Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

Dr. Ron Paul treated Medicare and Medicaid patients for free instead of collecting federal payments.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

The New York Times of all papers explains how the Fed's interest rates harm banks and investment.

"Today, banks are paying savers almost nothing for their deposits. As it turns out, the banks are not minting money on those piles of cash. Lending levels have not bounced back from only a few years ago and the loans going out are not keeping pace with the deposits rushing in.What’s more, the profitability of each new loan has shrunk. Because the Federal Reserve effectively sets the floor off which banks price their lending rates, its decision to lower interest rates to near zero means the banks earn less money on the deposits they lend out.The banks are also earning less on the deposits left over to invest. They typically park that money overnight at the Fed for a pittance, or invest it in ultra-safe securities, like bonds backed by the government. But with interest rates so low, the yields on those investments have been crushed."

When the New York Times is explaining this stuff, you know it's going mainstream. The Fed is in serious trouble. The sooner we get rid of it, the better we'll all be.

POLITICS:

This is a creepy Herman Cain ad. Who in the world thought this was a good idea?

LOCAL:

It's funny I had to read about Dayton inviting immigrants in the SF Chronicle thanks to Tucker's link on Mises.org. I didn't see anything about it in the local paper. Taqueria Mixteca is a great little restaurant. One my local favorites and one of the few menus I have on my fridge. Few of their employees speak English, but they provide good service and good food. Of course Taqueria Mixteca has been thriving for years. It's not the product of some new policy. And I guarantee that policy won't be popular locally. The Dayton Daily News has an article on this today.


Unemployment falls locally.

"The Dayton rate dropped to 10.7 percent from 10.9 percent in August and 11.7 percent in September 2010.The Montgomery County rate dipped slightly to 9.6 percent from 9.7 percent in August and 10.5 percent in August 2010."

It's sad that those horrific rates are good news.


MISC:


How crazy is this study that shows that standard of living at birth is reflected in your DNA? Wow.