Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - March 30, 2014
Podcast: Updated weekly in the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning. Subscribe on Stitcher, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or iHeartRadio
Post-secondary education needs to change
Higher education in America may not realize it, but it's in need of substantial reform. If we don't start making changes now, it's going to hurt a lot in the future.This week:
Maryland and "House of Cards" fight over production tax credits
Oh, to live in a world where states stopped giving in to demands for tax breaks -- especially for the "sexy" industries, like high tech and filmmaking. Everyone else ends up footing the bill anyway. Though one might note that an eminent-domain claim against the property of the film company is a violation of ex post facto: You made the deal with "House of Cards", Maryland, and just because they might choose not to continue it gives you no right to go back on the terms of the original agreement.
Income's a bit up; savings are trending downward
The personal savings rate was in the 5% neighborhood in mid-2013; it's down to the low 4% range now
Japanese sales tax rates jumping from 5% to 8%
That's one way to create a surge in sales
Keeping the natural-gas bonanza to ourselves
Most people probably don't realize it, but the huge bonanza in natural gas -- which has sent prices into the tank -- has been a major competitive advantage for the United States, and if it continues to offer cheap feedstock to the chemicals and plastics industries and subsidizes cheap electricity, it's going to be a major contributor to the US economy for some time to come. But prices are so low that producers are trying to export the gas overseas. Chemical companies like Dow aren't quite so enthused.
NLRB says Northwestern football players are eligible to unionize
Pretty major news for college football
Blame Chicago CTA crash on sleeping operator
Why do we not have more faith in automated control of things like cars and subways? Sure, put people in place as a backup set of eyes and ears, but let's trust the computes and machinery that are clearly good enough to do the job.