The cure is painful: work harder, save more - and spend less

I am pleased to report the end of collective bargaining at the national level. Unfortunately, I am talking about the UK, not the US, and also unfortunately, local wage bargaining will remain in place. The Telegraph reports National pay rates will be scrapped in budget.

Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers staged a one-day strike on Thursday, protesting against proposed changes to their pensions.

Britain's civil servants must be weaned off their gold-plated final salary pensions to avert a "fiscal calamity", a new report into the looming pension crisis has warned.

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog, There is no way the pensions and benefits promised in an era of financialized abundance can be paid once the wheels of financialization fall off.

Computer Chompers has made a business out of making Apple products more expensive.

Show everyone how special you think your iPhone 4S is — have it gold-plated.

Catching up on some reading this week, and had this few-days-old post by Dylan Matthews on Ezra Klein’s blog pointed out to me.  Dylan asks if the conventional economic wisdom on the “marginal propensity to consume” of richer vs.