To be fair, looking for bad advice in US News & World Report is a lot like trying to find something beautiful in the Louvre.

It's just too easy. Last week, I took US News to task for advising parents on taking out student loans when they can't afford their own mortgage payments.

This week, Rick Newman, the magazine's chief business correspondent, offers this horrible, horrible, horrible piece of advice: "The average debt-to-income ratio, or DTI, is 125% today. Economists roughly consider a 100% DTI ratio to be "normal" or healthy. So if you owed a combined $125,000 on your mortgage, car loans and other obligations and earned $100,000 in take-home pay, you'd want to pay down your debt by $25,000, or 20%, to be in the safe zone."

Mark Zuckerberg released an open letter to Facebook users that promised to keep information private by making it simpler to do so. Zuckerberg also said that Facebook, originally created for college students to find one another, has grown exponentially and that its current regional networks are therefore obsolete:

The plan we've come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone. . . .

Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks we'll ask you to review and update your privacy settings. You'll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you're finished, we'll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you're done you'll still be able to change your settings whenever you want.

The low budget fashion-forward retailer Charlotte Russe has some great sales going on. I've gotten some really cute earrings there that were worth it even though they didn't last more than six months.

Denim is buy one get one 50% off through Dec. 5. Buy two sweaters and get the second one free, too. Expires Dec. 5.

If you buy two pairs of jeans or two sweaters that are the same price, it amounts to a 25% discount overall. If the second sweater is cheaper (they always charge you in full for the higher priced item), your overall discount drops.

Get half off all sale items at CharlotteeRusse.com. You can also get 50% off all clearance items. Unclear when these last two offers end.

Sports Illustrated has decided to go with Apple's Tablet by unveiling a prototype video of what the magazine would look like with the new technology. Too bad the Tablet hasn't been released yet.

So far, the Tablet (which is still in development and doesn't have a name so we're using Tablet) looks like a big iPhone with a 10.7-inch touchscreen.

While some worry that SI's parent company, Time Inc. is jumping the gun on technology that has yet to be test-driven in an attempt to be technologically relevant, perhaps the Tablet technology is no worse than any other electronic reader out there.

Even if you can't get a free lunch, free checking accounts seem to offer everything but. Banks and credit unions are freely offering their free checking account customers free checks (naturally), free ATM and/or debit cards, free e-statements, free online access, free unlimited check writing and free direct deposit transactions.

Additional features on free checking accounts may include free ATM use nationwide, overdraft protection plans and even cash bonuses for signing up. So why are banks so eager to get you to sign up for a free checking account that they'd push these unprofitable products? Through these free checking accounts, most banks hope you'll sign up for their other banking products and become a faithful customer.

Keep in mind that not all free checking accounts are actually free. In fact, though most banks offer free checking accounts, probably a quarter of all free checking accounts are completely free, with no restrictions at all. Don't be surprised if you see fees on your free checking account, even legitimate ones, such as fees for stop payments, canceled checks, check printing, insufficient funds or closing an account early. You might have to maintain a specific balance amount or be restricted as to ATM withdrawal limits per day or want to see your paid checks, so make sure your free checking account meets your financial needs and lifestyle. And don't expect to earn interest with your free checking account.

And beware the dark side of free checking accounts: Some people find out after the fact that they're getting charged every time they swipe their debit card, which can add up to be way more expensive than a not-free checking account.

On Black Friday Fry's was offering a 52-inch HDTV deal that attracted a lot of attention from shoppers -- so much that one store oversold at least six HDTVs.

Couple the mistake with a manger who seemingly couldn't be bothered to address the problem with anything more than a you're out of luck smirk and you can bet these customers felt like they got fried.

But, it seems that the holiday season, or a mention on The Consumerist, still has the power to grow a corporation's heart three sizes.

One of the affected customers wrote into The Consumerist to share that, after talking to consumer relations, he secured an apology for the mistake and more importantly a replacement HDTV. The Fry's store in Renton, Wash. is ordering a new batch of Samsung HDTV's to make sure that anyone who paid for an HDTV on Black Friday actually gets one.

Kudo's to Fry's for fixing their mistake. Maybe next year Fry's can move to a ticketing system so that they don't oversell a doorbuster item in five different lines.

Hold up! Don't pay that shipping fee because a major free shipping day is in the works.

More than 300 retailers have agreed to offer free shipping on Dec. 17. This happens to be one of the last days you can buy something online, select standard shipping and have it delivered by Christmas.

Real estate prices have bottomed out. Depending on the market-- Las Vegas, Arizona, Southern California -- house prices can be insanely low.

In Broward County, Fla., for example, homes that once cost more than $200,000 can be had for as little as $30,000, many as foreclosures. Now that the days of high-profit speculation in the real estate market have come to a close, real estate investors are turning to another program that provides a more modest, but still reliable, return.

The Section 8 Rental Voucher Program is a federal endeavor that pays the rent of qualified low-income renters. The homes they live in are privately owned by everyday people, who receive monthly rent checks from the government on behalf of their low-income tenants. Considering rent is paid back at what amounts to something close to market rates, renting an inexpensive property to the Section 8 program can more than pay for itself.

WalletPop's Jason Cochran traveled to Broward County to meet with Suzanne Dunn, a real estate investor who has independently jumped on the Section 8 market. She gives us an overview of how it works for people who want to become landlords:

While many shoppers are planning to use cash or a debit card this holiday season, some will still find they need to apply for new credit. I know many at Wallet Pop will tell you that you should just spend less, but just in case you do decide to apply for credit, do it wisely. You also may find it harder to get.

"Shopping and applying for cards isn't as easy as it used to be," Bill Hardekopf, CEO of Lowcards.com and author of The Credit Card Guidebook, told me by e-mail interview. "Consumers should now expect higher rates and lower credit limits. Approval is no longer a sure thing."

If you still want to apply for a new credit card, here are a few tips to think about first:

You like beige? The color beige. I guess I don't consider beige a real color. I mean, not like, say, red or blue or bright yellow. Those are colors. Beige is, well, beige! For reasons known only to a select few in Washington -- let's call them for the sake of discussion, "the beige crowd" -- the Federal Reserve Board's periodic summary of economic conditions around the nation is referred to as "The Beige Book." You can probably see why the government will probably never produce a best seller.

Before you turn blue with exasperation about my reflections upon the Fed's "Beige Book," let me tell you why I am even bringing this whole matter to your attention: The newest Beige Book tells us that "home sales and construction activity improved across much of the nation," but it also reports to us that "prices were generally said to be flat or still declining somewhat." Now, " declining somewhat" doesn't exactly have the ring of precision that I would like, but it does paint in a broad stroke the state of the real estate market in these United States.