Sadly, it looks like the Chairman of the Federal Reserve ignored my open letter last week and decided to cut the federal funds rate by three quarters of a point to 2.25%. Of course, if you’re watching the news right now, everyone is saying that this dramatic cut is a good thing. After all, the Dow is surging on this supposedly great news. By cutting the interest rate, the Federal Reserve has pleased Wall Street investors.

But each time Ben Bernanke calls for a rate cut, he is helping destroy lower and middle class Americans. How is this possible? With each rate cut, inflation gets worse. What does that mean to you and me? Diminished savings, more expensive gas, and a greater costs of everyday goods.

I just got back from an amazing ski vacation in Vermont this weekend. It’s been a few years since the last time I hit the slopes, and I’ve forgotten just how expensive a weekend on the mountain can be. Here are some great tips for cheap skiing I discovered that can really add up to save some money.

In a previous post, I discussed the potential benefits of renting over buying. It turns out that in a large number of markets, it’s possible to rent a home for thousands less than it costs to buy it. But what happens when you rent a home from a landlord who recently purchased the property? In new developments, don’t be surprised if your landlord is paying more per month toward his mortgage than you are paying in rent. So if a home that rents for $1500 a month carries a $2500 mortgage, who pays the difference? And just how long do you think your landlord can afford to carry a $1000 deficit every month?

Wow, this has been a busy week for me! I submitted to a number of blog carnivals on a whim, and I was flooded with new readers as a result. I just want to take a moment and say hi to everyone that’s stumbled across this slice of the Internet. Hopefully you’ll stick around!

To start the week off, I was included in the Festival of Frugality, hosted by Green Panda Treehouse (which would make an awesome band name). Here are some of my favorite submissions:

• AnnualCreditReport.com and Free Credit Score posted at Prime Time Money.
• I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… discovered that Cheap Is Not Always A Good Thing.

Next off, the Carnival of Debt Management at Credit Card Lowdown was kind enough to include me in the festivities. Here are some posts I enjoyed:

• Dividend Money posted Student Loan Reduction Strategies.
• KCLau’s Money Tips shared Top 39 Essential Rules of Investing. (I think they kept #40 for themselves).

After that, I found myself lucky enough to be a featured post in the Carnival of Personal Finance at Quest for Four Pillars. Among some of the finer submissions were:

• Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck wrote about home affordability guidelines now that the housing market slowed down.
• Mrs. Micah shared how to hide money from an abusive spouse. Just don’t tell my wife!

And finally, here are some great articles I came across on my own this past week:

• Get Rich or Die Trying wrote about the gas bubble. With gas at record highs, I can believe it.
• Saving Savy complained about Emigrant Direct’s lousy interest rates. I know what she’s talking about, my main account is with Emigrant, and it hurts.
• The Social Marginal reminded me to be aware of my financial future. With a looming recession and terrible interest rates, I need all the reminding I can get.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I’m off to Vermont to go skiing before all the snow melts.

Dear Ben,

How are you? I am fine. I was just writing to see how things are going, since you seem to be having a pretty stressful couple of months lately. I realize your buddies might be pressuring you to do some harmful things to the economy, but I know you’re better than that. After all, your mother didn’t raise a follower, did she?

There have been some rumors going around the schoolyard lately saying that you want to keep cutting interest rates. I know you have a big important meeting scheduled for March 18, and I was hoping we might be able to work some things out before your big day.

So after a flurry of phone calls and faxes, we’re slowly getting closer to solving our problem with debt collectors. As we should have expected, basically nobody is willing to accept any blame. So now that we know we’re on our own with this one, we need to devise a game plan and stick to it.