Today I got a love note from Verizon. FiOS is big! So darn big they need more of my money. Maybe they are too big to fail. All in the same letter, they announced changes regarding my service AND new bundle options available. First the good news: they will be upgrading my service to 10/2 Mbps in the next few months. Just because I am so loyal. Or is is because I am on such an old grandfathered plan that they haven't offered for the last 2 years that they couldn't justify me paying so little? Comcast did -- I had to beg them to let me cancel my $7/month basic cable package a few months ago. I told them it was just too much money for the value. Anyway, Verizon wants be be my friend and boost my speed. Right after that, they also tell me that they will also be boosting my billing rate from $39.99 to $49.99 per month. And here is the best part, a direct quote from the letter: "No action is required to maintain your service at the new rate — you'll continue to enjoy all the benefits your current Verizon FiOS Internet service has to offer. This rate increase is unrelated to the speed increase we will be implementing for your FiOS Internet service plan." Uh huh. Of course you won't make me do anything to start charging me more. We operate on an opt-out basis here in America; it is better for The Man. And not related, huh? I just don't buy that. You said it in the same letter and you put it in the 'bad news' section, right after the 'good news.'

Is it just me or does a 25% increase in price sound a little bit wrong when this year we have been seeing a -1.3% rate of inflation. So they are effectively raising my rates even more. I hate you Verizon and all your money grubbing managers. I started out very happily, paying $29.99 per month and have seen a steady increase in price over the past 4 1/2 years. Yet my service has stayed the same. If I wanted 10/2 speeds, I would have upgraded on my own. I just looked and saw that the current price for the lowest FiOS package is now $54.99 (for no phone service, which is me) and that is for the 15/3 speed. I feel like I am getting the short end of the stick here... I wonder if it is time to jump ship to Comcast again. You know, jumping ship every few years to keep the competition going. Verizon, you had a nice long run, but you are pushing my patience to its limit.

I just looked... Comcast does have a better deal going on right now...

I am not a licensed financial advisor, nor do I have a degree in economics, but I do have a brain. It seems that The Man does not.

The current view is that we have officially been in a recession for a year and a half now. How did we get here? Well, my view is that the country on a whole (The Man is waving the banner at the front of the parade) is living on a non-sustainable budget. Spending more money than one makes can only last for so long before you run out of credit. Oh look, Ma, a credit crisis! So how does The Man propose to get us out? Ooh, ooh! let's throw money we don't have at it. Fill the hole, loosen the credit markets and get the economy running again. My prediction: it won't work. Well, not for long.

My view is that the economy was fundamentally broken long before a year and a half ago. We have been in a slow death spiral for quite a while. At first, we didn't even know that we had a large tumor growing in our liver. We put on a few pounds but we chalk that up to eating out a little too much. Really, that few pounds is a malignant tumor that is taking up more space every day. One day, while out shopping for a new shiny gadget, we collapse, knocking over the salesman, who falls and grabs the store manager for stabilization. The manager tips over some manikins which conk the box-boy on the noggin, giving him a concussion. But he gets up and rambles through the store, knocking things over and leaving a trail of mayhem wherever he goes. The manager tries to keep the box-boy from wandering out of the store, but in a freak accident, the fluorescent light display near the door crashes down and sets the display on fire, blocking the exit behind box-boy. The store is consumed by fire, as are the neighboring businesses. Box boy leaves the area and shares his anti-Midas touch, which quickly infects every city on earth, which ends up as a smoldering rock orbiting the sun.

We have been getting warnings from the government that come February 17, 2009, the world as we know it will end as a new, crisp, digital world will come into focus. The apocalypse? I think not. If Nostradamus was unable to predict that, what makes you think a bunch of suits in Washington can? No, I am talking about the end of analog terrestrial television broadcasts. If you haven't heard about this yet, you may as well crawl back under your rock because it doesn't apply to you.

February 6th, 2006 started a short, yet blissful relationship with Verizon. That was the day FiOS internet service arrived at my house. At the low introductory rate of $29.95/mo I was in fat city. I knew this was a limited-time offer so I was not surprised to see my monthly bill increase by $5/mo after my initial year was up. So for the past year and a half, my rate has been a low $34.95/mo and I was still thinking I was doing well. Until this afternoon when I received an email saying that my latest statement had been posted. I noticed it was about $10 more than usual. That's odd. I get on the phone and demand an explanation. You see, I never received an email, letter, phone call, or anything indicating a price hike. And so far, I have never met ANY utility bill that is actually self explanatory. I am not a rocket scientist, but I do have a post-graduate degree. My problem is that I see a higher bill than usual and it takes Verizon 1 1/2 hours, seven phone transfers, four departments, one disconnect and one returned call to finally figure out that they don't know what is going on.