Mind Over Money » Politics

TAKE 2: Bring it on — But the gun culture in America has got to change

Nancy Anderson — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:56:51 +0000

Nancy Anderson, MBJ contributing columnist

I read Nick Kristof’s column in the New York Times on Sunday. It was entitled, “Do we have the courage to stop this?” Kristof writes about common sense gun regulations in Canada and Australia that we might consider implementing. The first time the column below ran, I received some of the nastiest and scariest e-mails I have EVER received from readers. So, I screwed up my courage and asked that it be run again. …

Here it is …

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I don’t like guns.

My father had an old shotgun he kept in the closet, unloaded of course. He was a country boy who never took to hunting, so I had no experience with firearms and the sport surrounding their use. Two husbands, no hunters. When I married Ken, he had a small handgun. He keeps it somewhere other than our house. I don’t know where, and I don’t really want to know. Guns just make me nervous.

I know the usual defense of guns, “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” Yeah. Yeah. But it’s harder to kill someone with a baseball bat than with a gun. A baseball bat doesn’t go off accidentally, and it’s hard to get in multiple rounds on a baseball bat in a few short seconds.

>> Reader comments from the first time this column ran …

>> Video about gun control …

Now, I’m no pacifist. If someone tried to break into my house and do harm to my family, I’d have no problem defending my turf. And I’m not interested in stepping on the happy hunting grounds of all my hunter friends. But I have serious concerns about the gun culture in this country.

When students at MSU and JSU die from gunshot wounds and when of one of my students recounts his experience of being caught in a gun battle, it’s time to do something. In my day, when young, hot-headed men got into a fight, the worst that happened was that someone got a bloody nose. Now, someone loses his life.

>> MBJ poll question … Should guns laws be changed?

Before you fire off an e-mail to me about the second amendment, know that I’ve read the Constitution. The Founding Fathers had ball and musket firearms, not semi-automatic weapons with laser sightings. Do you know how long it took to load one of those old weapons?

Go ahead. Send in your letters, your e-mails. Use everything in your arsenal to defend your “right to bear arms.” Call me a commie or a leftist or just a bleeding heart liberal. How dare I question the culture of this gun toting state? Fire away.

I’ll take a bullet for this one because I’m tired of burying young people before their time.

>> Nancy Lottridge Anderson, Ph.D., CFA, is President of New Perspectives, Inc., in Ridgeland, 601-991-3158. She is also an Assistant Professor of Finance at Mississippi College. Her e-mail address is nanderson@newper.com, and her website is www.newper.com.

Keeping an eye on our public servants — The integrity of our financial markets depends on disclosure and fairness

Nancy Anderson — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:10:42 +0000

As a Chartered Financial Analyst, I am bound by the CFA Code of Ethics. As a registered financial advisor, I operate under federal law that recognizes me as a fiduciary. Both sets of rules require me to behave better than my local congressman.
The integrity of our financial markets depends on disclosure and fairness. All investors must be assured of a level playing field, or else the whole thing falls apart.
While insider trading is clearly defined in the law, many people have no clue what it is. Trading on ANY information that has not been made public is insider trading. It doesn’t matter if you got the information from the CEO or from the janitor. If you make hay off an inside tip, you could find yourself in jail.
In the South, such tips are often seen, simply, as friendly advice. There are stories of Mississippi executives calling buddies and letting them in on big announcements. No one understands that they could be breaking the law. Just a couple folks gossiping over the fence. Who cares if you make a few extra bucks off the information?
Congress is exempt from the same laws that I have to operate under. They are not required to put their constituents first. And by their own sets of records, they are profiting grandly from trading on inside information.
There is a move to stop this activity. It’s called the STOCK law. Surprise, surprise. It can’t seem to get enough votes to pass. Even if it passed, would this stop these guys from making a few extra dollars on the side? Probably not. Insider trading is difficult to prove. What did they know? When did they know it? And did they make money off the knowledge? It’s a tough case.
Instead, I propose requiring the people in the know to invest in pooled funds or blind trusts. And they must go long and stay long regardless of a meeting with the Fed declaring the end of the world. Finally, they should be required to have professional financial advisors calling the shots, people who have a lot at stake if they break the law.
For now, I’m planning to send a copy of the CFA Code of Ethics to each of our congressmen. At least, now they know we’re watching!

Nancy Lottridge Anderson, Ph.D., CFA, is president of New Perspectives Inc. in Ridgeland — (601) 991-3158. She is also an assistant professor of finance at Mississippi College. Her e-mail address is nanderson@newper.com, and her website is www.newper.com.

Southaven Mayor Greg Davis should be in jail after taking town’s money for spa and golf trips, clothes and personal entertainment

Nancy Anderson — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 22:37:21 +0000

Why isn’t Greg Davis in jail?

>> POLL QUESTION: Should Southaven Mayor Greg Davis be arrested for using city money for personal trips, clothes and entertainment?

This current mayor of Southaven, former state representative serving on the appropriations committee, and former Republican nominee for Congress has blurred the line between public and private with his questionable expense reports. For seven months, the State Auditor’s Office conducted an investigation. What they found was shocking.

Southaven Mayor Greg Davis

Mr. Davis used city money for personal expenses and is now being asked to pay back $170,782. He took a trip to Scottsdale, Arizona in 2010 for stress and anger management and charged the city of Southaven a whopping $27,105. That’s quite a few rounds of golf and a lot of spa treatments. Southaven also picked up the tab for his trip to Key West, Florida. And it wasn’t just trips. Davis billed the city for clothes, meals, and other personal entertainment. He lived well on the taxpayers’ dime.
With the investigation complete and the damage tallied, Auditor Stacey Pickering sent a bill to Davis. His response? Oops, but I don’t have the money to pay. Still there are no criminal charges! Shouldn’t Pickering have sent the file over to Jim Hood’s office for further action? Don’t the good people of Southaven deserve to see this thief brought to justice?
I say we take it out of his hide. Tie him to a post on the exit ramp and let everybody take a whack at him. Or maybe every citizen of Southaven could just show up at his house and take what they want. High unemployment, businesses closing, local budgets crunched — and this Bozo goes to Arizona. Well, yeah, I was stressed in 2010, too. That didn’t give me license to steal hard-earned money from my neighbors for a vacation.
Davis didn’t just make a mistake. He didn’t just misunderstand the boundaries. This was criminal. Time to call the sheriff.