Wall Street Meets Main Street
I'm currently in the process of buying a house, and I happen to know I have great credit and a spotless credit record. (Quick hit: for a government guaranteed credit report, visit annualcreditreport.com. Don't be scammed by pirate-suited waiter schilling for freecreditreport.com.)And yet, despite my ability to pay all my bills on time (even through most of 2008 when I didn't have a job and didn't collect unemployment), I am still very suspect to Wall Street. Why? Because the big banking firms made some stupid mistakes betting on the housing bubble and bad mortgages. All of this means that even if I pay a bill on time for more than

Making Green by Investing in Green
During the 2nd Bush administration, the oil companies profited from government policies hand over fist. Bush, an oil man himself, made a mint on sky-high gas prices and by squashing legislation that would have reigned in oil companies. And no one on the right said anything against this.But let Al Gore make a few bucks betting on green energy, and the right goes nuts with accusations about ill gotten gains.Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming skeptics, say Mr. Gore is poised to become the world’s first “carbon billionaire,

Customer Service Gets Personal: Part 2
Wow. I never thought this thing would have such legs. But hey! Apparently people had a lot to say about my experience at Elizabeth Grady.My situation analysis turned up on the front page of Boston.com:

Customer Service Gets Personal
(I'm going out a bit on a ledge to discuss this current topic, but I'm going to trust my audience.)There are many kinds of

Dead Clowns and Bluetooth Headsets
From the Wall Street Journal, a review of two new "chic" Bluetooth headsets. I'm all in favor of Bluetooth headsets, but the images the two companies chose for their products are verystrikingly different.The Plantronics Discovery 975 model is pretty nifty. It's space age, it's tiny, and it's definitely a man's man's gadget: