Brian Gongol
If you don't want to lose control, don't give up control
Members of the family that sold the Wall Street Journal to News Corporation say they might not have sold out if they'd known that News Corp. was involved in unethical tactics at its newspapers in the UK. But here's the bottom line: Monday-morning quarterbacking on someone else's management of your former assets is meaningless. You can't complain because someone painted your old house an ugly color. If you don't want to give up control, then don't sell it off. And if you're really concerned about the legacy of something like a family business, but you are determined to sell, then choose a good buyer. That may require sacrificing some monetary gain up front. But if the company is worth something more than just the cash it can be sold for, then those other values ought to be taken under consideration.
Minnesota state government shutdown causes a Coors shortage
The company can't renew licenses with the state while the government is shut down, and the state police say that means the beer has to come off the shelves. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says that MillerCoors supplies 38% of the beer in the entire state.
National Weather Service breaks down the derecho event of July 11th
It really was a remarkable straight-line wind storm -- some winds hit 105 miles an hour. The storm appears to have wiped out 75% of the trees in Vinton.
ConocoPhillips will split in half
The nation's third-largest oil company, which came together through a merger of Conoco and Phillips Petroleum back in 2002, is going to spin-off its refining and marketing arm into a separate company. One analyst applauds the decision, saying that every company should find one thing to do well and stick to it. But that's really not a very sensible plan: Every company should probably find three things it can do well, and divide efforts relatively evenly among all three. Business is too dynamic to have just one focus -- what seems like a great market to serve today could evaporate practically overnight (just ask the landline telephone companies or the dial-up Internet service providers). A better strategy is to have three legs to the stool, and take revenues in from three different directions. That way, when one slips, the other two can provide support. And if one turns out to be a dying industry, it can be replaced without putting the entire firm at risk. Maybe ConocoPhillips is better off separating the exploration and refining operations. But that still appears to leave each company with just a one-legged stool.
Iowa's biggest business problem right now: Our schools are slipping
Good human capital is our best asset, and we're apparently allowing that to slide
134 Space Shuttle launches in 134 seconds
(Video)
A labor strike at BBC News
Ben Bernanke may be ready to let the Fed pump more money into the economy
He's a historian of the Great Depression, so it's understandable that he's concerned largely with ensuring that the money supply isn't excessively tight. One can only hope, though, that he is correct in his assessment of how much he needs to open the throttle. In the meantime, Standard and Poor's may be ready to downgrade the US national credit rating because we have too much debt and are showing inadequate political will to fix that. We have to hope that the Federal Reserve can maintain its independence amid what will undoubtedly become a great deal of political pressure to monetize the debt.
"Vatican reverses stance on gay marriage"
Only in the parallel universe of The Onion, that is. But it's a very clever report from that parallel universe, to be certain. Also in that parallel universe, Americans are working off our debts to China by dancing in silly costumes.
My, how times change
(Video) In case you didn't think eight years was a long time ago, re-watch the "South Park" episode that lampooned the "metrosexual" craze of 2003. Tastes and preferences are unbelievably malleable.
