Bill Gates says that the rich of this world must help the poor. Didn’t someone else say that once?

Caterpillar(CAT: 59.18 0.00%) is the latest big company to take a hit from our shrinking economy. 20,000 jobs, or 18% of it’s worldwide workforce is being layed off due to shrinking profits.

Ford(F: 12.80 0.00%) still says it doesn’t need government cash to keep going. Good for them, but for how long? It’s a long way to an economic recovery. Who’s buying new cars right now?

Countrywide has a 7 month CD at 2.10%. It’s 10,000 min. though.

GMAC is offering fairly decent CD rates if you invest over $500. If you go 5 years you are looking at a rate of 3.68%. But as little as 12 months will score you a rate of 3.00%. Not a bad safe haven right now. If you invest $1000 in the five year CD your return at the end of five years will be $1203.

Go to the GMAC CD page here.

So the news on Steve Jobs hasn’t been very good for shares of Apple, which has seen it’s shares drop recently However, the Royal Bank of Canada today downgraded the Apple stock price and slash its target of $125 per share down to $70. This all on claims of concerns of earning potential and uncertainty about the company’s leadership in other words Steve Jobs’ health.

I think Apple will be fine with or without Jobs. The ipod and iphone are still selling like gangbusters. And there should be some great new and exciting products in 2009 such as a new Mac mini, new iMacs and possibly a new 4GB iPhone.

This stock was selling at $200 a share not long ago. Even though we are in the grips of a recession, it seems people are still willing to pay top dollar for Apple’s most popular items.

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Dollar Savings Direct is offering an online savings account with a nice yield of 4.00%. According their website they offer No Fees but a $1,000 account balance minimum. Fill out online savings application here.