$9K more than a Hybrid means almost $20k more than a comparable gasoline powered car. A Hybrid Civic is nearly $25k, another $9k on top of that and I will run my car on whale blubber and the tears of children from Darfur.

The Fed's #1 job is to check inflation. And most people and most businesses would prefer a recession to inflation anyway. Why? Because inflation is harder to manage. We saw this in the early 1980's when the prime rate peaked around 21.5% and it took several years to level out in fact the problems in the CMO market April 87 were in some ways the residual effect of inflation leveling out and reversing. So given that, if given a choice, you should hope for a manageable recession (the common definition of flat or zero growth for about half a year or so).

A 4% hit in the major US markets is ok. It's about half yesterday's drop in the Hong Kong market (total loss 14% in 2 days), it's half the loss in the French and German exchanges and far less of a problem than the huge drop in the middle eastern exchanges. We shouldn't worry that much until the major US markets drop 7% and that nebulous thing called GDP PPP growth dips below 1.5% or so annually.

Sovereign Wealth funds now have more of a reason to invest in the US given the relative health of the US markets in relation to other bourses.

If they get bamboozled. Seven years ago it seemed common sense that you couldn't rationalize investing in an internet stock for a company that sold nothing, produced nothing. And yet when the mortgage broker tells you you can buy a $700,000 home, for 20x your earnings, nothing down we're lead to believe it's someone's fault but the buyer for being duped. Didn't the ancient Romans have an expression......? Ah yes Caveat Emptor. That was it.

I see a tracking widget but I don't see it coupled to YOUR identity. So far it's merely the existence of some packets that are lumped together w/o associating them to any identity.

14% down from a HIGH in 3+ months is cyclical. Statistically once the bottom is found, the average return in the next 12 months is +34%.

How old are you? LOTS of people lost their jobs 1980-84. Unemployment was what? 9%? Inflation is the real killer because if you do lose your job your liquid assets become worth far less far faster.

People suck. And with any luck I'll die before the kids move out, if that ever happens. I wish it were legal to own a wolf.

Ralph Nader didn't win, Ron Paul won't. Supposing what they might do or might have done is silliness.

We have a negligently authoritarian government of one branch and one party.

Ever talked to a probation officer? They want you to surrender your non sexy phone to them so they can check the logs. Of course the same thing is true of a laptop in a car, so smarter is the man who encrypts.

given the very fact that they established clans and tribes and ethnicities dedicated to exterminating one another long before Evil Honkey showed up. What Europeans did is try to overlay a political order on what was basically incongruous communities that already had lethal animosity against each other.

I'm sorry they're once again using Rape as a Weapon. Count on HIV rates skyrocketing.

Every single day for the last 5 years.

As the VC's in the period from 1996-2000 frequently found out. I mean sure, vaporous companies that promised to deliver 'value' on making and selling nothing but hype and noise saw their market cap shoot up to the skies. But ultimately none or almost none of them ever delivered anything remotely resembling 'value'. So who was duped? The people who clicked on hotairoutmyass.com or the people who were given options to work for them for free?

I'm not sure whether it's because they're bored or they genuinely have overdosed on a lifetime of listening to NPR or they simply believe that everything really is about race but in the end the rationale doesn't matter. What does matter is it's the Brie Munching Liberals who seem obsessed with race in as much as they're obsessed with any of their other McGuffins and imaginary gargoyles be they Big White Bwana, the Jews, Men, and anyone who doesn't fit their ideal of a multiethnic lesbian handicapped war veteran ex drug addict lapsed Catholic Palestinian midget.

So yeah, make it about race. Be all the things your critics accuse you of.

Plugging and unplugging electronic appliances don't do the appliances any favors unless you're investing in expensive power conditioners to front-end the power supply.

Also I would like a better explanation - which ones? The Jenn-Aire cooktop? What do they recommend? Turn it off at the circuit panel? The Fridge? unplug it & watch the freezer thaw out? How much power does a 600w microwave use when it's not running? 2 Watts? What about your computer? Try putting it in suspend mode; there are 6 common levels of suspend. What else?

I'll tell you what uses power: Heat and AC and hot water (if you have an electric HW heater)