Even in the best of financial times, living within your means can be a challenge. When economies contract, as we are experiencing now, things become even tougher as spendable cash becomes more scarce. From the offices of banks and investment firms, right on down to the worker who wipes tables at your favorite corner diner, people across the country are feeling the effects of economic slowdown. Some of the people most deeply affected are those who make a substantial part of their income as a percentage of sales. As the amount of cash flow dwindles, so shrink the incomes based on commissions and tips at the point of sale.

"In a new paradigm where risk will become a paranoid obsession with investors, a few TIPS make sense for income," says long-standing advisory industry expert Curtis Hesler.

In his The Professional Timing Service, he highlights the role of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities within a long-term portfolio and reviews two ways for investors to purchases these issues.

"You can buy them in your Treasury Direct account. If you don't have a Treasury Direct account, you can open one at www.treasurydirect.gov. The problem is that so far, you can't open a retirement account - only an individual account. Go to the Treasury Direct Web site and bone up on all the details, especially if you are going to buy them online.

"TIPS work this way. They are U.S. government bonds issued by the Treasury. They are marketable in that you can sell them in the 'after' market. They come in terms of 5, 10, and 20 years. The interest rate on an issue is determined at auction, and they are sold in increments of $1,000.

While I think the ETF industry has become saturated with many products that serve little purpose for almost all investors, a new ETF launched today which I believe actually has some value. For U.S. investors looking for a way to protect themselves against global inflation as well as getting some non-U.S. dollar exposure, today's launch of the The SPDR DB International Government Inflation-Protected Bond ETF (AMEX: WIP) is welcome news. While U.S. investors search for ways to diversify out of the greenback, with inflation starting to rear its ugly head abroad, traditional global bonds funds have become less desirable. With inflation in countries like Australia surging, the ability to get an inflation protected bond is great. With rising inflation expectations, local bonds prices in many of these countries will fall. If that happens then those holding global bond funds, may lose money. This new ETF helps out with that problem.

According to Murray Coleman: " The fund follows the Deutsche Bank Global Government ex-U.S. Inflation Linked Bond Capped Index. In the past 12 months, that benchmark has returned 20.9%. About 12% of those gains were currency related and another 5% was associated with inflation adjustments. Another 2% came from coupon interest payments. Less than 1% came from price appreciation."

Clearly the name of the game here is still currency diversification, but 5% returns associated with inflation adjustments is nice to.

If you are looking to further diversify your portfolio, this new ETF may be for you.

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 3/19/08.

An excellent article appeared in Red Herring written by Alexandra Berzon. In her article, Alexandra describes a recent, albeit small, misstep by Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) whereby it began placing Google-leaning content tips at the head of search results. An outcry arose and our friends at Google quickly disengaged the "service."

This situation brings two things to the forefront of my thinking. First, why can't eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) react in similar timely fashion to its membership outcries when it receives them? Secondly, what does Google's attempt here signal in the realm of content manipulation? Setting aside the eBay angle and the business aspects of Google's decisions, let's quickly address the impending danger of content manipulation.

While I'm occasionally offered refills at no charge at my local independent coffee shop, I'm never offered free drinks at either that establishment or my local Starbucks Corporation (NADSAQ:SBUX) outlet. (And I'm nice, really I am!) Yet many customers, if a recent thread at Starbucks Gossip is any indication, are. One (must be extremely nice) customer writes in to say that she's comped as much as 2/3 of her drinks.
The post started quite a discussion about free beverages, with one angry district manager writing in to claim that this was theft, and if he were their boss, he'd fire the whole lot of 'em. Some other equally angry and righteous commenters agreed, but the general consensus was that occasional free beverages were good for business -- "Surprise and Delight" 'em, the concept goes, and they'll keep coming back and spending their money in your store. And putting lots of extra bills in your tip jar!

Sure, if a customer is getting most of her drinks free, and putting the $2 in the tip jar instead of the till, that equation is pretty straightforward: sorry guys, that's just a tiny bit of bad ethics there. But a once-a-week freebie for great customers or even (as one barista mentioned) confused out-of-towners? I'm thinking that it will serve to increase business and customer goodwill.