TIPS: Follow president's lead

As our president has demonstrated, criminal activity should not impede economic stability. We can all be thankful everyone’s doing their part in the coming weeks by following these simple guidelines.

First: Shop Online. It’s the latest fad! All the celebrities are doing it. This is our statistical quick fix for the economy, keeping small businesses on the ropes. It’s also making organized crime a lot of money. More than drugs, extortion and human trafficking combined. Cyber attacks alone, according to Forbes, might reach 6 trillion by 2021. Yearly increases of 25 percent is the average business cost for cyber security.

Second: Shop at the big box stores. You might feel a bit safer at the local mall, but theft there is rampant as well. The larger stores have made very little to no effort recouping the loss of the $50 billion each year. It is after all, only one percent of total revenue. Feel safe knowing only one in a hundred shoppers walking out might be casing your car next…

Third: Donate Carelessly. Charities can be a wonderful way to give since most charities try to do the best to improve others’ lives. Yet the financial negligence that puts the greedy before the needy is by far the most sadistical of capital ventures. In 2010, a 7.0 hit Haiti, killing hundreds of thousands. The United States stepped up big time.

The Red Cross received $488 million. Yet four years later, doled out $100 million while building only six homes.

STEVEN REYNALDS

Coeur d’Alene