Some Tuesday morning odds and sods:
First, from The Wall Street Journal, this op-ed from Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, who tells the Senate to lay off his boy Ben Bernanke as he tries to re-up his position as Fed Chair. Spoiler alert: Warns Fisher, my favorite economics prof, "if Congress tampers with the independence of the Federal Reserve, it will move us toward the politicization of the central bank of the world's greatest economy, putting the U.S. on a road that leads directly to economic ruin." Is that bad? That's bad, right? ...
Here's another op-ed, this one from The New York Times: Harvard doctoral candidate Viridiana Rios decided to visit her native Mexico in order to use "mathematical models -- matrices, vectors, equations, regressions -- to understand the Mexican drug crisis," which can, apparently, be done. Serving as tour guide is her friend Alfredo Corchado, Mexico bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News and one brave man ...
On an unrelated note, GlobeSt.com analyzes the Fort Worth real estate market and concludes, well, um, "We're Not Dallas," referring to last week's real-estate round-up that concluded Dallas is plain ol' overbuilt unless you're a grocery store:
"We came into the downturn with a commercial market that was steady, but not overbuilt by any means," adds Ben Loughry, managing director of Integra Realty Resources DFW LLP. "Likewise, our occupancies dipped some, but haven't dipped to the extent that our neighbor to the east has."
