Talk about 'the times, they are a changin.'

Readers of this space know that in the undergraduate courses I teach in political science and public policy, I try to instill a healthy dose of economic, political, and cultural history in the students.

I do this because it's important for students to learn lessons from the lives and the decisions of citizens from generations past and to argue, contrary to a prevalent fad, that wisdom from past generations is very much relevant today. Or, as I put it to the students, "History did not begin in 1981."

Sellers got a win in today after losing six of the last 7 days. The jobless claims were not as bad as expected, and leading indicators were "less-bad" than expected. But we have had close to a 20% rally in the S&P and the DJIA off of lows from the last two weeks. Here are the unofficial closing bell levels:

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Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Let this be the last Iowa caucus that matters. Ditto for the New Hampshire primary. It is simply insane that two states that are among the least representative of America have so much say over who is elected president. That power should be given to the only state that really matters: New Jersey.

Instead of criss-crossing the cornfields of Iowa and the hamlets of New Hampshire, candidates should be getting to know the state I call home. They should marvel at the farm land of Salem County, Atlantic City's casinos and the beaches of Cape May. Imagine what the potential leaders of the free world can learn from listening to folks eating breakfast at a Jersey diner, or wandering the highways of South Jersey trying to make a left turn. Let them try and find a spot in a New Jersey Transit parking lot after 7 a.m., and take a gander at a sky-high property tax bill.

New Jersey also is among the most densely populated states, with pockets of enormous wealth (Bergen County near New York City) and extreme poverty (Camden, near Philadelphia). There's the beauty of Barnegat and the ugliness of Elizabeth. Politicians of both parties could learn quite a bit from the Garden State.

But my pleas will fall on deaf ears. We Americans pick a president with less sophistication than most high school seniors chose the king and queen of their proms. Maybe one day it will change, but I doubt it.

Until then, the rest of the country is going to have to take the hand-me-downs left to us by an antiquated electoral system in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The already tattered reputation of my home state of New Jersey took another pounding today following revelations that the SEC and the U.S Attorneys office is investigating the state's $80 billion pension system for misleading investors about billions in funding shortfalls.

As Bloomberg News notes, the problem dates the bull market of the 1990s when the state pension fund moved to an accounting method based on the market value of investments which boosted the value of the pension fund as stocks soared and allowed officials to reduce payments. Of course, things went awry when the bull market crashed.

New Jersey has begun contributing again to the pension system under Gov. Jon Corzine, putting in $1 billion during the last fiscal year with plans to contribute more, Bloomberg says.

The SEC is considering strengthening rules governing the municipal bond market, so it's likely that other pension funds will get scrutinized.

But other states will be hard pressed to top NJ in terms of financial shenanigans. The Star-Ledger reports that New Jersey has skipped $8.1 billion in payments for the pensions for hundreds of thousands of current and retired workers including police, firefighters, government workers and teachers since 1997.

They certainly deserved better from our leaders in Trenton.

NextPhase Wireless (OTCBB: NXPW) has really caught my attention. At just $0.10 a share it looks to me like a stupendous bargain -- or at least a real cheap entry point for those of you looking to establish a tech footprint for yourselves. Although running a bit under the radar from mainstream, this company has been anything but quiet within the wireless tech news circles. I agreed with you late last year that consumer trends were continuing to bring wireless technologies into screaming full-steam-ahead status. NextPhase is one of the companies making full use of this relentless trend.

NextPhase presents itself as a "next generation" connectivity company, which becomes obvious as you read about it -- NextPhase truly is on the cutting edge in its field. NextPhase is in the business of building its own wireless networks and is very close to an infrastructural breakout nationwide. The company announced yesterday that it is right on target for completion of plans to migrate to licensed spectrum for network back-haul by the end of Q3 2007. Simply put, the company is growing rapidly to meet solid customer demands.

Tom Hemingway, Chairman and COO of NextPhase, indicates that small- to medium-sized companies find significant benefits by subscribing to its newest IT services because customers now have access to security, disaster recovery and network performance solutions of a quality that would not be cost effectively available to them otherwise. These new "managed IT" services are a value-added adjunct to NextPhase's already well-established broadband services. The company has been rapidly expanding its nationwide footprint with moves into Arizona, Oregon and California. I also found mention of an intended purchase by the company into New Jersey, but I have not yet been able to confirm that. Next Phase appears to me to be an aggressive, focused and driven company. If any of our readers can provide some hardcore financial research on the company, please do share!

Gary E. Sattler holds no financial interest in NextPhase Wireless.

Even people who don't plan to either buy or sell a home are going to be hurt by the decline in the real estate market.

As the New York Times notes, growth in state tax revenues has slowed and in some cases dropped below projections this year. That's bad news in areas where property tax reform is a big political issue such as my homestate of New Jersey, which has the highest property taxes in the country.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) chairman, has said that the state could face a $2.5 billion deficit by 2008. Among the ideas being considered to close the gap is a sale or lease of the Turnpike and the Lottery.

We New Jerseyeans are getting some property tax relief. A recently passed law will cut proprty taxes by 20 percent and cap tax increases at 4 percent. Still, the Associated Press points out that New Jersey taxes average $6,390, twice the national average.

I'm not expecting more relief from Trenton any time soon.

In fact, housing sales fell in February to their lowest rate in seven years, so people in other parts of the country shouldn't expect big tax cuts either.

States such as Arizona, Nevada, Florida and California, which especially benefited from the real estate boom, are expected to be hit especially hard by the slowdown in the real estate market, the Times said.

Remember, any short fall in the money that the states collect is going to have to come somewhere. Think about that when you file your taxes this year.

When I read that New Jersey wasn't the least tax-friendly state, my civic pride was hurt.

This is worse than when Newark, Camden and Trenton were edged out by St. Louis for the title of most dangerous city. Having high taxes is a matter of pride to New Jersey residents like myself.

But the people at the Tax Foundation point out that New Jersey may yet take the title from the Peoples Republic of Vermont, which has won it for two years in a row. The state currently ranks number 10 and has advanced 14 places since 2000.

Last year, New Jersey's sales tax was raised from 6 to 7 percent. Other taxes, including one on cigarettes were also raised and a corporate income tax surcharge was implemented.

New Jersey is tops in property taxes no matter how you slice the data, according to the Tax Foundation's William Ahern.

Good, I needed something to brag about to my relatives in New York and Pennsylvania besides having the safest community.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) recently got a shot in the arm from the most unlikely of places: Lumberton, New Jersey.

Ever hear of Lumberton? Don't feel bad because most people in New Jersey haven't either. Until recently, the South Jersey town was best known for being the only New Jersey municipality with two airports. Then, eBay discovered that the town had the most buyers and sellers on a per-capita basis of any town in the U.S. When I first heard about it, I was thunderstruck.

Don't get me wrong, Lumberton is a nice place to live. It's a suburb of Philadelphia with a population of about 12,000 that until about 15 years ago was a quaint historic village surrounded by farms. There's nothing about it that screams "a center of ecommerce'." I live in a nearby township.

So, I first thought eBay had made an error. The company assured me that its figures were accurate and I wrote a story about this for The New York Times. This couldn't have come at a better time for the San Jose, Calif.-based company. If it needed to prove to a skeptical Wall Street that its auction business was still vibrant all it had to do was mention Lumberton.

The eBay sellers I met in Lumberton were the types of people that helped build the auction site into what it is today. They were small business owners selling their handicrafts, moms who wanted to dispose of clothing that their children no longer needed and people looking for a bargain.

I was reminded of what made eBay a success while I was reporting the story. First, it's still a very affordable way for many small businesses who don't want to spend the money on search advertising to sell their wares on the Internet. eBay also seems to be replacing garage sales as the means that people use to get rid of their junk. It also offers merchants low-cost credit card processing through PayPal. (My wife uses it for her business.)

Does eBay have its challenges? You bet it does.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a looming threat and growth is slowing. Sellers get mad at eBay for raising fees and for taking them for granted. But I've always thought the "eBay is evil" crowd represents a minority of people who use the auction site.

EBay is a stock that people either love or hate depending on how the stars are aligned. Lately, eBay has been in Wall Street's good graces, gaining a respectable 12 percent this year. It reports quarterly results April 18.

You can bet that the name Lumberton will come up a few times during the earnings conference call.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) reported this week that roughly $133 million in retirement benefits hasn't been claimed by Americans entitled to the funds. In fact, about 32,000 people are owed money, ranging from $1.00 to $611,028 for the individual cases, with an average amount owed of $4,950.

The states with the most missing pension payments are New York, accounting for $37.49 million in unclaimed benefits to 6,885 people; California, with $7.38 million owed to 3,081 residents; and New Jersey, with $12.05 million in owed benefits to 2,209 people. Other states at the top of the list include Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Florida.

To prevent such oversights, the PBGC advises workers to inform past employers of any moves or name changes and suggests keeping track of any pension information received from past or current employers.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

In this episode we wonder if Steve Jobs is a cat, look at the new Apple TV, tell you about one of the safest places to live (in NJ), cover American Idol's favorite underdog candidate, and take a look at Jim Cramer's admission that he may have broken the law ...



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