Every buy-here, pay-here dealer asks for phone numbers from potential customers. That means a cell phone more and more often these days. Dealer Fran Cavenaugh warns that not all cell phones are the same. Speaking at the recent NABD Dealer Academy, Cavenaugh said pre-paid phones, such as Cricket or MetroPCS, make it harder to track down delinquent customers.

Cavenaugh also sees differences where people live. Everybody assumes people who own their homes are more stable than renters. But Cavenaugh said mobile home owners are just as likely to move out of the area. She said dealers need to know who owns the land, not the domicile. Cavenaugh also said she treats people with land contracts or contracts to deed the same as renters.

Yesterday at the NABD Dealer Academy, attorney Patty Covington explained that buy-here, pay-here dealers must mail out an annual privacy notice to all their active accounts. Dealer Ingram Walters expressed a feeling probably common to most, that this was another burden and another expense.

I suggested to Ingram afterward that he was looking at this all wrong. Yes, this is a requirement mandated by the government. But it is also an opportunity to verify the addresses they have on record. It may be an opportunity many would just as soon pass on, but one must make the best of a situation.

I'm late posting this blog because we had trouble connecting to our own website using the computers at our office. Yesterday, I went to pick up some dry cleaning and their computers were down. They said I was lucky my order was easy to find, otherwise it would have been a long wait.

Sometimes dealing with technology becomes frustrating. Of course, in the old days, you wouldn't even be reading this blog, so I guess I can't complain too much.

Oh, I was fired up this morning. I came across plenty of ignorance about the Tesla issue, including Duke's Mike Munger blovating again (he's very proud of his ignorarnt display). I was ready to rant and shake my fist. Then I realized it would have little effect on the outside world. We all understand the reality behind protecting franchise laws, just as we understand the way buy-here, pay-here really works. But other people only know the little they want to know. Sometimes, you just have to walk away.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had two articles that told you all you need to know about the state of the economy. One reported how IPOs are set to raise the most cash since before the crisis. The other was about the TV upfronts, explaining that networks invested in about 100 pilots this year, a much larger amount than the past few years.

The spigots are opening. The more money flowing around, the more people and companies spend and invest. The more people spend and invest, the more money is generated.

Notice this is all happening despite the increase in the payroll tax. I argue that nobody noticed when it went down and nobody noticed when it went up. That's why behavioral economics don't work: people don't pay attention. Thankfully.

My younger daughter is a saver and my older daughter is a spender. The other day, the 8-year-old came to me and complained the 16-year-old had "borrowed" money from her and now she had none. I asked her, "How did you expect your sister, who never has any money, to pay you back?" She couldn't give me an answer. And that's how she learned the first law of finance: Never lend out money unless you have a plan to collect it.

Some random thoughts on car makers and their products: The three segments Chrysler depends on are trucks, SUVs and minivans. Three segments that Europeans don't get are trucks, SUVs and minivans. Yet, Europeans have tried to run the company for most of the past 15 years. Toyota is starting to seem more like GM, with Lexus as the new Buick. Finally, crossovers are minivans for people who don't want to admit they drive minivans.

I heard a commercial on the radio recently talking about how credit card companies prey on good people having  bad time, luring them in with low introductory rates. More predatory lending hype, I thought, and then realized this industry does plenty to feed that myth.

I don't mean through any practices. I mean by saying over and over, "We help good people who are having a bad time." No, you serve people who are unable for some reason to mange their credit. It may be cultural, psychological or just a lifestyle choice, but that is who they are.

So stop saying that. Stop talking about credit repair in one sentence and then talk about repeat business in the next. Let's be honest about who the subprime and buy-here, pay-here customers really are. They may be good people, but this bad time goes on for quite a long spell. And after a while, people are going to start saying that's your fault.

I'm writing this while sitting in Ft. Worth at the NVLA conference and one hot topic is whether people's flights will be delayed. That was a major topic last week when I was in Chicago, but the issue then was a natural disaster. This time, it's a man-made one.

I have no problem with the idea of a sequester. It was supposed to force the hands of both parties (that didn't happen). Also, in theory, it should have had a limited effect. But now the goal is pain. Air travelers vote, so stick it to them. Of course, there are plenty of airports the FAA could furlough air traffic controllers from that would have limited the problems. But that won't get anything done.

Reuters recently took a hatchet to Exeter Finance in the latest attempt to portray the robust auto credit market as the next great bubble. This is nothing new. About 10 years ago, one journalist described AmeriCredit as "the next Enron."

My poor brethern. They continued preaching the conventional wisdom that "a house is the best investment you can make" while hot money was starting a fire that would burn down the mortgage market. They missed it, just as they spent too much time fantasizing about a Jetsons-like future to see the dot-com bubble for what it was.

Auto credit is not housing credit. Auto credit is backed by actual collateral that is fairly easy to repossess and redeem. But for some reason many folks don't like the idea of poor people driving cars. Maybe our intrepid reporters should be looking somewhere for the next disaster, like say state pension funds.