Issue 7 2009: July
WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM
While other retailers revenues' are melting, sales at ice cream parlors are up 20 percent or more over the last year, says Lynda Utterback of the trade journal National Dipper. "A bad economy is always good for ice cream stores," she says. "It's a comfort food." ..... San Francisco Chronicle
STOCK MARKET VOLATILITY
In 2006, there was not a single day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose or fell by 2 percent or more. In the first quarter of 2009 alone, there were 21 such days. ..... Marketwatch.com
SUPREME COURT JUSTICES
Eight of the nine current Supreme Court Justices attended either Yale or Harvard. Only Justice John Paul Stevens (University of Chicago, Northwestern Law) was educated outside the Northeastern Ivy League. Nominee Sonia Sotomayor went to Princeton and Yale Law. ..... The Washington Post
BROKERS
Since the beginning of 2009, 11,600 securities brokers have left the industry. In all of 2002, the worst year for brokers in recent history, 11,500 bailed out of the business. ..... The Wall Street Journal
KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS
Surgeons have successfully completed a record setting eight-way kidney transplant involving 16 people in four states. So-called domino transplants, involving chains of individuals who are willing to donate kidneys, are now commonplace. But the recent effort, which took place over three weeks in Baltimore, Oklahoma City, St. Louis and Detroit, was unprecedented in its number and complexity. All eight recipients are doing fine. "We hope this creates a movement that encourages other transplant centers to adopt the model we used," said Robert Montgomery, chief transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where nine of the surgeries took place. ..... The Week
U.S. AND RUSSIA
The U.S. and Russia have a long history of failing to follow through on highly touted agreements. Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin, for instance, agreed to build a joint early-warning center to monitor missle launches. That agreement was later renewed by both Clinton and George W. Bush with then-President Putin, and last week, Obama renewed it with Medvedev. The center remains unbuilt. ..... Peter Baker in The New York Times
NO-FRILLS FLYING
Low-cost European airline, Ryanair asked Boeing to design a plane with standing room to pack in more people. Standing passengers would fly with a belt buckling them to a metal pole. ..... The Week
HEALTHCARE REFORM?
The nation's largest insurers, hospitals, and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staffers and retired members of Congress to help them shape health-care reform legislation. The hirings are part of a record breaking influence campaign by the health-care industry, which is spending $1.4 million a day on lobbying. ..... The Washington Post
FAILED BANKS
The FDIC shuttered seven banks last week, bringing the total of failed banks thus far in 2009 to 52, compared with 25 for all of 2008. ..... Associated Press
MILT'S MORSEL OF THE MONTH
"Economists were created to make weather forecasters look good."
.....Rupert Murdoch, quoted in the London Guardian
JIM'S STETHASCOOP
"Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt."
..... Herbert Hoover, quoted in the Australian Sunday Mail
