The Economy

Perhaps the biggest danger to free markets , is not oppressive regulation by the government, but the gimmicky players that treat the world markets as a giant ponzi game. I buy my gas from this dude named Jose. It seems that Jose is as closely attuned to the International petroleum markets as any day trader. When the price of a barrel of oil goes up, Jose immediately raises his prices. These days it goes up daily. This really doesn't make any sense. When the Shell truck came by a couple of...Read Full Story

  More than the collapse of Bear Stearns , or keeping the speculators on Wall Street happy, the people I know are more concerned that the American dollar is only slightly stronger than the peso. One doesn't need to know the slightest thing about economics to notice that it is costing more to balance the household budget today than it did just six months ago. A visit to the supermarket is only marginally less unpleasant than pulling up to the pumps.  Besides the fact that the predatory...Read Full Story

In a word: Grim. In one of the most ominous visual representations of the state of the economy, we must collectively shudder. Thousands of cars, seen here woefully unsold, sit collecting dust in what is the largest sign of the times we've seen since the last photo shoot at another field of unsold cars. Good news is, if you're in the market for a new car and are willing to apply some simple negotiating tactics to the sales process, you'll get a screamin' deal. Here's a quick tutorial on this...Read Full Story

President Barack Obama and Congress tackled the troubled economy on Wednesday, weighing tactics for fixing the struggling financial industry and pushing ahead with a massive economic recovery package of new spending and tax cuts. Obama, in his first full day in office, planned to meet with his White House economic advisers. On Capitol Hill, Timothy Geithner, Obama's nominee for secretary of the Treasury, told senators the country needs a "forceful course" to meet the economic crisis. The...Read Full Story

A Costco customer looks at a display of televisions as she shops at a Costco store October 28, 2008 in San Francisco, California. As the economy continues to falter, business research firm The Conference Board reported today that its consumer confidence index fell to an all-time low of 38, down from 64.1 in September. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America) Need more evidence that we're in a recession? Watch and weep: More lack of consumer confidence photos: Photos by GettyRead Full Story