By Robert Hahn and Peter Passell

“We’re canceling our membership in the out-of-touch wireless-carrier-club,” proclaimed T-Mobile in announcing its Simple Choice pricing plan. That’s good news for consumers in the sense that more options are always – well, almost always – better than fewer. And the switch has probably already accomplished what T-Mobile set out to do, providing a boost to the image for a carrier that lags behind Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T) and Sprint (S) in wireless market share.

But the idea that T-Mobile’s decision to unbundle the cost of handsets from the monthly charges for the use of its network is a giant stride forward for consumers is a bit of a stretch. Indeed, the carrier’s willingness to reduce the sticker shock on $600 smartphones by lending money to their customers suggests that T-Mobile understands very well why the wireless carrier industry adopted the razor/razor-blade pricing model in the first place.

Almost everybody knows that the offer of the latest iPhone

Precious metals miners were rebounding a bit Tuesday as gold and silver halted their decline, though the extent of the recovery wasn't matching the full force of the plunge in the prior session.

Gold futures were a horror show over the past two trading days, registering a drop the extent of which some traders had never seen. However, in recent action, gold was up $31.70, or 2.3%, to $1,392.80 an ounce. Silver was adding 39 cents, or 1.7%, to $23.75 an ounce a day removed from its own grim outing.

Worth noting here is that a Wall Street firm that last week said it was time to sell gold -- Goldman Sachs (GS) -- reiterated its continuing pessimism even in the wake of the severe pullback. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the firm is "maintaining our short."

Only a day ago, shares of the miners were among the worst stocks in the equities market, with several hitting the lowest levels they'd seen in a year or more. However, most were in positive territory or at least