The third quarter results are rolling in from the major airlines. Your wallet already knew what they tell: They are doing just fine. For the past two years, the major carriers have foisted their extra fees on the public by trotting out a series of sob songs that cajoled the weaker among us into feeling a sense of compassion that would be better turned on our fellow man than a business.

Sob no more. The new way of doing business at the airlines -- charging you for every little thing, cutting air schedules to the point where fewer tickets are available at a discount -- have eked so much cash from your purse that the airlines are doing pretty well again. U.S. Airways: $420 million profit. United: $387 million profit. Continental: $354 million profit. Delta: $363 million profit. AirTran: $36 million profit. Alaska Air reported its "best quarter ever." And those are quarterly profits, so if they keep doing that well for a year, you'll see more than $1 billion in profit for the first four liners. U.S. Airways is even about to start hiring again, which is certainly cause for a bittersweet smile.

Can religion help you get out of soul-crushing debt? Somebody say AMEN!

When DeForest Soaries Jr. was in his twenties, he went to work in his father's church. A committed social activist, he told the elder Pastor Soaries "Let's cut a deal: You get people to heaven, and I'll do the earth piece."

It's another nail in the Postal Service's coffin. Magazines are ripping a page from newspaper tradition and are ditching the U.S. Mail and contracting with cheaper delivery services to hand-deliver their issues. The change further dents our national mail's bottom line. It's also bringing back the paperboy.

Unfortunately, the switch to cheaper labor means customers may not be getting their money's worth anymore. In New York City, hand-delivery subscribers no longer receive their magazines in their mailboxes, safely behind locks, but instead find the latest issue left on the doorstep of their buildings, where theft and weather can take their swift toll.

For 25 years, Frank Ahearn made a career out of tracking people down. Now he helps them disappear.

Starting in 1984, Ahearn worked as a skip tracer (tracing people who skip town) tracking down everyone from a crook who helped steal the Oscar statuettes to an out-of-focus doughball in a beret named Monica Lewinsky.

He also specialized in setting up sting operations to prove disability fraud.

The holiday shopping season is drawing near, and if you're like many Americans, you may be wondering where to find the discipline to stay within your budget. Here's a new idea for you: Try using gift cards. You pay for them up front and there's no interest or late fees to pay, unlike credit cards. In fact, you don't need to wait for the holidays; gift cards could help you budget for a big expense like a vacation or a home-improvement project.

But while gift cards might help you establish a greater degree of control over your holiday spending, there are a few things you should keep in mind to stay on track, says Ruth Susswein, deputy director of national priorities for watchdog group Consumer Action. "It's not a bad idea if it helps you stick to a spending limit," Susswein says, although she notes that the people who really need financial discipline might still be tempted to whip out a credit card if their spending goes over the pre-set amount on the card.

On behalf of impatient ground hounds everywhere: Thanks a latte, Starbucks. The big green coffee-making machine has ordered its baristas to slow down -- and that could mean the caffeine-deprived masses will have to wait in longer lines for their morning jolt of java.

Starbucks baristas told the Wall Street Journal that the new strategy will increase by 100% the time that it takes to make some drinks. The newspaper revealed details of the chain's espresso manifesto, which included a mandate for counter personnel to make no more than two drinks at a time and steam milk for each drink rather than preparing an entire pitcher for several drinks. Servers were also instructed to rinse pitchers after every use, and blend the beans in smaller batches throughout the days so consumers can see the freshness for themselves.

America is suffering from amnesia.

That's the only reason I can think of for the Republicans heading toward Congressional victory.

Sure, the Dems have had two years and the unemployment rate isn't getting any better. But what nobody in Washington wants to say (because nobody in America wants to hear it) is that it took eight years of Republican mismanagement to get us into this mess, it's going to take at least that long to get out.

Like the fictional superheroes who inhabited the recent New York Comic Con, Deborah Caldwell-Stone was there to fight injustice: Attempts to ban graphic novels from libraries are threatening to choke off free access to the books. "There are kids who don't have the resources to go to Amazon.com," Caldwell-Stone, the deputy director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, told WalletPop after a speech urging librarians to take action.

Challenges to graphic novels -- the majority made by parents on supposed moral grounds -- involve hundreds of titles annually in some of the nation's 15,000 library systems. Many do not succeed, but bad publicity can "have a chilling effect," Caldwell-Stone said. Some parents might deny their children a graphic novel simply based on what they heard. Some authors might begin to tailor their vision for fear of being censored. Bad for business all-around.

With gold hitting all-time highs, cash-strapped Americans are cashing in. Just be careful: consumer protections are far and few between, and complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau against gold buying companies have tripled over the past year.

For complete details, check out WalletPop's Saving Experiment about how to sell your gold.

In the meantime, sellers, do your homework:

What's it worth?
Gem experts tell me that most consumers have no idea what their jewelry is worth. Shop it around locally and get a few estimates (2 or 3). See what reputable dealers have to say. Or, get an independent appraisal (You can find an appraiser through the American Society of Appraisers.)

Martha Stewart has 21 kitchens, or so the reports say, and now you can own one just like one of hers. Sort of. Home Depot is debuting a line of Martha Stewart designed goods to help the DIY-minded with kitchen remodeling.

There's a variety of cabinet styles, door and hardware options and coordinating counter tops. Choose from the Turkey Hill collection (named for Stewart's famous former abode of the same name) or more modern, city-appropriate styles. The kitchen collection joins Martha Stewart Living paint, flooring, storage and organization, and outdoor collections, also at Home Depot.

Now that all of the government's recovery money is gone with no recovery in sight, you'd think that businesses would do anything to keep consumers, right?

Tell that to the Starbucks manager who wouldn't let a customer get a refill because he stepped outside. Or the department at Bank of America that's insisting a Pittsburgh man travel to Texas to close his dead mother's account.

Or the manager at the 24 Hour Fitness in Beaverton, Oregon who rescinded the buy-one-get-one free offer of protein bars.

When the government gave $700 billion to banks to keep them from collapsing when the economy teetered on the brink in 2008, the decision was controversial. Many decried the use of taxpayer money being used to bail out banks due to their own bad bets, and more than a few economists and pundits predicted that the infusion would be a loss. Now, at least some of those naysayers have been proven wrong with the news that some Citigroup stock shares that the government got in exchange for its largesse have been sold to the tune of $2.25 billion. In addition, the total amount of Citi common stock sold by the government equals $16.4 billion, according to the Treasury Department.

In the climax of our discussion with Ken Burns about baseball, the documentary filmmaker, whose The Tenth Inning premieres tonight, talks explains that the infusion of huge salaries in Major League Baseball had a direct effect on the proliferation of performance-enhancing drugs.



Burns, a resolute Red Sox fan, told me that he's never even heard the word "soccer."

He was kidding, of course, but he didn't think much of World Cup frenzy. Baseball's most prolific defender -- 22 and 1/2 documentary hours on it and counting, as of The Tenth Inning -- thinks that comparing baseball with soccer is like comparing chess with checkers, and he's just waiting for the rest of the world to wise up and embrace America's past-time with the fervor he thinks it deserves.

"I mean, people die at soccer stadiums!" Burns protests.

Burns also spills some of his upcoming film topics, including Prohibition, the Dust Bowl, Vietnam, and a first-ever panorama of one of America's most important political families.

Watch the first installment of this series here, and listen to Burns discuss how baseball has always been a business. In the second installment, Burns talks about how Barry Bonds refused to participate in the series and why.

To catch PBS' The Tenth Inning, check your local listings. If you saw Ken Burns' previous series, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, you can watch Cochran's chat with him about that by clicking here.

Richard Smith thinks the dollar needs a new look that more accurately reflects the modern face of our country. So he mounts an annual campaign to solicit ideas about how to best design the national currency. His Dollar Redesign Project attracts plenty of ideas, from wacky to sensible, but almost all of the submissions have a common goal: making our money speak more about our culture as it is today. Paper currency in many other countries varies in color and size to help people of all segments of society use it, yet American money has stayed more or less the same size and murky greenish hue for nearly a century. Smith presents us with some of the design ideas that were entered into the competition this year:

As we barrel on toward the holiday and gift-giving season, our friends at Mint.com created this infographic to help us understand how to best use gift cards, and avoid being ripped off. Now would be a good time to check your wallet or purse for unused cards, and cash in on their remaining value. Chart after the jump.