Good News! An article written by Walter Hamilton in the Daily Press today was titled "Americans 2% Richer Than 3 Months Ago."  And guess why???? THE STOCK MARKET!   People who have enough money to own stocks and a house are wealthier than they were earlier this year.  An ultraeasy monetary policy has been used to boost recovery in the nation's housing market after the Great Recession.  This helped put U.S. stocks at record levels.   It's kind of cool we are playing the stock market game at the same time this article was written.

An article in today's Daily Press called "New Countertops Counter Germs" that was written by Tara Bozick talked about a Sentara hospital in Norfolk buying new countertops and surface infused with copper.  Copper is known to kill bacteria, and the company that is providing the surfaces claims they will kill 99.9 percent of the bacteria.  The hospital will be putting the copper infused surfaces on commonly touched places like doorknobs.  Even though this is probably pretty expensive, as copper tends to be, they are not using straight copper, just surfaces infused with it.  I think it is important for hospitals to continue to look for new ways to keep the hospital clean, to protect the patients and help their own income by bulding a good reputation.

This week we started by continuing our discussion of market economies.  We talked about their disadvantages, such as unequal distribution of wealth and the economic good of an individual is superior, and the advantages, such as freedom, profit, and efficiency.  We also talked about Adam Smith who was a supporter of a free market economy.  He wrote The Wealth of Nations and was most famous for his idea of the invisible hand.  However, he thought that there should be no government involvement in the market.  I disagree with this because I think without the government there would be much disorder.  The government needs to play at least a small part in the market so that the product market and the factor market are receiving resources.  Adam Smith thought that if we were left alone, that human nature would work everything out on its own, but I think it is too much of a risk to try it without a body to maintain order.

On September first there was an article called "Living Large? Start with Small Cuts, Like Bottled Water" in the Daily Press by Brian J. O'Connor.   His mother-in-law lives in Tampa, Florida where fertilizer from the orange groves gets into the water and makes it taste terrible. making buying bottled water a necessity. But Americans who live in areas with the best and cleanest drinking water on the planet spent 12 billion dollars on bottled water last year. If people want to go on vacations or to afford a car, you should start with cutting out small things like bottled water and just drink out of the tap. He says you won't make much of a dent in your savings, but if you cut down on things like housing, transportation and food as well forgoing bottled water you can make big changes.  I think this is very true.  I don't mind drinking out of the tap in our area, but if people really hate it they can buy pitchers that filter the water as you pour. I can see how not buying bottled water would cut down on money spending.