Hoping to turn that recent volatility in the gold market into some quick cash? Sorry, but the U.S. Mint is done cranking out your get-rich-quick dreams for now.

 

The Mint has halted sales of its 0.1-ounce American Eagle gold bullion coins after investors took advantage of gold prices that sank to two-year lows earlier this month. It's the first time the Mint has stopped selling gold since November 2009, and the 179,000-ounce run on gold so far this month already rivals the record-high 231,500 ounces the Mint sold in December 2009.

 

Those fortunate enough to buy on April 15, when gold prices dropped to $1,321 per ounce, saw a nearly 7% return on their investment through Wednesday. Gold miners, however, aren't so keen on gold's volatility, leading Barrick Gold (ABX) to scale back operations as bullion prices fluctuate.

 

When gold prices plummet and folks like G. Gordon Liddy and Glenn Beck start advising investors to hoard like Yosemite Sam, there's a voice that cuts through the commodity fever to the heart of the matter: Jon Stewart's.

Back on April 15, gold prices dropped to $1,321 per ounce and hit their lowest point since cresting $1,920 per ounce in September 2011.

As convicted Watergate conspirator Liddy shilled for gold in commercial breaks and Beck blamed the slide on a shadowy cabal of government, media and otherworldly forces bent on stripping Americans of their precious gold and damning them to a life of slavery, Stewart used the pulpit on Viacom (VIA)-owned Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" earlier this week to suggest it might just be a market correction.

 

Obamacare's impact is expanding to the ivory tower, with some adjunct faculty members finding they're caught up in the turmoil surrounding the national health care insurance overhaul. 

More colleges are limiting the hours their adjunct faculty members can work, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Why? The colleges want to avoid having to pay for health insurance coverage for the adjunct professors, given that the Affordable Care Act requires large employers to cover staffers working more than 30 hours a week. 

But as the Chronicle points out, adjunct faculty members are rarely paid by the hour. Instead, the norm is to pay them by the course, which makes it complicated to estimate how many hours each professor or lecturer requires to prepare and manage a class. 

 

If your daily commute by car seems worse lately, take heart: Experts say that's a sign of an improving economy.

INRIX, a global provider of traffic information and driver services, says traffic congestion is rising this year, after two consecutive years of double-digit declines. According to the firm's sixth traffic scorecard annual report, the 4% overall increase in traffic for the first three months of 2013, compared with the same time last year, suggests a better financial landscape that's in line with rising employment data.

So far this year, according to the report, 61 of America's 100 largest cities have experienced increased traffic congestion. That's a big jump from 2012, when 94 of those cities had declines. But Bryan Mistele, INRIX president and CEO, says we're not yet back to prerecession traffic levels.

 

If the fast-food business held a popularity contest, Wendy's (WEN) would win hands down.

According to data from Technomic, a food industry market researcher and consultant, the Dublin, Ohio-based chain was preferred by consumers over Burger King (BKW) and McDonald's (MCD), in food quality and taste and flavor. It wasn't even close.

Wendy's was rated excellent by 50.9% of consumers for food quality compared with 44.2% for Burger King and 37.4% for McDonald's, according to Technomic Consumer Brand Metrics. The numbers for food taste and flavor were just as stark. Wendy's scored 56.5% in that category, surpassing Burger King's 49.4% and McDonald's 40.7%. The data are based on interviews with consumers who have visited the chains within the last 30 days. 

Waitresses and waiters are hoping a proposal from President Barack Obama will change an aspect of their jobs they say has grown way, way stale: the "tipped minimum wage."

This wage, which is significantly lower than the regular minimum wage and applies to professions relying on tips, hasn't budged in 22 years. The federal government requires restaurants, hotels and other employers to pay just $2.13 an hour for workers who rely on gratuities. 

While most states require a higher tipped minimum wage, 13 states rely on the federal level, Bloomberg reports. As part of Obama's plan to increase the federal minimum wage to $9, he's also calling for a boost to the tipped-wage base, although his proposal hasn't spelled out specifics. 

Another bill was introduced last month by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., which proposed a gradual increase to the tipped minimum wage. 

 

The prom isn't only a major rite of passage for teens, it has also become a financial burden for families, with the average expenditure slated to reach $1,139 this year. 

That's a 5% bump from last year, according to a survey from Visa (V). That means prom spending is rising faster than the rate of inflation, which has hovered below 2% this year.

Another trend emerged in Visa's survey: It found that poorer parents plan to spend more than wealthier ones. Families earning less than $50,000 a year will spend $1,245, while those earning more will fork over only $1,129. 

The biggest spenders of all are single parents, who said they'll shell out $1,563 to outfit their children in tuxes and prom dresses, hire limos and buy other accoutrements. Meanwhile, married parents are relatively frugal, budgeting just $770, the survey found. 

 

Warning: Spring cleaning can be hazardous to your leisure time because it points out all the other jobs that need doing around the house. Start cleaning, and you may soon find yourself doing touch-ups or even painting whole rooms. And that's exactly what the U.S. paint and coatings industry, with its combined annual sales of around $20 billion, expects of us.

According to the national home color survey by industry giant Sherwin-Williams (SHW), 62% of homeowners are planning a painting project this spring.

So, the question becomes, after the drop cloths are picked up and the brushes washed, what to do with that extra paint? Some will go into basements or closets for future use. But a study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates about 10% of all the house paint purchased each year -- up to 69 million gallons -- ends up discarded, often in landfills.