinational conglomerate, in the Dow 30, Blue chip to the max. Do not be tempted by their drastic cost reductions on name brand items. They suck you into their flourescent souless BigBox and then confuse you with the lighting tricks and colorful displays. If you don't have a list in big black letters in your hand with what you need, you will not be able to find your butt with both hands. You may end up walking out of the place with a Fry Daddy or some crappy package of 7 for the price of six floral cotton boxershorts. People with University degrees and lots of letters after their names design these store layouts just to trick you into buying stuff you don't need. They're stock is up, their numbers are fine. Stay away from Walmart. Don't be fooled by those low prices. However, if you must enter this shrine of the yellow happy face then only buy the stuffs that they use to get you in the door. You know, those $20 dollar laptops the day after Thanksgiving loss leaders. That is how you can be subversive and revolutionary. If thats all we buy from them, then only meager penny profits for da Wally Beast. Besides, lots of poor peasants slave away under inhumane conditions for 23 cents a day so you can wear ten dollar blue jeans. Those peasants have the jobs and we DON'T. Thank you Walmart for everything you have done for America. We bow down at your sacred low price alter.

If you are truly deficient in funds, and living low on the saimin packages, then take a hint from me, rummage through all the old junk in your closets, drawers, carports, storage sheds and car trunks. See if anything sparks your imagination. Do a makeover on it. Clean it up, paint it, cover it, glue toothpicks on it, whatevahs. Give your own imagination and creativity as a gift, and spark your own one person Consumer Revolution. The Shopacolypse is a new beginning for us, and we will renew our pride and spirits with new pursuits. Invest in yourself, this is the future that leads us towards that speck of light.