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Month: April 2017

Gotchas / Consumer

This is your face. This is how corporations treat you. This is what we’ve let America become

April 10, 2017 Bob Sullivan 8

Look carefully at this face. Because it’s yours.  This is the face of American consumers today.  Only this time, it was caught on camera. If you doubt America is run by corporations, at the EXPENSE of the people, I hope this video serves as your wake-up call. There are almost too [Keep reading]

Cybercrime / Privacy

Hacked Dallas sirens, maintained by office furniture movers, shows U.S. not serious about critical infrastructure

April 10, 2017 Bob Sullivan 4

It’s tempting to ignore the warning sirens that blared Dallas out of bed Saturday night — but that would be a very serious mistake. We hear so much about the importance of securing America’s critical infrastructure systems. Then you find out that the company responsible for maintaining the Dallas outdoor [Keep reading]

Cybercrime / Privacy

Asking Twitter to unmask an anonymous account is serious; this DHS request is amateurish, but scary

April 6, 2017 Bob Sullivan 0

  UPDATE 4/7/2017 — The Department of Homeland Security has withdrawn this request, so Twitter has voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit.  That’s good, but the main theme here remains: What a shocking level of seriousness. It’s been great fun to watch the list of Twitter accounts run, allegedly, by federal workers [Keep reading]

Gotchas / Consumer

The ‘original sin’ that made student loan borrowers into criminals: Part 2 of a series

April 6, 2017 Bob Sullivan 1

If it sometimes feels like student loan borrowers are treated like criminals — that’s because they are. It literally took an act of Congress to make it so. Student loans are different from almost any other form of borrowing. Unlike credit cards or other unsecured debts, they are almost impossible [Keep reading]

Cybercrime / Privacy

Privacy Lost: Sorry, but ‘trust us’ just isn’t a good privacy policy (and what you can do about that ISP ruling)

April 5, 2017 Bob Sullivan 0

Like so many public policy arguments, this Internet Service Provider privacy story is not sexy right now, because it doesn’t *really* have immediate consequences. But by the time it is sexy, it’ll be too late to do anything about it. That leaves people who want you to care about it [Keep reading]

LuckyVacationSpots

Lucky Vacation Spots: Folly Beach, South Carolina (near Charleston)

April 4, 2017 Bob Sullivan 2

Rusty’s rating: 11 on a scale of 1 to 10 Walk down Center Street in Folly Beach and you’ll find an eclectic collection of beach-y restaurants, bars and coffee shops.  All of them have tables on or near the sidewalk, and all of them were happy to see Rusty. I [Keep reading]

Gotchas / Consumer

Be strong! Raiding your investment/retirement accounts, even in small amounts, hurts big down the road.

April 4, 2017 Bob Sullivan 0

Grow recently asked me to write about the pitfalls of trading money in and out of investment accounts.  Trying to time the market is a bad idea, folks. Really, nobody can do it.  If you think you have, you’ve just been lucky or had insider training.  You are sure to [Keep reading]

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About me

BOB SULLIVAN is a veteran journalist and the author of four books, including the 2008 New York Times Best-Seller, Gotcha Capitalism, and the 2010 New York Times Best Seller, Stop Getting Ripped Off! His latest, The Plateau Effect, was published in 2013, and as a paperback, called Getting Unstuck in 2014. He has won the Society of Professional Journalists prestigious Public Service award, a Peabody award, and The Consumer Federation of America Betty Furness award, and been given Consumer Action’s Consumer Excellence Award.

Bob Sullivan