Michael's Blog

"Complaints rise about interest rate hikes" was scrolling across the bottom of the screen on CNBC's Power Lunch show this morning. That piqued my interest, so I waited for the discussion to follow. When Bill Griffith and his cohorts finally brought up the story, the discussion, although brief, co...

The funny thing about thieves is that they are so darn clever. They are sneaky, and most of the time you don't even know that you've been robbed until they have taken your goods, and gotten away clean. The image we most commonly conjure up when we think about being robbed is a thief who comes in ...

 Today I started a new Active Rain Group, and I want to invite Everyone to join. The group is called Credit Card Revolt, and the name basically says it all. This group is a call to action, and a forum for support, to get everyone to fight back against the oppresion that the major credit card comp...

Okay, I admit that I can be somewhat of a conspiracy theorist, and at the same time I can be extremely skeptical about conspiracy theories. Here is the latest dilemna that has my undies all tightened up in a wad. I sat an open house a few weeks ago, during which I met the next door neighbor, and ...

I wish I could take credit for the Credit Card Revolution. But that is beside the point. When I wrote the blog "Days of Our Fathers" a few weeks ago, I was hoping to start a mini-revolution. I decided that I had taken enough abuse from the credit card companies, and I wasn't going to take it anym...

 I was frustrated with my attempts to load excel files data on the last posting I made on Mililani resale statistics. In order to make amends, I am posting less data here, but with graphs which I hope will make the data more useful.   Month to Month Price Changes show that prices rose in Mililani...

  Mililani Market Statistics        Comparison Between March 2008 and March 2009   The Planned Community of Mililani continues to be one of the more resilient neighborhoods on the island of Oahu., Although the volume of sales is lower by about one third compared to a year ago, the sales prices of...

Well, it finally happened. The protestors got their way, and the Hawaii Superferry is no more. Yesterday, the Hawaii Superferry set sail, leaving the State of Hawaii for good. Even as the ferry headed out to sea, there is the perhaps misguided hope that one day she will return. After investing mi...

Well, if there is a silver lining to the mortgage meltdown, this has got to be it. My 25 year old nephew, who will remain anonymous, just scored the dream home that I am still dreaming about. He is in California, I am in Hawaii, so I had nothing to do with his purchase. I might add, I don't think...

Once again, a very vocal minority of extremists have managed to gum up a vital service in the islands. The Hawaii Superferry has suffered enormous financial strains because of delays in launching it's interisland services, which finally began in April of 2007. Due to a vocal minority of protestor...