DATELINE–Baltimore, Md.

Solution to chronic cellphone use offered by popular self-help book.

When Samuel Mohrs turned 43 this past May, he received a water color drawing from his 4 year-old daughter, an all-expense paid trip to London from his corporate board, an autographed photo of Michael Jordan from his brother, and a self-help book from his wife. Surprisingly, it was the book that changed his life.

The book, called Roaming Within Range: Creating and managing successful relationship with cellphones, debuted at number five on last week’s the New York Times Best Seller’s list.Written by Abbie Tal-Ronnel, the hardcover book which offers advice on how to best use mobile telephones has pushed Sugar Busters! out of the top five for the first time in 6 months and is quickly gaining ground on the top-selling If Life Is A Game, These Are the Rules by Cherie Carter-Scott.

The popularity of Tal-Ronnel’s cellular self-help guide comes as no surprise now that wireless telephony is as widespread as it is novel. As cellphones become more and more affordable, the hidden costs of constant access are increasingly apparent to those who can’t seem to live without it. For Mohrs? wife, Melinda, her husband’s use of a cellphone had become a strain on their marriage. “When I gave him Roaming Within Range I wrote in the front page, ‘Here’s the marital aid you asked for,” she jokingly recalls. Mohrs started reading the book on the couple’s 10-day trip to London and the results, in his words, were “mind-bending.”

Although Mohrs still uses his cellphone several times a day in the course of his duties as the CFO of a high-tech public relations firm, he claims the book has helped him to “set boundaries” that allow him to get the most out of these conversations.

Setting boundaries is, in fact, the subject of the book’s first chapter, “Good Reception vs. Being Welcome.” For Tal-Ronnel, setting boundaries is the only way wireless technology can be integrated into the world of social and business relations. She cites the increasing disdain for cellphone users who hold private conversations, often loudly, while in public places as only one indicator that “unlimited roaming” may be too much of a good thing.

While the book is full of cheerful pointers on such disparate topics as battery life and the ergonomics of handheld devices, it also offers some straight talk on wireless conversating. In one section, Tal-Ronnel upbraids cellphone users who talk – not without listening – but without looking around:

“You are entitled to your privacy. The law protects you from eavesdroppers who might intercept the signal emitted by your phone. Now, ask yourself: are not the people around you entitled to their privacy? What law protects them from having to listen to the isolated sound of your voice as you talk to someone who is not even there? There is no such law, of course. But there is something even better to protect you from intruding on other people’s privacy while preserving your own: common courtesy.”

Still, what’s really behind the astonishing commercial success of Roaming Within Range is not a Luddite attack on wireless communications, but a calm and reassuring set of instructions that help cellphone users and the people around them to get along.

Chief among the book’s suggestions is one for the new owner of a wireless telephone: “Create an action plan. Decide before you make your first call, when and where you will and will not use your cellphone. If you don’t have a plan, you’ll agonize over every ring, beep and vibration.”

For Mohrs, this meant creating a map of his world that could guide him in the decision-making process. “When I’m in the kitchen,” he explains, “the phone is off. When I’m at the movies, only my pager is on and it’s set to vibrate.” But Mohrs’ map extends to cover even those areas where the use of his cellular phone may not inconvenience others so much as embarrass him.

“I can only use the phone in lobbies, hallways and the like if there is a set of public phones nearby,” he adds, “and you have no idea how much relief these simple rules have given me – and my wife.”

For Mohrs and the thousands of others who have also taken to Roaming Within Range, the book is at its best when it explains the source of many common complaints associated with cellular phone use. From restaurants to crowded streets, this Baedeker’s for the next millennium offers flexible rules “maximizing your phone use while minimizing your impact on the people around you.”

And in case you’re wondering how Roaming Within Range comes down on the subject of cars and cellphones, the book sides with the governments of Great Britain, Australia and Sweden. Any guesses? That’s right. It’s a definite no-no..

DATELINE–Washington, D.C.

A two-year survey of consumer banking habits reveals that nearly two-thirds of Americans no longer understand how money operates.

The U.S. government’s General Accounting Office released a report late last week announcing the results of a two-year survey of consumer banking habits. Among its top findings is the startling revelation that nearly two-thirds of Americans no longer understand how money operates.

In the past, similar GAO surveys have been used to inform domestic fiscal policy and to determine key economic indicators such as the federal interest rate. It was hoped that this year’s Consumer Understanding, Activity and Confidence report would settle growing unease about the direction of the U.S. economy by providing an in-depth look at consumer confidence.

But minutes after the report was made public, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped over 150 points to 7,898.38 as investors reacted to the study’s troubling conclusions. The GAO survey found that while some consumers are savvy enough to use the latest financial tools and actively participate in a bullish market, the overwhelming majority are unable to comprehend how staid financial transactions such as banking are organized.

Chief among the GAO’s indices of consumer equivocation is the exponential growth of ATM fees at large banks. Roughly 70 percent of the consumers polled for the CUAC study did not understand the difference between banking fees and so-called “off us” transactions to which banks attribute their ATM fees.

The GAO reported that banks recorded $2.5 billion in annual ATM surcharge revenue last year, calculated at a 71 percent surcharging rate of $1.23. The 1997 figure represents an increase of 20 percent from the year before, and the federal agency predicts 1998 ATM surcharge revenues could exceed $3 billion.

In traditional financial models, such profits at the cost of the consumer are exceptionally rare, if not impossible. Brian Arthur, a Stanford economist believes the ATM surcharge issue is only the tip of the iceberg. “Everything that formal economic models predict and recommend is based on a rational economic agent,” Arthur explains, “which means someone who knows that option A is to his detriment and option B is to his benefit.”

In one section of the CUAC survey, consumers were asked to describe how banks “make money.” Most could not. In fact, only a statistically marginal number were even aware that banks use consumer deposits in order to make loans and accrue profitable interest. A startlingly large percentage (23 percent) stated that banks are government-sponsored institutions not unlike the postal service or, in some cities, waste management services.

Of course, not everyone is bemoaning this crisis in consumer awareness. In 1997 banks recorded a sixth straight year of record profits. According to the FDIC, full-year industry earnings totaled $59.2 billion, up $6.9 billion (13.1 percent) from 1996 results. ATM Fee income was the fastest-growing segment of banks’ non-interest income that year (up $2.3 billion, or 9.4 percent).

These unprecedented profits were recorded only a year after the two largest ATM networks – Visa’s Plus and MasterCard’s Cirrus – ended their ban on surcharges, allowing banks to levy a charge against non-customers who made transactions, except where prohibited by state law. In the two years since such fees have been available to banks as a money-making instrument, the number of ATM’s has almost tripled nationwide.

“Banks charge more today because they do more,” responds American Bank Association spokesman Hugh Suree. Enumerating a menu of services ranging from telephone banking to direct deposit, Suree faults the GAO report for using outdated language in its survey. He claims most consumers simply could not understand the wording of the CUAC survey and thus failed to provide accurate responses. “In all of our studies,” adds Suree, “customers are willing to pay extra fees because they do appreciate the convenience of automated banking.”

Arthur disagrees. He speculates that “even if only 10 percent of all bank customers took a more active role in the way their money is being siphoned it would lead to a general reform in banking practices.” In his opinion such consumer pressure would not only benefit consumers but would actually protect the U.S. economy from a total collapse of the banking system. “If consumers don’t resist fee-driven banking,” Arthur suggests, “we’re on a ship without a rudder.”

Arthur and his fellow economists are not the only ones expressing concern over the GAO report. On Wall St., the mood is no less gloomy. Sung Bing, an analyst with Goldman Sachs, says most brokers are equally wary of the numbers in the CUAC report. “A person who doesn’t understand how he and his money are parted isn’t a fool,” he implores, “that person is a wrench in the works.”

Looking out from his 34th floor window, Bing stares at the bay where New York’s Hudson and East rivers merge before being swallowed by the Atlantic Ocean. After a moment he laments, “What can you do about 40 million wrenches in the works?”