So, do I put my entire 401K in cash prior to Aug 2?

I guess if the big four supply 95% of the income and only 83.3% are getting back to them then "our" dues money is going to the regionals. I have no idea what the real #s are, but they are most likely skewed to make the desired point on either side of the argument.

I was considering the same thing myself, however I'm holding off cause with my luck the second I decide to take myself out of the markets a compromise will come out of Washington and reverse the market's downtrend over the past few days.

I don't know, taking financial advice from me would be the equivalent of taking painting lessons from Helen Keller. So buyer beware.

My opinion only DYODD.

There is clearly a lot of risk right now. If you put it in cash, you limit yourself by the almost immediate destruction of value caused by either a raising of the debt limit (95% likelihood) or not raising it (5%).

You can hedge the value destruction by using etf's, FAS and FAZ come to mind, by placing limit orders. And maybe by undercutting AGQ ($170 limit order). These would be short term plays that look to ride the 3 day bump caused by how the congress goes.

Again these are just my opinions and not recomendations.

I would if I knew how to do it. Unfortunately, I don't so I'll probably lose everything.

Remember we are talking about operating income...income. What is the administration cost percentage that gets spent before operating income. What is earmarked before money is used for operations.

We dont get back what we put in. There is a fixed cost associated with the headshed. LM's car comes to mind and the oil painting etc.

Wow a personal attack on an anonymous web board by a not so anonymous poster. There goes 20 years of therapy.......:rolleyes:

P.S. I guess the Constitution and good ol U S of A is "scary" since it's republic also based on a "representational" democracy........

Attention: Union Watchdogs
 

Those numbers are available. Is anyone a spreadsheet nerd?

The latest flight pay loss reimbursement numbers are also available.

Cohen, Weiss and Simon took $2.8 million just for the "representation and administration" portion of their billing to ALPA National. There was much more.

Prater took home $503,234 last year.

The amounts that ALPA National distributes to each MEC is public. We just need someone with the time and computer skills to break it out for us. Why the heck did we give $36,628 to the Czech Airline Pilot Union?

Here's where all those numbers can be found:

Organization Query Page (Disclosure)

In the "union name" field, use the drop down menu and select ALPA.
At the bottom of the page under "report type" select LM-2 to start with. That's the most data. You can also learn much more if you look under the LM-3 and LM-4 reports.
ALPA National numbers are "000-179". The DAL MEC is "069-077".
You can click on the "2010 Report" or you can highlight the line and select a specific type of report. Both yield different sets of data.
The "Payer/Payee Itemization" is interesting. Those boys sure do spend a lot of money on things you wouldn't expect.

One impression: Kingsley Roberts runs a tight ship compared to the other MEC Treasurers. The problem with that is the "free spending" MECs end up getting more money from National to make up the difference. I don't know who is smarter?



P.S. -- There is also a large amount of personal data published. Hardship loans, grants, etc. Please be discrete.

Its also interesting to run the same search on the Southwest Airlines Pilot Association.

Its a stark contrast.

At American, the Pilot Board is elected by the pilots. The President is elected by the pilots. The last few years, the President was following one path and the Pilot Board wanted to go down another path. How do you resolve that conflict?

At Delta, the MEC is elected by the pilots. The MEC elects the Chairman. If there is some conflict of ideas, we always know who is in charge. The Chairman works for the MEC, so the MEC is the boss. The MEC works for the pilots so the pilots are the boss.

That is why there is no direct election of the Chairman. If the pilots elected the Chairman, what would stop him from going his own way and ignoring the wishes of the MEC?

Chain of command.