What happens when a former Apple executive and other top geeks focus their energy on a... thermostat? The Nest Learning Thermostat. I just finished a neat Wired magazine article about this new gadget, which hopes to make saving energy both trendy … [Read the rest]
Daniel Kahneman, behavioral economics guru and Nobel Prize winner, has a new book out called Thinking, Fast and Slow. This one is definitely on my to-read list. You may remember him from his TED Talk about Happiness = Earning $60,000 A … [Read the rest]
The following offer is targeted at American Express Business Platinum cardholders, but has been reported to work successfully with all American Express cards. The deal is if you register your card at AmexNetwork.com/LowesPlatinum and make a single … [Read the rest]
Vanguard's research division published a new report [pdf] that found that a portfolio split 50/50 between stocks and bonds had very similar inflation-adjusted returns regardless of whether the U.S. economy was growing or in recession. Here are the … [Read the rest]
There was a thought-provoking NYT article about luxuries last week that pointed to a 2006 report by the Pew Research center that surveyed Americans on what they considered "necessities" versus "luxuries". Some things have become more accepted as … [Read the rest]
Daily deals site KGBDeals has a national deal of 2 Fandango.com movie tickets for $12. Each ticket has a maximum value of $12 (total $24). Supposedly has 13 days left, but with over 9,000 sold it may sell out. Valid until January 31, 2012 and … [Read the rest]
In addition to the $25 statement credit for American Express cardholders, FedEx has a separate promotion where they will be giving out $25 "Shop Small" AmEx gift cards in support of Small Business Saturday through a Facebook promotion. You'll need … [Read the rest]
Update: Also check out the Citi Forward® Card for College Students. As I was reminded in my best cash back credit cards post, the Citi Forward card is a great rewards card for those who spend a lot on restaurants and at Amazon.com. That's not … [Read the rest]
New inflation numbers are out for September 2011, so it’s time for the usual semi-annual update. New Inflation Rate. March 2011 CPI-U was 223.467. September 2011 CPI-U was 226.889, for a semi-annual increase of 1.53%. (CPI-U increased 3.9% … [Read the rest]
As you may know, there is a temporary 2% payroll tax cut in 2011. Instead of the normal 6.2% Social Security tax on gross wages up $106,800 for employees, it is only 4.2%. This is supposed to be reflected automatically in your paycheck, so most … [Read the rest]
There was plenty of discussion on simplifying the US budget to household-sized numbers, and I have nothing to add, because I have zero interest in being an economist. :) Here's one more attempt at sharing some digestible information. An … [Read the rest]
Someone sent this to me via e-mail, and I don't know the original source. From the $38.5 trillion number, that seems to refer to the budget cut deal that averted a US government shutdown in April 2011. In any case, it does make the numbers much … [Read the rest]
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