Survey results are in. Of all the Forbes 400 billionaires, only eight (including Buffet) say they are willing to pay more. Three others indicated opposition; one said maybe.

It's always easy to wrap up blame for major national crimes on the Lee Harvey Oswald type of crazed 'lone gunman' suspect, particularly if the suspect is already dead and won't go to trial. Now the guilt or sole culpability of Bruce Ivins is being questioned by a panel of esteemed scientists:

Scientists’ Analysis Disputes F.B.I. Closing of Anthrax Case
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and SCOTT SHANE

A decade after wisps of anthrax sent through the mail killed 5 people, sickened 17 others and terrorized the nation, biologists and chemists still disagree on whether federal investigators got the right man and whether the F.B.I.’s long inquiry brushed aside important clues. Now, three scientists argue that distinctive chemicals found in the dried anthrax spores — including the unexpected presence of tin — point to a high degree of manufacturing skill, contrary to federal reassurances that the attack germs were unsophisticated. The scientists make their case in a coming issue of the Journal of Bioterrorism & Biodefense.....

At a Clairvoyant’s Funeral in the Bronx, Clients Praise His Psychic Counsel

By Matt Flegenheimer, New York Times, October 9, 2011

....In recognition of his talents, the Dutch government issued Mr. Dykshoorn a passport listing his occupation as “helderziende”: clairvoyant. (His book is titled, “My Passport Says Clairvoyant.”)... After stops in Australia and Charlotte, N.C., and on Staten Island, among other locales, Mr. Dykshoorn settled in the Bronx in 1973. In the United States, he worked on many law enforcement cases. His compensation was simple: food and lodging for his family and a guarantee that investigators would remain silent about his involvement until after he had left town.....

....Henry C. Lee, a forensic scientist perhaps best known for testifying during the murder trial of O. J. Simpson, said he worked on a handful of cases with Mr. Dykshoorn in Connecticut.  “Usually when the police or law enforcement call for a psychic, it’s the last straw,” Dr. Lee said. “There are some others, but he was probably one of the best.” ....

By Floyd Norris, New York Times, October 7/8, 2011

Two months ago, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the bond rating of the United States government. So far, at least, the move has done wonders for investors in the very bonds that the rating agency disparaged.

The rating downgrade, along with continued turmoil in European markets and fears that the United States might be entering a new recession, caused a flight to safety among investors. And, notwithstanding the agency’s opinion, money flooded into Treasuries and the demand for American dollars grew.

Since then, Treasury bonds have been one of the few investments that have produced good profits....

Not a fan of podcasts but had to listen to one from NPR Planet Money after it was promoted by the NY Fed's blog, Liberty Street Economics.  

In 1993, a plan hatched by four former economics grad school students helped rescue Brazil from a fifty-year inflationary spiral after all other attempts had failed. Their key idea was to create a virtual currency with a stable value—even though it had no bills, coins, or status as legal tender. Amazingly, this monetary fiction helped an entire nation of consumers and producers act in a manner that put Brazil on a firmer path to economic growth.

 

    The fake money helped people transition away from high-inflation behaviors (such as demanding high interest rates) to low-inflation expectations and patterns. Once Brazilians learned to trust the stable virtual money, the government was able to more easily introduce a stable actual currency.
 

    The events are recounted in an NPR story and podcast. (Note that the podcast starts with an unrelated five-minute discussion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program.) The segment includes interviews with Brazilians who describe the challenges of living with high inflation and with two of the economists responsible for the plan. The four Brazilian economists—Edmar Bacha, André Lara-Resende, João Sayad, and Persio Arida—are now considered national heroes.

By Anthony Shadid, New York Times, October 8/9, 2011

...Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets of a Syrian city on Saturday for the funeral of a celebrated Kurdish opposition leader whose assassination the day before unleashed fury in the country’s Kurdish regions and threatened to open a new theater of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

The crowds attending the funeral of Mashaal Tammo...constituted some of the biggest gatherings in weeks in the nearly seven-month uprising against Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad.

Activists said at least five people were killed when security forces opened fire on the funeral in Qamishli....

No one is really sure what exactly happened tonight. While the Senate was debating Chinese currency manipulation according to Huffingtpost's Ryan Grim:

McConnell moved to suspend the rules and shift debate over to the American Jobs Act. Reid argued that doing so amounted to another filibuster, because it required 60 votes to move back to the original bill, and so therefore was out of order. Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), who happened to be the presiding officer at the time, asked the Senate parliamentarian what he thought. The parliamentarian advised Begich that McConnell's motion was in order.

Reid then appealed the ruling, following a script that advocates of ending the filibuster wrote long ago. What some senators call the "constitutional option," and what others call the "nuclear option," involves as a first step appealing a ruling that a filibuster is in order. The second step is to defeat a motion to table that appeal, which is exactly what happened next, with all but one Democrat sticking with Reid. (Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) voted against Reid; Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) didn't vote.)

With the chair overruled, McConnell's motion was declared out of order, setting a narrow precedent that motions to suspend the rules are out of order during a post-cloture period.

But it also set a more important precedent. The advice of the parliamentarian is considered sacrosanct in the Senate. Reid's decision to overrule him opens a gate to similar efforts that could also be done by majority vote. Republicans were quickly threatening to use the new power once they return to the majority. (Reid was a proponent of filibuster reform in 2010, but didn't pursue an effort earlier this year to reduce the number of votes needed in the Senate to move legislation forward.)

Interesting thing that is happening tonight. Is this the nuclear option?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/10/reid_pulls_the_plug_on_mcc...

The key difference between the standard "liftback" Prius and the PHV model that was the [main] focus of the event held on September 16, 2011 in Richmond, California, apart from the price that is, is the plug-in model's ability to run up to 15 miles as an electric car, after which the Hybrid Synergy Drive takes over. That's 15 percent better than the earlier demonstrators. In EV Mode, Toyota's estimates it delivers the equivalent of 89 miles per gallon. In hybrid mode that drops back to a still Volt-beating 49 mpg average. Recharge time at 115V takes just 3 hours, less than that with the new Leviton Level II charger that will be available for a starting price of $999 installed.

Pricing on the PHV model is $32,000 for the base model and $39,525 for the top-of-the line "Advanced" model with all the "bells and whistles," which puts it within a few hundred dollars of the base version of the Chevrolet Volt, its nearest competitor that offers up to 50 miles of EV driving range.

Toyota's Corporate Manager of Car and Van Marketing, Rick LoFaso isn't troubled by that, pointing out that what potential Volt buyers give up in EV range, they more than make up for in amenities and better hybrid fuel economy… at least for now. The PHV's smaller 4.4 lithium battery pack qualifies for the minimum federal tax credit of $2,500, as opposed to the Volt's $7,500. So, it will be interesting to see how the two compare in side-by-side sales.

Marketplace, American Public Media, October 4, 2011

Conventional wisdom says a bad economy leads to increased crime. But Freakonomics Radio's Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt tell us why that's not true.

[.....]

Ryssdal: All right Levitt, do tell. What do you know about crime?

Levitt: ....When it comes to crime, one thing that I think I know that many people seem not to know is that crime has gone down, way down. And while many people are haunted by the thought that crime is high and rising, it categorically is not doing that.

Dubner: Contrary to popular belief the world is a more peaceful place today than literally at any time in history by a long, long shot.

Ryssdal: I'm going to need something better than "long, long shot." Quantify for me, Dubner.

Dubner: So the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker has just published a new book called "Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined." And he argues that our rosy view of history is pretty much entirely wrong.

[.....]

Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died, Apple said. Jobs was 56.

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," read a statement by Apple's board of directors. "Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."

In the past year – one of the hottest on record – extreme weather has battered almost every corner of the planet. There have been devastating droughts in China and India, unprecedented floods and wildfires in the United States, and near-record ice melts in the Arctic. Yet the prosperous nations of the world have failed to take action to reduce the risk of climate change, in part because people in prosperous nations think they're invulnerable. They're under the misapprehension that, as Nobel Prize-winning economist Tom Schelling puts it, "Global warming is a problem that is going to primarily affect future generations of poor people." To see how foolish this reasoning is, one need only look at Australia, a prosperous nation that also happens to be right in the cross hairs of global warming. "Sadly, it's probably too late to save much of it," says Joe Romm, a leading climate advocate who served as assistant energy secretary in the Clinton administration.

This is not to say that the entire continent will sink beneath the waves anytime soon. What is likely to vanish – or be transformed beyond recognition – are many of the things we think of when we think of Australia: the barrier reef, the koalas, the sense of the country as a land of almost limitless natural resources. Instead, Australia is likely to become hotter, drier and poorer, fractured by increasing tensions over access to water, food and energy as its major cities are engulfed by the rising seas.