Are you petrified to buy a home right now? And why wouldn't you be?

The unemployment rate hit the highest it has been since 1983, the stock market is volatile and unappealing, and today, it seems people are hording their money in gold as the commodity surged passed $1,000 an ounce.

So is it a right time to invest in an abode? Yes, according to Diann Patton, the Coldwell Banker consumer real-estate spokeswoman.

Despite all the other factors that may be out of whack at the moment, there are several encouraging elements in the market at the moment that make this an ideal buyer's market..

"For one, the number of homes on the market is at an all-time high," Patton said in a recent interview with wowOwow. "State and federal governments are offering a number of tax breaks that make many nervous buyers feel right at home. Interest rates have hit lows that we haven't seen since 1964. And home prices are at levels that were seen in 2003."

The federal stimulus project isn't going as far as offering free money for doing nothing, but some accused criminals must have thought they could get a free ride when undercover police told them to make their claims for some stimulus money.

Using the name of the fictitious "South Florida Stimulus Coalition," the Fort Lauderdale Police Department mailed letters to people wanted on warrants asking them to call an undercover phone line and make appointments to claim their money, according to a Reuters story.

The promise of economic stimulus checks was enough to lure 76 people to their arrests on a variety of charges, ranging from second-degree murder to gun possession, drug charges and failure to pay child support.

While cashing a federal tax rebate check is the easiest way get some of the federal stimulus funds, probably the next easiest is to get a tax rebate for work you were going to do on your home anyway.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has plenty of energy provisions to save taxpayers money while helping to save the environment, but most look like they're expensive for consumers to afford.

There are tax credits for residential alternative energy equipment, such as solar hot water heaters, geothermal heat pumps and wind turbines. Ever get a quote for a wind turbine? They're not cheap. There are also tax credits for plug-in electric cars, which cost a lot of money, too.

Probably one of the best deals, at least in terms of tax credit for money spent, is getting back 30% of the cost of improvements by homeowners for energy savings, called the Residential Energy Property Credit. The credit applies to improvements such as adding insulation, energy-efficient exterior windows and energy-efficient heating and air-conditioning systems.

With the federal "Cash for Clunkers" program such a resounding success and now out of money, prepare for the next wave of federal stimulus money -- "Cash for Refrigerators."

That isn't the formal name of the federal program, which is set to begin late this fall with rebates of $50 to $200 on purchases of high-efficiency household appliances, part of a $300 million stimulus to boost home appliance sales.

Users won't have to trade in their old dish washers, refrigerators or other appliances to get the rebate. The Energy Department expects most of the $300 million to be awarded by the end of November, although given the success of the car program, you might want to get in line early at your favorite home supply store.

Emmanuel Saez, a professor of Economics at UC Berkeley has raised concern about income inequality in the United States. In his recent article, he stated that the income gap is at an all time high; exceeding levels during the Great Depression. His research provides us with a candid look at a telling issue.

Professor Saez states that 2007 was a good year for both the rich and the bottom 99%, who experienced a rise in income by 2.8%. But since the 2001 recession, the top 1% captured two thirds of overall income growth. Thus, the main question is why the rich thrive in any economy, while income for the rest of us grows at a snail's pace?

The United States is facing a major sugar shortage, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription may be required).

On Aug. 5, General Mills, Hershey Co, Mars Inc., and Kraft Foods alerted Thomas J. Vilsak, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, of their combined forecast of low sugar supplies. These food companies warned that if the Agriculture Department does not allow them to import more tariff-free sugar, "our nation will virtually run out of sugar" and they will be forced to raise consumer prices and lay off workers.

This comes as a major eye opener, but there's more to this finding.

The WSJ states that the present trade quota places a limit to the number of tariff-free sugar that can be imported per year, with the exception of Mexico. This leaves major suppliers like Brazil out of the free trade mix. The fear looms that Brazil may not even have significant sugar supply for the U.S. because they are busy using large amounts of cane crop for ethanol use.

Another problem is the U.S. government; not a surprise. The U.S. artificially inflates domestic prices of sugar in order to support the incomes of farmers in the Midwest who are friendly with politicians who help them. Anything for a vote, right?

Economists state that sugar is part of the equation. Sugar is an active ingredient in almost all foods, and the impact of a price increase will be big. Food companies pay twice the world level for sugar because of government meddling.

Unless politicians in Washington decide to ease import quotas, the "U.S. will end the next fiscal year with less than 13 days worth of sugar on hand" according to the four food companies who band together to ring the alarm atop Capitol hill.

California residents can now bid on new General Motors cars and trucks through eBay's online marketplace. Approximately 250 GM dealers in California are selling Buick, Chevrolet, GMC and Pontiac vehicles on eBay Motors, and you can either use the "Buy It Now" option or make your best offer. You can browse 2008, 2009 and 2010 vehicles, ask dealers questions and figure out financing. Non-California residents can contact California dealers to see if they're willing to sell and ship vehicles to them -- and with the auto industry still in shambles, chances are they'll agree to that.

General Motors said they started the online car-buying trial in California because there are so many tech-savvy people here, and also because it's one state where company sales historically have not been so great. I can vouch for that, as most people I know in Northern California go for foreigh brands like Honda, Toyota, BMW and Saab. Even in "red" areas of the state like the Sierra Nevada foothills and the Central Valley, the Ford F-150 is the pickup truck of choice. While I too am planning to switch out my 10-year-old Volkswagen for a Honda or Toyota when the time comes, I had to give props to GM for breaking ground and being the first to use eBay as an auto marketplace, so I decided to check out the site.

As Americans struggle to keep up with payments, the government is busy trying to economize. The country is facing a $1 trillion deficit that is increasing as government spend more to tackle the problems of the recession.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal featured an article that explained the new savings effort within various government agencies. I call it "the organic stimulus" -- properly budgeting money so that you will have enough to continue operations during bad times.

It all started in April, when President Obama ordered his cabinet secretaries to locate $100 million in budget cuts. The Forest Services Department, for example, stopped repainting newly purchased white vehicles green to save money.

When car manufacturers fell in love with rebates, some car dealers found that these programs didn't increase sales very much; they simply drew the shoppers who intended to buy in the near future. I wondered if Cash For Clunkers might be doing the same thing, leading to a sharp decline in sales after the program ends. I had the opportunity to pose this question and others to an expert in the field, AOL Auto's Editor in Chief Reilly Brennan.

Do you think Congress will renew the program?
Yes, Brennan replied. He said that, after the incredible losses dealers suffered recently, the Cash For Clunkers program has affected them like a market Oxycontin, and it will be painful to wean them off the drug. He also expects a Cash For Clunkers Version 2 proposal, perhaps with less funding, in the fall.

What about the notion that this program is cannibalizing future sales?
"The sales vacuum is a concern," according to Brennan, "but many believe the opposite has happened- that there was a pent-up demand over the past six months -- so instead of pulling late '09 sales early, this could be pulling early '09 sales later on." He believes that plenty of customers are still out there ready to take advantage of the program when it is refunded.

Lost in the gloating over car sales figures tied to the Cash For Clunkers program is the original intention -- to help clean up the environment by purging the roads of exhaust-belching jalopies.

Instead, the legislation has become a handout to the auto industry, or, more accurately, another handout to the auto industry.

The short-term stimulation to the market only demonstrates the most intractable problem facing the auto industry; its cars run are too good, so we don't need as many as it produces. When the vehicles it builds will run for 15 years and 200,000 miles +, how can they convince people to give them up early?

These clunker drivers apparently are willing to drive cars for a long, long time, and now that they have new cars, you can cross them off the customer list until 2025 or so.

If we intend to use such programs to both improve the environment and boost retail sales, perhaps we should spread the wealth around.

Rather than drop another $2 billion gift on the car industry, how about a "Cash for Clunker Refrigerators" program that replaces inefficient, freon-eating monsters with new energy star models?

Or expand the "Cash For Clunkers" program to include motorcycles? Taking two-strokes machines off the trails would be a big improvement to our air quality.

The powerboat industry, the motor home manufacturers and retailers, school bus builders, lawnmower retailers, and many other industries could use the help of such a program, and offer ways to replace polluting products with ones much friendlier to the environment.

Haven't we dumped enough money into the auto industry? There are a lot of other workers around the country that could use a stimulus boost, if the administration is determined to drop another $2 billion into the pool.

President Obama and Congress approved the recent $700 billion stimulus package for one crucial reason: to provide jobs.

Now, states and other recipients of this windfall are struggling to launch thousands of projects that won't be sufficiently mature enough to provide jobs for some time.

Yet there was a way that this money could have been put to work immediately, with a guarantee that it would have a dramatic impact on the nation's employment figures.

We should have given it to our social service agencies.

In states like Ohio, public health agency programs and staff have been cut to the quick, throwing thousands of people out of work. Meanwhile, one of the few local American Recovery Act road projects to break ground has provided work for 13 workers to date.

It does no good to create 100 new jobs when 10,000 lose theirs because of state revenue shortfalls. It does no good to sit on piles of cash waiting month after month for paperwork to trickle through the system.

The government is handing out stimulus money and you know what that means...Pork barrel spending on projects that never made it to the full funding stage before (you'd think for good reason!).

We've been following the ridiculous lists of projects pitched to state governments -- from bouncy houses that needed funding to increase teamwork education to endless studies to figure out what to do -- and we had hoped that only the truly necessary and virtuous projects would get through. Alas, government spending doesn't always work that way, and we've put together a list of funded project that sound a bit dubious to us.

If you're stuck in traffic counting more orange traffic cones this summer, blame the federal stimulus.

Nationwide there are 2,000 stimulus-funded construction projects underway, with another 5,600 approved for bidding, according to a Christian Science Monitor story that quotes the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

While more roads are being closed this summer for construction, the good news is that by the winter those potholes and other problems will be gone.

"We're seeing an intersection of the peak summer driving season -- July and August -- combined with an influx of stimulus-related funding for construction," said Troy Green, a national spokesman for AAA in Washington, in the Monitor story. "It means this summer will probably be busier than normal for road construction."

Here's a video on where some of the federal stimulus money is going to improve roads:

As the month of May came to an end, Main Street was buzzing with predictions about the next month's unemployment numbers. Finally that day came, and on June 2 I checked out the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Web site and it was no surprise that unemployment had increased to 9.5%.

However, I was shocked when I viewed the historical chart from 1999 to present. The peak that started from 2008 provides little hope of improvement. Therefore, I decided to zero in on the issue of unemployment in America.

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) was last reauthorized in 1998 by President Clinton. The act provides and sponsors job training and other programs including summer youth for the unemployed. The WIA still stands, but it expired in 2003. According to Certification Magazine, re-authorization of the WIA will allow the government to modernize the act.

Imagine trying to make ends meet by commuting across town to the nearest city in search of employment. Transportation expenses add up, and there is little hope of a recovery to help your little town succeed.

Welcome to West Point, Ga., a tiny rural community south of Atlanta. Its population is just 3,500 and the recession has left it with an unemployment rate of 8.6% compared to the state's 9.7%. West Point's downtown area is almost deserted with scars of the economic slump well apparent. Not anymore, according to a CNN report.

Along the roads of West Point, signs display support for a new KIA auto factory that is set to open by the end of this year. KIA Motors, a Korean car manufacturer, will use the West Point factory to make the KIA Sorento. The new plant has already hired 500 workers and it hopes to bring 2,000 more on board in the years to come. This is great news for tiny West Point...or "Kia-Ville", as some residents like to call it.

The announcement draws workers and businesses to West Point from neighboring Alabama to burnt-out Detroit, Michigan. The community is well underway with preparation. Downtown West Point is bustling with infrastructure projects, hotel services, restaurants and more.

To make this KIA factory possible, the town's government has offered some economic incentives. Tax breaks of $400 million and 2,200 acres of former cattle farmland have been granted to KIA Motors in return for a thriving economy.

What's happening in West Point can and should happen across our nation. As states scrounge around trying to balance budgets while residents feel the pinch of the economy, businesses are awaiting opportunities. Offering incentives and clearing the way for economic growth will eventually help businesses and residents recover from this fiscal storm.