The finger pointing continues.  The House rejected the effort to “stimulate” the financial sector with $700 billion, and all we hear on the talking heads show is how the Democrats are single handily killing off the economy, or how the Bush administration is responsible for all this mess.  Phooey.

This whole thing started snowballing well before Bush took office, and the proof is out there on the internet, if you just care to look.  For instance, an article from 1999 in the New York Times on how Fannie Mae was being pressured to offer easy credit to increase lending… by who?  None other than the Clinton administration:

In a move that could …

Read more…

According to a report out on Bloomberg today, China is continuing its curb on vehicles put in place on July 20th to help with the pollution problem ahead of the Beijing Olympics, which apparently was quite effective.  The air quality is better now than it has been in over a decade, and in fact, pollutant levels dropped by as much as 50% during the Olympics.

The city will “seal off” 30 percent of government and Communist Party-registered vehicles Oct. 1, the Beijing government said on its Web site today. It will also limit the time the remaining government vehicles, as well as company- registered …

Read more…

I’ve been trying to ignore the markets lately.  I’ve been trying to ignore politics too.  Unfortunately that makes me the silent one at the water cooler at work.  I also imposes a silent streak in the blogosphere.

The Reserve has closed their funds (after breaking the buck), which makes me look like a genius for moving my money out of RYPQX a week prior. if only by reason of being lucky.

To be honest, I’m not sure what this financial situation means for me.  I’ve still got plenty of cash at Emigrant Direct making a measly 3%, but it’s guaranteed money, and good enough for an emergency fund.

None of the stocks I …

Google recently released it’s new browser in an effort to compete with Microsoft and Firefox for your internet perusal tool of choice.  

I have to admit, I’m a bit of an early adopter, so I jumped at the chance to download “Chrome” in beta format. 

Chrome appears minimalist by design, but the advertising super-giant claims that the browser is faster, safer and “easier” than its counterparts.

So far, the new browser does appear to be faster than loading the same pages in Firefox, and considerably faster than Internet Explorer, although I really don’t have the means to quantify that statement.

A few features I like about the new browser: Dynamic …

I’ve been thinking about a good non-oil related stock to start building a position in.  What do you guys think about Wal-Mart (WMT: chart, web, Y!).

It’s had a good run recently, which makes me wonder if it’s too late to get in.

In no way do I think we’re out of the woods in terms of our countries credit and debt problems, and I think we’re just now seeing the effects of a slimmer wallet.