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Standard & Poor’s may have downgraded the United States credit rating from AAA to AA+ and the bears may have taken over Wall Street, but the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and billionaire Warren Buffett believes that the nation deserves a AAAA rating. In a recent appearance on CNBC, Buffett said that he still believes that the […]

Several banks have found a new solution to the glut of foreclosed houses – many of them in poor condition.  It’s the bulldozer. Bank of America (BoA) owns a glut of abandoned houses that no one wants to purchase.  As a result, the nation’s largest mortgage servicer is bulldozing some of its most uninhabitable inventory.  Additionally, […]

President Barack Obama and the nation’s predominant automakers have agreed to increase new vehicles’ fuel mileage.  The major way to accomplish this is to reduce the size of vehicles.  By 2025, the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) must be 55.4 mpg for cars.  That’s up from the 2009 Obama mandate of 35.5 mpg by 2016. […]

It has now been proven that Marty McFly, “Doc” Brown and that time traveling DeLorean DMC 12 in the film “Back to the Future” all were a figment of the filmmaker’s imagination.  Physicists at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have determined that the ultimate speed limit for the packets of light known […]

Just one month into its launch, Google+ has seen extraordinary growth, netting some 20 million unique visitors.  Still, it faces several key challenges before it can become the dominant force in social media.  Online metrics company ComScore said that of the 20 million users, five million of those are from the United States.  “Google+ is […]

The popular image of French men and women spending their time in sidewalk cafes sipping aperitifs, smoking Gauloises and watching the world go by belies the fact that the nation’s residents work the least amount of hours in the world, yet are among the most productive. According to a recent UBS survey, people globally work an […]

The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation (DOT) have directed that cars and light trucks carry labels comparing estimated five-year fuel costs with those of the average new vehicle following industry opposition to adding fuel-economy letter grades to the window stickers.  The labels, which will include yearly fuel-cost estimates, must be affixed to passenger […]

Mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might find themselves merged into a single government-run entity.  Representative Gary Miller (R-CA) is set to unveil a bill that would create a utility-like entity and phase out government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The new company would buy mortgages and repackage them as government-backed securities.  The […]

With the safe landing in Florida of Atlantis, NASA’s ambitious 30-year space shuttle program has officially come to an end.  Immediately after landing, Chris Ferguson,  the Atlantis commander, lauded the shuttle program and the rest of the spacecraft fleet.  “The space shuttle has changed the way we view the world and it’s changed the way […]

According to a recent study, a 100-point scale, a 10-point increase in walkability increases property values by one to nine percent, depending on the property.  Chicago – with a Walk Score of 74 — was one of the nation’s most walkable cities.  The others are New York, Boston, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia.  The […]