The issue of credit card abuse in government surfaces on a regular basis. Little seems to change. A new GAO report highlights a problem with purchase cards. The reaction of many in the government community is likely to be “Thanks for the report. We don’t really care.”
Why would the head of a major federal agency be writing a letter to Dear Abby? Can this be good for a political appointee’s career?
The F fund in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is sometimes the Rodney Dangerfield of the TSP funds–It doesn’t get any respect. The G fund is the safe haven; the I fund is used by market timers to try and juice up their returns, the S fund is good for fast growth as we are coming out of a recession and the C fund is the old stock market standby that most people think of when they want to put some of their retirement funds into stocks. But what is the F fund good for?
Marriage, divorce, remarriage and federal retirement benefits are a volatile mix. The money available is finite, there is often considerable emotion involved, and someone is going to get more money while another person may get less. In this case, wife number one thought she should get the maximum survivor annuity from her former husband. And, in this case, wife number one is the winner.
The culture of government has changed in the past 20 years and these changes have impacted how Uncle Sam selects its higher graded employees. Federal employees in GS grades 12 – 15 used to be selected from within the existing workforce. But, just as the Edsel, the hula hoop. and the “company man” have faded from American life, so has the practice of always using internal promotions to fill higher graded positions.
A settlement agreement between HUD and federal employee unions on the application of the Fair Labor Standards Act to agency employees will result in a payment of $24 million.
There are changes on the horizon for federal travelers. The change in the mileage reimbursement rate is already in place but other changes that will be significant for some readers are in the proposal stage.
A recent notice in the Federal Register is the latest step by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to clamp down on frequent trading in TSP funds. The notice makes the argument that the restrictions are necessary to protect the interests of the majority of TSP investors whose financial investments are being put at risk by the actions of those trying to time the market and forcing all TSP participants to accept additional financial risk they did not anticipate. A press release from a group opposed to the changes states that the cost of trading for each TSP shareholder has declined despite the market timing activities of some TSP participants.
When telephones were invented, the federal bureaucracy was flustered: How can federal employees be trusted with this new device? The issue today is the Internet. The regulators in the Air Force trust people to fly and maintain sophisticated technology–but the cyber command is determined to keep personnel from having access to “dangerous information” delivered by the new technology.
The stock funds for the TSP are all down in February. This means that most of the stock funds are down for four straight months and down for six of the last nine months.
