Thursday, May 30, 2013

Many checking accounts still have hidden fees

By Herb Weisbaum, TODAY contributor

You can’t comparison shop if you don’t know what you’re getting. And that’s what happens, in many cases, when people open a checking account, according to a study

released Thursday from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The report looked at the disclosure practices for basic checking at 36 of the nation’s largest banks.

“There’s room for improvement,” said Susan Weinstock, director Pew’s Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project.

While some banks do a good job in certain areas, Pew found that the industry doesn’t always make it easy

for customers to know all the charges, fees and penalties – especially overdraft charges – associated with their checking accounts.

“Hidden fees are a problem,” Weinstock said. “We know that hidden fees push people out of the banking system and we don’t want that. We also want a marketplace where consumers can shop around based on the fees and terms and conditions. If disclosures are poorly done or hard to read

or too long, then people can’t shop around.”

For this report, Pew defined “best practices” as policies and procedures that:

Provide checking account holders with clear and concise disclosure about costs and terms
Reduce overdrafts and eliminate practices that maximize overdraft fees
Do not require all problems to be settled by binding arbitration, but allow other dispute resolution options

No bank provided all best practices or even good practices in each of these categories, but 97 percent had at least one best practice. And two of the country’s largest financial

institutions, Citibank and Bank of America, made the Top 5 list.

Ally Bank, an Internet-only banking service, was the leading bank in this study. The other highest-performers in order are: Charles Schwab Bank, First Republic Bank, Citibank and Bank of America.

Pew had hoped to survey the top 50 U.S. banks for this report, but the data from 14 of them was not available online or by mail. Customers could only get this information by visiting a branch office.

“It’s another reason why we think the Consumer Financial Protection

Bureau (CFPB) should get involved,” Weinstock said. “Consumers can’t shop around if banks don’t make the information available to them, let alone make it hard to read. If it’s not available at all, that’s even worse.”

Pew wants the CFPB to write

new rules for checking accounts that would require banks to:

Summarize key information about terms and fees in a concise uniform format: The study found that the median length of the account agreement and fee schedule at the 36 banks studied was 43 pages – and that doesn’t include the pages that describe the product. We have federally-required uniform labels on food products and for credit cards. Pew believes we need uniformity for checking accounts disclosures.

Provide accountholders with clear, comprehensive terms and pricing information for all available overdraft options: Pew believes many people are confused and sign up for expensive overdraft protection without knowing it or realizing there are cheaper options.

Make overdraft penalty fees reasonable and proportional to the cost of providing the overdraft loan: Most of the banks surveyed (86 percent) charge between $30 and $40 per overdraft. Pew believes that’s too much.

Bankers don’t see a need for any changes

Nessa Feddis, a vice president and senior counsel at that American Bankers Association (ABA) agrees with the report’s premise that disclosures should be clear and easy to spot. And she told me she believes that’s what’s happening.

“Transparency is important to banks since that’s how they compete for customers,” said Feddis, “but federal law already requires banks to provide terms and fees in a clear and conspicuous manner.”

Feddis points out that 18 financial institutions, including some of the largest banks and credit unions in the country, have already voluntarily adopted the uniform disclosure box developed by Pew. But she said financial institutions need the flexibility

to provide information in a way they believe best suits their products and customers.

“Reasonable minds might disagree with what Pew considers best for the consumer,” she said. “One size does not always fit all.”

The ABA is opposed to any rule that would prohibit mandatory arbitration clauses, limit overdraft charges or require additional disclosure.

“People understand what they are signing up for,” Feddis said. “Most people don’t pay overdraft fees and they are easily avoided.”

And she noted that bankers are already required to give customers a “one-page, easy-to-read, consumer-tested notice” before they sign up for overdraft protection. This notice explains the product and points out that there are cheaper alternatives.

What do you think? Should there be a federal rule that requires a simple, uniform disclosure box for all checking accounts? Would you like to see the federal government limit overdraft fees? Go to the ConsumerMan Facebook page and discuss.

Wealthy benefit the most from top tax breaks, government study shows

Reuters

U.S. 1040 Individual Income Tax forms are seen in New York March 18, 2013.

The top ten tax deductions, credits and exclusions will keep $12 trillion out of federal government coffers over the next decade, and several of them mainly benefit the wealthiest Americans, a new study from the Congressional Budget Office shows.

The top 20 percent of income earners will reap more than half of the $900 billion in benefits from these tax breaks that will accrue in 2013, the non-partisan CBO said on Wednesday.

Further, 17 percent of the total benefits would go to the top 1 percent of income earners -- families earning roughly $450,000 or more. The same group that was hit with a tax rate hike in January.
The benefits of preferential tax rates on capital gains and dividends, a break worth $161 billion this year, go almost entirely to the wealthy, including 68 percent to the top one percent of earners.

House Democrats, who requested that Congress' budget referee conduct the study, argued that it backs up President Barack Obama's proposed approach to tax reform and deficit reduction: raise revenues by limiting the amount tax preferences for the wealthy.

"This shows that we could achieve a significant amount of deficit reduction by limiting the preferences to the highest income earners," said Representative Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

Although the study did not provide income thresholds, U.S. Census Bureau data for 2011 shows the top 20 percent of household income extends to down to $101,582, a level that is considered middle-class in many parts of the United States. The lowest quintile topped out at $20,262 in the Census data.

Middle-class aid
But the study also showed that benefits for the largest of the tax preferences, the exclusion for employer-paid health benefits, worth $3.4 trillion over 10 years, are more evenly distributed, with well over half of the benefits going to the middle 60 percent of earners.

The middle 20 percent of earners also got the biggest benefit from excluding a portion of Social Security and Railroad Retirement benefits, a perk worth $414 billion over 10 years.

Three other big tax breaks, the $2 trillion exclusion of net pension contributions and earnings over 10 years, the $1 trillion deduction for mortgage interest and the $1.1 trillion deduction for state and local taxes, also benefited the top 20 percent disproportionately.

Representative Sander Levin, the highest ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, the panel that is trying to advance tax reform this year, said the study shows that Republicans would have to greatly reduce tax breaks that benefit the middle class in order to achieve their goals of reducing tax rates and balancing the budget.

"The CBO report underscores the need to go beyond the rhetoric of lowering tax rates without indication of how that would be achieved or the implications for economic growth and tax equity," Levin said.

A spokesperson for Ways and Means Committee's Republican Chairman, Dave Camp, could not immediately be reached for comment on the study.

Republicans want to reform the tax code by eliminating certain deductions, credits and exclusions, but they do not want to divert any resulting revenues toward deficit reduction. Instead they want to use the savings to lower rates, which they say will accelerate economic growth and increase revenue collection.

Democrat Van Hollen said his favored approach would be to limit the total amount of deductions for the top 2 percent of income earners, or families earning $250,000 or more, while leaving intact much of the top 10 tax breaks, which also include deductions for charitable contributions and tax credits for earned income and children.

These latter two tax breaks, which are largely aimed at the working poor, provide two thirds of their $118 billion in 2013 benefits to the lowest 40 percent of wage earners, the CBO said in the study. Over 10 years, these two credits will cost $1.2 trillion.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

How automakers shield your car's electronics from hackers

As cars become more connected, automakers have taken strides to protect their electronics. But cybersecurity is fast becoming a real threat.

By Douglas Newcomb

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The connected car has been a hot topic on Capitol Hill lately. With issues such as distracted driving to autonomous cars facing them, federal lawmakers and regulators are considering the profound changes and issues that connectivity may bring to the cockpit.

Now the Senate and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have set their sights on another connected car issue, one that has also plagued other parts of our online society: cybersecurity.

NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said at a recent Senate Commerce Committee hearing that his agency doesn’t “want to be behind the eight ball” in terms of car security.

While Strickland and the members of the Senate's Commerce Committee realize the benefits of connected cars -- including NHTSA's own connected car field trial in Ann Arbor, Mich., to study how vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication can be used to prevent accidents -- they’re also concerned about potential hazards.

“These interconnected electronics systems are creating opportunities to improve vehicle safety and reliability,” Strickland said, “but are also creating new and different safety and cybersecurity risks.”

Committee Chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va) said that while he’s excited about the safety benefits of the technology, he’s also worried about connected car hacking.

“As our cars become more connected -- to the Internet, to wireless networks, with each other, and with our infrastructure -- are they at risk of catastrophic cyberattacks?” he said.

While sensational headlines occasionally pop up claiming that this risk is imminent, there's been only one report of a malicious car hacking incident: A former disgruntled auto dealership employee used his hacking skills to disable vehicles equipped with a device that prevents the engine from starting and honks the horn if car payments aren't met. But a group of university researchers has shown that compromising a car’s electronics is possible -- and that it’s relatively easy.

And while automakers are struggling to keep up with the rest of the tech world, they’re starting to address hacking and other security concerns.

Ford builds security solutions into vehicles from the outset of production. Engineers use “threat modeling” to review potential attacks and security issues, then design controls to fix them.

“We document the information flows, control boundaries and other elements to determine where we may have issues with things like data integrity, information disclosure, denial of service, escalation of privilege, tampering or spoofing, etc., and then determine one or more mitigation strategies to address the concerns,” the company told MSN Autos.

Ford added that its vehicle hardware has built-in firewall and application “white-listing” functions to separate vehicle control systems from infotainment functions. The automaker also uses Public/Private key cryptography solutions to prevent unauthorized updates to its Sync system's software, and software updates have to be “code-signed” and recognized as coming from Ford in order to update Sync.

Honda has been conducting research on vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems for the past six years and is aware of the security challenges that accompany the benefits of the technology. Honda engineers told us they're working closely with other automakers and the Department of Transportation to create “a secure, stable and inter-operable system” for connected cars.

“As an industry, we have yet to come to a full agreement upon single solution,” Honda said, “but we have made tremendous progress.”

Help is also coming from outside the industry. Battelle, the self-described world’s largest nonprofit R&D organization, took a novel approach to confront car-hacking last summer by hosting a camp for students to solve car-security challenges. For its first-annual CyberAuto Challenge, Battelle invited 20 handpicked high school and college students to work for a week alongside two dozen automotive engineers, IT researchers and government and Department of Defense officials to collectively hack away the issue.

“One of the critical aspects is connecting people and organizations,” Karl Heimer, senior research director of Battelle’s Cyber Innovation Unit, told Wired. “We reached out to the auto industry and government and told them why it’s important to develop the sort of engineers we’re going to need in two, three, five, or 10 years.”

Luke O’Malley, a junior at MIT majoring in electrical engineering and computer science, was one of the Battelle boot campers. “My biggest takeaway was, before the event, I saw a car as a car – a piece of machinery you drive around,” he said. “After the event, I see it more as a mobile computer that has potential security vulnerabilities.”

Now that car cybersecurity has caught the attention of Capitol Hill, expect to see more scrutiny and action on the issue. “If there is a chance of it happening, we have to address it,” Strickland said after leaving the Senate Commerce Committee hearing.

But he acknowledged that the agency and automakers have a tough road ahead in containing these threats. “Cybersecurity is hard,” he warned. “Even the best systems in the world can be compromised, as we have seen.”

Doug Newcomb has been covering car technology for more than 20 years for outlets ranging from Rolling Stone to Edmunds.com. In 2008, he published his first book, "Car Audio for Dummies" (Wiley). He lives and drives in Hood River, Ore., with his wife and two kids, who share his passion for cars and car technology, especially driving and listening to music.

Monday, May 27, 2013

Reducing Allergens Around the Home ›

Natural Remedies for Allergies

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For many that suffer from seasonal allergies, living on medication to control symptoms such as running nose, sneezing and watery eyes, can be as annoying as coping with the constant symptoms. Common allergy medications have side effects, the most vexing of which is drowsiness and fatigue. But are there alternatives? Recent research shows there are some natural remedies that actually do work, while others are a bit of a bust. So before you reach for that box of pills, consider a natural cure for those pesky hay fever problems.

Butterbur. For the common symptoms of seasonal allergies, such as nasal congestion, doctors often prescribe fexofenadine (Allegra). Research from the University of Dundee in Scotland found that a flowering plant called butterbur increased airflow and relieved congestion in allergy patients similar to fexofenadine. If the results hold in repeated larger studies, scientists might have found a legitimate herbal alternative for people suffering with allergies. If you want to try butterbur, make sure you talk to your doctor first. Also, it is important to choose butterbur that is labeled or certified PA-free. As explained by the National Institutes of Health, the unprocessed butterbur contains PA (pyrrolizidine alkaloids), which can cause liver damage.

Neti Pots. Saline nasal irrigation is a more clinical term for a neti pot, and they may provide sinus pain relief for allergy sufferers. These nasal irrigators have been proven effective for cleansing the nostrils of excess dirt and mucus. A review examined the effectiveness of nasal saline irrigation for symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis, and the research suggests neti pots are beneficial. Nasal irrigation helps whether used alone or when used in addition to nasal sprays or allergy medication. Researchers have found that the biggest problem with neti pots is compliance. Most people stopped using the nasal irrigation systems after a few weeks. The process of using neti pots is easy, but first use can be a little intimidating. The key is to use it regularly throughout the allergy season. Also, use distilled or filtered water, as unclean water could cause other problems.

Honey–the jury is out. The idea that honey that comes from within 100 miles of your home can help curb allergies has been the subject of great debate. The theory makes sense: expose yourself to a product made by pollen-carrying bees and you will in essence naturally “vaccinate” yourself from seasonal allergies. However, research has not backed it up this claim. A study out of the University of Connecticut had patients in three groups: The first group took unfiltered, unpasteurized local honey; the second group took filtered and pasteurized honey; and the third group took corn syrup with honey flavor. Sadly, no group saw any reduction in symptoms. The study was small, and more research needs to be conducted to determine if honey helps with allergies. So go ahead and enjoy some honey in your cup of tea, but don’t expect it to take away your nasal congestion.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Soaring ER use adds more pain to health costs

About half of all patient admissions come through emergency rooms, creating yet another spending problem.

By Bruce Kennedy

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Injured man on crutches © image100, Corbis

In another sign that America's health care system needs healing, a new study suggests that overworked hospital emergency rooms have evolved into the main entrance point for most patients and that the ER is where most hospitals need to work on controlling costs.

The Washington Post notes that trips to U.S emergency rooms have soared in recent years, from 67 million in 1996 to 119 million in 2008. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimates emergency department costs account for up to 5.8% of total health care spending -- or up to $151 billion.

"The ER has become increasingly important as a place where people go for acute unscheduled care," Michael Lee, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School, toldBusiness Insider. "However, there has been little rigorous analysis of its cost structure."

A new study by Rand finds emergency departments take about half of all hospital admissions nationwide. Inpatient admissions and treatment make up 31% of all national health care spending, which means emergency departments can have a major impact on determining overall costs.

"Use of hospital emergency departments is growing faster than the use of other parts of the American medical system," Dr. Art Kellerman, a senior researcher at Rand and the study's senior author, said in a press statement.

"While more can be done to reduce the number of unnecessary visits to emergency rooms, our research suggests emergency rooms can play a key role in limiting growth of preventable hospital admissions."

One of the biggest factors behind the rise of ERs' importance is the economic downturn. Between 2001 and 2008, according to the study, ER use grew at about twice the rate of population growth. At the same time, the number of hospitals nationwide contracted -- with the loss of nearly 200,000 beds -- leaving ERs "crowded with admitted patients who could not be transitioned into inpatient care."

ER doctors, meanwhile, have become more aggressive in their use of costly technologies to diagnose an increasingly older and sicker population. The Rand study quotes a team of Harvard analysts who determined Medicare charges related to emergency medicine were second only to radiation oncology when it came to rising costs.

According to the study, emergency departments "often feel obligated to repeat tests because they cannot get access to the patient's medical record."

Another important factor: Emergency rooms "are the only place in the U.S. health care system where the poor cannot be turned away," the study notes. "As a result, they are disproportionately used by low-income and uninsured patients who cannot reliably get care in other settings."

The researchers say their findings suggest efforts to reduce nonemergency ER visits should focus on finding ways to provide patients with better and more timely access for such care, which in turn would reduce costs by minimizing duplicate tests and cutting down on unnecessary hospital admissions.

"We believe there needs to be more effort to integrate the operations of emergency departments into both inpatient and outpatient care systems," noted lead author Kristy Gonzalez Morganti.

Google Glass to Use OLED Displays from Samsung

By Steve Symington | More Articles | Save For Later
May 23, 2013 | Comments (1)

According to a Korea Times report today, Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG ) top brass has just approved a business proposal from Samsung Display to use high-end OLED screens in the commercial version of Google Glass.

Image source: Google.

Of course, it's hard to think of a more compelling use for OLED technology, which can be made flexible, nearly unbreakable and, most importantly in this case, transparent.

Such an OLED lens incorporated into Google Glass, then, is a perfect application for the tech, and fits beautifully with some of the concepts Samsung envisioned way back in 2011:

On one hand, the folks at Samsung have been demonstrating transparent OLED concept devices as far back as 2010, and the company is currently one of just a few with the necessary OLED manufacturing capacity to not only supply screens for other businesses' products like Google Glass, but also for its own OLED televisions (set to arrive in July), and existing Galaxy series smartphones and tablets.

Even so, if confirmed, today's news would represent one of the first tangible, wide-scale products to feature transparent OLED.

LG Display, on the other hand, is still focusing on increasing production yields for its own OLED televisions, as well as further developing its OLED lighting solutions. Then there's Taiwan-based AU Optronics (NYSE: AUO ) , which helped bothSony and Panasonic build the 56-inch OLED TV prototypes showcased at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. AUO also claimed this week at the 2013 Society for Information Display conference that it has built the world's largest OLED panel to date, at 65 inches. However, AUO still hasn't perfected its mass production techniques, and continues to struggle with improving yields to build smaller-size OLED screens.

Here's how you play itHow can you, as an aspiring investor, benefit from this news?

You could certainly buy shares of Google, for one. While Google Glass has admittedly generated some negative publicity so far, Google seems absolutely determined to be an integral part of the potentially massive wearable computing revolution. Of course, that's certainly not the only reason to buy Google stock; fellow Fool Brian Stoffel recently made acompelling case to own the King of Search for the rest of your life, and I just love the fact Google truly sincerely wants to make our lives better.

Then again, if you want a more direct play on OLED technology, look no further thanUniversal Display (NASDAQ: PANL ) , which not only owns and licenses nearly every OLED patent that matters, but also supplies the host and emitter materials necessary for all of the above-mentioned companies to build their OLED-enabled devices. In the end, that's exactly why Universal Display currently stands alone as my single largest personal holding.

Luckily for anyone looking to open his or her own position in Universal Display, Mr. Market just so happened to unjustifiably pummel the stock after its perfectly decent first quarter earnings report. As a result, if you can be patient and maintain a long-term mindset with Universal Display, I think now's the perfect time to step in.

More expert advice from The Motley Fool
Universal Display has a powerful patent portfolio behind OLEDs, a technology poised to dominate the displays of the future. Its placement at the center of OLEDs makes the company an underappreciated way to play the enormous sales growth in tablets and smartphones. However, like any new technology, there are plenty of risks to Universal Display. Motley Fool analyst Evan Niu, CFA, has authored a new premium report that dives into reasons to buy the company as well as the challenges facing it. For access to this comprehensive report, simplyclick here now.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Cash-for-phone ATMs may fuel violent crime, top cop says

Jeff Rossen and Avni Patel TODAY

Video: New machines popping up in malls across the country enable you to trade in a used cellphone for cash. Some law enforcement officials say the ATMs are making it easier than ever for criminals to profit off your stolen phone. NBC’s Jeff Rossen investigates.

Thieves targeting your cellphone. Now, some officials say, a machine popping up in malls across the country is helping criminals. TODAY National Investigative Correspondent Jeff Rossen reports.

It sounds like a great idea: An ATM where you can trade in your used cellphone and get instant cash for it. But now some police say these machines are making it easier than ever for criminals to profit off your stolen phone.

What to do if your cell phone is stolen

They strike without warning: Thieves snatching cellphones right out of your hands, some victims even getting beat up. Now, a top cop says these machines are fueling the violence. "It's a motivator for the criminal element," Cathy Lanier, Washington, D.C., police chief, told us.
Know a scam? Been ripped off? Click here to email Rossen Reports.

They're called ecoATMs: kiosks that recycle your used cellphone. There are more than 400 of them in shopping malls across the country.

Here's how they work. Put your phone in a bin: The machine scans it for market value, and then gives you cash right on the spot. But critics say these machines are driving thieves to steal more phones for a quick payout.

"I can knock you down and steal your phone, find an ecoATM, I can get up to $300 in cash for that phone," Lanier told us.

Rossen Reports: 'Apple-picking thieves' snatch iPhones

It happened to Suzi Woodruff Lacey. A thief stole her iPhone right from her purse. She used an app to track it down, found it at a mall inside an ecoATM, and got it back. "The ecoATM made it so easy for thieves," she said. "I mean, it's a magnet for thieves."

In fact, police say stolen phones have turned up inside ecoATMs nationwide, from Georgia to Texas to California. The company says it has a system to keep criminals away: First, scanning the person's driver's license, then taking a photo of them.

"And we have a team of people who verify in real time that the person who is standing in front of the machine is the person who's placed in their license," said Ryan Kuder, director of marketing, ecoATM.

"What happens if the person in front of the machine isn't the same person as the license?" we asked him.

"We deny the transaction," Kuder said.

But we found that not always true. We sent two NBC producers who look nothing alike to ecoATMs in two New Jersey malls. We had one producer use the other's ID to cash in a phone. The person in the ID clearly wasn't her, yet the machine still took the phone and spit out the money.

We got the same result at another ecoATM. Remember, the company makes money off these phones. We shared our findings with them. "Does this look like the same woman to you?" we asked Ryan Kuder.

"No, it does not look like the same woman to me," he said.
"What if I told you that this woman went up to one of your machines and used her ID — two of your machines, actually."

"Well, I would say that it would appear that we missed that one," Kuder admitted. "But here's what we do do: We go and we look at these transactions, and we learn from each transaction that we do."
"If we found this in one day, who's to say this is not happening at a lot of your kiosks in a lot of different states every day?" we asked.

"Well, we work very, very hard to make sure that it's not," Kuder replied.

Kuder said that out of every 10,000 phones bought, ecoATM discovers five are stolen, and those are returned. But Washington, D.C., police say they're finding a lot more than that, tracking at least 200 stolen phones to these machines.

ecoATM says it also provide photos, fingerprints and phone serial numbers that have helped police make arrests. "We're collecting more information about these people that are selling phones than anybody else," Kuder said.

Police in D.C. say they've made six arrests so far. But Chief Lanier wants to prevent these crimes altogether, and says giving instant cash for phones only encourages the thieves.

"Working with us after the fact — we appreciate that. Don't get me wrong," Lanier told us. "But that doesn't help the person who's just had their jaw broken for their phone."

The company says that because of our investigation, they're now taking a second look at their ID verification system, and looking for ways to improve the technology, and employee training.

If your phone is stolen: Report it to the police and your wireless carrier immediately. Police say it’s helpful to have your phone’s serial number, a unique identifier called a IMEI or MEID, to track down the phone.

If you have an iPhone, you can find instructions for retrieving your serial number on Apple’s support page. For other types of devices, contact your wireless provider. If your phone is stolen and you don’t have the serial number, you can always get it from your wireless carrier.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Can red wine boost your testosterone?

New research may suggest a glass or two a night

By Cassie Shortsleeve

A compound in red wine could increase levels of testosterone circulating in your body by inhibiting the way you excrete the hormone, according to new research in Nutrition Journal.

Normally, one of the ways testosterone is eliminated from your body is through urine. An enzyme called UGT2B17 attaches specific molecules to testosterone, enabling your body to get rid of it. But researchers at Kingston University in London found that quercetin--a compound in red wine--blocks UGT2B17 in lab studies. That means potentially elevated T levels in your bloodstream, and less in your urine. (What else can more T do for you?

Find out with these 5 Easy Ways to Increase Your Manpower.)

What does that mean for you? Researchers aren't sure yet. "This is a classic example of a study done in a test tube that potentially might have implications for humans, but there are many steps that need to be taken to see if these findings can be translated to humans," says Michael Joyner, M.D., an exercise researcher at the Mayo Clinic.

In the meantime, enjoy your wine--but stick to a glass or two max a night. Chugging wine--or any alcohol for that matter--could tank your T levels, not boost them. Men who boozed even moderately every day for 3 weeks saw a 7 percent decrease in testosterone levels, according to a recent Dutch study. (Need some healthy testosterone-foody suggestions?

Try these: 40 Foods with Superpowers.)