Various Headlines that just make you wonder how this hope and change thing is going... Banks Scrapping the Free Checking Account... Facing new government regulations and a lackluster economy, the financial industry is forcing customers to pay more just to park their money at the bank "If free checking accounts were animals, they'd be on the World Wildlife Fund's list of endangered species," says Catherine New at The Huffington Post. This week, industry trade group Bankrate reported that only 39 percent of checking ... Read More

Obama Administration Gave General Electric—Parent Company of NBC--$24.9 Million in ‘Stimulus’ Grants The Obama administration gave corporate giant General Electric—the parent company of NBC--$24.9 million in grants from the $787-billion economic “stimulus” law President Barack Obama signed in February 2009, according to records posted by the administration at Recovery.gov. Despite getting $24.9 million from U.S. taxpayers, GE decreased its U.S.-based employees by 18,000 in 2009, according to the company’s 2009 annual report. According to Standard & Poor's, GE took in $156 billion in ... Read More

Signs Signs, Everywhere Signs. Political in nature? Maybe. Waste of money? I think so. As the midterm election season approaches, new road signs are popping up everywhere – millions of dollars worth of signs touting "The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act" and reminding passers-by that the program is "Putting America Back to Work." From ABC News On the road leading to Dulles Airport outside Washington, DC there's a 10' x 11' road sign touting a runway improvement project funded ... Read More

On the news, we keep hearing how we are coming out of our economic woes. Do people really know and understand what is happening in Greece and Europe and really think it's not happening, or couldn't happen here? Not me, and that is why I liked this list of 25 questions. From 25 Questions To Ask Anyone Who Is Delusional Enough To Believe That This Economic Recovery Is Real: #1) In what universe is an economy with 39.68 million Americans on food stamps ... Read More

In spite of the government telling us the recession is over, I am hearing of layoffs, pay cuts, and people not able to find jobs yet. I was very interested in the headline I recently found, 7 Ways to Survive the Jobless Recovery. Here are some snippets: 1. Don't wait for lost jobs to return. Chances are they won't. In prior recessions, many job losses were temporary, and laid-off workers were often called back. But this time there's a lot more going on ... Read More

This was forwarded to me and if it works or not, we'll likely never know! The Birk Economic Recovery Plan I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG. Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend. To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.. So ... Read More

Laura borrowed my camera last night and after a session with it, she downloaded the photos to her laptop in her usual fashion, then came to my room to put the camera and everything away. Not long after that, I heard a little panic from her room, "Where did my pictures go?" She was sure she downloaded them, and I went to her room and showed her how to do a search for images modified on that day. Nothing came up. We ... Read More

"For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return” "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal" -------------------------------------------------------- My external hard drive failed me this Sunday, locking away from me some of my most precious treasures. I have done well I think, in not panicking and trying to get through this without falling apart. While I go through the motions of what I have learned is called, "Data ... Read More