GERRY KRAMER

• Money Smarts: Body mass? You'll have to know your BMI Published 07/24/2010 at 9:53 a.m.

  What’s your BMI (body mass index)? Buried in the 1,000-page stimulus and 2,800-page health care bills are little known provisions. The specific rules adjoining them have yet to be written by the thousands of new government regulators being hired for ...

• Money Smarts: The risk of politicizing insurance Published 07/18/2010 at 8:29 a.m.

  Basically, the insurance business is one of pricing risk. To do this, analysts (called actuaries) review the history of relevant events, current trends and potential changes in the future.

• Money Smarts: Today as yesterday ... greenhouse gas monitor is coming Published 07/01/2010 at 1:56 p.m.

  This column is an update of a July 2008 article. Write to gerryk3001@yahoo.com

• Money Smarts: Obama the punisher Published 06/10/2010 at 2:43 p.m.

  In the US, there are three million people in jail punished for breaking the behavioral rules of society. That’s about one percent of the population. We don’t assume from these “bad apples” that the other 99 percent of citizens are ...

• Money Smarts: Credit scores and credit Published 06/03/2010 at 3:26 p.m.

  Historically, when it comes to obtaining credit, the pendulum always swings back and forth between easy and difficult. When flush with cheap money and an expanding economy, banks will make more loans (mortgages, credit cards, car purchases, home equity, etc.) ...

• Money Smarts: Absorbing energy smarts Published 05/27/2010 at 1:12 p.m.

  Debates about energy often get testy. That’s because the arguments are usually clouded by emotions. The number one reason people buy mileage efficient hybrid cars, for example, is that it makes them feel good about themselves; the purchase provides for ...

• Money $marts: Time to find new scandalous shows to fill the TV airtime Published 06/19/2013 at 11:21 a.m.

  Based in Washington, D.C., "Scandal" is a TV show with over the top plot lines and characters. The series centers on a powerful female problem "fixer" who's having an on-off affair with the president.

• Money $marts: Critical thinking about college Published 06/12/2013 at 11:52 a.m.

  When it comes to arguments for a college education, there are two main schools of thought, the academic and the practical.

• Money $marts: Paying for a party we can't attend Published 06/05/2013 at 12:31 p.m.

  Apple Inc. was in the news last week for its "shameful" avoidance of taxes through adherence to the federal corporate tax code. Somehow the legal minimization of taxes has become unpatriotic.

• Money $marts: Great expectations can be met Published 05/29/2013 at 3:17 p.m.

  "Stand and Deliver" is a movie about a high school math teacher at a low income neighborhood school who believes his students can learn calculus and pass a state test.

• Money $marts: 'Sorry, it's just what I do' Published 05/22/2013 at 11:47 a.m.

  Have you heard the tale of the scorpion and the frog? "Can I ride on your back across the pond?" asks the scorpion. "Certainly not," the frog says. "You will sting me with your poisonous tail." "No I won't," says ...

• Money $marts: Three strikes and you're out! Published 05/15/2013 at 12:46 p.m.

  "Parental Guidance" is a movie starring Billy Crystal as a recently fired 30-year play-by-play announcer for a minor league baseball team.

• Money $marts: The party may be over Published 05/08/2013 at 10:30 a.m.

  While a college degree costs a bundle, when viewed as an investment it has a high present value return that exceeds its cost, by as much as a million dollars over an assumed 40-year working lifetime.

• Money $marts: Of the people, by the people, against the people Published 05/01/2013 at 2 p.m.

  Abraham Lincoln's 1863 "Gettysburg Address" ends with "this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

• Money $marts: The happiest people in the world? Published 04/24/2013 at 10:47 a.m.

  Who are the happiest people in the world and what makes them so? The U.S. Declaration of Independence speaks of the right of the people to pursue happiness but not how to catch it. Modern social scientists, however, believe they ...

• Money $marts: When there's no shame… Published 04/10/2013 at 4:13 p.m.

  Some Thesaurus synonyms for "shame": disgrace, embarrassment, dishonor, humiliation, indignity.

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