Tuesday Miscellany!

• The best news I've heard all year came today, when the FDIC and the Federal Reserve voted to approve and enforce the Volcker Rule (2). The hope is that this will keep banks from engaging in the kind of risky investments that led to the 2008 financial crisis.


• Dear Ms. Barra: congratulations on being named CEO of General Motors. Please do everyone a solid, and save GM from itself. Thank you.


• Chuck Hagel is telling Pakistan to quit whining about the drone strikes that are killing innocent people in the hinterlands or lose foreign aid


• Here is the case for Edward Snowden as Person Of The Year.


• The Chicago Public Schools are moving Computer Science to a core requirement. I would feel better about this if CPS did a better job overall.


• Putin is shutting down RIA Novosti and putting all of its assets in Russia Today. RIA Novosti is much more independently-minded than RT, the latter being basically little more than a propaganda engine with occasional commentary from useful idiot Thom Hartmann. To put this in American terms, imagine if the Bush Administration had closed NPR and sold all its assets to Fox, without discussion or notice.