Brickbats to: the idiot who held up the express line at the Knollwood Cub grocery store earlier this evening. Instead of the clearly marked “15 items or less,” they easily put twice that many items on the conveyor belt. Then, when the cashier told her what she owed, she didn’t have it, and had to decide which items to have the...Read More
“An Rose Interest Rate Goose Egg By Any Other Name” Maybe it’s just the bank where I have my savings account, but it seems like there is a new policy afoot to add a bunch of decimal places to the numbers on my monthly statement. So, instead of earning $3.72 in interest in September, my bank now...Read More
Floundering 529 Plans Rhode Island said its 529 plan will scale back some investors’ exposure to stocks when market turbulence picks up. —College-Saving Plans Shift to Keep Parent From Becoming Dropouts”; The Wall Street Journal (10/11/2011) Even with one of the last great tax breaks out there — zero taxes on any capital gains —...Read More
The Olympics have “demonstration sports.” Why shouldn’t the Pulitzer Prize — awarded annually to the best journalism and writing in 21 categories — embrace blogs, if only on a provisional basis? In fact, in December 2008, the Pulitzer began considering content published in online-only news sources. Adding a category — or several — for best...Read More
The “RoboCop Solution” to the Financial Crisis When it comes to holding the citizenry hostage, owners of pro baseball and football franchises have nothing on Wall Street. The former, of course, have refined to an art form the practice of extorting tax dollars from cities and counties to build ever more expensive (and grandiose) sports palaces. The pitch?...Read More
No, Twin Cities residents can’t make that boast in January, March, December, July, or most other months on the calendar. However, the last week in the Twin Cities has featured a spectacular confluence of arid sunshine, warm nights, and a riot of Fall colors (especially brilliant this year because of the dry conditions). And a full moon...Read More
