If you’re like me, you don’t think much about carpets.

Except maybe when you spill on one.

But like so many everyday things that we take for granted, carpets have a story to tell, and it’s becoming an intriguing sustainability story. Shaw Floors, the world’s largest carpet manufacturer, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, recycled 121 million pounds of used carpet last year — reclaiming it from homes or offices, breaking it down into caprolactam, a compound which is a building block of nylon, and then redeploying the nylon to make new carpet.

The carpet pictured above is branded as EcoWorx.

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Soaring gasoline prices are in the rearview mirror.

For the first time in months, retail gasoline prices have fallen below $3 a gallon in places, including parts of Michigan, Missouri and Texas. And the relief is likely to spread thanks to a sharp decline in crude-oil prices.

The national average for regular unleaded gasoline is $3.51 per gallon, down from a high of $3.98 in early May. Last week’s plunge in oil prices could push the average to $3.25 per gallon by November, analysts say.

Economist Philip Verleger equates it to “a stimulus program for consumers,” leaving them more money for clothes, dinners out and movies.

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Editor’s note: Bill Goodwin is Premium Content Editor of IT magazine Computer Weekly

London (CNN) — Apple’s ground breaking technology and its uncanny ability to understand what consumers really want has propelled the firm founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and his buddy Steve Wozniak to stratospheric heights.

Apple built its business on its highly desirable but niche Macintosh computer range.

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This speech is more explicit than Bernanke’s, but likewise gives no suggestion of immediate action. Achieving maximum long-term growth

Speech by Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the ECB
at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium
Panel: Setting priorities for long-term growth
Jackson Hole, U.S.A., 27 August 2011

The title of our panel today is Setting Priorities for Long-Term Growth. Given all of our recent struggles to regain our reference growth paths, it may strike some as something of a luxury to think about the long run; central bankers and policy makers have had to devote unprecedented attention to higher-frequency economic developments.

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Our school system, with long summers away from the books, is based on an agricultural model where most families needed kids home to help with the work of actually running a farm. Today, there are about two million farms in the U.S, according to the EPA. Some of those farms are huge, requiring plenty of family labor (as well as hiring help), but not to the point that most kids go to work on a farm when summer rolls around.

I didn’t grow up knowing this, since my family doesn’t farm, but I did not get long lazy summers with nothing to do either. Even before I hit high school and could look for a job on my own, I worked for various family members in the summer time. One

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The New York Times has posted an article that discusses how a foreclosure and a short sale differ in the long run when it comes to how your credit score is impacted by losing a home. While economic factors may have been the cause of losing your home, a bad credit score can impact several areas of your life such as getting a job and renting.

A short sale where the balance is forgiven and nothing is recorded in public records can be quick and close to painless for your credit score’s recovery. As long as you pay your bills on time your score can be brought up in less than a year. Your score won’t be outstanding, but it will definitely help.

However, a foreclosure or bankruptcy can haunt your credit score for years.

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When making your financial plans, it’s important to consider the wealth-eroding effect inflation can have. Inflation reduces your purchasing power, and it can mean that today’s dollar won’t go as far in future years. Essentially, inflation guarantees that what you save now won’t be worth as much in real terms a couple decades down the road. As a result, it is important to plan ahead, and make moves now to help you so that your earnings will be high enough that you are still ahead — even after inflation takes its toll. Here are 3 ways to reduce your exposure to inflation:

Some investments can help you beat inflation. If inflation runs at an annual 3%, and your annualized return is 6%, then you come out ahead. Your mone

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