] If you peel back the arguments in favor of offshoring,
] what you finally end up with is an article of faith --
] faith that history will repeat itself and the U.S.
] economy will quickly generate enough new jobs in
] higher-paying industries to compensate for the ones lost
] to trade. What I've yet to see, however, is even a
] educated guess as to what those jobs might be.

Realities Make 'Offshoring' Hard to Swallow (washingtonpost.com)

] Repossessed BMWs. Foreclosed McMansions. Pawned Rolexes.
]
] Such is the stuff of personal bankruptcy when a go-go
] lifestyle built on consumer excess runs up against
] financial reality.
]
] Or is it? Could it be that those tarnished icons of
] dead-end decadence are just as much an overhyped myth as
] the hordes of teenage day-traders back in 1999 who
] supposedly beat Wall Street's best brokers without ever
] leaving the comfort of their bedrooms?
]
] The biggest predictor that a person will end up bankrupt
] turns out not to be a bad Prada habit or a taste for
] sub-zero refrigerators. It's having children, according
] to the mother-and-daughter authors of "The Two-Income
] Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers are Going
] Broke."

A very interesting article, to say the least. I have to agree with the authors that the behavior of parents in an effort to provide for their children is what has gotten many in trouble. At least, from personal experiences that I've seen. Worrying about getting into "the best" school district, no matter what the cost of the mortgage or rent payments is listed as the biggest culprit.

I had a conversation very much along these lines with a coworker before she had her first child - she and her husband were looking at school districts and deciding whether to remodel or move houses. This is before the child is even born! My logic was that school wouldn't start for at least 6 years and by that point "the best" school would be some other new suburban area. I think a lot has to do with the fact that the newest schools get the best toys, rather than keeping all of the districts at a similar level.

Americans are NOT going broke over lattes!

] LONDON (AP) -- Eminem stunned tens of thousands of people
] attending a concert in England by giving a necklace
] estimated at $450,000 to one of his fans.

HELL YEA! 'cuz donating half a million dollars to charity where it might do some real good isn't "cool". Gotta make a publicity stunt out of it and give a necklace to a random fan - who will likely end up hawking it anyways and pocketing the cash (wouldn't you?).

Whats next? Confetti cannons filled with $10's and $20's at his concerts??

Laughing Boy

Eminem Gives Fan $450K Gift

Does the inflatable pub come with inflatable beer?

Inflatable Church

] Last week, talk of a leveraged buyout surfaced after
] Edward J. Zander, the former president of Sun, joined the
] Silicon Valley investment firm Silver Lake Partners. A
] few years ago, Silver Lake led a successful buyout of
] another technology company, Seagate, a disk-drive maker.
]
] Despite the recent run on the stock, a bid for Sun does
] not appear imminent. First, unfriendly takeovers of big
] technology companies are rare because the risk of
] disruption is too high in an industry where success
] depends on speed and innovation. For now, at least, a bid
] for Sun would have to be a hostile one because Scott G.
] McNealy, Sun's chairman and chief executive, and the Sun
] board remain committed to the current strategy for
] reviving the company's fortunes, Sun executives said.
]
] Sun, like most companies, has a policy of not commenting
] on takeover rumors. But one Sun executive, who insisted
] on not being identified, said, "Scott, the senior
] management and the board are signed up for the next few
] years to give it a real run with the plan we have."

Before Sun Is Reborn, It Must Resist Being Bought

] In the San Diego case, a San Bernardino County couple was
] arrested earlier this week on charges of using the
] Internet to pose as Russian women seeking companionship.
] These fake women would strike up online romances with
] unsuspecting men and then ask for financial help to
] travel to the United States to meet them, according a
] federal indictment issued May 7.

Now that's hitting below the belt.

Indicted couple allegedly used Internet to bilk lovelorn men