Easy Shop DropConsumer Shopping Reviews

With foreclosures in this country reaching a record high, as we recently reported, it's not surprising that more strapped homeowners are looking for some help to avoid losing their homes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Consumerworld.org gives us a heads up to a troubling loophole in the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (otherwise known as the credit card reform bill).

Read the rest of this entry »

Join us here for a live chat on Tuesday at noon with housing counselors from St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last weekend, we shared some late-season tips on keeping your gas grill in peak working condition. The discussions in our gas-grills forum reflect what's been hot this past season. If you're hoping to get a good deal on an end-of-season grill purchase, watch the video (right) and check out our free buyer's guide to gas grills. Our latest report on grills covers gas models as well as charcoal cookers and the Traeger Lil' Tex BBB070.

Read the rest of this entry »

Maryland State Sen. Jon Cardin has repaid the City of Baltimore $300 for use of a city helicopter, a patrol boat and an unspecified number of on-duty officers to stage an elaborate mock raid in the Inner Harbor to surprise his girlfriend with a very sentimental piece of contraband: an engagement ring.

Read the rest of this entry »

In this installment of 10 Questions for . . . , Senior Editor Daniel DiClerico speaks with Andrea Gabor, the Bloomberg Chair at Baruch College/CUNY whose most recent book is The Capitalist Philosophers: The Geniuses of Modern BusinessTheir Lives, Times, and Ideas. Here, Gabor shares the findings of her investigation into the appliance industry, including why she thinks U.S. manufacturers are at risk of being overtaken by foreign competition and what you should think about before buying major appliances.
 
You've spent much of your career covering the car industry. Why the interest in appliances?
It all goes back to my book The Man Who Discovered Quality (1990). It was the story of W. Edwards Deming, a statistician from Wyoming who ended up teaching the Japanese auto industry about quality management. Since then, quality has been something of an obsession with me. Two years ago I bought a $2,000 lemon of a range. I had so much trouble getting it repaired to my satisfactioneven the repair parts failed. That got me wondering about the once reliable American appliance and whether the American appliance industry was going the way of the American auto industry.

Read the rest of this entry »

According to InvestmentNews, a judge in Virginia ordered Michael Vick to hire a financial planner to manage his earnings as a requirement to exit bankruptcy.

Read the rest of this entry »

20,000 megawatts

Amount of solar power the Chinese government hopes to generate by 2020, according to "China Racing Ahead of U.S in the Drive to Go Solar," in yesterday's New York Times. The story adds that China today produces more than 25 percent of the solar modules made worldwide.

Read the rest of this entry »

Date nights can be expensive, especially if you’ve got a family.

Not only do you have the expense of showing your loved one a good time — you might need a babysitter, too.

Read the rest of this entry »

With recent projections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicating that prices for "food at home"that's all the stuff you buy at supermarkets, farmers' markets, and convenience storeswill rise 2 to 3 percent this year and 2.5 to 3.5 percent in 2010, you might be more inclined to buy a stand-alone freezer, figuring that freezing food that you buy in bulk or cook in big batches might save you some money.

Read the rest of this entry »