I've written plenty about gasoline lately, but only about gas taxes. Let's shift gears a bit... Do you think gas prices will increase? If gas prices increase, is there a way for you to hedge against that increase so it doesn't affect you? Of course!

The article "If You Don't Have One... Get One" has been featured in the 211th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance! Check out the carnival, and the hosting site, Green Panda Treehouse. The theme is a good one too...

"Of Risk and Men", an article about the state (and the state of the budget) of California, was featured in the 71st edition of the Money Hacks Carnival. Check out the carnival, and the host, The Canadian Finance Blog.

If I told you that increased fuel efficiency leads to more fuel consumption, what would you think?

Jevon's paradox states that increases in the efficiency of the use of a resource lead to the increased usage of that resource. Throughout history, examples of this effect in action can be found. This brings me back to the topic of the gas tax. If you are of the belief that we need to reduce our consumption of gasoline, increased efficiency (and attempted legislation to increase efficiency) alone will only lead to more gasoline usage. If less gasoline usage is the goal, only a tax on gasoline will make it happen.

Editor: we originally wrote this as a four part blog post in June 2009, only a few months after we […]

There are three ways for a government to pay for debt: issue new debt, collect taxes, and cause inflation. Inflation is a 'hidden tax' on a populace- it decreases the value of future money, and allows governments to pay off their current debt with devalued money. The United States dollar, as the world's reserve currency, gives the United States a unique temptation (opportunity?) to pay off their debts in a currency it can print. What exactly is inflation, though? And if you believe inflation is on the way, how do you set yourself up to counteract it?

If you saw $1,377.71 lying on the ground, would you pick it up?

I hope you would. That's the sort of savings you could find from opening a Roth IRA. Any increase in your future tax rates means you made money simply from choosing the right account to invest in. Sound good? Read the article.

Check out the 210th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance. They are linking to the article "Eggs and Baskets". Find it under the category 'Bald Bull Does Bull Market Investing.'

Carnival of the Capitalists features the article "The Minimum Wage Mistake." Check out this week's edition at the CotC site.

My article "A Penny Saved is 1.76366843 Pennies Earned" was included in this week's Money Hacks Carnival!

Head over to this week's carnival, hosted at Own the Dollar, and check out the 69th edition of the carnival. The article is located under the heading "Frugality & Saving Money - $10,000 Federal Reserve Note 1914".

If you come into money, don't ignore paying down debt as an option. Oftentimes paying down debt can save you much more money than you can earn with another option. Additionally, paying off a loan in full will increase your future cash flow. Read on for a look at debt as an investment and a closer look at tax-equivalent yield.

"Bennet Sedacca announced to the world at 10:15 on the morning of March 5, 2008, that venerable Bear Sterns & Co., the nation's fifth-largest investment bank was in trouble, big trouble." The first paragraph opens with a bang. Ten days after Sedacca made that call, he was proven right. Bear Sterns was no more. William D. Cohan's House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street, explains how Bear Sterns got there.