Investing in gold and other precious metals is one of the best ways to maintain your footing in an otherwise unstable economy. But while gold, silver, platinum (and their lesser known cousins ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, and iridium) have maintained their status as solid investments, you need to be wary of unscrupulous dealers and the ...

Click here to read complete article.

Or: Where have all my childhood heroes gone? "Nobody tells me what to do, bub. You can take your $4 billion and…" (Photo: flickr.com) The Walt Disney Company lost its way a long time ago when it came to quality family entertainment. Of this there is little doubt. I wonder what the cast of timeless characters like ...

Click here to read complete article.

Growing fast and furious Photo from money.cnn.com courtesy of Jollibee Foods. Though higher-end restaurants are struggling as people try to scrimp and save, fast food restaurants in the United States are doing as well as ever. In fact, more foreign fast food restaurants are opening locations in the United States, even during this recession. CNN Money wrote a ...

Click here to read complete article.

Every month, my wife and I track how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for August 2009. (Here are the results for 2008.) After late July’s blistering heat, August has been relatively cool around Portland. Our fruits and vegetables have been producing excellent crops. Kris is constantly busy in the ...

Click here to read complete article.

President Obama’s stimulus bill is a reminder of how creative our government can be when injecting cash into our economy. However, many are not aware of exactly how and where the money comes and goes. The government does not simply dump billions of dollars into the system and inflation and deflation are some magical by-products ...

Click here to read complete article.