When economic forecasts are cloudy for coming years, people are generally skeptical about spending money. If you’re selling a dental practice, you may think this means you’re stuck for a while. That’s not necessarily so. Build a sure sale dental practice and the economy won’t stop you.

Even in a slow economy, people are trying to succeed and invest in their futures. There are dentists looking to buy practices. In fact, the start-up costs of building a new practice make buying an established one even more attractive. You just need to know how to sell a dental practice so potential buyers can’t refuse.

Teenagers can’t hide their excitement when the time comes and they are old enough to drive their own cars and have their own driver’s license. What should a parent expect when the time comes and the teen gets behind the wheel? This is the question that bothers most parents. There’s no secret that teen drivers are the hardest to control and they tend to take a lot of risk due to their overconfidence and the desire to show off in front of their colleagues or friends. And there are a lot of accidents with young drivers being involved. With all that in mind a typical parent becomes very agitated and tries to find the best insurance solution for their young car owner. However, due to the trends linked to young drivers, teenager auto coverage is rarely a cheap service as compared to standard insurance policies. Most insurance companies charge higher rates for teen drivers, and if your young car owner chose a sports vehicle as his or her first car, expect to pay a lot for the insurance.

It seems that the traditional discrimination between male and female drivers will end very soon thanks to the European Court of Justice, which has approved the ban on price discrimination and set a three year period for the insurance companies to comply. This is certainly good news for male drivers, especially the younger ones, who are traditionally charged with higher premiums, and also means that female drivers will be subjected to higher premiums as a logical move by the insurance providers to split even the costs in order to comply with the new rules.

It’s a sad fact of life but machines work for less than human beings. In the good old days, every machine needed a human to watch over it and make sure it did not mess up. Now all you do is plug in these new generations of clever computerised things and they can work for days and weeks without ever having to step outside to enjoy a cigarette. It’s enough to make Karl Marx turn over in his grave as the workers of the world have slowly been losing the power to sell their labour. But inside every silver lining is a pig’s ear, or something. If a business can operate with fewer human beings, it’s making big savings that can be passed on to us, the customers. If you’re still able to find work and can afford to insure your car, this is a good thing. If you’re one of the replaced humans and now find yourself on the scrap heap of life, this is bitter medicine.

As a year, 2011 has been one of the worst on record for weather-related claims. There were fierce ice storms starting the year, followed by some of the worst tornadoes and hurricanes we’ve ever seen. This October, records have been broken with a major snowstorm hitting the northeastern states. In some areas, power has been out for more than two weeks as overstretched power companies struggle to repair utility wires brought down by trees and ice. Of all the states, Connecticut is the hardest hit with more than 835,000 outages. This is not a direct criticism of the power companies. Each company is responsible for the maintenance of thousands of miles of wire. Inevitably, trees grow close to the wires and it’s not always economically convenient to trim back all the threatening branches. So, when snow turns to ice, the weight can bring down young and old trees alike. Cutting and clearing the trees and then restringing the wires takes time even in perfect working conditions. As the winter conditions persist, delays are inevitable. The decision of Connecticut’s Governor Dannel P. Malloy to hold an inquiry into the slow response is pure politics. Equally, the suggestion the state might take action through the courts is unlikely. Actually proving malfeasance by the power companies will be difficult.