It’s that “old ‘Pots & Kettles’ cliché again.” says The Nether-World.

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This sounds great until you read the small print. Microplace allows you to make tiny ($30-200) loans to deserving small Third World enterprises, something which should certainly make one feel warm and fuzzy.

But the loans are not made directly so you don’t know who gets the money. Plus, you buy investments from third party issuers who then charge 18-60% interest while returning 1.5-3% to you.

Bzzzt. Sorry, but why the predatory interest rates? Drop the interest to 5% and then you’ll have something genuinely worthwhile, seems to me.

Kiva.org is quite the opposite. You make microloans loans to th struggling, but earn no money for doing so. Now that’s warm and fuzzy.

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The trick is to conserve the valuable state resource, make wise decisions about how to use it and cut waste.

Here’s how:

Conservation. (Drought-tolerant plants. Metering. Smart watering systems.)

Store groundwater more efficiently. (Especially during years with surpluses)

Reuse wastewater (Right now, it all flows into the ocean. Use it for irrigation, industry, let it seep into aquifers) )

Stop throwing away storm water. (Build parks and storage areas and let it seep into the soil.)

Cut agricultural water use. (Israel has already done this. Step One. Eliminate subsidies of marginal water-hungry crops.)

Tip: Western Water Blog

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U.S. “undoubtedly in recession”: Jim Rogers

Rogers co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros in the 70’s and is a legendary investor.

Here’s the kicker, Rogers said “he was switching out of the dollar and into yen, the yuan and the Swiss franc.”

This is a strong indication that billionaire investors like Rogers, hedge funds, central banks, and the like will start dumping their dollar holdings then speculate against it. If you don’t think that powerful financial interests aren’t quite capable of smashing the dollar into the ground so they can make a profit, well, then you don’t really understand capitalism.

George Soros gained international notoriety when, in September of 1992, he risked $10 billion on a single currency speculation when he shorted the British pound. He turned out to be right, and in a single day the trade generated a profit of $1 billion – ultimately, it was reported that his profit on the transaction almost reached $2 billion. As a result, he is famously known as the “the man who broke the Bank of England.”

Soros is also famous for running the Quantum Fund, which generated an average annual return of more than 30% while he was at the helm. Along with the famous pound trade, Soros was also cited by some as the “trigger” behind the Asian financial crisis in 1997, as he had a large bet against the Thai baht.

You better believe speculators are capable of further tanking the already dropping dollar. They like to target that which is already wounded (why hunt a healthy lion when a wounded gazelle is nearby) - and with wars the US can not afford and a massive amount of debt, the dollar is a prime target indeed.

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In poorer parts of L.A., the County sets a fixed budget in advance for fighting fires. Yet fire budgets in wealthier areas have no such limitations. Why is this?

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