“I don’t have credit card debt because Suze Orman advises against it, but I was having lunch with a friend the other day, who was a wreck because her bank charges 18 percent interest. There was no way she could ever pay down her credit card debt. So I was thinking that all of us earning 0.4 percent could instead loan money to our friends at 0.5 percent. It was a bit odd thinking of myself as a benevolent loan shark, but, hey, my friend would get out of debt, I would earn $5 a month instead of $4, and the banks would make so much less money that they would have to close half their branches and give us our city back.”

Banks Taketh, but Don’t Giveth - NYTimes.com

“The crucial new idea is that there are two different neural and psychological systems that interact to turn children into adults. Over the past two centuries, and even more over the past generation, the developmental timing of these two systems has changed. That, in turn, has profoundly changed adolescence and produced new kinds of adolescent woe. The big question for anyone who deals with young people today is how we can go about bringing these cogs of the teenage mind into sync once again.”

What’s Wrong With the Teenage Mind? - WSJ.com

“The truth? Of the 46 million people living in poverty in America in 2010, the U.S. census revealed that 31 million were white. Ten million were black. Of the 49 million people without health insurance coverage, 37 million were white; 8 million were African American. Latinos of every race and Asian Americans represented the remaining largest ethnic groups. The face of poverty in America is overwhelmingly white, but as sociologist and professor William O’Hare explains in a 2009 study on children in poverty, the white American poor, especially those in rural areas, are “forgotten.”

Whites and Welfare: GOP and the Food Stamp Fallacy

“Kodak’s other structural problem is geography. When you study the history of great American companies that stumbled and failed, or only partially recovered, you see how difficult it is to overcome the mindset of your immediate surroundings. Businesses located in places where success is the norm, and innovation is built into the ecology, have a better chance of fixing themselves.”

Rich Karlgaard: Kodak Didn’t Kill Rochester—It Was the Other Way Around - WSJ.com

“El Paso County is the most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States, now more populous than Denver County. The United States Census Bureau concluded that the county population was 622,371 in 2010.[1] In recent years, the population had come closer to that of Denver County, eventually surpassing it in 2010. The county seat is Colorado Springs, the second most populous city in Colorado.”

El Paso County, Colorado - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I had no idea. I would have sworn it was Denver.

“You’re not a Washington insider? You [Newt Gingrich], the former Speaker of the House and Freddie Mac consulting millionaire, are the Washington insider. When Washington gets its prostate checked, it tickles you!”

Jon Stewart (via azspot)

“The rosy results sent Apple shares soaring more than 7 percent in after-hours trading to more than $450 each. The jump increased the total value of Apple’s shares to more than $426 billion, pushing its market value past that of Exxon Mobil and making it the most highly valued company.”

Apple’s Profit Doubled on Holiday Customers Snapping Up iPhones - NYTimes.com

Fuck Yeah.