Wells Fargo adds a class action waiver

Effective February 2012, Wells Fargo is adding the following language to its agreement with customers:

Binding arbitration
If you have a dispute with the Bank, and you are not able to resolve the dispute informally, you and the Bank agree that upon demand by either you or the Bank, the dispute will be resolved through the arbitration process as set forth in this part. A “dispute” is any unresolved disagreement between you and the Bank. It includes any disagreement relating in any way to services, accounts or matters; to your use of any of the Bank’s banking locations or facilities; or to any means you may use to access your account(s). It includes claims based on broken promises or contracts, torts, or other wrongful actions. It also includes statutory, common
law, and equitable claims. “Disputes” include disagreements about the meaning, application or enforceability of this arbitration agreement. This arbitration agreement shall survive any termination of your account(s). YOU AGREE THAT YOU AND THE BANK ARE WAIVING THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL OR TRIAL BEFORE A JUDGE IN A PUBLIC COURT. As the sole exception to this arbitration agreement, you and the Bank retain the right to pursue in small claims court any dispute that is within that court’s jurisdiction. If either you or the Bank fail to submit to binding arbitration following lawful demand, the party so failing bears all costs and expenses incurred by the other in compelling arbitration. Arbitration procedure; severability You or the Bank may submit a dispute to binding arbitration at any time, regardless of whether a lawsuit or other proceeding has been previously commenced. NEITHER YOU NOR THE BANK SHALL BE ENTITLED TO JOIN OR CONSOLIDATE DISPUTES BY OR AGAINST OTHERS IN ANY ARBITRATION, OR TO INCLUDE IN ANY ARBITRATION ANY DISPUTE AS A REPRESENTATIVE OR MEMBER OF A CLASS, OR TO ACT IN ANY ARBITRATION IN THE INTEREST OF THE GENERAL PUBLIC OR IN A PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL CAPACITY...

This comes in the wake of the AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion Supreme Court decision back in April.

Just another incentive to move to a credit union, I suppose.

Oddly, I was unable to find any news coverage of this change.

Eloquence from the White House

I was impressed by Melody Barnes' interview with Jon Stewart. Typically, liberal bureaucrat-type people don't talk the way I would, and I find myself wishing I could step in and make the arguments for them. Melody spoke far better than I could have. Shame she'll be leaving.

Practicing with databases and SQL

I came across SQLzoo.net a few months ago and went through basically all of it. Really good review of SQL, especially if you're like me and have read a lot but haven't actually written the queries nearly as much. I also found a decent review of transactions over at Wired's Webmonkey website.

"Free-styling" with rhymes

I did my first sort of free-style rap the other day on vacation to the East Coast. It went pretty much as follows:

Money is all I've ever thought
But that doesn't mean it's all I've got
I'll have to keep this terse
Because I have trouble coming up with a verse
I'm not very good at saying what I feel
But that doesn't mean I can't seal a deal
Cause I try to be methodical
About focusing on the logical

This got me thinking about rhyming - and I think I might actually start trying to do some poetry.

Data Liberation Front

This is why I am a Google person rather than an Apple person.

The Delaware Court of Chancery

Many people are aware that Delaware is a very popular place to to incorporate, with Delaware's Division bragging that 63% of the Fortune 500 are incorporated in Delaware.

Less commonly known, perhaps, is that Delaware retains a court of "equity". I read through Quillen and Hanrahan's (1992) A Short History of the Delaware Court of Chancery. They describe it as such:

The role of procedural and doctrinal inflexibility in the decline of England's Chancery Court contrasts with the determination of Delaware's Chancellors over two centuries to eschew broad rules in favor of specific holdings and carefully crafted remedies that address the particular circumstances of the case at hand. The secret of Delaware equity rests in two old concepts, both English in origin. First, equity is a moral sense of fairness based on conscience.⁽⁸⁾ Second, equity is the recognition that the universal rule cannot always be justly applied to the special case.⁽⁹⁾ Equity is the flexible application of broad moral principles (maxims) to fact specific situations for the sake of justice. Delaware has preserved the essence.⁽¹⁰⁾

Moral maxims and fairness based on concepts? Such an idea must sound quaint to most lawyers and particularly to legal positivists. And it seems somewhat ironic that corporations would choose to be located so near to such an ambiguous concept.

After reading the article, I can't say that it really seems that Court of Chancery has been revolutionary in applying moral principles. Certainly I haven't heard of its involvement in remedies for the frauds of the mortgage crisis. There was some mention that it had done some work to protect minority shareholders, although I'm a bit skeptical. It is noteworthy that it was a decision from it that was affirmed in Brown v. Board of Education (while other lower court decisions were involved, apparently the Chancery's was the one affirmed).

Stage hypnotist Doug MacCraw

I'm skeptical but open-minded about most things, but when it came to hypnotism I was mostly skeptical. I figured it could have minor effects, but that anyone hypnotized could quickly break out of it. I got back from a vacation a couple weeks ago, and there was a "stage hypnotism" show by Doug MacCraw. You can see a bit of what it was like in this Youtube video. I also found an interview with Doug over at The Daily Orange. He says he "bores people into hypnosis". However he does it, I'd like to learn. He mentioned at the end that the medical applications of hypnosis are underrated, which, if that show is any indication, seems likely.

TaxAct: best alternative to Turbo Tax?

I did my taxes the other night. At first, I used the Free Fillable Forms like I'd used last year - it is supposed to be the most basic "do-it-yourself" online method, similar to just filing electronically with the IRS. But it's not the same. It's run by a third-party (a tax accountant trade group), and it's crippled for that reason (see this interesting Fatwallet discussion). I quit when I found out that I wouldn't be able to import my capital gains but I would have to do them manually. Since my broker gives me free access to Gainskeeper, which automatically creates the capital gains information, I wasn't going to do it manually (it's only about a dozen trades).

The next thing I tried was "Complete Tax from E-Smart" (internet-taxprep.com), which was a mistake - minor issues in how it accepted my input led me to skip past that. I glanced at Turbo Tax, but I try to avoid the market leader in many cases to stimulate competition - and it is obvious that Turbo Tax was using its position to impose higher costs, since it was charging me $50 for my return. I then tried H&R Block, although the company's legion of tax employees makes me wary that they would produce a crippled product - and it also required manual entry for capital gains.

I settled on TaxAct. To avoid manual entry of capital gains, I had to pay $10, and they also charged me $5 to save a backup copy, but that's a far cry from $50. I was satisfied with its interface, although I actually had to load up IE to import my .csv file with the capital gains.

Couple thoughts

The biggest driver of world government will be intellectual property rights, since I'm watching a show illegally (through the excellent website sidereels.com).

The other thought: my window of opportunity for creating an excellent website like sidereel is quickly nearing its end, and while I am full of ideas, my web development skills remain weak. So it's time to stop watching this mindless show and get to this PHP book I have sitting on my desk.