Life is full of disappointments.  Many times you get stuck in a situation you cannot control, and it’s easy to let despair take over.  This is when it’s most crucial that you laugh.  Yes you must laugh.  When there is nothing else you can do, laugh!  The recession is a problem that you cannot control.  There really isn’t anything you can do.  Maybe you lost your job, maybe you’re stressed about our enormous national debt, or maybe you’re just nervous about the whole thing.  Well you need to laugh.

Spilling Buckets knows this and put together a good collection of economic political cartoons. My favorite takes place in the year 2018.  Political cartoons have been as important to America as tea parties, American flags, and liberty bells.  No other media device can capture the political climate at any given moment in less than 10 seconds better than the political cartoon.  I’ve sometimes found myself browsing through old political cartoons from the 1800s and 1900s.  It’s great for a history lesson, and I’m currently looking for any books that compile cartoons from American history.  If you know of any drop them in the comments.  Because we always need a laugh, especially in uncertain times, Spilling Buckets gets my editor’s choice for this week.

Here’s the best of the rest I read this week:

Frugal Dad created a list of ideas for curbing your appetite for stuff.  Normally hate posts like this with tips that no one will actually use, but he has some good ideas.  My favorite one is where he tells you to buy a TiVo.  Yeah, buy one to curb your appetite for stuff.  Brilliant man that Frugal Dad.

Harvard Business rarely disappoints me.  This is why they are fairly frequent on my list of good reads each week.  Lew McCreary doesn’t like receiving expensive mailings from banks sending false messages of “confidence”.  Instead Lew wants honest advertising, that can really show a commitment to the customer and understanding of the situation the bank helped create.  Read through to see what Lew thinks banks should be putting in their ads.

Everybody Loves Your Money is a new blog to me.  They talk about one of my favorite subjects, cars.  This week they posted a bit on a service called TrueCar.  TrueCar, like Edmunds’ True Market Value service allows you to figure out exactly how much people are paying for the cars you’re looking to buy.  In the example in the post they used my car, a Honda Accord EX I4.  It brought back good memories from buying my car last year and it was good to know I still got a deal, even in today’s environment.  Added bonus, TrueCar uses an awesome bell curve graph.

Bad Money Advice strikes again with an attack at Dave Ramsey.  I’ve expressed my opinions before on Dave.  What it boils down to is Dave does great with the debt reduction stuff.  When it comes to taxes and investments, not so much.  Frank really picks his advice apart.  He’s the smartest investment guy in personal finance,

Finally, don’t miss the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights, which featured my post on how corporate executives should be paid!

If you have any suggestions for my web junctions, please send them to me via Twitter, or just send me an email or leave a comment.  Same goes for blogs I may not have heard of!

Photo: shareski

By The Weakonomist

The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice.

categories: links, lists