Where’s Greenspan?

I read an article over on MSN today about how the U.S. is facing steep inflation.

My response to this?

Well, no shit. Anyone that’s taken a Monetary Economics 101 class could have told you that this was pretty much inevitable once Mr. Bernacke started dropping the interest rates.

A very simplistic explanation of the relationship between interest rates and inflation is that they are inversely related. This means that when one goes up, the other goes down.

So, when Fed chairman Bernacke reduced the interest rates (it seemed like there were 3 or 4 drops all within a months time) it is naturally that the inflation is going to go up.

They can’t take our freedom…

Check out this article from WIRED.

It does a good job going into the economics of information on the internet. It goes into the various reasons why so much on the internet has gone toward being free. It also speculates that more things on the internet will eventually be free to. Naturally, I dug the heck out of it due to my economics and technology background, but I’d think most people would be interested in some of the ideas presented also(i.e. don’t you ever wonder how some websites make money despite being free to the public?).

The article is pretty long (6 pages) but it is worth the time it takes to read it.

Look it over if you get the chance.

The Answer to Your Problems

Anyone who is paying attention to the NBA season knows that the Western Conference is chocked full of great records. The way things have been going there it looks like 9 teams have a legitimate shot of winning 50 games. Seeing as though only 8 teams make the playoffs in a conference, this has been a big issue of who will make it and who’ll be left out.

Well, it looks like that quandry has just been solved.

Yao is out for the season. This likely means the end of the Rockets run. I’m not saying that they can’t make the playoffs still, but with 8 other teams at full force it doesn’t look good.