A Sliver of Brain Matter

I set out a goal to update this blog at least weekly, but instead have updated weakly :-( The past month has been incredibly busy for me! At work, we finally got a whole lot of projects that need to be completed quickly-- mostly by the beginning of December. So, I have been working pretty late compared to my normal business hours. Since I work for a major company, I don't like to put in long hours, but I've been doing it lately to make sure I don't have to take work home over the weekends. So, lately I've been working from 8:30 am until 6:00 or later. This past week was the first close-to-40 hour week I've had since the beginning of October. I only worked 40.5 hours. I know a lot of people probably think that's nothing, but when you're accustomed to working 37.5 hours a week (like I was), and making MORE money than you currently make, you can see why it might be difficult to increase the hours you work and not see an increase in income. I've been red...

I read this story today on CNN.com about a "secret list" that the FDIC keeps on banks that are in financial difficulties. For some reason Blogger won't let me create an HTML link, so here's the website: (http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/18/news/economy/fdic_list/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories) As a fairly new investor and someone who grew up without a lot of money, but hopes to acquire some throughout my life, this story troubles me. Basically, it says that the FDIC-- the organization that insures the money that banks hold--knows when banks are in trouble, but won't release the information to the general public. Their rationale is that only about 1% of the banks on the list actually fail, the rest just need some help restructuring or whatever... So, my question is, if a bank is not structured properly to at least maintain, and is in danger of losing a great deal of money (money that isn't theirs, by the way), shouldn't the bank's customers KNOW about it? ...