Look what's happening out in the streets
Got a revolution, got to revolution

-Jefferson Airplane

There is one thing I would not want to be right now: an incumbent politician.

From the president to the dog catcher, many...

My old man is another child that's grown old

-John Prine

It seems like every family has one -- the Child Who Never Grew Up.

They mooch off their parents well into their "adulthood." They frequently need to "borrow" money, with no intention of paying...

"You've got to stand for something, or you will fall for anything."

- John Mellencamp

Many of my columns are about people who make bad financial decisions. People who take out payday loans and run up debts on high-interest credit cards. People who play the lottery and gamble too much...

Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town
And people let me be just what I want to be

- John Mellencamp

For all my adult life, I've assisted trial attorneys with structured settlements. I've worked with big names in big cities but...

And if I change my mind
A million times

-Shania Twain

I hate certain types of credit.  I don't own a credit card and I don't want one.  Payday lending,  tax refund anticipation loans and other forms of legalized loan sharking...

-Aerosmith

Tom Leach, the voice of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, gave me a fascinating Sports Illustrated article entitled, "How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke."

To quote baseball legend Yogi Berra, it is “Déjà vu all over again."

In the pool halls, the hustlers and the losers I used to watch em through the glass Down on Main Street. -Bob Seger We're at the one-year anniversary of when Wall Street collapsed and Washington politicians bailed them out. All the events of the last year proved at least...

Money, get back.
I'm all right jack, keep your hands off of my stack.
-Pink Floyd

Kathy Trant received several million dollars after her husband was killed in the September 11, 2001 attack on the  World Trade Center.  She called it “blood money” and ran through the millions,...

And she never had dreams, so they never came true”

-J. Geils Band

As a structured settlement consultant,   I go to mediations and settlement conferences with people who anticipate receiving large sums of money.

I ask every person the same question.

“Forget about what is going...

  I wrote this column the day after Michael Jackson died.  In light of today's news, it seems really on target.

Also, here's a fascinating blog piece from Louisville Attorney Hans Poppe on why a wrong death or medical malpractice case against Jackson's doctor may be worthless.   Poppe...

Let Freedom ring
Let the white dove sing
Let the whole world know that today
Is a Day of reckoning

-Gretchen Peters

CNBC superstar Maria Bartiromo,  Fox Business News host Dave Ramsey and myself have one thing in common: None of us have credit cards....

Don't You forget about me

Simple Minds

I recently finished Richard Wolffe's book Renegade: The Making of a President, a must-read account of President Obama's victory.

Wolffe's book is more than the history of a presidential campaign. It reaches to Obama's personal motivations that helped Obama achieve victory.

If...

Smokin' in the boys' room
Smokin' in the boys' room
Now, teacher, don't you fill me up with your rules

-Brownsville Station

For the past decade, our leaders decided that the rules of economics didn't apply. It got us into a financial crisis.

Washington and Wall...

"It's only half past 12, but I don't care. It's five o' clock somewhere."

- Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett

Five o'clock is important to many people. It is the time that they leave their jobs and stop thinking about work.

Five o'clock has never been...

"Don't you forget about me."

Simple Minds

I recently finished Richard Wolffe's book Renegade: The Making of a President, a must- read account of President Obama's victory.

Wolffe book is more than the history of a presidential campaign. It reaches to Obama's personal motivations that helped Obama achieve victory.

"Ninety-nine and forty-four one hundreds percent pure love"
-- Ronnie Millsap

Former CIGNA executive Wendell Potter was on Bill Moyers Journal a few weeks ago and cited a stunning statistic. When the Clinton's were debating health care in the early 1990's, 95 cents on every insurance premium dollar went...

All of this, all of this, all of this looks so easy.
But all of this, all of this, all of this ain't so easy.
-Saliva

Entrepreneur coach Dan Sullivan spoke at the Million Dollar Round Table International meeting a few weeks ago. Sullivan said...

Ooo, I believe, fate, fate smiled
And destiny laughed as she came to my cradle
Know this child will be able

-Natalie Merchant

My father was a professional gambler. When faced with any kind of crisis, he would say, "you have to...

This is a column I wrote in October, 2004. Cronkite was the best broadcast journalist who ever lived.

Walter Cronkite, a journalism role model

Monday, 04 October 2004

In a Huffington Post column last year (see below), I wrote that I felt that the American people were being conned. As I watch Paulson testify in front of Congress today, I KNOW we're being conned.

Its stunning how many people in Washington fell for it. Paulson continues to...