Come On Get Happy

...because sad people spend more money. That's according to a recent article on the website Financial Highway that suggests good money management is a task more psychological than mathematical. The author cites the study “Misery is not Miserly: Sad and Self-Focused Individuals Spend More”, which found that "sad and self-focused individuals spend as much as 300% more for the same type of commodity."

The study seems to apply to situational sadness more than the generalized variety;when it was conducted, "the researchers randomly assigned people to either watch a sad video or an emotionally neutral video, after which they were asked to purchase a commodity (i.e. bottle of water). Participants in the sad group offered about 300% more than the neutral group for the same item."

So next time you go see a tearjerker, hands off the wallet as you leave the theater - or you could end up crying into a $7 bucket of popcorn.


Don't be like Dawson.

Any Port In The Storm

Since the recession collapsed world trade last year, there have been a lot more ships without cargo idling at sea.

Even as trade picks up again, the industry will likely experience a slow and delayed recovery, due to a badly-timed production blitz. The ship companies, like Wall St. banks, are suffering for having expanded too aggressively during the economic boom. They have more ships than ever coming out of production, just to sit empty at ports all over the world.

Obviously, this sucks for pirates.