Talk about saving a few cents; it looks like everything is going free these days. Even the famed holier-than-thou Wall Street Journal?

I highly doubt it.

The paid portion is just too big of a revenue stream and there are too many senior-mongering adults that would feel like stiffs without it. But then again, all of those people still get the hard copy. Don’t they?

Maybe if Rupert gets his hands on it, he’ll take it free. But not without a fight. Maybe, he should have purchased Wallstrip. Now, that would give him a decided advantage.

Wishful thinking, of course

Here’s $5bb worth of content…

And here’s content worth $5mm…

Which one do you think should be getting the higher purchase price?

Watch out below. It’s getting too intense!!!

Mr. Stein is calling and he’s very angry.

Probably boring, but weirdly exciting…

1. Forever Stamp - Here’s a great post from The Simple Dollar about the economics of purchasing the forever stamp. As you can see, it doesn’t really make sense to purchase it because price increases move lockstep with inflation. Better to invest the money. However, if you purchase it right before a rate increase, it could net you some BIG bucks. Of course, The Simple Dollar didn’t know that it was going to cost $0.41; a fascinating bargain of $0.00.

Here’s The Simple Dollar’s graph to illustrate.

Here’s a quote:

To summarize: I plan on buying a few hundred “forever” stamps just before the next rate hike, but not more than I could use in a year. This lets me maximize the benefit of beating a rate hike, but doesn’t lock me into an “investment” that merely stays the same as inflation.

2. Wal-Mart & Consumer Electronics - Wal-Mart announces that its aggressively moving into consumer electronics and that it will carry Skype products in 1,800 of its outlets. Good day for consumers, bad day for product manufacturers and competitors. As I’ve said before, Wal-Mart continues to be a screaming buy.

3. Ben Stein’s Castration - It looks like Ben, the comedic genius from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, son of an economist, and host of a very good but deceased game show, continues to write his politically correct column. If he mentions this again, I’ll likely puke:

As I’ve written before, I like these investments:

• The iShares Emerging Markets index (EEM), which might be 15 percent of your investments.

• The iShares EAFE index (EFA) for developed countries, which might be 25 percent.

• The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTSMX) for domestic (Fidelity has an almost identical fund, the FSTMX), which might be 45 percent of your total.

• And maybe 10 percent in the iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors fund (ICF) for REITs and 5 percent in the shares of some super individual stocks, like JNJ.

Enough for now, I can’t take it anymore!

If you haven’t heard of this site yet, it means one of a few things:

1. You’re brain-dead.

2. You classify yourself as a non-geek and/or spendthrift.

3. You don’t enjoy bargains.

4. You have no sense of humour (with a u for obvious reasons).

5. Your use of the Internet has been limited to five minutes a week under parental supervision.

In other words, Woot is the next best thing to sliced bread for the adventurous bargaineer. It has spawned a host of imitators, but still remains as the gold standard for deal-a-day sites.

Happy shopping!

Here’s the product excerpt:

Supreme Flashlight Power Derives From A Hand-Crank, Not Some Farcical Aquatic Ceremony
Find yourself another fool, Consolidated-Federal Power Co.! I used to get enraged over your rank incompetence, the blackouts every time a stiff breeze blew, your molasses-slow repair crews. I’ll admit it: I even went so far as to research the home addresses of your key executives, just in case I needed to apply a little bit of Corleone-style persuasion to get the damn lights back on.

But I’m stepping back from the precipice now. The Excalibur Dynamo Radio Flashlight gives me the serenity to accept the outages I cannot change. It features a mega-bright LED torch and an AM/FM radio, but that’s not all. It draws power from two sources even you boobs can’t bumble away: solar panels and a hand crank. So the next time a torrential drizzle takes out half of the city grid, take your time, Con-Fed. I’ll just be reading my racing form and listening to America’s favorite oldies courtesy of my Excalibur Dynamo Radio Flashlight. And I won’t have to pay you leeches a penny for the privilege.

Warranty: 90 days

Features:

Perfect for emergencies

Ultra bright, adjustable-power LED flashlight
Choose from 2 settings on flashlight - 3 or 5 LEDs

AM/FM radio with antenna
Two built-in emergency storage compartments
Two power sources – EZ Crank and solar panel
Features adjustable carrying strap

Can also run off 3 X AA batteries (not inluded) or AC/DC (Not Included)

I realize that I’m one day behind on this one, but I actually wrote this yesterday and only write this blog in my spare time…

I found some nice words of personal financial wisdom from Well-Heeled. While it may be odd that she was able to come up with exactly 10 rules (I would only have had 9), I found point number 8 to be of significant importance.

Well Heeled didn’t give it a name, but economists call it The Wealth Effect. It happens when people feel richer due to an increase in their asset wealth (e.g. house goes up in price and you buy a maserati, stock market rises 1% in a day and you splurge on that vacation in Aruba).

This effect is pretty real when you act on it and I know many people that have. I’m sure you’re not one of them.

Try to stay that way. It will be easier on your neighbor.

If Mother Day passed (or any “Day”) and your bank account feels half-empty, take consolation in this person’s travails.

Life could be worse.

If you’re a shareholder of DaimlerChrysler, you’ll likely relish the breaking news coming out of the New York Times.

If you have a site called The Truth About Cars, you’ll likely find it ironic that Cerberus now has the job that Hercules couldn’t handle: fix Chrysler against the onslaught of domestic and foreign competition, sloppy ownership, and complex menage a trois relationships between Chrysler, Daimler, GMAC, etc… Gee, it looks like the protege is now the mentor, the hunted now the hunter.

In this case, Chrysler is now Cerberus.

If the news coming out of the press is to be believed, Cerberus is now the lead bidder, destined to take control of Chrysler (giving Daimler a minority stake in the company it once loved or purported to love). It does make sense, given that Cerberus was the lead investor in the consortium that purchased 51 percent of the financing arm of General Motors (GMAC). Cerberus has a deep knowledge of the industry, must believe somewhat in the management team?, and feels that it has the ability to turn things around.

In general, private equity firms have taken flack from many constituencies for their supposed greed, perpetual company restructurings, and their overall bad vibes. However, this reputation is not well deserved and is mostly fictitious.

Let’s face it, these are sometimes horrible consequences for individual people and entities. However, the big picture tells us that this is an absolutely necessary ingredient for the long term health of the economy. The ability to allocate capital and shift resources (in essence, financial flexibility) are the keystones of American business and the reason why our economy is the paradigm for the world and will likely remain so for a long while.

In your personal lives, you should be taking the example of a Cerberus or of any private equity firm and looking at ways to innovate, restructure, and recapitalize your personal balance sheet. This means proper allocation of cash across assets (including the new asset class called entrepreneurship). It also means the analysis of all liabilities.

Remember, you’re here to think on a different plane, not to add 2 + 2. Which, by the way, does not necessarily equal 4.

I was reading though some old posts on Read/WriteWeb and found a very interesting article about what type of blogs are popular. It claims that the most popular blogs are those that revolve around technology, politics, and pop culture; not personal finance.

For graphical illustration, they posted this chart…

To belabor the point, they also posted a more compehensive topical graph…

This graphic is detailed enough to tell us that the category “Business” ranks squarely in the number 7 spot of popular topics.

Ouch!

Billions of dollars flow through the financial markets on a daily basis. Billions more are made and lost. Yet we can’t have a blog that represents us from the inside. Someone who knows what this business is about? It’s time for a change, it’s time for…

We’ll see.

I’m sure you’re just salivating for a weekly recap of the best and most controversial posts, so here it is…

1. Here’s capitalAI connecting the topics of personal finance and Paris Hilton.

2. capitalAI espoused its beliefs about a new asset class that should be taken into account when dealing with personal finance. It used the new SpiderMan movie to make its point.

3. It opined about the real estate bubble and the coming alternative energy one in this insightful piece about The American Bubble Economy.

I could go on… but you have the ability to search for yourself

Enjoy!