This Week’s Links

Comcast puts broadband usage limits on its oversold network.

This study shows that increasing tax rates makes people report more taxable income.

Dean Baker notes that the rise in durable goods orders–one of the economy’s only current strong points–has to do with machinery.

The Daily Green has a list of the ten greenest presidents in US history. You’d never guess that Tricky Dick is one of them.

The WSJ has yet another take on the China vs. India superpower debate. Somebody should build a market around all this speculation.

Other recent stories

This Week’s Crazy Jobs

This week's jobs have a fire, wood, and heater theme, indicating fall is in the air. There's also a massive job fair for people with security clearances, a foolproof indicator of upcoming elections... 1. Indiana: Presto Heater/Costco Merchandiser Seasonal Part-Time Job.…

3 Ways Hard Labor Prepares You For Success in Business

When I was a a kid, we didn't have the stringent child labor laws we do today. In grade school I worked the strawberry fields and in high school I graduated up to the raspberry farm, where I…

Tensegrity’s Jerome Rifkin Breaks Bones, Builds Business

Some entrepreneurs embody classic rags-to-riches tales. Medical device entrepreneur Jerome Rifkin offers that story a new twist: Injuries to innovation. His first injury occurred while he was cycling home from a University of Florida research lab. A personal injury attorney…

Option Adjustable Rate Mortgages Are Housing Crisis’ Next Wave

NPR's Morning Edition today commented on the fact that the mortgage crisis may just be warming up: There is growing concern that the home foreclosure crisis may worsen next year as lenders are hit by a new category of loans that…

In a Revolutionary Guesture of Cost Savings, Starbucks Refuses to Increase CEO’s Salary

From the Wall Street Journal: Starbucks Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz and other top managers will not get salary increases next fiscal year, according to an internal Starbucks memo sent this week. The move reflects the Seattle-based coffee chain's continuing…

Kate Hudson Gets Sued for Stealing Product Information. Does She Have a Case?

From Reuters: "Fool's Gold" star Kate Hudson has been sued by a firm that says hair care products she developed with hair stylist-to-the-stars David Babaii are based on ideas for using volcanic ash that the firm developed. In the lawsuit, which was…

Denny’s Rockstar Menu Brings Sellout Bands’ Favorite Late-Night Meals to the Masses

Via Wired's Scott Thill: Starting Tuesday night, a whole new echelon of the art/commerce merge arrives when late-night diner Denny's inaugurates its Dr. Pepper-bankrolled Rockstar Menu with the help of Eagles of Death Metal, Taking Back Sunday, The All-American Rejects and…

In England, Savings Accounts Yield Higher Returns Than Stock Market Shares

From the BBC: Savers putting their money in funds investing in UK stocks and shares would have made more money since 2000 by putting it in savings accounts instead. If £1,000 was invested at the start of the decade, it would…

Entrepreneurial Kids Prove Business Can Be Child’s Play

If you thought those kids in the Olympics were something, check out these enterprising kids who started on their millions as young as 14 years old. Catering to the Whatever Crowd   Ashley Qualls founded whateverlife.com at age…

Obama’s Success: It’s the Online Networking, Stupid

The divide between presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama doesn’t end with years and ideology. It also exhibits itself through the Internet. According to an MIT Technology Review article written by David Talbot, Barack Obama has managed to create…

Wal-Mart Jumps Into Small Format Retail Style

The Financial Times covers Wal-Mart's latest venture, a small format community store called Marketside: Marketside is the first new format to be launched by Wal-Mart since it started its supermarket-sized Wal-Mart Neigborhood Market stores in 1998. It is also the…

10 Business and Money Things To Do Before You Die

Dave Freeman, co-author of the bestselling travel book 100 Things To Do Before You Die, just died in a freak accident in his own home. He was 47 years old. Nonetheless, reports say he lived his life to the fullest,…

30 Best Songs About Business and Money

Sometimes you need a theme song. These all-time favorite songs about money will motivate and inspire you - or at least bring back some fond memories!(co-written with Drea) 1. Money, Money–Liza Minnelli, Cabaret (1968) Liza Minnelli and Joel Gray perform this classic…

In-Store Retail Advertising Causes as Many Woes as Wows

The Wall Street Journal's Emily Steel describes the latest in in-store video advertising and RFID. Digital screens have finally become affordable for the majority of stores/ The trick now is to figure out how to use them most effectively: Procter…

Business Notes

The NYT reports that the minimum wage was just increased. Inflation, anyone?

Congress may approve "the biggest overhaul of mortgage financing since the New Deal."

The government is acknowledging the suffering of business owners everywhere by raising the gas deductible by eight cents.

The Metropolitan Money Store defrauded potential foreclosure victims out of millions of dollars by setting up fake loans and inflated appraisals. Ouch.

The Fed, in a determined effort to control inflation, said today it would "strongly resist" inflationary pressures on the economy. Translation: interest rates are going up in the not-to-distant future.

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