Brian Gongol
What should really come first at Christmastime
People, in short. Related: The Pope chose a pretty awful time of year to start excluding homosexuals. Not like there would have been a good time to start doing that, but at Christmas, especially?
Average 30-year mortgage rate hits new record low: 5.14%
This is an amazing development, considering that less than 20 years ago, a plain old passbook savings account at a bank usually paid 5% interest. The cost of capital right now is remarkably low. That, in turn, says something remarkable about just how profoundly bad the situation is for General Motors right now. If the company were healthy, it would be able to take advantage of these extraordinarily low interest rates and borrow whatever it might need to buy the equipment and do the plant reconfigurations it would need to convert from building vehicles in low demand (like SUVs) to those that are in high demand. But instead of reconfiguring plants, GM is shutting down its factories. Classic business decision-making theory says that you can run a short-term loss if that will make it possible to turn around in the future, but if there's little or no hope for that loss to be recovered, you declare it a sunk cost and shut down. It's still possible to save GM, but it's hard to be optimistic when management has been given until March to plan for long-term viability. There should already have been a 100-year business plan in place, and if there wasn't, the executives should've been locked in a cabin somewhere in Montana until they came up with one before a dollar of Federal money was sent their way. Otherwise, it's going to end up looking like the cohabitation of government and business that is the Chinese auto industry now. Related: Americans actually saved almost 3% of their income in November, in a remarkable break with past convention. Now, if only the habit were to save more reliably during boom times and not just when there's panic in the air.
Of course mobile phones are coming to the subway
While there's inevitably going to be consternation over the rise of awkward moments caused by conversations that probably shouldn't be overheard, there's so much personal incentive for individuals to be able to conduct their own conversations that it far outweighs any possible measure of community discomfort at being unintentionally involved in those conversations. And as micro-laptops catch on, it should come as no surprise if urban commuters spend ever-more time using any kind of telecommunications access they can get to communicate -- whether by voice or keyboard.
Why 72 degrees is the perfect temperature
It's the ideal temperature at which the body can release its own 98.6 degree heat at the same rate it is generated
"China is the main potential beneficiary of any American decline"
Issue #1: The United States ought to be concerned about the rise of China's geopolitical influence -- and there's plenty of evidence that it's happening already at the expense of America's influence. One recent example: The US was left out of a Latin American summit just as Brazil is planning to double trade with China over the next five years. But there's another set of concerns beyond the erosion of the Monroe Doctrine. But then, there's also Issue #2: Americans pulled $72 billion out of stock-based mutual funds in October alone. But for every seller, there's a buyer -- and right now, anyone buying stocks is snapping up a share of America's economic infrastructure at fire-sale prices. It should not be forgotten that sovereign-wealth funds hold trillions of dollars, at least some of which sits in cash or cash-like investments, ready to get into whatever markets are ripe for the picking. According to one research firm, sovereign-wealth funds have been shopping away from the US market in 2008, but given that the funds aren't very transparent as a class, it's possible we don't know what they've actually been doing. It's also possible for any investment corporation to change its strategy at any time.
Navel-gazing lampooned
Arbitrator caps claims Kansas can put on damages from water dispute with Nebraska
It can happen to you: Hacked e-mail accounts
The only way to have a bullet-proof e-mail account is probably to have no e-mail account at all. Or to have the NSA working for you. But there are some easy ways to reduce one's chances of falling victim to a hacker who wants to steal an e-mail account: Create and use a limited-access account in Windows, avoid unsecured wireless networks anywhere and everywhere unless you can use a VPN or some similar tool, and use a browser like Firefox, which is less popular (and thus less-frequently targeted for attack) than Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Bad weather slows levee repair work across Iowa
Notes from the Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - December 21, 2008
Topic highlights: China needs more fun...money from the sky...saving lives via text message
Explaining the problems in the credit market to children
Consumerella doesn't know her limits
Who's responsible for looking out for investors?
In the wake of the collapse of a huge Ponzi scheme, here's a reasonable thought: "If your excuse for getting defrauded out of all your money by not observing any of these rules is that a lot of other smart people fell for the same thing, consider the fact that these other smart people are actually not that smart. If your excuse is that you knew something fishy was going on and hoped to benefit from it, you probably shouldn't be allowed around money ever again." Related: It's hard to believe anyone knows what's really in the auto workers' union contracts. That hardly aids the rule of law.