Buy American, recession woes, wine, African buses, and NCAA basketball

An article from the Detroit Free Press explaining why "Buy American" sentiments are bad for the economy.

Is death a victim of the recession? Eight states are considering getting rid of the death penalty, due to cost.

The wine competition at the Houston Rodeo brought in much less money than last year for the winning wines. That's why we call them luxury goods! The money goes to fund Texas college scholarships, so there's yet another example of education getting tougher in a recession.

Cote D'Ivoire is now producing buses, aimed at Africans. African transportation systems are known for their terrible buses, so this is meant to fix that. The post I link to says, "Not only are better buses now rolling out onto the roads of western Africa, Cote D'Ivoire is becoming better because of its entrepreneurial drive." However, I wonder if that "entrepreneurial drive" was already there, but now there's enough capital or credit available to justify the venture.

I'm surprised by this article, warning the Fed to not be so expansionary. Really? I think most are agreed that recession-fighting is more important, right now, than inflation-fighting. After all, we're still concerned about whether or not our same jobs will still be around, as the middle class shrinks.

NCAA basketball teams tend to lose a lot of money, with the median team having net loses of over $850,000. I wonder what incentives there are for universities to hold on to get basketball teams, or to hold on to them if they have them.