Money Roundup

So the old school of economic thought said, "hey, if economic times are good, the marginal benefit of being a crook will decrease. Look out for bad times, because more people will turn back to crime." Not to sound the alarm early, but it looks like this is at least not the case in NYC. Via Freakonomics.

Read this, if for no other reason than it's title: "Darth Greenspan." Actually, you really should read it for its insight into our current situation. It quotes a young Alan Greenspan as saying,

"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation."

Which should give pause to anyone familiar with (and negatively affected by) his inflationary tendencies. Is a gold standard a plausible reality? Probably not (anymore), but it makes one think...

Because it's possible to sell something without marketing it... No, really, it is! I tried selling CUTCO knives one summer (please, if you are reading this and thinking of doing it, please, don't!!!) and I did sell some. Without marketing. Because I stunk at marketing. Basically, what I'm saying is, my mom bought some. So, yeah; Chrysler can sell lots of cars without marketing...to their mom.

More good times (no pun intended*) from Freakonoics: "Let's avoid other New Deal Policy Blunders." The title says it all. *Freakonomics is a NY Times blog. Get it? Ha, ha, yeah, not that funny.

Because there are gas stations that don't already do this. It used to be that it was normal to offer discounts to buyers who had cash. Then most companies realized that it saved more time than it was worth to just swipe a card... Really, let people make their own decisions (businesses, too!). Eventually, the training wheels have to come off the bike...

Does this really have anything to do with money? Probably not (oh, wait, the money that Las Vegas lost due to executives being scared of a public outing for "wasting" their company's dollars on an extravagant stay in Vegas), but just as well, I'll include it anyway.