The weasel abides.

"Best Buy Stock Apparently Not A Best Buy"

Shares of Best Buy have 50% less value now than they did a year ago, including a recent 15% plunge. The main contributors to this decline seem to be bigger competition in technology retail, including the likes of Wal-Mart, Amazon and even Target.  It seems to me that as Best Buy continues to falter, those companies will take Best Buy's spot as leaders in tech retail. I don't think that Best Buy will fall apart just yet, but I do think the giant is on it's last legs and probably won't recover to it's former glory.

"Monorail, What's It Called? Whoops, I meant High Speed Express Train"

Amtrak has announced plans to revamp it's Acela Express trains, which goes from Boston to D.C. in about 7 hours, or from New York to D.C. in 3 hours. These trains, the only high speed trains in the U.S., can go up to an excess of 150 mph, but are kind of lacking to their German and Japanese counterparts which can go over 200 mph. Not only that, but due to track regulations and limited rails, it averages about half of its top speed, about 75-85 mile an hour. Acela plans to not only have faster trains, but also better rails and tunnels. All of this will make for a substantially quicker trip, about 96 minutes from D.C to New York, which is pretty close to Air travel if not even faster. The long term plan will take 30 years, but they are already working on improving the New Jersey line and inserting their 220+mph fleet of trains by 2017. Considering that the current Acela Express accounts for a quarter of AmTrak's revenue and would serve the entire East Coast megalopolis which has 40 million people, I think that this will go down as a success in the long run.

"Could You Spare A Dime Or 5.2 Trillion?"

State and Federal Unemployment plans have cost taxpayers 520 billion dollars over the past 5 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office! As the global crisis and recession hit the job markets hard, the Government tried to ease the pain by extending welfare to 99 weeks, allowing people to survive while trying to find a job. However, this generosity comes at a cost, as it has racked up and contributed plenty to our already massive debt. In my opinion, I think it is necessary to retain Unemployment insurance as is, because in reality 520 billion dollars is still a small fraction compared to the 16 trillion we owe as a nation and we can't exactl just let people starve, can we?

"Where's the Beef? No, Seriously?"

Beef prices in the U.S. are expected to increase even higher into 2013, according to economists and agricultural experts. This coincides with the bacon shortage, as droughts that have plagued the prime cattle (and pigs too) herding areas mean that farmers are not able to satiate our demand for beef, causing the supply to be less than the demand and setting the market equilibrium price up. We have already seen beef prices increase from last year, as noted in the article as "In October, the price for a pound of lean ground beef averaged $4.11,  up 30 cents from a year earlier. A USDA Choice sirloin steak cost about $6.75 a pound, up 43 cents from a year earlier,according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics." It makes one wonder when we can ever have cheap hamburgers again.

"If All Of Your Friends Jumped Off A Fiscal Cliff, Would You Do It Too?"

As politicians in the White House and Congress fuss over the Congressional budget, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Burnanke has warned about how these unresolved differences could incur wrath on not only individual Americans but the entire economy. Bernanke's main concern is the undeniable fact that if the Congressional Budget is applied as is drawn up now, it would cause huge tax hikes across the board and massive spending cuts, which he reasons would most likely stagnate the economy and create a huge burden on Americans. I happen to agree with Bernanke on this, as I feel that spending cuts would mean even more under-funding in schools (I pity those who have to go to a public school),infrastructure and other services and probably lots of job loss as well. That's not even mentioning the fact that tax hikes across the board would be an absolute disaster when you are trying to kick start our economy. However, I think Bernanke and many others are intentionally avoiding the elephant in the room, in this case China. Sure, the current budget plan would probably not be the best for the short term, but we do have to start thinking about the absurd amount of debt that we owe China and merely going back to the status quo will not solve anything.