Brian Gongol
Graphic of the day: Fiscal Insanity
Sewage spill at Okoboji
Earth to Sen. Conrad: Please shut up
The chair of the Senate Budget Committee has called for the resignation of the president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank because the Fed banker said something about staying calm about interest rates while the market jerks itself around. Here's the problem: If we accept the notion of politicians interfering with the central bank today, then we're letting the camel get its nose under the tent in a really awful way -- making it harder to stand firm in the future when Medicare costs explode in just a few years and those same politicians figure out it's easier to push for an inflation tax than to act like adults and manage the budget problem they created. An inflation tax would have a brutal impact on the economy, and it would fall disproportionately on the backs of the poor. Whether the banker said the wrong thing or not, Senator Conrad must keep politics away from the Fed and ought to shut up immediately.
Would subsidies for doctors really help control medical costs?
The hypothesis goes that most doctors' offices are running on thin margins, so they have little or no incentive to invest in technological upgrades -- the same ones that are often touted as ways to cut costs for everyone. So if they were to get some sort of aid to do so, the doctors could make upgrades that don't benefit them personally, but do benefit their patients. It's a tough sell, for sure. Related: An "outbreak" of sorts in World of Warcraft is being studied by an epidemiologist to figure out how people respond to things like viruses.
Huge, obnoxious wave of spam cascades in
The folks at Symantec think it's coming from the same crooks who were behind the Peacomm Trojan horse virus
Business bankruptcies increase 28% from this time last year
Fort Dodge gets slammed by flooding
US 169 had to be closed for a while, and one home had a 9-foot gash carved into the back yard by the flood waters. Other places have been hit hard, as well, including Mansfield and other parts of Ohio, where 9 inches of rain fell in 24 hours.
Northwest Airlines will build maintenance facility in Des Moines
