I am getting impatient. I want the election to be over so I can stop watching Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Larry King, Nightline and local news. What else is there to blog about right now but the election? Plenty of stuff; the same stuff that I used to blog about. But I am consumed [...]
What news will come from the MastersButtheads of the Universe today, a continuing fall in the global economy perhaps? Maybe the MBAs should have “learned to play the guitar,” as Mark Knopfler suggests, instead of learning to play the market. At least then the suffering we are enduring would have been limited to our ears [...]
It could be the slogan that was, “let capitalists be capitalists.” It likely will be again, soon enough. But the “bailout” is coming soon with restrictions that Wall Street and others haven’t seen for awhile. Don’t hold your breath that the pending legislation will reverse much of the effects of deregulatory fervor that swept the Congress [...]
Obama will tell you it’s Bush and his buddy McCain that helped make the current money morass happen. He is not entirely wrong but he is not entirely right either. Congress facilitated the mess by repealing the Glass-Steagal Act that kept the insurance, investment and banking businesses firewalled from one another. Institutional investors, including the [...]
Treasury Secretary Paulson and Republicans in Congress object to tying limits on executive compensation (especially “golden parachutes”) to bailouts in the legislation now pending. Even with such limits, a taxpayer revolt may be in the offing. Freemarket conservatives jump up and down, stamp their feet and scream “class warfare!” whenever anyone talks of raising taxes [...]
When last I posted about choosing where you live I promised some methodologies. Left brain/right brain? Subjective/objective? Let’s not go there for now. Starting from the purely rational or practical approach, my recommendation is to do a simple self assessment of what is important to you (and any significant others involved–spouse, family, intimate friend, etc.). Are recreational [...]
Continue reading about Methodologies for deciding where to live
Remember unit-pricing (have you even heard of unit-pricing)? It’s something you will find on the little labels on supermarket shelves that tell you not what the the total price of an item is but what the price is per some unit of measure. It might be by weight (ounces, pounds, etc), by volume or by [...]
Do you carry a balance on one or more credit cards? Big mistake. The highest interest rate for borrowing money is on revolving credit. Way higher than mortgage loans, student loans or even used car loans. Let’s say you carry an average daily balance of $3,000 a month on a credit card. At the current [...]
Continue reading about Earn money, don’t pay, for using credit cards
An odd sort of faulty economic impact analysis keeps leaving the lips of TV and radio talking heads. I suppose it is part and parcel of the often observed herd behavior of mainstream media’s first line reporters. High gasoline prices are keeping people home. Vacations will be shortened or limited to local travel. In the end, [...]
Continue reading about Gas Prices–The Real Harm Is NOT Vacations
Is there anything sold in Walmart, other than produce and many grocery items, that is NOT made in China? How many low cost electonic accessories sold in BestBuy, Circuit City, Radio Shack are NOT made in China. How many toys sold in the various toy stores, along with Walmart? Actually, this is not as xenophobic [...]