The Great Depression II: Return of the Hobos
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have no desire to find out whether or not I’ve got what it takes to be a hobo or a dirt farmer. Therefore, I’m glad we passed the bailout. If we hadn’t, I’m afraid that it’d be Black Tuesday Part II around here. Am I dancing a jig with joy over the $700+ billion we spent to bail out a bunch of jackass banks and such? No! But, sometimes you’ve got to do what has to be done and the solution is just the lesser of two evils. Besides, it’s too late now anyway. And considering that it doesn’t look like Bartertown around here (sweet Mad Max reference, huh?), I’d say it’s worked out okay thus far.
So, this is probably going to be one of my last posts on this blog since class is officially over tomorrow. Can you believe it? It’s been a quick four weeks, but I’ll have to admit that I’ve had fun. I really like economics, at least like this when it’s blended with public policy and isn’t all graphs and stuff. But, I don’t know enough about anything to keep writing about it one class is over. I don’t know my microeconomic ass from my macroeconomic elbows here!
Who said life–or income–was fair?
Income inequalities are a fact of life, kids. And while it might not seem fair that Bob across the street gets paid twice what you do, that’s just how it is. And Bob probably has more education and/or higher productivity than you do in order to earn his higher income (or he knows someone in HR that got him a job). I don’t know why there’s all this hubbub about the growing inequalities in incomes, anyway. Unless you can show me that it is the direct result of discrimination or something wrong like that, I don’t see the problem.
In the reading we did about this topic I got a little irritated at one of the authors (you’re not surprised, are you?). Cypher was just whining about how the unions losing power and off-shoring was hurting us. It might be hurting some of us, but I believe those advances are for the overall good. If he doesn’t agree with me, that’s fine (after all, he is a famous economist and I’m a nobody who doesn’t know jack about economics), but I still believe what makes sense to me.
Here’s a great link to a neat little thing that shows income inequalities as well as how people from different classes have moved in the rankings. Very interesting and colorful…also makes the concept easier to understand. Enjoy!
PS – I would have posted earlier but I’ve been busy handling some serious family stuff today. Sorry…
The weakest link
The whole idea behind No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a good one. After all, who can fault the government for wanting to make sure that all publicly-educated children are being equally and properly educated/prepared to be successful entrants into the job market and contributors to the economy? No one! So why are people so unhappy with NCLB? There are a myriad of reasons, really. Some of the reasons for dissatisfaction are lack of funding, too much focus on the test content and not enough on other subject areas (arts, etc.), and a lack of nationwide standards, just to name a few. In fact, the list goes on and on…if you’re interested, you can go here and read up on it. Anyway, I am of the mind that George Miller is right and that some serious changes need to be made with the system.
In a related note, a few semesters ago I read “Naked Economics” by Charles Wheelan. Like my beloved Commanding Heights, Wheelan’s book changed the way I thought about economics and actually got me interested and engaged. Anyway, as you’ll see in my class blog posting, a part of his book talked about public education and how it is one of the largest remaining government monopolies. He even suggests privatizing it, and the idea is great…although I don’t really know how I’d actually feel about the execution of it. Anyway, you should definitely check out the book!
Don’t hate
I support NAFTA because I believe it has benefit all of the parties involved more than it has hurt them. I’m sure that you’re all tried of hearing about The Commanding Heights, but this was talked about in the series. The series was one of the things that helped me make up mind about the subject. That, and everyone who opposes NAFTA seems to have the pro-protectionist attitude that I can do without. Ross Perot talked about the “giant sucking noise” which was supposed to be Mexico taking our jobs, but, surprise, we’re still here. Anyway, as usual, if you’re interested in my detailed opinion, please visit the class blog and check out my comments.
I’ll be honest and say that this has probably been one of the worst days of my life, so please forgive me if I’m a bit short. To make it up to you, here is a link to the NAFTA debate between Gore and Perot. It’s rather amusing. I would have embedded the clip, but some joker disabled that feature on the video.
We all need some funny
Okay folks! It’s been a while since I posted something funny, so… Here ya go! I LOVE Auto-Tune the News. It is hilarious because as they say, “everything sounds better with auto-tune”. Besides, politics and politicians are funny, especially when they’re not trying to be. So, enjoy this video and click this link to check out some of their other videos.
A fool’s-eye view of public debt
If you read the class blog today, you’ll see my lovely tirade against Charlie Stenholm. Well, more like a tirade against Charlie Stenholm’s testimony to the Senate Committee on Finance, Subcommittee on Long-Term Growth and Debt Reduction on September 28, 2006. You can see this testimony here and it should explain why I think I think this guy is a jerk.
I’m sorry, but I can’t get behind a man who so blatantly tries to manipulate and goad people into following his plan. Like I said in my post, I don’t like people who try to lay on a heavy guilt trip and the try to play the “why shucks, I’m just a simple lil ol’ farmer” card to boot. Pointing the finger at the Republican party was a class-A move, too. Way to look mature. But most of all, I was especially disappointed by his lack of cited research. Way to convince me! At least Chris Edwards had lots of sources as you can see here.
If in case you haven’t realized it, I definitely support Edwards’ idea that federal spending needs to be cut in order to reduce public debt. The idea just seems right to me. Just in case anyone is interested, I found a great article about this very topic here, so feel free to check it out.
Batter up
Once again it was my turn to post on the class blog today–woo-hoo! Like last time, I’m hoping it goes well and that my questions get a good dialogue going. I wish that I was a good at thinking of really challenging and interesting questions as some other students in the class are. But, since I’m not, I’ll just have to make do with what I’ve got. 
As usual, I’ll tell you to check out the class blog to see my summary and such if you’re interested. Other than that you’re on your own! Well, except that I am going to post the videos because I liked them so much. As usual, they’re both somewhat biased, although I think the anti-ethanol one is much more so…not to mention that they’re seriously trying to tug on the old heart strings. Enjoy!
The ship’s sinking, grab a bucket!
Before I get started let me just vent for a second… Yesterady/today was very frustrating for me. I don’t know what happened but we got a little behind and I feel like it threw my mojo off and I had to do a lot of work today to make up for lost time. ARGH! Now that it’s off my chest, let’s get going here…
To talk about yet another subject that gives me a headache, today’s topic is the mortgage crisis. Goody! I am going to save any poor soul that might be reading this the drama of rehashing exactly what I said on the class blog. Go here if you really want to read it.
What I want to say is this: I know we have to help people out, but it makes me mad as crap! We just can’t afford to let millions of people lose their homes, but it makes me sick to have to get the government involved to get anything done. But, sadly, the mortgage industry isn’t capable of fixing this sh!tstorm itself. I’ve already said my piece about the shady/predatory lending practices, so we’ll skip that. I want to go back to the bit about borrower responsibility.
I know that a lot of Americans live on credit, love to use it, and don’t really consider the repercussions of using it. After all, we all want everything now, now, now. But buying a house is a big deal. We’re talking about 15 – 40 years of financial obligation, not to mention having a place to lay your head at night. That’s no joke, folks–it’s serious business. But not to everyone I suppose. After all, people signed up for loans that they KNEW they had no change in hell of being able to afford, especially for a lot of folks that signed an ARM that would eventually adjust and skyrocket. These people are the “No-One-Told-Me-That-My-Payment-Could-Ttriple-So-It’s-Not-My-Fault-I-Can’t-Afford-It” borrowers. You can’t buy a house if you can barely afford food and stuff while living in an apartment. It’s common sense! I know it’s the American dream and all that, but all dreams don’t come true. Wait until you can afford it!
Oh, and here are the other type of borrowers I have beef with: the “I’ve-Gotta-Keep-Up-With-the-Jones’”. They’re the childless couple first-time home buyers that get a 5 bedroom house because their friends have them. Then they have no money for furniture or activities and are house poor, just so they can give a swank address to impress people. It’s so pointless. Ever heard of a starter home?
Whew. Wow, I kind of scared myself with that little verbal rampage. But, what can I say? I suppose one could construe it as me being passionate. 
US Healthcare, Holland-style?
Whoa! I was watching BBC America World News and saw this. You must watch it! It’s all about how the heath care system in Holland was reformed 3 years ago and how it could be a model for the US. It’s not cruddy like national heath care but is a mix of public and private instead. The government subsidises the premiums and yet they spend less on health care than our government does. Granted their taxes are higher, but still… Something to be considered, eh?
Nothing’s free, especially not trade
The U.S. does not practice free or fair trade. We’ve always practiced some forms of protectionism (uhm, steel industry anyone?) and I am sure that we always will. What I find ironic is that Americans are happy with that, as long as we’re the ones doing it. But, the minute we have a massive trade deficit to China (who is also manipulating its currency, but that’s a different matter), people are up in arms and want a massive tariff. Apparently we think we can have it all. Check out the below CNN video below for an example of what I mean:
Anyway, the whole thing is a hot-@ss mess. Ravid Ricardo (as quoted in thistextbook) says that “if there are differences in ‘opportunity costs’ of producing goods and service, trade will occur between countries and that, more important, the countries that engage in trade will all benefit” (p. 246). I do believe in this–even though I don’t know diddly about economics–and so I believe in free trade. But, free trade should be truly free trade, not our weird managed trade version of it.
