“Coinage is imprinted gold or silver, by which the prices of things bought and sold are reckoned…. It is therefore a measure of values. A measure, however, must always preserve a fixed and constant standard. Otherwise, public order is necessarily disturbed, with buyers and sellers being cheated in many ways, just as if the yard, bushel, or pound did not maintain an invariable magnitude.” ~Nicholas Copernicus, “Treatise on Debasement,” 1517 “

Humans are by nature capitalists, says Nathan Lewes, the author of Gold: The Once And Future Money, because of their need to invest time and effort for greater productive. However, th

Read more…

Frugal living does not need to be Spartan and cost efficiency does not require huge sacrifice. Rather, in seeking to stretch our dollars we are attempting to get more, have more and, at least for many us, share more, than we would if we did not pay attention to our spending habits. Warren Buffet, for example, clearly can afford more than just about anyone else in the world, but he still lives in the same home that he has owned for decades. He is happy there and does not feel the need to buy a McMansion just because he can do so if he wants to do so.

Often, frugality becomes a matter of acquiring the knowledge that we need as consumers to make intelligent purchasing decisions.

Read more…

Some further information has emerged on how departmental spending budgets will be cut.

DCMS have announced that their £61 million of cuts will include taking £27 million from the Olympic budget, a cut of £5 million for the Arts Council and the less specific committments to cut 3 per cent from all ‘bodies in the DCMS sector” and a 3 per cent cut to the Department’s core budget.

The Home Office has published no further details of its £367 million of cuts, but The Times is reporting that police forces will be hit hard, losing £135 million from their annual budget. The Seriou

Read more…

BANGKOK VIOLENCE AFTERMATH

Bangkok almost back to normal by Monday (updated on Saturday 22/05- 4:00 pm)

Zen Department Store on Saturday morning (photo Luc Citrinot)

By Luc Citrinot, etn | May 22, 2010

The situation in Bangkok continues to improve. On Saturday morning, cleaning teams were active around Siam Square and Rachaprasong collecting garbage, disinfecting side-walks and checking on the safety of infrastructure such as slytrain stations, escalators or electricity.

Read more…