Black Friday Sanity v. Consumer Craziness

An entire mini-industry has been constructed around Black Friday, our newest national holiday. Much more is written about Black Friday deals, leaks, strategies, and other craziness than is written about the origin and meaning of Thanksgiving. Now some some stores are opening at midnight (Target being one of them), forcing employees to work on Thanksgiving. It is all so pathetic.

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Is Consumer Stupidity Incurable?

I saw this headline and had to comment: Banks continue to rake in huge amounts in overdraft fees.

Wait – it gets worse when you read the specifics: Banks and credit unions received $30.8 billion in overdraft fees in just the first 6 months of 2011.

That’s $30.8 BILLION! Read more

Do Bored Economics Professors Deserve Tenure?

The U.S. has too many unprepared and unmotivated students attending too many lousy colleges. (I use the word “students”  loosely because being a student implies that there is actual “studying” involved. A more accurate term would be “attendees” because so many college attendees place studying well below drinking, partying, and hooking-up on the list of must-do college activities.  But I digress. Read more

Thank-You Tea Party for our Damaged Retirement Accounts

Mr. ToughMoneyLove is as fiscally conservative as most but I am also pragmatic. The same can’t be said for our tea party members of Congress who robotically activated their “no new revenues” autopilot.  Then they didn’t know enough to deactivate it. They refused to see what was apparent to everyone else – that compromise was the only way to reach an agreement that consumers and the investing community would accept as a positive outcome. Read more

Money Advice for Parents of Kids who are Grad School Wannabees

Some baby boomers have completed the task of helping their kids through college. Some of those kids are now contemplating graduate school, the kind that may cost a lot of money. These include law school and business school, where scholarship money is rare. Why are scholarships rare for those programs? Because many exist primarily to feed cash to the university. Our culture and economy do not need more lawyers or MBAs but the colleges don’t want you to think in that direction.

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Overselling the College Degree

I distrust the student loan industry and the higher-ed bureaucrats who exploit it relentlessly. Motivated by economic self-interest, student lenders and college officials have persuaded misguided politicians that “college for all” is a noble goal. It absolutely is not. Read more

Apple Fanboys Called Out

The iPad 2 went on sale today. The mesmerized Apple fanboys and fangirls were lining up as usual. Instead of ranting (again) myself about this silly consumer behavior, I give you Splork: Undignified iPad 2 Consumer Dumbsh-ts

Wisconsin is Definitely Off My Retirement List

Actually, Wisconsin was never on my list of possible retirement destinations but just to make sure I had enough reasons not to move there, the unions stepped up. Read more

Collective Bargaining in the TSA

Well, travelers, the first shoe has fallen in the path toward union job actions shutting down U.S. airports. The pathetic leadership of the TSA has agreed to collective bargaining with airport screeners. Unbelievable. Read more

Her Very Costly College Education

This young woman bought herself a financially worthless sociology degree for $200k in student loans.  She regrets it.  She should.  She admits now that she was “delusional.” Those delusions were propped up by “student loans are good debt” advice from financial morons posing as guidance and admissions counselors.  Read more

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