In a fairly idiotic bit of tabloid-style hysteria, CNNMoney asks the question "Are you committing career suicide?" by taking a low-paying job because you can't find anything better.

According to staff writer Jessica Dickler, many laid-off workers are taking steep paycuts to make ends meet, often working at entry-level or menial jobs to put food on the table: "But a smaller paycheck could push you back a rung in the in salary ladder, and make it that much harder to get back to where you were."

Earlier this month, Girls Gone Wild promoter Joe Francis plea-bargained his way out of a possible prison sentence for charges related to filing false tax returns. By pleading guilty to filing false tax returns and bribing Nevada jail workers, Mr. Francis was sentenced to time served and one year of probation, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Initially accused of taking $20 million in fraudulent tax deductions, Francis ended up pleading guilty to a misdemeanor, the newspaper reported.

"It took us seven months, but in the end we demonstrated that the felony tax charges never should have been brought in the first place," Brad Brian, Francis' lead trial attorney, said in a statement.

But now the IRS is back for more.

I listen to Dave Ramsey pretty regularly and I'm here to tell you: the rant that you're about to listen to is the best. thing. I. have. ever. heard. in. my. whole. life.

A nice lady e-mails Dave to ask whether it's OK to let her husband co-sign on a car loan for his parents. Dave explains why that's a bad idea and then goes. . . completely nuts.

Click here to listen to the call in its entirety -- and forward to anyone you know who might ever considering co-signing for anything ever for anyone.

Michigan State University's College Employment Research Institute's latest graduate job outlook is pretty bleak.

This year's college graduates have a mind-boggling 40% fewer job prospects, and jobs for candidates with bachelor's degrees are expected to drop by 1% in 2010.

Eighty percent of employers won't be offering higher starting salaries, and 8% will lower starting pay by an average of 5%. Twelve percent will increase starting pay by an average of just 3%.

Signing bonuses and performance bonuses are also on the decline -- understandable given that there is so little competition to woo recent grads.

Adding to employment woes for recent college graduates is the 10.2% national unemployment rate -- which means that young people will have to compete with older candidates with years of experience and families to feed. As the rising number of unemployed workers cycle through the unemployment system, they'll become increasingly desperate for income, making the situation even worse for recent grads.

So what's a grad to do? One short-term solution may be to pour energy into finding freelance and temp opportunities. Independent contractors often lament the lack of benefits but for young single people, it's just not that important.

You can buy your own health insurance for a few hundred dollars a month. Indeed, young single people who work at full-time jobs with benefits are, in effect, subsidizing their co-workers who have large families and consequently large health insurance costs.

Another idea for recent grads: recognize that the job you work in the crappiest job market in a long, long time might not have a lot to do with your long-term career. If all you can get is an unpaid internship in the field of your choice and find yourself working six nights a week at WalMart to make ends meet, that won't kill you.

After losing about $7 million in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, 92-year old Zsa Zsa Gabor now has the IRS to deal with.

On Oct. 5, the IRS filed a lien for $118,321 for the years 2001 and 2002 with the Los Angeles County Recorder of Deeds.

According to The Associated Press, "Gabor lawyer Chris Fields estimates that Gabor lost about $7 million in Madoff's Ponzi scheme and the tax bill is part of the fallout. Fields says third-party money managers invested Gabor's money with Madoff."

How losing money in 2008 would lead to additional taxes being owed for 2001 and 2002 is a bit of a mystery to me. It's possible that she was trying to work out her tax issues with the IRS but with the losses to Madoff, no longer has the money to pay her back taxes.

When the Madoff fraud was first revealed, Gabor's husband, the 64-year old Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, lamented that the couple "might be forced to sell our Bel Air home."

Hopefully the IRS will be lenient with the couple in light of the massive losses they sustained at the hands of Bernie Madoff.

The IRS recently updated consumers on all the tax savings you can get from making your home more green-friendly. Installing energy efficient windows and doors, insulation, roofing, HVAC, water heaters, and biomass stoves can save you a boatload of money on your taxes.

But will doing all those things really help the environment? Yes. But ya know what will help mother nature a hell of a lot more?

Not breeding.

The good news: National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun is predicting that home prices will rise 4% in 2010.

The bad news: Lawrence Yun has never been right about anything in his entire life, ever.

Yun predicted that sales volume will also rise about 14%. I'm definitely not smart enough to try to make short-term predictions about what will happen with home prices or sales volume. But the track record suggests that Lawrence Yun isn't smart enough either.

In July of 2008, Yun opined that "I think we are very near to the end of the housing downturn. In June of 2008, Newsweek guru Daniel Gross wrote that "Yun is the Little Orphan Annie of forecasters. He's always sure the sun will come out tomorrow." Lawerence Yun Watch is an entire blog devoted to exposing Yun's track record of poor predictions.

And as much as it pains me to link to a video of Glenn Beck, he actually has a pretty good exploration of the disastrous predictions of the National Association of Realtors' economists. (see below)

So what will happen with housing in 2010? I have no idea. But don't get your hopes up based on Little Orphan Annie's mumblings about price increases.

From the "You ain't gonna believe this" file comes this gem: Rosewood Middle School in Goldsboro, N.C. unveiled a plan to raise much-needed funds by selling middle schoolers better grades.

A $20 "donation" would get you (or your poor kid, who really has grounds for a lawsuit if you would pony up cash for something like this) 20 test points that could be used to boost grades on the test of that student's choosing.

Principal Susie Shepherd's explanation? "Last year they did chocolates, and it didn't generate anything," she told the News Observer.

With the national debt growing at a frantic pace, a lot of Americans are terrified about what it will mean for our economic futures.

Luckily, you can help. CNNMoney senior writer Jeanne Sahadi reports that under an obscure 1961 law, you can make tax deductible contributions to help pay down the national debt. On average, about five donations are made per week and so in 2009, there have been just over $3 million in donations -- whose impact was quickly reversed by government spending on just 666 clunkers under the Cash For Clunkers program (funny how that math works out, just sayin').

A Money magazine reader asks ethicists Jeanne Fleming and Leonard Schwarz "Is there anything wrong with asking a good friend to secure the loan I'm giving him with the title to his car? Tom really needs the money, but he can be pretty irresponsible, and I don't want my $2,500 to become a gift."

The ethicists get the first part right (Answer: In a word, No. And in two words, Absolutely Not.") but then offer some really bad follow-up advice: "Consider asking Tom to give you some collateral to hold until he repays you: a fine watch, say, or his prized Stratocaster -- something of sufficient value to give him a real incentive to pay off the loan. Because you're right: You don't want to bet $2,500 on the good intentions of an irresponsible friend."

Here's why you shouldn't do that:

• If Tom is so hard up for cash that he's trying to borrow $2,500 from a friend (most people borrowing cash from friends are borrowing it to stay afloat and make payments on other debt) and he has a watch worth anything close to $2,500, he should sell the freakin' watch. If he's so brain dead that he'd rather go into debt to a friend rather than sell a watch, you really don't want to lend money to him.
• If his watch is so important to him that he'd rather hit up a friend for cash than sell it, are you really going to be prepared to sell it to make good on the debt?