As most of us struggle with surging gas prices, food costs and the possibility of losing our jobs, it's good to know that one little niche of people are oblivious to the current economic environment, and continue on with business as usual.

Sales of Fiat's Maserati brand are up 16% this year, as the rich continue to buy the $115,000 car. Add on that the Maserati gets a whopping 13 miles per gallon in the city and 19 on the highway.

Maserati's are being sought after by buyers wanting something better than your typical Mercedes-Benz, yet more affordable than Italian competitors Ferrari and Lamborghini. Nice to know that even these buyers are impacted by sticker shock!

According to an article in Bloomberg, Wes Brown who is an automotive analyst commented: "If you've got money, you want people to know you've got money, and people want to find something that not everybody has,'' Brown said. "They are saying, `I don't want a BMW or Mercedes, which you can see on every corner.'"

We all know that problem! Who can afford to buy a Maserati? The company says that the typical buyer is a 54-year-old male with household income of $750,000.

For those of you who decided to leave your car at home and take the bus in order to save a couple of bucks, you'll be glad to know that by freeing up the road, that new Maserati owner will have less traffic to deal with and be able to take the car up to its top speed of 177 miles her hour.

Who cares if gas is over $4 a gallon?

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer's fund has no position in any stock mentioned, as of 7/10/08.

The folks at Nokia (NYSE: NOK) must be feeling wealthier lately. After all, the stock has had a nice rally.

Well, the firm has actually launched a new, high-end luxury phone. It's yours if you're willing to shell out $25,000.

A little far-fetched? Not really. You see, it's a branded Ferrari phone. In fact, it's part of the company's 60-year anniversary.

Oh, and there are only 60 phones available. So, don't expect this to move the needle for Nokia.

But, it does show that big companies can come up with good ideas. And, with the surge in wealth in developing countries, the Ferrari phone should get Nokia some nice marketing points.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) together with Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) has been sending bloggers who write about technology and about Microsoft free laptops. The laptops have Microsoft's new operating system Windows Vista installed on them for the bloggers to try and perhaps (favorably) review on their blogs. No strings attached, according to the bloggers.

As Microsoft is preparing for the launch of Windows Vista next month, it seems that its PR firm has taken the initiative to harness the ever increasing power of the blogging community, especially those power houses whose blogs are read by millions seeking advice on software, computers, gadgets and brands.

The (really cool) supercompact Ferrari Acer laptops sent to bloggers were installed with Windows Vista Ultimate, the business edition of Vista.

I'm not sure what, if anything, this indicates about Microsoft -- desperation or a simple PR stunt? Or maybe, more than anything, it shows something about the power of bloggers.