Look at the most current data. The market can be very unpredictable. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-futures-drop-220-points-as-stock-market-extends-rout-2018-10-24

Easiest to upgrade later is a desktop computer. A few years ago 4GB RAM worked well, but programs use more now. Just doubling it to 8 produces an instant improvement. Getting a computer with a solid state hard drive speeds things up as well. This is a good time of year to look for holiday bargains. I see that Dell has an Inspiron desktop now with 8GB Ram and 1 TB hard drive for under $400. When your budget is tight, storage and memory are more important than processor speed. Let folks here know your budget and they can give you more meaningful advice.

The fear is caused by politicians drumming up problems that don't actually exist, and reporters and commentators who blow those comments out of proportion. Best to focus on our own friends and family and ignore the phony national dramas.

Interesting that they don't ban you from spending your money there though.

Since the drive only does that on one computer, the backup software is installed on the computer itself, not the external drive. You need to figure out the name of that software and uninstall it. One simple article here: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/remove-backup-software-external-drive-45416.html
WD has articles about it too: https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=6582
https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=5373&lang=en

Mostly the cause during Carter's term was the first sudden rise in oil prices by OPEC. People panicked because they didn't know if it would stop. Wasn't really poor Jimmy's fault, but he was saddled with the blame. That's the price of being in charge.

The real reason why the government prints money is an imperfect attempt to replace the money lost through cumulative trade deficits, which is over $10 trillion since 1980. That figure does NOT include interest. If you recalculated the amount with compounding interest, even at a low interest rate it would match the national debt very closely, which DOES include interest. The situation is so out of control now that if they stopped increasing the money supply, it would crush the economy. They use "gobbledegook speak" to try to explain it away, but the root cause is too much money leaving the country. By analogy, the EU country that has been enjoying the most success in recent years (Germany) is also the only member running a trade surplus.

Excellent point. Plus more activity tends to drive up the cost of all fuels as that inventory shrinks, which drives up the costs of all goods.

The other big reason for raising rates during a good economy is to create a cushion to use for bad times. For example, if the economy took a big downturn and the Fed's interest rate was only one percent, they would only be able to lower rates by that one percent to help stimulate the sagging economy. When they lowered rates to near zero during the mortgage crisis, some banks were actually borrowing money and then using it to buy treasury bills that paid a higher interest rate rather than loaning the funds to businesses and individuals to get the economy going again. For example, when George Bush took office in 2001, the rate was 6%, but it had dropped to 1.75% by the end of that year due to efforts to stave off a deeper recession. It's the only tool the Federal reserve has to affect the economy, and they try to use it carefully without regard to politics.

I was disappointed when that series ended. Played into the hope that some higher power is looking out for us so that we don't self-destruct.

A nice little chart on this page showing inflation slightly above 2% the past 3 years. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
So even if you get a salary increase, inflation erodes it. Here is a page showing that real wage growth is much less than the government claims. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/realer.pdf
The bigger problem with inflation is the effect it has on retirees living on a fixed income. Interest rates have been kept artificially low for years by the government, because they have to pay interest on the mountain of debt. Consider the fact that you can't open a savings account at a bank that will pay enough interest to even keep up with inflation. You also have to keep in mind that the interest rate controlled by The Federal Reserve is simply the rate they charge banks for borrowing money from The FED. With an economy that is booming, borrowing by businesses should become less of a concern anyway. Inflation is more important, because it leaves us consumers less money to buy the stuff that makes the economy move. Government spending accounts for more than a third of the U.S.'s GDP, so cutting government spending can also hurt the economy greatly. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spending-to-gdp So all we can do now is cross our fingers and hope that the current system keeps working. Big, sudden changes are the things to be avoided.

Once I began using my google account to sync my contacts, I never had to worry about losing them again. Works great, and is free. I only use it to backup my contacts, but it can back up your data as well. Had to use it a couple of times to restore my contacts, and it worked flawlessly.
https://support.google.com/contacts/answer/7199294?hl=en
The Smart switch app mentioned above works great for transferring ALL your data and apps from your old phone to a new one as well, but only if the old phone is still in working condition.

Did the same 2 weeks ago with a cup of grape juice. Now liquids stay well away from my laptop. My desktop computer is kept high enough to avoid spills. Only things at risk are the keyboard and mouse. Should have known better at my age anyway. Guess learning never ends.

My reply was aimed at incognito, not Dave, by the way.

It was a good, clean little joke. Learn to laugh a little.