Last year’s dramatic drop in consumers buying $300 jeans can be categorized in the genre known as “recession porn,” which chronicled all the odd effects of the economic downturn. The appeal of overpriced jeans may have faded (excuse the pun), but apparently there are now similarly plain, even more overpriced pants taking their place.
What You Get at Discount Supermarkets: Fewer Choices, Better Prices
Grocery stores such as Aldi and Save-A-Lot offer a tradeoff that plenty of shoppers can live with: Compared to a standard supermarket, they stock far fewer products, but, compared to a standard supermarket, shopping there can save you a ton of money.
Fed Intends to Keep Rates Low
The Federal Reserve’s policy making committee still has its lasers focused on the weak points in this economic recovery. In the minutes of the open market committee meeting, released today, the Fed noted that the economy is improving but it also noted ongoing weakness in the labor market and the fact that bank lending continues to …
It’s a Deal: $5 Off $25 Purchase at Save-A-Lot Food Stores
Sign up to receive e-mails with deals and promotions from discount supermarket Save-A-Lot, and you’ll receive a coupon knocking $5 off your next purchase of $25 or more (thanks Buxr).
Anybody Want to Fight?
Tips for battling it out with debt collectors, TV-Internet-phone providers, the IRS, and more.
The missing legal link in the Gizmodo-iPhone case
Last month a software engineer at Apple accidentally left his iPhone in a bar. A fellow patron picked up the phone and asked the people in the bar around him if it belonged to any of them. It didn’t. He took the phone home and the next day noticed that the phone looked odd. He jimmied open its case and saw that the phone was different …
‘The Woodstock of Dentistry’
Crowds of thousands flock to southern California, as if pulled by some magical force. And that magical force is the acute pain they feel from both their teeth that are desperately in need of dental attention, and from the fact that they have no insurance and no other options but to sleep out overnight waiting for dentists offering free treatment.
Cheapskate Wisdom from … Nevada Senator John Ensign
“I think most people in Las Vegas would take offense at having Wall Street compared to Las Vegas. Because in Las Vegas, actually people know that the odds are against them. They play anyway. On Wall Street, they manipulate the odds while you’re playing the game. And I would say that it’s actually much more dishonest.”
It’s gut check time for Europe
So now Europe may have a real crisis on its hands. It’s been clear to financial markets for months that the debt woes in Greece could spread to the Eurozone’s other financially unsound PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain). But the Eurozone’s leadership didn’t bother to take heed. Instead of dealing with the zone’s …
Goldman Sachs execs still don’t get it
Today’s Goldman Sachs hearing in the Senate is fantastic theater. The kind of theater that makes you want to run to the restroom to vomit.
I’ve been watching the hearing on TV, and I am nauseated to report that they still don’t get it. The world came to the brink of financial ruin, and the people driving the mortgage securities …
Is the Internet an Information Service or a Telecom Service?
And why should you care either way?
Senator Levin Loves Goldman’s Expletives
I thought about entitling this post, “Goldman Gets Blasted For Selling a ‘Sh-tty’ Deal,” a phrase borrowed from an internal Goldman Sachs email that Senator Carl Levin chose to cite in his questioning of current and former Goldman Sachs executives during Tuesday morning’s investigative hearings into the financial crisis. But then I …