Bizzy’s AM Coffee Biz-Econ Links (021706)

Free Links:

• S.O.B. Alliance member Camp Katrina points to a Popular Mechanics article (of all places) that exposes a well-kept secret: The military, with some civilian help, deserves credit for the bulk of initial post-Katrina relief effort in New Orleans — “The Armed Forces Press Service would later report that various branches of the military rescued more than 14,000 people. And that doesn’t count the people picked up by local medevac and sheriff’s offices and hundreds of volunteers.” Maybe the initial fears of 10,000-plus dead would have played out without them. Well done, soldiers.
• “Drop the cupcake, and step away from the lunch table” — Jon Robison at TCS Daily reports on the absurd lengths schools are going to in an attempt to regulate kids’ food intake, even though the science is NOT there to support it: “Still other schools, as the Boston Globe reported in June 2004, have resorted to organized searches through children’s lunch boxes, not for illicit drugs or weapons, but to enforce prohibitions of cupcakes from birthday parties and to confiscate other “contraband” foods.”
  
• Hide the women and children — The first official virus to attack Apple’s OS X operating system has been reported by the antivirus companies. It uses the method familiar to the Windows world of attaching the malware to an instant-messaging program (in this case, iChat). Upon opening the attachment the virus is sent to everyone in the person’s address book. Same advice as always: Definitely don’t open attachments from unknown people, and don’t open them from known people unless you’re absolutely sure of their safety.
• A $400 million home in Valparaiso, Indiana? Nope, a $400 million computer error (HT Get Liberty Blog and Techdirt) with serious consequences. The city and local school district thought they would collect $3 million in additional revenue based on the erroneous property valuation — and spent it. Back in my auditing days, we conducted tests called “analytical review procedures” and “reviews for unusual items.” In layman’s terms, these are simply “smell tests.” Apparently no one did either type of smell test. Lesson 1: They should always be done, especially when you are, as is almost always the case, relying on a computer system. Also, the treasurer corrected the billing error but didn’t fully think through the implications. Lesson 2: Make sure everything gets fixed, everywhere.
• Ten years ago at this time, we were in the midst of the Clinton-Gingrich wrestling match known as the government shutdown. Ryan Sager looks at the history and its long-term impact on the spine (or lack thereof) of the Republican Party in Washington. I have always wondered what would have happened during this struggle of wills if the blogosphere has been around, if the WORMs (Worn-Out Reactionary Media, know to most as the Mainstream Media) were in the weakened condition then they are in today, and if Fox News Channel had been as dominant (hard as it is to believe, Fox didn’t start up until October 1996). I think that things would have turned out very differently.
• Not surprising, but should be noted — In a year (2005) where 2 million net new jobs were created in an objectively strong economy, the Free Market Project documents how heavy the WORM emphasis was on layoffs: “The networks focused on job losses in slightly more than half the reports (76 out of 151). Just 35 percent of the stories addressed job gains (53 out of 151).”
• Japan’s economy is on fire — Fourth-quarter GDP growth of 5.5% may mean that the 15 year zombie-economy malaise is finally a distant memory.
• One of my very first blog entries griped about failed Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina’s severance package (the CNN link still works). The company’s upbeat news of a $1.2 billion forth-quarter profit indicates that they are clearly better off without her. They’d be even better off with the $42 million they gave her to go away.