From July 20 through July 26, all customers can get a second set of glasses for free at EyeBuyDirect.com. There’s a minimum order of $14.95. More details here.
Think You Have It Bad? Worse Than Frank McCourt and His Family in the 1930s?
The death of Frank McCourt has brought his Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela’s Ashes back to the forefront. The book, about his too-poor-for-words childhood in New York and Ireland, his manic, alcoholic father, and his mother’s attempts to put food on the table while dealing with another baby (or another baby who died), is raw, …
Financial innovation (What is it good for?)
Tyler Cowen writes, in response to a Felix Salmon dismissal of financial innovation as “net, net … a bad thing,”
I can understand that particular financial innovations might be bad, but financial innovation overall? Surely this claim was false in years 1200, 1900, and also 1950. (Of course you’ll find very harmful financial
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What Will a Cheapskate Spend Good Money On? Part I
Even a cheapskate has to spend money sometimes. Today, I’m introducing a new series of posts in which I ask various frugal folks—bloggers, writers, money-saving and consumer experts—to name the products, services, experiences, and other “things” they’re willing to shell out good money on. Smart cheapskates understand that buying …
Cook & Save Blogs Beyond $50 a Week
The hullabaloo over the Fifty Bucks a Week bloggers brought up the fact that there are many, many interesting blogs out there focused on cooking on a budget. Here’s a round-up of a few other blogs that are at least vaguely concerned with saving money, shopping smartly, and preparing great dishes at home.
Would the surtax on high earners just reduce the number of high earners?
A reader in Kansas City writes:
If income tax rate increases plus surcharges combine to push the effective rate for “the rich” up past 40 percent, won’t we likely see a dramatic DROP in the income of the top one percent? Presumably many of the business owners who now treat their corporate earnings as personal income through LLCs
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New column: Financial aid for consumers
Between Love and Madness Lies … Recession
The recession stinks. Could you bottle it up and sell it as cologne? Two bedheaded jokers pull off a funny video spoofing the old, artsy and super-pretentious black-and-white Calvin Klein “Obsession” ads.
It’s a Deal: Flights from $29 on JetBlue
A sale on JetBlue offers one-way flights starting at $29 between Ft. Lauderdale and Nassau, Bahamas, and one-way fares of $49, $54, or $64 for many other flights within the U.S. More details here [http://jetblue.com/UBF/flights/flights.aspx].
Hey Now, You’re a Blog Star: Hottest Blogs are Written by Economists?
Hmmm … should I read waste some time wwilfing at The Onion or dig into a little light reading about macroeconomic theory at Econbrowser? According to a WSJ story, more and more people are going the latter route, trying to figure out where the economy is heading by way of blogs penned by giant-brained econogeeks.
Don’t worry, Citigroup isn’t really that profitable
The headline number from Citigroup’s second-quarter earnings release—$4.3 billion—is pretty staggering. Goldman Sachs only made $3.4 billion; JP Morgan Chase $2.7 billion. And those are the well-managed banks.
Then you read to the second line of the earnings release and see that Citi booked a gain of $6.7 billion, after taxes, …
Deep Impact: 10 Ways the Recession Is Hitting Home in Lots of Homes
Divorced couples are living under the same roof because it’s too expensive to really split up right now. There are either more people around the house (because they’re out of work) or fewer people around the house (because they’re working second and third jobs to pay bills and get health coverage). More people are doing their own chores …