Zawodny: The Big One?

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Jeremy Zawodny wonders if the Big One is on the way…. I lived in San Francisco during the “pretty big one”: Loma Prieta and posted a few recollections here, along with notes from AnchorBanker Brian Zimdars.

UPDATE: Chan Stroman emails:

I’m late to the party, but enjoyed reading your recollection of the ’89 Loma Prieta. I was in the Russ Building on the bedrock side of Montgomery street when it hit–the building tipped back and forth solidly for what seemed like forever while we all ran to the stairwell. Later, we walked to a colleague’s apartment on Telegraph Hill, and yes, the sunset that night was eerily beautiful. My husband was in the Macy’s warehouse in South S.F. (“South City”) and narrowly missed having some high shelves with heavy stuff crash down on his head. Back in our flat in the Sunset, other than a couple of framed pictures askew on the walls, nothing was damaged. Thanks to this experience, I’m permanently sensitized to quakes…and bolted straight up in bed here in Madison just about a year ago (epicenter Ottawa, Illinois) just about a year ago.

Visit Chan at www.bookishgardener.com (lots of interesting items, particularily the gardening posts).

Jarvis on Investigative Journalism

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Jeff Jarvis:

But I’ll be heretical enough to ask whether investigative journalism is what the public most wants from the press, whether chronic suspicion — as opposed to skepticism — can breed chronic cynicism, whether ever-sparer journalistic resources are best put to bringing down the bad guy or to helping us in our daily lives. What is the proper calling of journalism?

Northwest Airlines’ Fortress Midwest Strategy

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Susan Carey writes about Northwests’ “catering to travelers between small and midsize cities in the Upper Midwest. This “heartland” gambit aims to keep fares higher and discourage discounters from flying there. …. Going one big step further, Northwest also has been expanding aggressively with nonstop flights between nonhub cities, so that more passengers don’t have to make connections through one of its hubs when flying to some domestic cities.”

This strategy has manifested itself with 50 seat jet non-stop flights between Madison and Washington’s Reagan National Airport (though at inconvenient middle of the day times) and a variety of non-stops from cities like Milwaukee and Indianapolis to New York, Washington and other east coast destinations. This is also an attempt – futile, I think to kill Midwest Airlines.

Northwest is largely betting that flyers will put up with the small, uncomfortable jets in an effort to grow frequent flyer miles (the hidden secret here is that frequent flyer miles are growing more difficult to use by the day, unless you use a lot of them…..)

On a related note, the Boyd Group has written about the declining utility and economics of 50 seat jets for some time. They recently mentioned growing demand for 100 seat planes. I think, unfortunately, it will be difficult for Madison to grow service with 100 seat aircraft – I hope I’m wrong on this. Microjets will likely be one popular alternative in places like Madison.

Fifty States, A Thousand New Tax Laws = Decoupling

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Amy Feldman:

For most of the 92 years since the federal income tax was established, the states followed Washington’s lead concerning how to tax people and businesses. That ended in 1981, when 21 states adopted their own rules on depreciation in response to a Reagan tax cut. Many of these renegades — California being a notable exception — later went back to a more uniform tax code. But the precedent was set. When Congress began slashing federal rates in 2001, many cash-strapped state legislatures opted to go their own way once again.
Tax experts call this “decoupling.” That’s a jargony name for a practice that can — and most likely will — cause you to run screaming to your accountant. “It is a zoo,” says Jere Doyle, an estate-planning and tax expert in Mellon Financial’s Boston office. “Everybody thinks ‘federal, federal, federal,’ and assumes that the same rules will apply at the state levels. But they do not