In the News:
A Potential Model for U.S. Health-Care
The Netherlands is using competition and a small dose of regulation to pursue what many in the U.S. hunger to achieve: health insurance for everyone, coupled with a tighter lid on costs.
The Best Markets for Landlords
Whether they're waiting out the housing storm, or smack in the middle of it, an increasing number of Americans are choosing to rent, not own. And that's good news for landlords and investors.
Foreclosures and risky lending have dogged the housing market. As lenders have tightened their standards, attractive mortgages have grown harder to come by. Yet rental fundamentals have remained strong, especially in the 10 areas that made our list of Best Markets for Landlords.
Have Your Cake and No Sugar Too? Um, no.
Most nonsugar sweeteners will taste fine in your tea or lemonade. But use some of them for baking a cake, and you could have a real flop. These are the findings of Consumer Reports tests of 13 lower-calorie and no-calorie sweeteners, which we added to drinks and used to bake cookies and cakes, following package directions. We found that no sweetener does it all and that no-calorie products didn't bake as well as lower-calorie sweeteners: In other words, you can't really have your cake and no sugar too.
Household Glue: Some Claims Don't Stick
Glue makers have enlisted snarling rhinos, glaring gorillas, and sumo wrestlers to tout their promises of "incredible strength," "truly all-purpose," and "Glues whatever. Bonds forever." But those claims didn't stick in our lab tests. Most of the multipurpose adhesives, superglues, epoxies, and wood glues that we tested were adequately strong for their intended purpose. But no single adhesive worked for everything -- and a few barely worked at all.
Run With These 10 Dogs of the Dow?
What could be a better antidote to market volatility than a mixture of high-yielding blue chips? How about the ten top payers in the Dow Jones industrial average, better known as the Dogs of the Dow? The top-yielding blue chips make faithful companions during unpredictable times, but some will be better company than others as the market volatility subsides.
Luxury for the rest of us
Here's a look at the less expensive polishes, perfumes and pendants that make regular folks feel like a million bucks.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/news/0708/gallery.luxury_gateway/index.html
5 luxe limited editions
These days carrying a Gucci bag doesn't mean you're special -- or ever particularly unique. Once the sole province of the elite, luxury has gone mass market. So luxe retailers are getting creative, ginning up one-of-a-kind items that recapture exclusivity.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/news/0708/gallery.luxury_premium/
Nuclear power is on the comeback trail
Apple backs AT&T in continuing spat with Verizon
Closing Bell: The recession is still over, still... do you feel it?
