It’s no secret that the federal government is racking serious amounts of debt. It was bad before the recession started but the last couple of years have exacerbated the issue. The budget deficit is over $1 trillion this year and this trend is expected to continue for a few more years. Our national debt should [...]

Lately, news coverage has been talking about how the dollar is tanking all over the world.  It’s tanking so hard that some are wondering if it will remain the currency of the world for much longer.  That’s a bunch of crap, and that’s not simply because I’m an arrogant American, but that isn’t the point [...]

Have you heard about this guy Raj Rajaratnam? He’s a billionaire hedge fund manager who seems to have gotten into trouble because he was engaging in “insider trading”. I was talking with someone about this yesterday and they asked “what is insider trading?” Instead of explaining it to her I pointed her to Wikipedia. But [...]

One of my most loyal readers (my mother) sent me an email the other day telling me about her husband’s (my pops’) dealings with the customer service system of a major retailer’s 800 number.  After getting lost in the automated systems he eventually gave up in frustration.  Having a short temper doesn’t help much either.  [...]

There are a few products on this planet that I would endorse without question because they bring me so much happiness.  BMWs, Pentel RSVP pens, Rainbow flip-flops, Vanguard, Sam Adams, Sudafed (not that PE crap either) and Mozilla Firefox are just a few examples.  Today I want to talk to you about Brach’s Candy Corn [...]

By the time you read this post today you’ve likely already been manipulated a dozen times.  Do you feel exposed?  Exploited?  Stupid?  You really shouldn’t feel manipulated.  It happens to all of us.  Do you feel better now?  Good, because I just manipulated you.  You should feel manipulated (just did it again). Webster’s defines “manipulate” [...]

I hate to cite Apple for examples, but they do a pretty good job of running a business and so here we go. Imagine you’re Apple, you’re making boatloads of money on iPods.  Your cash situation is great.  As a company you sit on so much cash you can buy whatever you want.  Smartly, you [...]

Economics is an amazing science. It covers more ground than any other discipline because whenever we work with money or make a decision, we’re participating in economics. I’m fond of using exercises to help organize thoughts and illustrate points.  The following exercise was an attempt to describe economics in one word.  Because it only works [...]