Some of the more interesting and important items for September 18th :

• Sorry, Junior: Parents Pull Back on College Spending – SmartMoney.com – As Zack Zbar gets ready to apply to colleges this fall, his parents have established one important ground rule. Jeff, a Florida writer, and his wife Robbie, a nurse practitioner, would like to send their son to the best college he can get into, but they don’t intend to go into debt to make that happen. They’ll look for grants and scholarships, or they’ll turn to an in-state option. “If we can’t afford it, then we have some reckoning to do,” says Jeff, 47.
• The Problem With Living Wills for Financial Firms – NYTimes.com – The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took an important step this week toward getting big financial institutions, foreign and domestic, to submit resolution plans ”” also known as living wills or funeral plans ”” as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. If the new, so-called orderly liquidation authority is going to work, it is going to depend on F.D.I.C.‘s ability to understand and plan for financial distress in advance. And thus the living wills are key.
• Obama Tax Plan Would Ask More of Millionaires – NYTimes.com – WASHINGTON ”” President Obama on Monday will call for a new minimum tax rate for individuals making more than $1 million a year to ensure that they pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers, according to administration officials.
• Analyst Suggests Apple CEO Cook Consider Acquisitions, Expand iPhone – Ina Fried – Mobile – AllThingsD – In an open letter, MobileTrax analyst Gerry Purdy congratulates Cook before launching into a list of things he says could help Apple remain “insanely great” for years to come.
• The Bull (Or at Least Less Bearish) Case for Netflix – Peter Kafka – Media – AllThingsD – Netflix cut its guidance yesterday, investors killed the stock, and now the “Netflix can‘t lose” narrative has flipped to “Netflix is hosed.”
• Obama to propose ‘Buffett Rule’ on taxes: reports – MarketWatch – The White House is set to propose a “Buffett Rule” aimed chiefly at preventing those making more than $1 million a year from paying taxes at lesser rates than those at lower income levels, according to several published reports late Saturday. The plan, reportedly set to be unveiled Monday as part of President Obama’s recommendation to a bipartisan congressional “supercommittee” on deficit reduction
• End of the road for Research In Motion – John Dvorak’s Second Opinion – MarketWatch – BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) ”” I‘ve been reluctant to write a column declaring that it‘s over for Research In Motion Ltd. and its BlackBerry, but with this week‘s numbers and forecasts I cannot see the company making another comeback, ever.
• Roche Keeps Drugs From Strapped Greek Hospitals – WSJ.com – Swiss drug giant Roche Holding AG has stopped delivering its drugs for cancer and other diseases to some state-funded hospitals in Greece that haven’t paid their bills, and may take similar steps elsewhere, a stark example of how the European debt crisis that has jolted global financial markets is having a direct effect on consumers.