Money ain't a thang.

Tha Captain is not concerned.

Department of Mathematics and Statistics Graduate Students,

I’m sure that most of you are well aware of the current economic
crisis. As a result of the impact on Alabama and the expected
diminution of funding, I expect that I will be obliged to cut back on
our graduate student support. I hope to support all the students who
are presently in good standing and on track in their programs. A
preliminary calculation indicates to me that we may not be able to
support more than a handful of students at the current levels. Next
year I expect that the majority of the assistantships will only be at
1/3 (or 3/8) time. I felt it necessary to inform you of this likelihood
as soon as possible so that you have time to make plans to conserve your
resources.

-Dr. Smith.

#*****************************************************#
Dr. Michel Smith
Professor and Chair
Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Holy cow

The median value of a home in Detroit is $7500.

It may be tough to get financing for a new car these days, but in Detroit you can buy a house with a credit card.

The median price of a home sold in Detroit in December was $7,500, according to Realcomp, a listing service.

Not $75,000. Remove a zero—it's seven thousand five hundred dollars, substantially less than the lowest-price car on the new-car market.

Among the many dispiriting numbers that bleakly depict the decrepitude of this onetime industrial behemoth, the steep slide of housing values helps define the daunting challenge to anyone who wants to lead this shrinking, poverty-pocked city of about 800,000 people.

Instead of getting a new car, I should have gotten two lots in Detroit. Some other things you can get for $7500:

A 2002 VW Passat

Sevenish 46" LCD flat screen TVS

A KitchenAid refrigerator

The best plan is probably to move people out of Detroit as quickly as possible. You could move 80,000 to each of the ten American cities larger than Detroit, and that would work. Or move 40,000 to the ten larger, and then 20,000 each to the next twenty. Or (this might be crazy) they could try lowering taxes and making it easier and cheaper for people to live and work there.

From here.