Several years ago, I bought an oil stock that ended up a gusher and pumped up my portfolio nicely.  Later,  I sold it at its peak which made me and the IRS happy.  Since that time, the company has lost value because there’s an oil glut around the world.  In fact, the United Stat

Being poor in America isn’t for the faint of heart.  You need your wits about you because  you can’t afford a doctor if you get sick or a lawyer if you get scammed.  One of the biggest predators of the disadvantaged, along with pay day loan sharks, are for profit schools.  The

Since museums are run by people, it should come as no surprise that competition exists for the patronage of the ultra rich among these institutions.  At the moment, a war of sorts is going on between New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Until

I got my annual letter from Social Security the other day.  Instead of going up the 2% predicted for retirees, I am going to receive $15 a month less.  Oh, I got my incremental rise, like everyone else, but my medical insurance rose high enough to eat the increment.  I’m not comp

A friend visited the other day and as she settled down with a cup of tea, she peered round the room, admiring my new apartment which is larger than my last.  I’m probably one of the few retired people who has upsized her space rather than downsized.  My friend must have wondered h

With the holiday season come and gone, it’s nice to know the period was marked by a little peace on earth.  Hachette, 4th largest publishing house in the United States, and Amazon settled their long standing dispute over the selling price for eBooks. (Blog 9/25/14)  The question i

With the holidays at hand, I always ponder on ways to say “thank you” to people who have made my life easier throughout the year.  Before I moved into a retirement center, the letter carrier always received a card with a cash remuneration, despite the objections of the Post Offic

Sometimes we think we know the meaning of a word only to discover we don’t.  Take the word monopoly.  It used to mean a business large enough to eliminate its competitors.  When that happens, we expect goods and services to go up.  But, as Franklin Foer writes in a recent essay,

When it comes to inversions, (Blog 8/28/14) — corporate shell games to avoid U. S. taxes — some defenders of the practice tie themselves in knots to excuse unpatriotic behavior.  Diana Furchtgott-Roth of Market Watch.com, for example, insists the fault behind this behavio

Yahoo news recently carried an article about a college student who lived in his car during his Freshman year because he couldn’t afford housing.  He talked about the embarrassment he faced because of it, but his experience is far from unique.  Homelessness  is a condition too man