“Good morning class. Today we’ll discuss some things that anyone who has passed 6th grade already knows (sorry for those of you that didn’t). Darwinism: Survival of the Fittest (ironically laughing to myself now at those who didn’t). This concept is believed to be what drove life from tiny micro-organisms which emerged spontaneously eons ago to the amazing diversity of life that Earth possesses today. This process appears to be what designed us, what makes us humans the cream that rose to the top. The ironic twist that we run into after the millions of years that it took for us to evolve is the concept of ‘Morality’.”

Sorry to pick on the Art Majors, but all of this discussion about President Obama's Executive Order on student loans has pointed the country down an interesting path. Perform this thought experiment with me... The vast majority of student loans in the United States are federally backed. There are also $1,000,000,000,000 in student loans outstanding. This means that, in the event student loans aren't paid, the debt will be borne by the general fund of the United States (read: taxpayers paying private and public colleges). Should taxpayers demand lower paying majors pay higher student loan rates?

Interesting posts, updates, and carnivals and featured links for the week!

I recently came across Jodi Beggs's awesome (and tongue in cheek, and that's a compliment from a site called DQYDJ!) economics site, "Economists Do It With Models". Perusing her recent history, I came across an article entitled "Adventures in Fact-Checking, GOP Debate Edition" where Jodi fact checked some statements made by Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich and found them, on the surface, to be false. Fair enough - the candidates both made statements to the effect that Ben Bernanke is the most inflationary Fed Chair ever. Playing fast and loose with the facts is wrong, but I don't entirely like how Ms. Beggs ranked the Chairmen - by annualized inflation during their term. To explain why I'll turn to an unlikely (yet, strangely appropriate) place- baseball.

Tying to an article earlier that my colleague PKamp3 wrote, personal finance seems to have taken a dive in popularity in more recent years. As a writer for a confessedly self-aware personal finance crowd, this assertion may seem irrelevant, surprising, or, at worst, alarming. As a young college graduate, many of my fellow coworkers (as well as I) have student loans as one of their more significant financial obligations on top of car loans and (soon) mortgages. Some plan on paying down their student loans as fast as possible to deleverage themselves and then start saving for a home. I am of a different and not necessarily correct opinion: to hold onto the student loans for as long as possible due to their incredibly low interest rate and tax-deductibility for incomes up to $60,000 (partial deductions up to $75,000).

In a recent article here at DQYDJ I posted a chart which graphed worldwide interest in 'Frugality' and 'Personal Finance' based upon the amount of interest registered by Google. There's actually another interesting takeaway from that picture - interest in the term 'Personal Finance' is losing steam in the United States. Interest understandably grew during the recession, and it spikes in the beginning of every year, but interest is definitely trending downward. It opens up an important discussion: Are Americans losing interest in personal finance?

DQYDJ was featured in 2 carnivals this week, better than the average week! We've also be included in a few additional blog aggregators and listing sites. All that and more in this update for the week of 10/17/2011.

Last year I emailed Len Penzo about doing a "paper vs. plastic?" post for one of his "Letters, I Get Letters" articles. Len, as you know, is a plastics guy at heart, but he loved the idea so he sent me something awesome - his band's CD, "In Retrospect". You see, Len is more than an awesome blogger, his talents run much deeper. He was in a band, The Relics, which released an album on Blind Dog Records back in 1995. He also had an awesome haircut, which I have evidence of in the article!

A couple of weeks back, we here at DQYDJ tried to get some Bay Area street cred with our screed on how Bay Area house prices make more sense than one might think (please read that article if you are genuinely interested in our model). After being informed by the readers on the Bay Area home site Burbed that our definition of the Inner Bay Area (the 'Real Bay Area') was too large, we're back for another pass. Thanks to Burbed's super-intelligent head editor Madhaus and a huge amount of comments we're back with two calculators we're titling "The Burbed and DQYDJ Real Bay Area Calculators!". Since all Bay Areans hope for 7.2% annual home value returns (check it - doubling every ten years!), we hope everyone will enjoy this little demonstration of the absurd amounts of wealth that the place we call home generates.

Carnivals we entered, articles we liked, and for the first time, our entry to the Yakezie Challenge.