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I hope everyone’s having a great weekend!

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Here’s something to pass the time while we await the Fed’s announcement of a quarter-point rate hike. A few years ago, there was a meme that traveled from blog to blog whereby the author searched Google for the phrase “name is” (where name was the author’s name). The results were, of course, posted to his or her blog.

Digging up the meme from the grave, let’s find out what “consumerism is.” (Note: you must include the quotation marks when performing your own something is search.)

Consumerism is a term used to describe the effects of equating personal happiness with purchasing material possessions and consumption.

Rampant mass consumerism is so evil. Hey, can I have a sip of that Frappucino?

Consumerism is what emerges when we are duped into having desires that we would not normally have.

The consumer class needs to be provided with the necessary information for them to begin publicly challenging the notion that consumerism is the only way to live.

Capitalist Consumerism is Destroying Us.

Consumerism is the myth that the individual will be gratified and integrated by consuming.

Consumerism is economically manifested in the chronic purchasing of new goods and services, with little attention to their true need, durability, product origin or the environmental consequences of manufacture and disposal.

The bottom line: Consumerism is working in these plans, with costs moderating while maintaining access to needed care, including preventive and chronic care treatments.

I thnk that’s enough.

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Whether or not there exists a housing bubble, t-shirthumor.com stands to win with a hot t-shirt design that’s affordable for any over-extended homeowner facing foreclosure.

The design is a box of “Mr. Housing Bubble” soap with a “Free Balloon Mortgage Inside” and a tagline inviting you to take a bath in the real estate market. Mr. Bubble warns us that if he pops, we’re SCREWED.

The popularity of the shirt (and the various similarly logo’d items) has drawn the ire of the Realty Times newsletter with an article that begins:

Constant talk about a housing bubble could single-handedly cause housing prices to moderate or dip, as the financial press attempts to worry the nation into shifting its money from real estate back into stocks.

There seems to be enough chatter on both sides of the debate to warrant more confusion and no clear changes in the housing market for a while, but someday, someone will look back on their predictions and be right, and someone will look back and realize they were incorrect.

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I couldn’t agree more with the Anne Fisher. According to her article in Fortune, she despises business buzzwords.

I’m all for the malleability and transformation of the English language, but for some reason I cringe when I hear certain phrases. I understand that with the use of any jargon, it’s just a case of individuals attempting to identify with a group (in this case, businesspeople or motivational speakers), most of the time the phrases aren’t even used correctly.

Here are Annie’s doubleplusungood phrases that I, also, happen to find coarse and vulgar:

* bottom line, when not referring to a financial statement and meaning conclusion
* no-brainer
* going forward
* touch base
* win-win
* core competencies
* mission-critical

Now, some of mine:
* value-added
* rightsizing
* utilize (the word you meant to utilize is use.)

Any others to add? In the mean time, play Business Buzzword Bingo.

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Here’s something fun for Friday. The Retail Alphabet Game gives a player the alphabet, with each letter coming from a different brand logo. See if you can guess the brand belonging to the letter. Note that the only official way to receive a clue is to buy one from the author.

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Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert and holder of an MBA from Berkeley, wrote a “book” on personal finance, and is summarized today on The Motley Fool. Adams boils personal finance down to nine points, which you will see if you read the article.

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