The Good: American’s who will be receiving a stimulus package from the government will be happily surprised this coming week. Americans originally believed—as I stated in my first article on the topic—that the first checks would appear next Friday. Thanks to technological advances in the Treasury department (yup, tax money does go towards something) money will begin going out next Monday. The next computer program is updated daily, instead of weekly, allowing checks to be sent out more often. President Bush says that this money will help Americans to offset the rising gas and food prices (my debit card cries at the gas pump). While I think giving Americans back their own money will do pretty much nothing, I’m glad to see that for once the government is running ahead of schedule.

The Bad: Oil prices around the world have been rising. Americans have felt the pain of the $100 fill up (thankfully only $40 for my little car) and many of us think that the oil companies must be rolling in money. Well it seems all but one oil company is turning a profit on this outstanding oil demand. Mexico’s government oil company—Petroleos Mexicanos—has been losing money with their oil. Even worse, the government is losing what oil stores it has. Costly drilling deeper into Earth would be necessary for the government to turn a profit again. It seems not only Americans are feeling the pain of oil.