Economists have suggested for years that we’d be better served if the U.S. Mint ceased turning out pennies--the nation’s lowest denominational coin.
Though some 140 billion pennies remain in circulation--many in jars, under sofa cushions, on sidewalks or playgrounds--their demise will be gradual.
With cost-cutting the order of the day, why should we mint coins that cost three cents each to make?
On Feb. 17, 1848, Thomas Jefferson Rusk stepped out of Sam Houston’s giant shadow long enough to give his maiden speech in the United States Senate, a vigorous defense of the Mexican War.
Dear Rusty: I have reached my full retirement age (66 plus eight months) and plan to apply for Social Security this month, but I’ve seen articles which say that when I apply, I must also take Medicare Part A. This, even though I am continuing to work and am covered by my employer’s health insurance (a high deductible plan). I contribute bi-weekly into an HSA (Heath Savings Account).
After almost a century of standing watch on the border, Fort Clark was deactivated on Feb. 9, 1946 and turned into, of all things, a dude ranch. Hellbent-for-leather horse soldiers must have turned over in their graves.
Sam Maverick, a renowned signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, drove a hard bargain with the Army in July 1852. He talked the free-spending strangers into paying $50 a month for the rights to 4,000 acres of western range worth no more than a nickel an acre on the open market.
Dear Rusty: Why were the Social Security funds moved from the Social Security account to the General Fund with the government? Is it not then called a tax making it an entitlement? That then gives the government control of our retirement. Most of us feel that someone should be in charge and use the Social Security fund with investments that grow our savings.
Tears of millions of Americans have scarcely dried since the tragic mid-air collision of a passenger airliner with a military helicopter Jan. 29 in the icy waters of the Potomac River in Washington, DC.
A total of 70 victims--64 passengers, a crew of three and three in the helicopter--lost their lives a handful of seconds and a few hundred feet short of the Ronald Reagan National Airport runway, some 1,200 miles from Wichita, KS, where the flight originated some three hours earlier.
On Feb. 4, 1896, three days after her drunk of a husband threatened her with a butcher knife, Matilda Brown Sweeney moved back home to Ashton Villa where she spent the rest of her life.
The story of Texas’ famous first mansion begins with a New York runaway named James Moreau Brown. On his third or fourth escape attempt in the late 1830’s, the adventuresome adolescent kept going, working his way across the Deep South until he landed at Galveston during the last days of the Texas Republic.
My aged Uncle Mort admitted the other day that he feels like it’s time for him to re-enter the stock market, and this time, “brimming with confidence.”
He swore off trying to out-guess the market in the late 1990s.
Mort said he lumped all of his investments into “sweet chariot stocks.” I’d never heard of such, but his next sentence clarified: “When I bought ‘em, they swung low,” he cackled...
Dear Rusty: If a financially well-off individual had multiple ex-spouses, could it happen that the multiple ex-spouses could each be collecting Social Security based on their own financial situation as compared to their rich ex-spouses? Thus, multiple payouts by SS? Just curious, because there are probably many people in this situation as a result of the ever-increasing number of people involved in multiple marriages that each lasted more than ten years.
Signed: Curious Ex-Spouse
Relax. This is NOT going to be another one of those “promise pieces” about helpful resolutions that might elevate life for me in 2025. I leave that to others. In fact, were I to make a New Year’s resolution, it would be the determination to avoid making annual resolutions in the future.
My aged Uncle Mort also sneers at the many absurdities committed by millions of people each year. Most resolutions are broken quickly, the majority before the arrival of January 31…
