Nancy B King

The high school in Unalakleet is one of the schools in Alaska and across the United States and several foreign countries that use the Stock Market Game (SMG) program in their classrooms to add a real-life online simulation activity to enhance basic curriculum. Mr. Ryan Woodruff is using the SMG with the 11 students in his economics class to help them more completely understand economic, business, market, and investing concepts. His students have invested in a diverse group of U.S. publicly traded companies from metals companies to a company that produces common household products. Currently, the Unalakleet SMG team portfolios are outperforming my portfolio.

Mr. Woodruff’s econ class is part of Unalakleet School which serves a total of 195 students in grades K through 12. The school’s students regularly participate in academic programs such as its Gifted and Talented program, the Academic Decathlon, and the Battle of the Books. As for sports, despite its small numbers, Unalakleet high school has won three 1A state basketball championships.

Unalakleet School is part of the Bering Strait School District. This school district serves approximately 75,000 roadless square miles and 1800 students living in fifteen villages from Shishmaref and Wales in the north on the Seward Peninsula to Stebbins and St. Machael in the south on the Norton Sound plus two villages on St. Lawrence Island and one village on Little Diomede Island (not shown on this map but directly west of the village of Wales and only 2.4 miles from the Russian island Big Diomede and approximately 23 miles from the Russian mainland).

Unalakleet, itself, is located on the Norton Sound at the mouth of the Unalakleet River (395 miles northwest of Anchorage). Use the following coordinates to locate it on your map: 63°52′44”N Latitude, 160°47′23”W Longitude. Since no roads lead to Unalakleet, it can be reached only by air ($450 from Anchorage) or by boat.

With its backdrop of trees, tundra, and hills, Unalakleet covers about 3 square miles and has approximately 750 residents. This area is well known for it salmon and king crab fisheries. It has a seafood processing plant that serves the Norton Sound area fisherman. In addition to the crab and salmon, residents rely heavily on caribou, ptarmigan, and oogruk for subsistance. The winters tend to be cold and dry with temperatures ranging from 11 to -4; summer temperatures typically range from 47 to 62. For the current weather click here.

Unalakleet’s main claim to fame may be that it is the first checkpoint on the Norton Sound  in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. The first musher who reaches Unalakleet—851 miles from the ceremonial start in Anchorage—receives the Gold Coast Award, a trophy and $2,500 in gold nuggets

Unalakleet is also a checkpoint on the Iron Dog snowmobile race that goes from Wasilla to Nome to Fairbanks.

Historically speaking, Unalakleet . . .:   from the History of Unalakleet

Archaeologists have dated house remnants along the beach ridge from 200 B.C. to 300 A.D. The name Unalakleet means “place where the east wind blows.” Unalakleet has long been a major trade center as the terminus for the Kaltag Portage, an important winter travel route connecting to the Yukon River. Indians on the upper river were considered “professional” traders who had a monopoly on the Indian-Eskimo trade across the Kaltag Portage. The Russian-American Company built a post here in the 1830s. In 1898, reindeer herders from Lapland were brought to Unalakleet to establish sound herding practices. In 1901, the Army Signal Corps built over 605 miles of telegraph line from St. Michael to Unalakleet, over the Portage to Kaltag and Fort Gibbon.

And now their high school students are learning how today’s electronic financial markets work.

Nancy King, Stock Market Game Alaska Coordinator—administered in Alaska by the Alaska Council on Economic Education

I’ve closed out the grades for the bonds class—the last of my one-credit classes I teach each semester through UAA and the Alaska Council on Economic Education as the Alaska coordinator for the Stock Market Game. I was fortunate to have a core group that took all three classes, Econ and Stocks, Mutual Funds, and Bonds; what fun that was! They were attentive (or at least acted attentive), asked great questions, and are using the info in their own lives and sharing their knowledge.

I love the investing and intellectual stimulation that people in my classes provide. As a result of the comments of one of my Stocks class students, Husband and I spent some time last evening watching Frontline: The Meltdown (via an instant gratification Netflex download). It was a well-done recap of the Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers two-or-three week banking meltdown in September 2008. I had read Too Big To Fail; last night’s video was a quick review of some of the events the book so carefully and entertainingly recorded. Husband and I then watched Frontline: Warning, the story—the explanation—-of the over-the-counter derivatives market and Brooksley Born’s (Chairperson of the Commodities Futures Trade Commission) warning of the potential disaster for banks. The derivative speculation and the credit swaps-of-credit swaps ultimately became the final nail in the coffin that created the 2008 banking crisis.

Also, my class participants kept using the word greed. That term has bothered me for sometime. Its concept doesn’t seem to fit the category of “fair” or “unfair”—– if you agree with an outcome, it’s “fair”; if you disagree with the outcome, it’s “unfair” (if you’re adding to your pot of money, it’s not greed; if someone else is adding to their pot of money and their pot seems larger than your pot, it’s greed.) Because one of my students considered doing his stock analysis worksheet on Jon Huntsman’s chemical company (unusual to find someone else who had heard of him), I decided to read Huntsman’s book Winners Never Cheat. Saturday night after the let down of finishing my teaching and the downward spiral of the election ads and news, I wanted something uplifting—-two minutes later I had downloaded Winners Never Cheat to my Kindle (thank you Daughter for my Kindle) and began reading; I finished it before the night was over and had developed a definition of greed. For me greed is the gaining of more and more money through cutting ethical corners. The method of making the money may be within the bounds of the law, but the means does not pass the integrity smell test. For example, someone knows the deal is shady, but declares it is a case of buyer beware; that’s greed. Using my definition, greed was probably a large part of the sub prime loan business and the derivative and credit swap market! Which, by the way, seems to be still going on.

I’ll miss the stimulation of no investment class teaching until January 11^th.

The above is a quote from Herbert E. Meyer made during his presentation at an Alaska World Affairs luncheon more than a year ago. My notes and his quotes have survived several paper purges. Obviously, what he said made an impression and provided food for thought.

The following are some of his on-the-money points:

The World’s Operating Systems

• In our operating system, Western Civilization, the individual and the individual’s rights are the center; the state and church are separate. It is history’s most extraordinary accomplishment; no, it is not perfect.

• Two other operating systems are fascism (dictatorial government, centralized control, repression of opposition) and Islam.

• Islam: the church and state are combined; the individual is subservient; women are treated as property; the system is incompatible with the modern world; and that is the problem.

• Islam attacked the Western world in the 7^th and the 17^th centuries. The current terrorism is their third attack on the West.

• Muslims are the last group to have not joined the modern world.

• The question is how to reconcile the Muslim world with the modern world.

• Iraq and Israel are the only two modern countries in the Middle East.

• The modern world has learned to temper faith with reason.

• Most people are moderates; they just want to live their life without major disruptions that mess things up.

Iran

• They will have the bomb soon.

• The rest of the world has two choices; (1) take out the regime, (2) take out the nuclear plant.

• “When crazy people tell you what they are going to do, believe it.”

• They would be willing to give up their cities in exchange for ours.

• If you play defense, you’ll lose because you have to win 100 percent of the time.

• The alternative is to knock out the radicals so the moderates can gain power and move into the modern world. This would allow 1.5 billion people to rapidly shift from the 8^th century to the 21^st century.

Economics

• From 50 to 100 million people, the world over, come out of poverty every year. The rule of law, property rights, free enterprise, entrepreneurship, moderate taxes, and competent regulation pull people out of poverty.

• A growing middle class and a growing economy requires energy.

• Energy is to an economy as blood is to an individual—a small child/small economy requires less blood/energy than a larger person/economy requires.

• A growing economy also needs protein.

• The market for protein and energy will explode.

• The trick is to bring people out of poverty without trashing the planet.

• The emerging global middle class will be our market. It is a growing market for products that are green, clever, needed, and inexpensive—examples are IKEA (they even build put-together houses), e-books, and nano cars.

India

• India wants to be part of the leading economic countries.

• It will eventually surpass China economically because of its democracy.

Demographics

• The Western world’s birth rate is declining while the total world’s population is still increasing. Western civilization has stopped having children—their birth rate has fallen to 1.5. The world’s population will top out and begin to decline about 2045 because the old will outnumber the young.

• The replacement birth rate is 2.1.

• 1.3 is the birth rate below which a country cannot recover or regenerate/replenish its national population.

• The largest population drop has been in Italy and Spain. Seventeen modern countries have a birth rate at or below 1.3.

• The U. S. birth rate is 2.0.

• The Muslim birth rate is from 2.4 to 6.8.

• Western European countries import Muslims as workers to take the place of having children. Western European countries will loose/are loosing their cultural identities through the influx of Muslims and multiculturalism and non integration.

In Conclusion

• A pessimist can describe the problem.

• An optimist solves the problem.

• First, explain what is going on, then reach a common understanding of what the problem is.

• Look at the problem and say, “This is what is going on. What do you want to do about it?”

• Extremes exist at either end of any political and religious spectrum; deal with the people in the middle

• “If you can explain to people what is going on and what it means, then you can make intelligent decisions.”

• “If you can see the future soon enough and clearly enough, you can change the future before it happens.”

You can listen to Herbert E. Meyer’s presentation here.

The Decline: The Geography of a Recession by LaToya Egwuekwe has been updated. This is a revealing graphic.

I’ve been home ten days and am ready for another vacation.

Last week I taught my 1-credit, 15-contact hour (a lot of lecture and guided activities) Mutual Fund class offered through the Alaska Council of Economic Education.

The Stock Market Game: Mutual Funds

Learn how to implement the Stock Market Game in your classroom—an innovative way to enhance and reinforce your core curriculum using a real-life simulation activity. Acquire valuable information about mutual funds. Learn about the types of mutual funds and their levels of risk and reward. Use specific guidelines for evaluating and choosing mutual funds as you explore interactive mutual fund websites and the Stock Market Game site with its comprehensive teacher Resource Center. Learn how relevant economic and financial market concepts such as supply and demand, economic cycles and the growth of foreign economies affect the market and the performance of mutual funds. Official UAA registration will occur at the first class meeting; the fee is $85. You will receive a $40 rebate at the end of the semester if you actively use the Stock Market Game in your classroom with at least 3 student teams. Register for free student teams at www.StockMarketGame.org. Nancy King, Instructor

This week I’m teaching another 1-credit class; this time it’s about Bonds.

The Stock Market Game: Bonds and Portfolio Diversification

Learn how to implement the Stock Market Game—an innovative way to enhance and reinforce your core curriculum using a real-life simulation activity. Acquire valuable information about bonds, and find answers to your questions about bonds such as What is a bond? What are the various types of bonds? What are their risks? How does one choose a bond? How do economic cycles affect the price of bonds? Also, acquire basic information about diversifying your portfolio using stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Increase your understanding of economic cycles. Learn how to make money or avoid loosing it as the economy and the market go through their ups and downs. Official UAA registration will occur at the first class meeting; the fee is $85. You will receive a $40 rebate at the end of the semester if you actively use the Stock Market Game in your classroom with at least 3 student teams. Register for free student teams at www.StockMarketGame.org. Nancy King, Instructor

I’m also back working with two of my three dyslexic educational therapy clients. I’ve just noticed that this adds up to a 50 hour work week—no wonder the mail is stacking up and the dust bunnies are growing. Next week I’ll will be back to normal—in other words, my stocks, bonds, and mutual fund teaching will be concluded until January. However, I will miss working directly those who are learning about investing and are excited about it and about sharing their knowledge with their students through the use of the Stock Market Game.

Today was my last day in Winfield and the Land of Oz on my trip down-memory-lane. I picked up my last pinecone and diet Coke at the Daylight Donut Shop and headed to Island Park. I sat in front of the water fall, enjoyed its sound, the sun, and time to think about next week in general, the stock market, and teaching my mutual fund class. It was a glorious couple of hours of solitude and contemplation.

I then spent some time driving around the residential sections of town to see what was still there, like the house I lived in from seventh grade through high school before I went off to college for two years then married Daughter’s father (an older Winfield fellow). I also enjoyed seeing the new construction and refurbishments around town. My tour included a revisit to the Southwestern College campus (where I sent Daughter to college) then on to Cumbernauld, a very nice retirement community with extended care. I knew the couple who started and funded the project. It, too, has aged very well.

Eventually, I had to go back to the motel to clean out the rental car, sort through my stuff, reorganize my stuff, and pack. By the time I had completed that chore it was time to get dressed up to go to the Winfield Country Club for my high school class reunion dinner. This is the first time I’d been to a reunion; would I recognize anyone and would anyone remember me? I walked in just in time to get in the class picture. A good friend I had lost touch with recognized me and oh, wow. I joined her at her table. Several people looked familiar after I knew who they were, but most didn’t. I was able to obtain the address of the third of our threesome—the one who had dropped out of sight. She wasn’t there, but she is living in the Denver area. I called her on the way back to Alaska. It was worth going to just to get her address and to reconnect with the other friend. I can now say I have attended one of high school class reunions!

Saturday morning I drove to Wichita to the Mid-Continent Airport to begin my all-day journey back home to Alaska. I was ready to go home; it had been a great week but  . . . .

With my Daylight Donut pinecone and diet Coke in my car, I drove west from Winfield for today’s tour. My first destination, nine miles down the road, was Oxford. My grandmother Barnes lived there, in the same house, all her married life, including after my grandfather died and until she passed away. So, this is where my mother grew up. When she was 31, she met my father as she was walking down main street eating a banana. I, also, lived there for six months at the age of 10 when my mother, sister, and I stayed with my grandmother so Mother could help take care of her after she had a stroke.

My first stop, the park at the end of the Arkansas River bridge as you come into town from Winfield, brought back childhood memories. It was always a big deal in the summertime for the grown ups to fix a picnic supper and take it to the park so we could eat where it was a bit cooler and my sister and I could run around and play on the slide and swing on the swings.

My second stop was the Oxford Mill.

“Oxford is known for The Old Mill. The mill was built in 1874 by D. N. Cook and John Hewitt. A three mile race was hand dug parallel to the Arkansas River. The water running through the mill race provided the electricity necessary to run the mill. A dam was built across the river to help the mill grow. The mill’s flour and cornmeal supported the slogan “Oxford’s Best”. In 1910, Charles Champeny bought the mill in which he worked until he passed away. The Old Mill has since been restored by its owners. The old Mill was placed on the National Historical Register on April 26, 1982. The Oxford Jr/Sr High School Entrepreneurship Class has recently started serving dinners on weekends.”

The mill is a great old place. I can still remember the cloth flour sacks that said “Oxford’s Best”. No, I didn’t wear anything made out of the cotton flour sacks.

Next, I drove around the Oxford grade school (still the same sturdy brick building) where I attended most of third grade. I disliked it intensely. I had come from a one room country school where only two of us were in the third grade; here there were probably fifteen to twenty students per grade. I discovered in the Oxford third grade that I couldn’t read very well—the lowest reading group. No matter how many times I read the story, I couldn’t answer any of the teacher’s questions. She never asked the questions that I had the answers for. I really wanted to be put back in second grade buy my mother and the teachers said, “No.”

I continued my drive around Oxford with a trip down main street and around and about the remembered houses including, of course, Grandmother’s house. I then went out to the cemetery where Mother, Grandmother and Grandfather Barnes, and Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather Barnes are buried.

I then left Oxford and drove to Wellington for a short tour. The Hatcher Hospital where I was born is now a museum (no, not in my honor). Driving on down main street, I discovered that the Woolworth dime store (an interesting company history) is no longer there—no surprise. The only memory I have of my grandfather Barnes is of his once taking me to Woolworth’s—the “dime store.” I remember his lifting me up and carrying me so I could see above the high counters.

My last stop in Wellington was the river park where Daughter’s father and I decided that marriage was a distinct possibility; it is now a golf course.

As I left Wellington and headed back to Winfield, I declared that I had had enough of memory lane; it was time to return to the present with full speed ahead to the  future.

On the way back to Winfield I noticed more fields of cotton.

Traditionally, the main crops in this area have been wheat, oats, kaffer corn, soy beans, and alfalfa. Cotton is a fairly new crop to this region. The warmer temperatures have pushed cotton growing 100 miles further north from its usual growing area in the south. Cotton requires less water than wheat, but more chemicals. The other evening I had Googled “Kansas cotton” and discovered among other things that there were three cotton gins in Kansas; what’s more, one of them was in the Winfield area. I couldn’t believe there was an actual cotton gin in Winfield! I had often taught the Civil War to my fifth graders but had never come close an actual cotton gin. With the help of Google Maps and well marked country roads, I found this:

One of the employees gave we a marvelous conducted tour of the gin. All I could think of was the huge machinery and the amount of work and cotton it required to keep that machinery running and to make it pay for itself and its employees. Truly impressive especially for my Eastern Kansas hometown.

The cotton is unloaded and enters the ginning process here:

It goes through many different processes: extreme heating and drying to blow the debris from the cotton fibers, multiple combings and lint fiber removals, and separating more and more debris. The final products are clean cotton fibers used in cotton fabric; not so cleaned cotton—the kind that is used in string rag mops (note the dark specks in the string rag mop) and papers made from cotton fibers; cotton seeds which still have some cotton fibers on them that are used for cattle feed (cattle feeders now prefer to have some of the fiber left on the seed as it slows down the cow’s digestion of it and allows more nutrients to enter the cow’s system. I can remember my father feeding cotton seed cake to our cattle. I think they were pellets); and the hulls, etc. that are used in a compost or for decorative ground cover.

Click here for someone else’s excellent diagram and short explanation of the  ginning process.

This venture was one of the major highlights of my week in Kansas!

By this time I had worked up an appetite, so it was off to the Little Hooker Bait Shop and Café for supper—another/my last barbeque beef sandwich and fresh pie.

Today was the day for my road trip south from Winfield. I’d already been north when I arrived at the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport and east on Monday and Tuesday to Howard, Moline, Grenola, and Dexter.

With a Daylight Donut pinecone and a large diet Coke in hand, I was ready to hit the road. I suddenly discovered the road south (almost missed the turn) now by-passes Arkansas City, the next town south. However, the road still took me down the main street of Newkirk, Oklahoma, where a three story stone building has the name Barnes on it—-my grandfather had something to do with it.

Ponca City, my second destination, is the home of the Pioneer Woman bronze and used to be the home of Conoco Oil. The bronze is one of my favorite pieces of sculpture. For me it truly embodies the pioneer spirit of many generations of Barnes/Thompson women.

Conoco Oil has always had a special spot in my heart because a favorite good friend of my mother’s was a VP. Also, he provided me with my very first credit card, a Conoco Oil gasoline card, when I was newly divorced, didn’t have any credit rating, nor a job, only a teaching contract and was driving to Alaska with my six year-old daughter. Now, Conoco is a major player in Alaska.

My third stop was Pawhuska. The road east from Ponca City to Pawhuska is a long 40 miles—-nothing along the way—not even any highway signs nor town and mileage signs. The road just keeps going and going through great ranch land.

The people who leased our ranch grassland for many years lived in Pawhuska. During that time, they always invited us down to the Ben Johnson Memorial Steer Roping on Father’s Day weekend. Also, Betty was the force behind the Osage County Historical Museum. She went to the museum to work nearly every day until she died at the age of 94 in 2006. The museum  commemorates Osage County but also the first Boy Scouts of America troop. The first Boy Scout troop in America was organized in Pawhuska.

After leaving the museum, I drove the back roads to Woolaroc. My short cut proved to be a long cut. The road zigged then zagged; I took the zig but not the zag and ended up driving the long way around.

To begin with Woolaroc was Frank Phillips’ (started Phillips 66 oil company of today’s ConocoPhillips) 3,700 acre ranch, retreat, and wildlife preserve. The museum is one, if not my favorite Indian art and artifact museum. Its high quality collection is displayed with quiet, simple dignity. In our family, I realize that I’m the last generation that has any real connection to this period of history; granted my connection has been only family stories of Kansas and Oklahoma, but those pioneering stories are so very far removed from Daughter’s growing up in Alaska that I suspect they are nearly meaningless. This visit I spent quite a bit of time at Woolaroc just soaking up the peace and quiet. It was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day with very few people around.

Next on my list was Bartlesville. We always went to Ponca City and not Bartlesville. Because of ConcoPhillips presence in Alaska I decided I wanted to check out Bartlesville. I was interested in seeing the Phillips 66 museum. However, I was tired, couldn’t easily find it, and gave up and headed back to Winfield.

I took highway 75 north to 166, turned west and by-passed Sedan, had thoughts and memories of Cedar Vale as I drove by, turned north on Kansas 15, drove past Henry’s Candies at Dexter, and turned west on 160 with a “natural detour” for a stop at the Little Hooker Bait Shop and Café. Yes, I had another barbeque sandwich and another fabulous piece of fresh peach pie.

Back in Winfield I had a great visit with a friend, Shirley. She is a real estate agent in Winfield. It was most interesting to discuss Winfield’s real estate market with her.

And so another special day of revisiting memories came to an end.