Brian Gongol
Has the economy already hit bottom?
A Schwab analyst says monetary policy is starting to work, and the recent plunges in prices for oil and shipping suggest that it's going to become cheaper for a lot of industries to do business. But there's still lots of weird stuff going on: Some investors now think Berkshire Hathaway is a bigger credit risk than the Republic of Colombia (a preposterous supposition if there ever was one, particularly as Warren Buffett continues to find magnificent win-win deals all around), and there are still worries that other bubbles have yet to burst.
The current meaning of Buckminster Fuller's work
Fuller was a polymath, and among his projects was the Dymaxion Dwelling Machine, a super-light, self-contained housing system that could be shipped in a tube and built by a single person. It never made it to mass production, but his ideas certainly had broader effects. The geodesic dome, for instance, is used to house the Des Moines Botanical Center. Fuller was driven by concerns about material scarcity -- which might just give us some reason for optimism that even if we go through a deep recession, that may just be what gives people the incentive to come up with some great new ideas.
Everything you ever wanted to know about Nebraska water
