The Ig Nobel Prize, that is.  The spoof awards, organized by the science humor journal, the Annals of Improbable Research, honor scientific achievements that "make people laugh - then think". They were presented at Harvard University's otherwise distinguished Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Thursday. 

It is difficult to watch the news footage of the horrific suffering, loss, and inhumanity occurring in New Orleans as a result of the hurricane.  The catastrophe is on such a scale that no individual or group can take the blame - although I am now hearing several self-serving politicians try to point fingers at their political enemies to assign the blame and to take advantage of the horrible situation for their own purposes.

I received a letter today from the Pam Morgan, President/CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Northern Nevada, an organization that my company has belonged to since 1989 - and has maintained an excellent track record, I might add.  This is the second letter I have received from them in the last couple of years on the same topic, and one that I believe demonstrates clearly that the BBB does not necessarily provide what it claims to provide its members: the right to promote the fact that they belong to the BBB.  The issue is regarding the limitations the BBB places on PAYING MEMBERS regarding links to the BBB website (which you would wrongly assume they would actually encourage) or use of BBB logos.

Legislative initiatives don't deal with the real issues

    By Steven Miller, policy director, Nevada Policy Research Institute

Here in Nevada the political class endlessly professes its dedication to getting our public schools out of their seemingly interminable rut.

CNN/Money Magazine are reporting that Bank of America and Wachovia Corp are notifying over 670,000 customers that their account information was stolen by bank employees to a man posing as a collection agency.  Bank officials say the number of accounts affected may top one million.
Link: Data at Bank of America, Wachovia, others compromised - May. 23, 2005.

The systemic problem that Nevada taxpayers face is political

By Steven Miller, Nevada Policy Research Institute

When Charles Ponzi was defrauding investors in 1916 Boston, little did he know that within 20 years his particular dodge would be embraced as the official policy of the U.S. government.

Ponzi convinced people to let him invest their money, but he never made any real investments. He just took funds from recent "investors" and gave it to the early birds, paying the latter a handsome profit on what they had paid in. He then ballyhooed the early birds' "success" to get still more "investors," using their money to pay the previous crop and so on.

Of course, to keep paying "profits" to his earlier marks, Ponzi had to continue finding more and more pigeons. Eventually, unable to find enough of them, his system collapsed and Ponzi went to jail. Because he had never made any real investments, Charles Ponzi never had any real money with which to pay back earlier entrants into his system. Consequently, when he couldn't recruit enough new suckers, the earlier ones discovered the calamitous nature of the scam to which they'd entrusted their earnings.

Today whenever an investment "opportunity" is found operating on these same dire principles, it becomes known, naturally enough, as a Ponzi scheme. The reason Social Security is in trouble is because it is such a scheme.

Just like Charles Ponzi, it makes no real investments. It simply takes money from recent people forced to pay into the system and gives it to earlier people, now retiring. Congress then blows whatever is left, and federal IOUs for it all get deposited in a Parkersburg, W.Va. filing cabinet-the real home of the mythical Social Security "Trust Fund."

Also like Ponzi, Social Security eventually will be unable to recruit new "contributors" fast enough to pay out the benefits the government has promised. Since fewer workers enter the system annually, versus those who retire, Social Security-if not reformed-will also mimic Ponzi's con by collapsing.

Indeed, that day grows ever nearer. The federal Board of Trustees of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds noted last year that the Social Security program's projected tax income "will begin to fall short of outlays in 2018." In other words, in just over 12 years the program will be technically insolvent.

If it offends your sensibilities to hear Social Security described as a mere Ponzi scheme, famed economist Paul Samuelson, an enthusiast for the New Deal, was positively gleeful over the flimflam nature of the program. "The beauty of social insurance," he wrote in Newsweek in 1967, "is that it is actuarially unsound. Everyone who reaches retirement age is given benefit privileges that far exceed anything he has paid in.. How is this possible? . Always there are more youths than old folks in a growing population.. A growing nation is the greatest Ponzi game ever contrived."

Despite his candor about Social Security's unsound nature, Samuelson was completely wrong on its demographic future. Since families are having fewer children and people are living much longer, for 60 years the number of retirees has been growing faster than the number of workers. In 1945, a retiree was supported by payroll taxes from over 40 workers; in 1960, a retiree was backed by only 5.1 workers; today it is just 3.4, and by 2035, it will be only two. This is the crisis looming over the Social Security system.

It is also the reason that Social Security-if the program is to survive-must replace its cheesy Ponzi-scheme architecture with a realistic method of retirement financing. In short, Social Security must join the modern world and-like IRAs and 401Ks-access the time value of money, sometimes called the "magic" of compound interest.

Notwithstanding shameless demagoguery from die-in-the-last-ditch Democrats, personal retirement accounts are essential for bringing Social Security into solvency. The Ryan-Sununu bill, for example, has been scored by the Chief Actuary of Social Security as a way to bring the system into permanent balance, while offering significant personal accounts and requiring no benefit cuts or tax increases.

Its merit is that real benefits, available from the personal accounts, would substitute for the Ponzi-scheme pay-outs of the existing Social Security system. As the system's benefit obligations are increasingly transferred over to the personal accounts, Social Security would be brought into solvency.

Recently, panicky partisans have been proclaiming Social Security "is the most successful government program in history."

Not true. Just the longest running-and luckiest-uninterrupted Ponzi scheme.

The Las Vegas Business Press published the first of two articles about the Nevada incorporation and resident agent industry this week.  I am quoted extensively - although not entirely accurately - in the article as the result of my role as the president of the Nevada Resident Agent Association.

Generally, the article is positive - although it significantly overstates the problems within the industry. 

A few years ago, there was a bill before the Nevada legislature that proposed to regulate the resident agents in the State.  That bill was brought by the Nevada Bar Association as one of those "Attorney Full Employment Act" measures that the legal profession is deservedly known for.   During those hearings a couple of legislators asked a series of questions to help them understand the scope of the need for this new regulatory body.

Q:  (Addressed to the Secretary of State's office)  "How many complaints do you receive every year about resident agent activities?

A: "Very few.  Most of the complaints we receive come from resident agents complaining about other resident agents." 

Q:  (Addressed to the Bar Association):  "How many complaints does the Bar receive every year about attorneys?"

A:  "Thousands."

End of hearing.  Regulatory bill dead.

A lot has been written about breach of secured data by hackers into the ChoicePoint computer system in 2004.  Using stolen identities, the hackers created documents that wouuld make them look like legitimate ChoicePoint customers.  Once in the system, they accessed approximately 145,000 records of individuals, including Social Security Numbers, driver's license numbers and credit reports.  Now, the lawsuits are starting against ChoicePoint by damaged parties.  While this certainly highlights the problems created in our society as the result of identity theft, it also underscores the need for individuals to value and protect their personal security.  But, the problem is much larger than just ChoicePoint.

A couple of weeks ago, several of my employees received letters from our prior health insurance providor, The Principal Group, informing them that one of their affiliated companies had experienced the theft of one of their computers that contained thousands of confidential client files.  In the letters, my employees were warned to contact credit reporting agencies and notify them of the potential problem to flag their personal credit files.

Now, I read where Bank of America lost data relating to 1.2 million SmartPay cards that contained backup information enroute to a backup center.  Evidently, not all the backup tapes arrived safely.  A few mysteriously disappeared.

How prevalent is this problem?  The FTC estimates that it impacted 1 in 30 people in a one-year study period starting in 2002, and has gotten worse.  Shockingly, most companies don't notify individuals when a security breach occurs, and only California even requires such a notification.