Weekend Digest: The Uber effect and 3D cars edition

TV PREVIEW
On this week’s TV edition of Talk Business & Politics with Roby Brock, which airs Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on KATV Channel 7.

The top political stories of 2015. What dominated the headlines and what’s in store for 2016? KATV’s Elicia Dover and TBP contributor Steve Brawner join host Roby Brock for a conversation.

On the business front, what stories had the biggest impact on your personal pocketbook and company bottom line? Business editor Wes Brown and executive editor Michael Tilley share their observations.

Plus, we’ll preview our latest magazine edition, which features the state’s business hall of fame, downtown redevelopment and John Brummett’s peek into the political future.

Tune in to Talk Business & Politics with Roby Brock on KATV Ch. 7, Sunday at 9:30 a.m.

UBER’S IMPACT ON THE BANKS
Governing reports, “In cities across the country, the rise of taxicab alternatives like Uber aren’t hurting just the taxicab companies.”

When New York state took over a small credit union in September, the reason it cited was “unsafe and unsound conditions” at the institution. The real reason may be Uber.

Turns out there were a lot of loans to taxicab operators financing expensive city licenses. Read more at this link.

THE 3D PRINTED CAR THAT COULD TRANSFORM THE AUTO INDUSTRY: ON SALE IN 2016
Forbes says, “Imagine the car of the future. It’s not a Tesla. Rather, it’s 3D printed and recyclable.”

Arizona-based Local Motors plans to debut its new LM3D in 2016, which would be the first 3D printed car to hit the highways and be available for purchase (for about $53,000).

3D printed cars have been popular experiments in recent years. But turning them into a product for the masses has been a challenge. That’s why Local Motors has made the process an open-sourced endeavor. After collecting over 200 designs online, they settled on a winning entry from Kevin Lo of Portland. Even Jay Leno, who sat on the judging panel, approved.

Click here for more.

WORST BUSINESS FOR OIL RIGS IN 25 YEARS
Bloomberg Business posts a grim annual report for drilling rigs – a key metric for the oil and gas industry.

Oil explorers shut down more rigs in U.S. fields to finish out the worst year for drilling cutbacks in almost three decades.

Rigs targeting crude in the U.S. fell by 2 to 536 in the past week, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Thursday. Natural gas rigs were unchanged at 162, bringing the total of working rigs to 698. Drillers searching for oil this year idled the largest proportion of their rig fleet since at least 1988.

Take a look at the complete summary here.

THE U.S. IS ALREADY IN THE HOLE, BUT LAWMAKERS KEEP DIGGING
“With debt already around its highest level as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) other than around World War II and estimated to grow with no end in sight, the least one could have hoped for from lawmakers would be to stop digging the hole deeper,” says the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

But 2015 proved even that low bar to be too lofty a goal. Instead, 2015 will go down as a banner year for fiscal irresponsibility, when policymakers worked across party lines to add nearly $1.2 trillion to the debt over the next ten years, digging the hole ever deeper.

Go to this link for the full story.

THE PRESIDENT AND SEINFELD
Jerry Seinfeld has a special guest for the season seven premiere of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee — President Obama.

After tapping on the window of the Oval Office to let Obama know he’s arrived, Seinfeld and the commander in chief take a quick spin in a steel-blue 1963 Corvette Stingray — “The coolest car ever made for the coolest guy to ever hold this office,” Seinfeld says — but the Secret Service won’t let the president off of the White House grounds for a quick joy ride.

Instead, the legendary comedian and the 44th president make a pot of coffee and exchange jokes from the safety of the White House kitchen.

Get the whole shtick at this link.

A REPUBLICAN ESTABLISHMENT DIVIDED
U.S. News and World Report says, “After months of obstinate denial and simmering dismay, Republican elites are soberly coming to the conclusion that 2016 may be the year the raucous insurgent faction of the party finally topples the usually sturdy mainstream contingent in the presidential race.”

The twin renegade candidacies of real estate mogul Donald Trump and junior Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are packing the potency and endurance to be plausible ultimate victors of the primary – an outcome deemed doubtful by wide swaths of GOP leadership just a few months ago.

The success of their campaigns is being enhanced by a divided slate of traditional candidates from the wing of the party known collectively in Washington – and derisively outside of it – as “the establishment.”

Read more here.

HILLARY WENT UNDERCOVER
It was 1972 and The New York Times reports the Democratic presidential candidate “went undercover to examine race in education.”

DOTHAN, Ala. — On a humid summer day in 1972, Hillary Rodham walked into this town’s new private academy, a couple of cinder-block classrooms erected hurriedly amid fields of farmland, and pretended to be someone else.

Playing down her flat Chicago accent, she told the school’s guidance counselor that her husband had just taken a job in Dothan, that they were a churchgoing family and that they were looking for a school for their son.

Why did Clinton go to Alabama and what did she hope to achieve? Click here for this most intriguing story.

THE STATE OF THE MODERN POLITICAL LOGO
Maybe it started with Hillary’s “arrow.”

When Hillary Clinton unveiled her campaign logo — a blocky blue “H” with a bold, red, arrow-shaped crossbar — this past April, the internet erupted with criticism. A lot of people seemed to take issue with the arrow. WikiLeaks accused Clinton of stealing the motif from its Twitter logo. Another faction claimed she had cribbed it from FedEx. There were even serious accusations — reminiscent of old Iron Curtain ideological doubletalk – that the red, right-facing arrow was a subliminal nod to Clinton’s clandestine conservative leanings.

But Clinton’s arrowed-H wasn’t the only political brand to come under attack this year.

What were they, and what’s all the fuss? Find out at this link.

A U-BOAT SAGA
Mashable posts ,”SM U-118 was a 267-foot mine-laying submarine, one of the 329 U-boats which served in the Imperial German Navy in World War I.”

Commissioned in May 1918, U-118 sank two British ships in its short career before the war ended. At the end of the conflict, the entire navy was surrendered, and U-118 was handed over to the French.

Then what happened? Read this stunning story at this link.

IT’S A BALL!
Forbes asks about “The Vast Meaning Behind The Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball.”

There’s much more planning in the design than you’ve ever known. What is it? Follow this link.

THE TRICK TO ACTUALLY MAKING YOUR RESOLUTIONS STICK THIS YEAR
One of our favorites, Fast Company says, “If you’re already preparing yourself for letdowns in resolutions before even beginning them, you might have ‘false hope syndrome.'”

What the heck is that, and do you have it? Find out here.