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A Quick Economic Makeover

I just want to point out an excellent resource that a friend of mine brought to my attention last week. This is a post titled "24 Quick Actions That Can Change Your Financial Life Forever." Actually, it goes beyond finances, strictly speaking, which is why I called it an economic makeover, but even that doesn't quite cover it. Read more [...]
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A Garden in a Swimming Pool

Dennis and Danielle McClung took a foreclosed home in Mesa, Arizona that had an empty, dilapidated swimming pool in the back yard. Rather than restore it as a regular pool, they turned it into a combination garden greenhouse and fish pond that now provides nearly all of the food they need for their family of four. Read more [...]
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Unemployment is Hitting the Young Harder

A Briefing Paper released by the Economic Policy Institute today paints a very grim picture for young adults and youth who are looking for a job. The analysis confirms what many people suspect and a lot of younger job hunters know first-hand: the jobs just aren’t there. Read more [...]
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Dodging Price Traps

We've all seen the trick where something is priced for a penny less than what it could be; in stead of charging $50 they charge $49.00. Gas stations even increment things down to tenths of a cent. The weird thing is, this strategy works of they'd stop using. This is an example of what I call a pricing trap. A psychological trick to make think you're paying less, or getting a better deal than you really are. Read more [...]
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The Resume as Folk Magic

I've written and sent out countless resumes and CVs in my time as a job seeker. This extended experiment in job-seeking has proven to my satisfaction that resumes are, on the whole, pretty useless when it comes to actually finding a job. For just about every job I have had, it was a personal contact or someone inquiring on my behalf that led to employment. The resume was almost an afterthought. In fact, I would be very surprised if most of my employers actually read my resume. Read more [...]
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Time for a Garden

Each year for many years we've planted a vegetable garden starting about now, or sometimes earlier. This can make a real difference in a number of ways, not just by delivering fresh produce to your table and hopefully those of your neighbors (face it, if you don't get too much of something each year, it's not a good year). Read more [...]
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The 23% Decline in Household Incomes

While this will hardly come as a surprise to most readers, the Fed has released the results of research conducted in 2007 and 2009 showing a 23% decline in household income during those two years. While there is some evidence that some households, including some of the poorer, have seen slightly better days since then, this survey makes it possible to actually quantify somewhat the extent of the damage done by this recessions. Read more [...]
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What’s Behind the Current Unemployment?

Contrary to what one might think, capitalism is not about the creation of jobs. That is not its purpose. It's purpose is to make money for people who own businesses. If some of that money finds its way to workers and other forms of overhead, fine. But the mutant capitalism embraced by today's financial elite worships at the altar of efficiency and maximizing profits in a way that has not been seen since the Bad Old Days before workers began to secure their rights to a decent share for their labor. Read more [...]
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Ramen: The Starving Student’s Staff of Life

My preparation was pretty artless, frankly. I liked the noodles more than the soup, so I tended to just throw in a packet of seasoning and mix it in with the cooked, drained noodles. It was adequate. Today the styles and flavors of ramen and its allied products have proliferated beyond belief, especially if you chance to wander into a large Asian supermarket. Read more [...]
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