I've been thinking about the way I buy things, the when and where and why of it all, and how totally dumb most of the purchases (big and small, from gum to Apple products) that I make are. So I'm very into Make It Do, which is about a year of wearing things out, mending things, and buying minimally. (But what about pedicures? That's not in the FAQ!) It's nice that it's not a crusade ("my year without any animal products"!) or a stunt ("my year as a cavewoman"!); it's just a way to pull-back, look at the way we interact with products and see what one learns.

"We do not need to further incentivize entrepreneurs and investors to start companies–they already have plenty of incentives to do so... It is silly to think that "entrepreneurs and investors" create the jobs in our economy. Entrepreneurs and investors start and fund companies, which is important. But what actually creates self-sustaining jobs and a growing economy is customers who want and can pay for companies' products and services. Without these customers, there's no job creation." READ MORE

"The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday. While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation." READ MORE

$85 million sounds like a lot of money! That's what Tumblr just raised, on top of the $30 million they raised ten months ago, bringing their investment dollars to a bit north of $120 million. There's a staff of 50 (now only 82% male!), so that's like $5 million a year right there. (Also, they've outsourced tech support (rather poorly; if you ask Tumblr for help with something, you get some dude copying and pasting a manual at you) with some minimal supervision, and that's probably a significant, if user-annoying, cost savings.) But staff costs are surely dwarfed by the cost of doing at the very least 156 billion pageviews a year, particularly when those pageviews are mostly "borrowed" copyrighted high-res images of cats and/or starving girls. (That cost is the joy of being an actual tech company, not a "media company.") By very back-of-the-envelope calculations, Tumblr's adorable own neighborhood in some cute server farm costs a lot more than that. So by necessity, they'll be rolling out the "how we will make money" plan in 2012. Somewhere at Tumblr HQ, there's a graph where a red line of money being spent points down and a blue (or maybe green????) line of "projected revenue" points up. Hmm, hey, HOW ABOUT COUPONS? I hear coupons are hot right now.

Before the hilarious Morgan Stanley report—which says that we're "hovering dangerously close to a recession" and then says that "policy errors" have to do with their vote of no confidence in the U.S. markets, by which they mean "make us and/or give us much more money" and/or "don't cut government spending"—came the Goldman Sachs report, which put forward the idea of the U.S. economy being a plane, a plane that can stall, just like a real plane, if GDP growth is below 2%. One of their top two concerns? "US fiscal tightening." (In the end, just FYI, they put the possibility of a "new" recession at 1 in 3.) Basically we are in a weird position where, for maybe the first time, Republican talking points (if not actual Republican beliefs or actions) threaten Wall Street, which has, over the past few years, gotten everything it's wanted from the White House. (And will continue to do so, not that there's anything left to give.) READ MORE

The data we're allowed to have from places like Conde Nast makes it a little difficult to parse, but this helps: "between its eight magazines with tablet editions, the company has 242,000 digital customers." Good night, nurse! Your revolution is... maybe next year? (That being said, I'd love to see income numbers from that. It's gotta be somewhere from $1.2 million to $2.6 million, I figure? The problem is counting people who get iPad access "bundled" with magazine subscriptions; where people get counted is important!) And language is tricky! READ MORE

Perpetual presidential candidate Newt Gingrich made news last month when it was revealed he and his wife Callista carried a credit line of up to $500,000 at Tiffany, a jewelry store catering to the powerful and virtuous. He made news again last week when it was revealed he had a second line of credit—this one up to $1,000,000. (New Gingrich’s top fundraising staff has since quit.) READ MORE