Protecting Yourself from the Giant New Deficit

• FEBRUARY 6, 2010

For every dollar in debt that Americans have paid off since they started cleansing their balance sheets in mid-2008, the U.S. government has borrowed more than $7. All the hard work by consumers to replenish their piggy banks may be for naught if big government budget deficits play havoc with the economy.

Last week's federal budget didn't provide much solace. The Obama administration projected that the federal debt could double over the next decade, prompting Moody's Investors Service to warn that the pristine AAA credit rating of the U.S. "could come under downward pressure."

Investors need to account for the burgeoning federal budget deficit as they save for retirement, college tuition or homes. Uncle Sam's borrowing binge could set off a surge in inflation and push down the dollar, both of which would erode the value of savings. It could also push interest rates higher, hammering the value of the more than $1 trillion in Treasury bonds owned by households directly or through mutual funds. Income taxes, already set to rise, might have to climb further to help close the government's budget gap.

The Big Picture

Munis Get More Expensive

The result could be what Laurence Siegel,>>>

Google 411

Google 411 - Good One...NO, GREAT ONE!

Just leave it up to Google to come up with something like this!

Here's a number worth putting in your cell phone, or your home phone speed dial: 1-800-goog411 or 1-800-466-4411.

This is an awesome service from Google, and it's free -- great when you are on the road. Don't waste your money on information calls and don't waste your time manually dialing the number.

I am driving along in my car and I need to call the golf course and I don't know the number. I hit the speed dial for information that I have programmed (1-800-466-4411). The voice at the other end says, "Say the name of the business and the City & Province." I say, "Kingsville Golf Course, Kingsville , Ontario ”. He says, "Connecting" and Kingsville Golf Course answers the phone.

How great is that? his is nationwide, Canada & US, and it is absolutely free! Works on cell and landline phones, all you have to remember is 1-800-466-4411. Give it a try.

Click on the link below and watch the short clip for a quick demonstration.

http://www..google.com/goog411/

The Daily Maine Fact

The Daily Maine Fact from Around Maine: Q: Who was the first woman newscaster on Maine television? A: That distinction belongs to Barbara Quill, a Massachusetts native who began delivering news on Portland station WGAN-TV in February 1973. An experienced radio broadcaster, Quill made her TV debut in Portland. (Source: "First woman newscaster has 'TV Bug,' " by Mike Scanlin, Portland Press Herald, Feb. 10, 1973. Portland: Guy Gannett Publishing Company)

If You Have Lived in Maine

If You Have Lived in Maine If you've lived in Maine, then you should know this things... * You've had arguments over the comparative quality of Fried Dough. * You diet all week so you can consume 40,000 calories at a fair. * You eat ice cream with flavors like "Moose Tracks" and "Maine Black Bear". * When it snows four inches you call it "a dusting." * You are surprised to discover there aren't fried clam shacks elsewhere in the country. * You know what an Irving is and the location of 15 of them. * Your car is covered in yellow-green dust in May. * You can drive the Augusta traffic circles without breaking into a cold sweat. * You think a gravel pit is a cool place to hang out * You think a mosquito could be a species of bird. * You once skipped school and went to Bar Harbor, Old Orchard Beach or Reid State Park. * Even your school cafeteria made good chowder. * You know how to pronounce Calais, Machias, Madrid and Vienna. * You know that The Airline has nothing to do with planes. * You've made a meal out of a Jordan's red-skinned hot-dog and a bag of Humpty Dumpty potato chips. * You know that a chocolate doughnut is not a white doughnut with chocolate frosting. * You've gone to a bean supper. *You know the difference between pea, Yellow-eye, and Red Kidney. * You wouldn't eat beans in tomato sauce or Manhattan clam chowder if you were starving. * In high school, you (or a friend) packed Deering or Gifford Ice Cream cones *At least once in your life, a seagull pooped on you. *At least once in your life you've said, "It smells like the mill in here." * Every summer and fall, there's a fruit and vegetable stand within 10 minutes of your house. * You call that long sandwich an "Italian". * Your idea of a traffic jam is being the second car at the stoplight. * Your house converts to a B&B every July & August for people from away that you happen to know. *All year long you're tracking sand in the house- from the beach in the summer and the roads and sidewalks in the winter. * You have a front door but no steps to get to it. * Your kids start using "wicked" as a multipurpose part of speech. * You start your shopping by looking in Uncle Henry's. *You have shopped at the Big Chicken Barn. *You've ditched the car on the side of the road somewhere because you thought you saw some good fiddleheads! * You've had a vacation from school just to help the family pick potatoes. * You know a lobster pot is a trap, not a kettle. * You know not to plant tender crops until the last full moon in May. * You go to the dump and bring back more than you brought. *You've taken a date to the dump to watch the bears *You watch "Murder She Wrote" and snicker at the stupid fake accents. *You've swam in a quarry pond. * You take the New Hampshire toll personally. *You feel really good when you cross the Piscatiqua River Bridge into Kittery. * You always wave when you see a Maine license plate in another state. * You've used a roll of Duct tape and a can of flat black spray paint to get your car to pass inspection. * You have to replace your mailbox yearly because of the town plow. * When you're supposed to dress up, you wear flannel with a tie. *You know that Moody's Diner does NOT take credit cards! * When the word "stove" refers to what you did to the right front fender of your truck going around the Augusta rotaries. * When there's too much "stuff" in your 2 "cah" garage to get either of your cars into it. * When you know what fly dope is. *When you eat supper at night and dinner at noon. *As a child, you played outside in a snow storm without hat, mittens, scarf and with your jacket open because it was just a little cool. *The area around your back door is referred to as "the dooryard" . *You've got a Moxie in the fridge. Hope this brought back memories for all of you Maineiacs or former Maineiacs...

The Daily Maine Fact

The Daily Maine Fact from Around Maine: "I have kept from my childhood a liking for good people, simple people, people who go on doing their job in the middle of cheats and crooks." - Renowned film director John Ford. He was born John Feeney in Cape Elizabeth on this date in 1895 and grew up in Portland. (Source: John Ford, by Andrew Sinclair. New York: The Dial Press/James Wade, 1979)

The Daily Maine Fact

The Daily Maine Fact from Around Maine: In 1998, Maine had 3,669 registrations for "antique" automobile plates, used on vehicles built in or after 1916 but at least 25 years old. York County had the most, at 509. York also had the most registered "street rods," at 50, out of a state total of 395. But Piscataquis County's four registered "horseless carriages," built before 1916, led the statewide total of 23. (Source: "Commonly Requested Statistics," Maine State Bureau of Motor Vehicles Website. Augusta, 2000)

GOP: Obama Has 'Blind Spot' on Terror War

Updated January 30, 2010

AP

Maine Sen. Susan Collins kept up the GOP drumbeat of criticism following a report by The Associated Press a week ago that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was questioned for 50 minutes without being given a Miranda warning and that when he was later advised of his rights, refused to speak further with investigators.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration's handling of a Nigerian student who allegedly attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day exposed its "blind spot" when it comes to the war on terrorism, a Republican lawmaker said Saturday.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins kept up the GOP drumbeat of criticism following a report by The Associated Press a week ago that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was questioned for 50 minutes without being given a Miranda warning and that when he was later advised of his rights, refused to speak further with investigators. He was treated as a criminal defendant, not as an "enemy combatant," she said.

"President Obama recently used the phrase that 'we are at war' with terrorists. But unfortunately his rhetoric does not match the actions of his administration," Collins said in the weekly GOP Internet and radio address. "The Obama administration appears to have a blind spot when it comes to the war on terrorism."

Collins' choice of the Christmas Day attack>>>