Archive for April, 2009

Monday, April 13th, 2009

The Complexity of the Avocado

So during my time off, I’ve been heavily vested in my home garden. I decided I would take some avocado seeds from a few avocados I purchased recently and plant them to create a couple of fruit bearing trees. After a few weeks and no budding plants I decided to do a little research and [...]

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Sunday, April 12th, 2009

New And Improved Chinese Poisons?

Did you buy a house during the housing boom?  The drywall in your boom home may contain poisonous Chinese drywall.   Did you furnish that home with new furniture?   That furniture may contain Chinese chemicals that harm your skin! It looks like the Chinese poison train continues to chug along the United States from coast to [...]

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Thursday, April 9th, 2009

Have You Noticed The Price Deflation Everywhere?

If you haven’t noticed, almost every fast food restaurant has a new “value priced” menu which is significantly lower than previous menus. Quiznos now has the $4 Torpedo sandwich; KFC has a new dollar menu; Popeye’s has a $1.99 special; Subway now has $1 sides with the purchase of a sub; Domino’s now has $5 [...]

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Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Will Work For Your Will

No doubt at some point you’ve encountered a person with a sign which reads, “Will Work For Food” and as I left the gym yesterday, I noticed a limo near the exit.  The chauffeur of the limo rolled down his window and asked if I was Mr. Black and I waved him off so he [...]

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Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Is Technological Advancement The Problem With The Economy?

If you’ve ever watched Star Trek or most science fiction shows you’ll inevitably encounter “teleportation” devices that can “beam” or transfer one object from one point to some other point, usually a distant point tens or hundreds of miles away.   I usually do thought experiments and ponder what would happen if such a device existed [...]

3 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Store Branded Generics Have Come A Long Way

I went to the grocery store the other day and saw a buy one get one free deal on store brand “Doritos” snack chips so I picked some up dreaded that I would find the chips an inferior tasteless generic but much to my surprise I couldn’t tell the difference between “real” Doritos and store [...]

2 Comments » - Posted in Money Management,Observations by

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

Sorry Baby Boomers, Social Security Trust Fund Has Disappeared

Back in January, I wrote this post discussing the loss of approximately $30 billion in health insurance premiums as job losses continue to mount but I should have thrown in Social Security payments as well.   The Washington Post is reporting that job losses are taking their toll on the social security trust fund, The U.S. [...]

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Friday, April 3rd, 2009

What Happened To Age Wave Theory?

Harry Dent popularized the Age Wave Theory which posits that the stock market would peak between 2007 and 2009 because of the age demographic of the baby boomer generation.   Perhaps it was coincidental that we had the housing credit mess coincide with baby boomer theory or perhaps they are related but the one question that [...]

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Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

Recession Brings Out The Worst In People

I’ve been hearing numerous anecdotal stories from numerous people about how their workplace is becoming a cut-throat dog-eat-dog pirate land.  I’ve heard stories of one employee undercutting another employee then topping it off with a stab in the back.   I hear stories of other employees taking credit for other people’s work but the most amusing [...]

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Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

By Enormous Reader Demand, I’m Adding Ads To My Blog

Over the past few months I’ve received hundreds of e-mails from avid readers expressing their concern about the lack of ads on my blog. Here are just a few examples of reader e-mail I’ve been dealing with lately: Karen writes, “Rich, I love your blog but I’m constantly disappointed by the lack of ads touting [...]

2 Comments » - Posted in Raves by