Watch Out! Bank Fees Are Bigger and Badder
Unless you’ve been locked in a vault, you know that the banking industry isn’t doing so hot. Faced with declining revenues, banks are creating or increasing all sorts of fees on its customers.
Articles from Contributor
Stay Young by Drinking 50 Bottles of Wine a Day
I’m constantly astounded by the number and variety of pills and miracle cures on the market. The ads for prescription drugs are bad enough—you know, your restless leg syndrome may subside, but the “side effects may include heart failure, erections that last four hours, eternal damnation, and blah, blah, blah.” And the products that …
Free: The New Business Model
Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired, has a new book out that’s getting mucho attention: Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Anderson argues that in the digital age, more and more businesses should and will offer their goods completely for free (to the delight of cheapskates everywhere). Free is not gimmick to entice customers to try …
Cheapskate Wisdom from … Jackie Mason
“I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something.”
Insurance Spokesman: I Was “a Well-Paid Huckster”
If you still think we can trust the insurance companies to keep costs health care costs down, provide good care, and have their customers’ health truly at heart (excuse the pun), meet Wendell Potter. Mr. Potter was a pr executive for insurance companies for 20 years, spending most of his career with CIGNA. At some point, he realized that …
Smart, Cost-Effective Tips for Selling a House
If you’re having trouble selling a house, you’re not alone. The housing market is weak, and many sellers are struggling to attract buyers even after drastic price reductions. One notable example: This past spring, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner couldn’t sell his home for less than what he paid for it in 2004, and so he gave up. He’s …
Need a Job? What a Laugh!
The Onion offers some recession porn as only The Onion can, dedicating a special issue of its “magazine” to: “Workplaces, Paychecks, and Jobs: A Nostalgic Look Back at a Vanishing Part of the American Landscape, from The Onion.” Jokes aside, is anyone hiring nowadays?
Why Howard Dean Didn’t Scream at Stephen Colbert
The state of health care is enough to make you scream. But get this: Howard Dean, he of the famed, primal, unhinged, scary presidential-campaign-ending scream, doesn’t unleash as much as a grunt during his recent appearance on The Colbert Report. He does get in a good jab involving public bathrooms at disgraced pol Larry Craig, though. …
Why Protests About Obama’s Health Care Reforms Are a Little Sad
It was reported that demonstrators gathered outside ABC affiliates yesterday, to protest the network’s decision to air a town hall meeting with President Obama about health care. Protestors were angry that no time was allotted to those opposed to Obama’s plan.
Why Lobbyists Call the Shots in Health Care
In the big health care debate, the BBC succinctly nailed one very important point: “A lot of powerful interests have a lot to lose.” That’s why so many organizations (health care companies and the American Medical Association in particular) are clamoring to spread their influence. And thus far, it’s pretty well proven that if they send …
Why Isn’t Health Care More Like a Washing Machine?
When shopping for a washing machine—or a car, or a DVD player, or a stroller—consumers have lots of options. Competition and innovation help bring prices down, and generally speaking, the products that give the most bang for the buck are successful in the long run. With health care as it is today, there is limited competition and …
Why No Average Joes at Obama’s Health Care Town Hall?
ABC hosted a town hall-style forum on health care with the president last night. But the people sitting in the audience and asking questions certainly weren’t representative of any town in the U.S. Questions came primarily from white collar types—a PR exec, several doctors, one woman was supposedly in the Bush administration. The one …