Brian Gongol
About 8 to 9 million cars are sold in the US every year. And elsewhere in the world, other countries are ramping up their car consumption, too: India is soon to see 3 million auto sales per year. That, of course, is going to have a big impact on us here in the US, since that means a lot of new energy consumption as well as potential air pollution.
While we're talking about gas, here's interesting news: The Department of Energy thinks that mortgage-lending problems will take the heat off gas prices, because higher interest rates will cause people and businesses to spend less on energy.
If you know of places that aren't showing up in online maps (like Google Maps or Mapquest), you might need to submit an update to NAVTEQ, the company that compiles most of the map data used by those services.
In the process of updating the Future Scale this week, this doozy popped onto the radar screen: Alan Greenspan thinks inflation could reach 4% per year by 2030. That's horrible news, and it's put well by the folks who wrote, "No economy in history has ever been able to successfully inflate its way to health". Making things worse are politicians who are pushing for higher inflation as a way to cover their tracks for fiscal irresponsibility.
The UK is going to spend about $9 million to investigate the risks created by nanotechnology. It's well worth the research: Nanotechnology could be revolutionary for helping our health, but it could also be very dangerous if we don't consider the unforeseen consequences.
And if there's a more obvious ploy to buy votes than Senator Barack Obama's proposal to give most senior citizens a free ride on taxes, please let me know.
Keywords in this show:
air pollution •
automobiles •
economics •
energy •
future •
gas prices •
Google •
Greenspan, Alan •
India •
inflation •
Mapquest •
maps •
nanotechnology •
Presidential candidates •
taxes