Private Equity Again

A new article from Time magazine predicting more dire consequences from our old friend private equity.

Jobs and Health Care

Here is an article that I came across while finishing up on my paper. It talks about how so many Americans are scared to lose their jobs because they will be jobless, but also they wont have health insurance for themselves and their family because it was payed for by their employers.

New CNN Poll on Health Care

Here is the article and you can download the results in a PDF

Drug Prices Going Up

Here is an article about the rising cost of pharmaceuticals that will offset any gains from cutting prices in health care reform bill. Money, money, money...

Glen Beck on Healthcare and more

Here are two videos, both of Glen Beck. The first clip is his basic breakdown of Obama's plan and how he views healthcare. The second is just a quick snippet of what Jon Stewart was poking fun at on his show. The first video is a little long so you can just watch some of it to get a feeling of his usual show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1DSVKbKCVE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-D_S7WOnjg

Bachmann on Health Care

Please read this article from CNN on Michele Bachmann, congresswoman from Minnesota.

The Decade in 7 Minutes

I know it's not really about the health care debate, but this is a cool video I found while using Stumble Upon. It's sort of fun to look back on everything that has happened.

Response to Walmart sick-leave articles:

This is a major issue because if people come in sick, it will effect the population and possibly spread H1N1. If people don't get paid for work days off, it could badly effect the economy. On the other hand, if they do get paid, it could effect the economy AND the unemployment rate.

This is a tough one.

Article from Reuters found here.

An Interesting Idea...

Paying in "Bundle Paccages" for certain procedures.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5AA4YV20091111.

"WHAT WORKS"?

(NaturalNews) When it comes to affordable, effective health care reform in America, there's only one question that really needs to be asked right now: What works?

In other words, what works to keep people healthy? What's affordable, safe and supports the long-term health of the population? What's available right now that can help people get healthy and remain healthy?

Those answers aren't difficult. They're found, in fact, in the fresh produce section of every grocery store in America, and even more answers are found in the dietary supplementsections of health food stores. In America today, we don't have a lack of good answers to the current health carecrisis; what we have is too many people asking the wrong questions!

Instead of asking, "What works?" we have health care reform lobbyists and pharmaceutical pushers putting their efforts into a completely different question: "What's profitable?"

The entire health care reform conversation taking place today is based around that question: What's profitable? How can we make the most money by requiring the most people to participate in our profit-making system? That's the real reason behind mandatory health insurance requirements, by the way.

But what if we threw out everything we think we know about health care right now and started from scratch? Toss out the current complex system of failed treatments, failed insurance plans and the monopolistic practices that dominate western today. What if we started with a blank slate?

If we started over, wouldn't the first and most important question simply be "What works?"

A universe of possibilities to consider

Answering that question necessarily involves consideringall the possibilities of what works. We've got to look at what works in the known universe, not just what works in one system of medicine. Proponents of western medicine, as you well know, want to limit the entire discussion of health care reform to their own narrowly-defined systems of chemical intervention, ineffective disease screening, medically unjustified surgeries and deadly chemotherapy treatments. But that's not an honest answer to the "what works" question... it's only a predetermined, narrow interpretation of the question that ultimately lends little value toward finding real health care solutions.

In answering the "what works?" question, we've got to consider healing foods, nutritional supplements, exercise, stress reduction, vibrational medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, spiritual medicine, healing through intention, body work, chiropractic care, mind-body medicine, the healing arts and much more. Not surprisingly, once you open up the possibility of answers to include the entire universe of possibilities, you quickly begin to discover safe, affordable and highly effective healing modalities that can help people prevent and eliminate disease while enhancing lifelong health and happiness.

For example, simple dietary changes alone can eliminate 70% of cancers all by themselves. Combined with superfoodnutrition (which is ridiculously affordable compared to urgent medical care), sunshine, exercise and stress reduction, we can prevent 90% of all cancers using what we know right now -- without a single visit to a hospital or a clinic. (And without a single additional dollar being spent to "find a cure.") '

website: http://www.NaturalNews.com/027171_health_food_health_care.html

comments:

- this article is interesting because it states that we have the resources to help people and reform health care but lobbyists and pharmaceutical pushers not asking what is gonna work to help these peoples health, they are asking them selves what is profitable? America is a country of greed in a way because everyone just wants their money. Unless america becomes less greedy and accepts that as a nation we have to make sacrifices for the people not for the gain of money. the government, medicare, doctors and lobbyists have to put this country first then things will change but everyone is to caught up in their money and income. the possibilities are endless but the greed and scattered dedication to this country is making it hard to find successful health care solutions.

Who is Joe Biden?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EALYveaLctU&feature=subtivity

How does it relate to what we're doing in class? Replace Joe Biden with health care and you get your answer.

Cole on Health Care II

Hi Mr. Aldredge,

I watched the news a couple nights ago and found this topic about Wal-Mart and it's employees.
There is a video on the subject. It doesn't talk about health insurance but about sick days and
losing money for missing work. I though it was an interesting video. Here it is.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/walmart-defends-sick-leave-policy-good-morning-america/story?id=9013693

New Health care proposal would limit options

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/12/stephen-hawking-enters-us_n_257343.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/weekinreview/14abelson.html

Both these articles discuss an implication of the new bill that's been passed, will options be decreased? As the easier/cheaper options often gets decided on, will the bill further promote this?

Polling Website

Gallup is a major pollster and have a good website that shows a lot of polls in a graphic format.

Last Minute Anti Abortion Clause

Here is an article about how Nancy Pelosi had to agree to the Stupak Amendment in order to pass the health care reform passage.

Downn then Upss

NEWS ANALYSIS

Medical Industry Grumbles, but It Stands to Gain

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By DUFF WILSON and REED ABELSON

Published: November 8, 2009

For any industry, there has to be at least some good news any time Congress votes to expand the market by tens of millions of customers.

A blog from The New York Times that tracks the health care debate as it unfolds.

• More Health Care Overhaul News

Health Care Conversations

Share your thoughts about the health care debate.

Top Discussions: The Public Option| Medicare and the Elderly | A Single-Payer System

Multimedia

Graphic

Sticking Points

Interactive Feature

A History of Health Care Reform

Interactive Graphic

House Democrats Who Voted Against the Health Care Bill

Slide Show

Long Day on the Hill, Big Victory for Democrats

Related

Prescriptions: If Anything, the Senate's Task Is Trickier

Obama Presses Senate to Pass Its Health Bill (November 9, 2009)

For Abortion Foes, a Victory in Health Care Vote (November 9, 2009)

Louisiana Republican Breaks Ranks on Health Bill (November 9, 2009)

But the business world found plenty to complain about Sunday, as it assessed the House bill that would make sweeping changes in the health care system and extend insurance coverage to millions more Americans.

Insurers do not like the provision to create a new government-run insurance program. Drug makers oppose billions of dollars in rebates they would have to give to the government over 10 years. Makers of artificial hips, heart defibrillators and other medical devices are not particularly happy about the proposed 2.5 percent tax on their products.

And employers large and small oppose rules that, for many of them, would make health care coverage — long a job benefit — become a federally mandated obligation.

That is why, as attention now shifts to the Senate, where Democratic leaders are trying to merge two bills into one, virtually every business group with a stake in the outcome will be hoping to strike at least a slightly better deal than they found in the House version.

And they may indeed get a break from the Senate, where the need for Democrats to compromise to win 60 votes may ensure a more business-moderate outcome.

And yet, many analysts said on Sunday that even the House bill was not as bad for business as many in the health care industry might have feared when the overhaul effort began many months ago.

“All industries stand to gain from this legislation,” Steven D. Findlay, senior health policy analyst with Consumers Unionin Washington, said in an interview. “They’re going to continue to fight their narrow issues and get the best that they can get. But all of them are aware they stand to gain significant new business and new revenue streams as more Americans get health coverage and money flows into the system for them.”

Of course, new revenue streams apply only to companies in the business of selling medical goods and services. To employers required to provide worker health benefits or else, in many cases, pay some sort of financial penalty, the House legislation offers little to cheer about.

Employer groups complained on Sunday that the House bill would impose insurance obligations while doing little to rein in the medical costs that help drive premiums higher year after year. In fact, those groups argue, the bill’s creation of a government-run insurance program, which may pay doctors and hospitals less than private insurers do, could end up shifting even more medical costs to the private insurance system that employers use.

“This won’t just hurt business, it will hurt millions of workers who have coverage through their employers,” said John J. Castellani, president the Business Roundtable, a group of chief executives of some of the nation’s biggest companies.

And the National Federation of Independent Business, representing many small businesses, said it was furious with the legislation. Susan Eckerly, senior vice president of the federation, attacked mandates, which she called punitive, and “atrocious new taxes.” The legislation, she said, was “a failed opportunity to help small-business owners with their No. 1 problem — skyrocketing health care costs.”

Another group, the Small Business Majority, praised the legislation but said the Senate needed to take more steps to lower costs.

Employers hope the final Senate legislation ends up looking more like the bill the Finance Committee passed, which does not require companies to insure their workers.

Meanwhile, the health insurance industry has been increasingly vocal about the emerging shape of the legislation, and it was sharply critical of the bill that passed on Saturday night.

“The current House legislation fails to bend the health cost curve and breaks the promise that those who like their current coverage can keep it,” Karen M. Ignagni, the chief executive of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade association, said.

The reference to a broken promise refers, in part, to people enrolled in privately offeredMedicare Advantage insurance plans, which would lose federal subsidies under the House bill. Ms. Ignagni warned of cuts that would “force millions of seniors out of the program entirely.”

But the promise reference also refers to the bill’s provision of a new government-run insurance plan that would compete directly with the health plans offered by private insurers. The insurance industry has long opposed such a move and warns that it will eventually force many people with private insurance into the government-run program.

That “public option,” as it is known, was also in the Senate health committee bill approved in July. And the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, has also signaled that he intends to include some kind of public plan in whatever Senate legislation is reached.

comment: this article is interesting because it talks about the tax and how the government wants to raise it to 2.5 percent, which would affect medicare and medicaid. it would make it so much more difficult for people and insurance companies who need or have patients who need a fake arm or leg to be able to afford it. however, they are raising the tax to help the whole nation so this could be looked at as a sacrifice if the money is put to correct use.

++ NEW YORK TIMES++: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/health/policy/09industry.html?ref=health

why are health costs rising?

This site gives detailed reasons and explanation of why health care cost rising.

Free Market Survey

A new survey reported by the BBC on people's feelings worldwide about free market capitalism twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. How do you feel about these questions now that you have studied the recession?

Health Care Reform Vote Update

I certainly hope all of you are aware that the House of Representatives voted for health care reform last night! Here is an article from the NY Times and here one from CNN and here is one from Fox News although their lead article is about how much this vote will hurt Democrats in the next election. How did this vote pass? Pay special attention to the debate over abortion funding. Please read, post and comment as we will discuss all of this on Monday.

News Ways of Seeing

This is an interesting article on new technology and new ways of perceiving our world. How has media altered in your lifetime? Think of the applications to this course.

Health Care Reform continued

Here is a new CNN poll on voters opinions on reform. Look closely at the distinction within parties. Here is a CNN report on yesterday's protest on Capital Hill. Finally, here is the link to the Bill Moyers interview we were watching today. We only saw the first seven minutes of a half hour program. Please view and be ready to comment on Monday. Remember to keep posting and commenting and thinking about your position paper that is due Nov 19th.

Healthcare Issues

This article here talk about 5 big issues that are kind of being ignored and that we need to look at these issues more seriously.

Roses Articles

My first article talks about how many protestors there are to having the health care reformed.

My second article is about how there are mixed reviews about the reform.

Samantha - Abortion in Health Care Reform

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/health/policy/05health.html?_r=1

this is interesting because it covers abortion and how a new plan would have to involve a pro-life and pro-choice option.

Health Care Homework 11/5

Please watch and comment on the following videos. I will try to have them available in class Friday.

1. Time Obama Speech
2. CBSMoneyWatch.com
2. New Scientist
3. MoveOn.org

Health care issues

This article from reuters is about how the government is making a law that employers will have to give workers paid sick days to prevent them from coming to work sick.

5 Things you Will Lose With Health Reform

An article from Fortune magazine on CNN.com, that states five things you will lose form the current health care system due to reforms. It seems to be a pretty conservative article that opposes health care reform. This is probably because it comes from the Fortune Magazine, which covers major corporations on a regular basis. And, since the insurance companies are major corporations, it's logical to assume that they are against health care reform. Also, the article is from July so it is a little dated.

Most Americans oppose health care reforms

This article gives some reasons why the Americans oppose the health care reform.

Here is a story about how Harry Reid told a reporter who asked when the health care bill was going to pass, that "we're not going to be bound by any timelines." basically saying "not till text year"

Health Care Not Covering Abuse Victims

Here is an article I came across that stunned me a lot.

I thought it was horrid how victims of domestic violence

may not be insured because their condition is said to be "pre-existing."

It is definitely a new take on pre-existing...

White House Website

This is on the White House website. It is trying to correct rumors about reform.

Health Care Reform

Here is an article from CNN/Money about the personal side of health care. Can we understand the problem better through individual stories?

Health Bill Worse Than "Terrorist"

This is an article about a speech a Congresswomen gave claiming that a health care bill would be worse for the United States than terrorism. I think this portrays just how divisive the health care debate has been

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/house-health-bill-is-worse-than-any-terrorist-a-republican-says/

Health Care

Here is an article about how a lack of paid sick days is causing people to go to work sick which is causing viruses such as the flu to spread at a much greater rate.

Healthcare Videos

This is a video on youtube about the need for a government run health care option. It's made by a pretty liberal guy, keep that in mind. Its pretty basic, and also some of the "facts" are bordering on incorrect.
Some people have made reply videos trying to prove that we DON'T need a government run option. For instance, this one.


You definitely have to fact check when you look at things on youtube, but I think its really cool that there are ways like this for the population to express their opinions.

Cole on Health Care

Hi Mr. Aldredge,

I did go to the help desk today and got into the system. At the time I thought everything was fine but now i realize I still can't start a new topic.
I can only comment on other posts. I found this good site for health care between different states. If you could post it for me that will be great.
I will go back to the help desk tomorrow and finally get it fixed all together. The site is http://www.healthreform.gov/
Thank you.

Cole

Health Care Reform Part 1

Here is the New York Times Topics page on Health Care Reform. Begin by reading the Overview on this page (notice that you need to expand the article by clicking Read More). We will be looking to investigate three main areas in the next three weeks: How does the Health Care system work in the United States; what is the Democratic Party proposing in the way of reform; what is the response by the Republican Party. You will write a position paper that covers one aspect of this research that will be due November 19th. Each of you will once again need to post two articles to the blog each week and you also must comment on at least five articles per week.

Sorry To All You Soon To Be Graduated!

Tough news for the college bound.

Fashion Industry In The Recessoin

Here is an interview with Michael Kors about how he thinks the recession is affecting the fashion industry.

East Hampton Star

This is an article about how the economy is affecting East Hampton. I think its interesting to look at our issues at a smaller level.

More on Private Equity

Yet another horror story about Private Equity Capital. Same story of a famous family run business saddled with unwanted debt in a small town setting. Please READ and COMMENT!!

Goldman Sachs NY Times

A central location to find any Goldman Sachs related article ever published in the New York Times. I really like the way NY Times Online does this for a lot of topics.

"How to Find Money for College in a Recession"

Some helpful info

"Study Cites Dire Economic Impact of Poor Schools "

This article is very interesting

Homework 10/5 Flipped!

The lead article in today's New York Times about the practices of Private Equity Firms. Please read and we will watch the videos in class on Tuesday.

Goldman Sachs

A pretty scathing article from Matt Taibbi, a very liberal journalist for Rolling Stone Magazine. He basically claims that Goldman Sachs engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression.

Shifting power in currency

In this article Robert Zoellick, the world back president says that because of the financial crisis, the role of dollar as the world's reserve currency may diminish.

Recession in the Fashion World

Here is an article talking about how the fashion world will fare in this recession it can be found here.

Sad but True

This is not a joke. Do not miss the prize for economics and for mathematics. Keep posting!

Fashion In The Recession

My article about Fashion In The Recession can be found here.

The president of Gucci, Gilles Bensimon is convinced that the recession will ruin the fashion industry.

Defense Earmarks

In the last election cycle, a major issue was the prevalence of "earmarks." These handouts were written into bills by members of congress to appropriate money for their district. Many of these earmarks were related to defense spending. The defense industry is spread out across the country so that it is in virtually every Representative's interest to keep the money flowing. A lot of projects that the DoD wants to cancel are instead extended to keep jobs in these congressional districts. This year, when the DoD recommended canceling the F-22 Raptor program, congressman from districts where production takes place were outraged. They managed to negotiate the cancellation to keep an order for a few more frames.

micro-finance, how the economic crisis is affecting...

How is the financial crisis impacting microfinance institutions (MFIs) and their clients? What can the microfinance industry do? These were the questions addressed at the virtual conference hosted by CGAP between Nov 18-20. There were 600 MFI managers, central bankers, investors, and advisers from 34 countries and the150 entries submitted by these participants provided a vivid and powerful picture of what is going on. According to the summary sent out by Elizabeth Littlefield, Director and CEO of CGAP,

"The dominos of the crisis-credit crunch, inflation, currency dislocations and global recession- are hitting microfinance in very different ways, depending on location, funding structure, financial state and the economic health of their clients. While many places seem unaffected today, there is little doubt that there will be impact: integration of microfinance into the mainstream does have costs."

Other salient points from the summary report were;

-deposit taking MFIs are well-insulated from the crisis

-immediate concern is how the global liquidity contraction will affect the cost & availabilty of funding to non-deposit taking MFIs

-institutional investors in microfinance are not seeing significant redemptions but they do expect fundraising to become more difficult in the coming months

-advice to MFIs included: increase reserves, cut back on growth and focus on portfolio quality, make sure loan officers are informed and attentive to client needs and communicate early and often with lenders and investors

-concerns about overreaction by policymakers

-amid the anxiety some optimism...as some markets had become overheated so slower growth, tighter credit more conservative policies, better products and even consolidation of weaker institutions may be beneficial in the long run

I logged in during the 3 day conference and one positive impression was how the industry of microfinance (the players) continue to be willing and passionate to share and give information for the improvement of the whole industry, an attitude that the mainstream should learn from microfinance.

notes:

- this is interesting because it explains how the recession can affect micro-finance. for example, it could be based of the location, the formula that a micro-finance company fines their investments, and also has to do with the health of their clients. it also explains how the recession will make funding more and more difficult for the people in need. advice is also given in this articles. some examples are for micro -finance companies to cut back on growth.

website: http://www.microfinance.ws/weblog/2008/12/impact_of_financial_crisis_on.html

Community Colleges

Here is an article where Obama tells us about his plan to increase community colleges, because of the unemployment rate.

Forks WA - Twilight, and Real Life.

This article is about the real life town of Forks, WA, made famous by the fictitious series "Twilight". This is one town where the recession is in no way hurting the economy. This is a lengthy article full of fluff, so here is a shortened version. It's on google docs. Click here.


(The full article can be found here, if anyone wants to read it.)



Emily Watson (Entertainment in the Recession)

“Is a College Education Worth the Debt?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/magazine/27fob-wwln-t.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=recession%20impact%20on%20education&st=cse

Reminder

You need to be posting either an article and/or comments every day. If you have not finished the articles posted today in class please do so for homework. We will talk more about Friedman in class tomorrow.

Sports in The Recession

This article can be found here and is about sports no longer being recession proof and the affect of the recession on certain professional sports leagues.

Homework 10/1 More Free Market

Please read these two articles in class. The first is about the history of economics as a field of study. The second is an article about Milton Friedman, the main prophet of the modern free market. Take notes and be prepared to debate the historical perspective between free markets and regulated economies.

Banks

Since the beginning of 2008, there have been about 120 banks that have closed according to the FDIC(Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation). The reason for most of these banks failing is due to the fact that over the past few years they have made very very risky loans. We've talked about this a little bit in class, but i'll go into a little bit more detail here.

One of the large ways that a bank makes it's profit is by giving out loans. Generally, the way that loans are given out is by a person going to the bank and talking to one of the bank's representative and the representative will ask them all kinds of questions like what do they need the loan for, how much money they make in a year, etc. in order to find out if they can pay them back. In the past, only those who could pay the bank back were given out loans. However recently (in the past decade), banks have realized that they can make much more profit if they give out more loans, which is a pretty simple concept. But the way they choose to give out more loans is by giving them to those who might not be able to pay them back, to people who add unnecessary risk to the bank and then many banks choose to sell off these loans to other investors for huge amounts of profit.

In our economy, people take risks all the time. They will take a risk on opening up a store, putting money in the stock market, or investing in a house. But what with these risks, they won't directly effect the economy in a disastrous way like the banks did which is what makes the risks they took "unnecessary". Anyway, then people began to default on their loans for a multitude of reasons so then the banks lost huge amounts of money and since very few of them had any decent amount of capital saved up, they didn't have enough money to survive with their loses and were forced to lose. But since many banks sold off some of these loans, not only were the banks effected but anyone who bought the loans were also effected.

Fox News

Just a funny little web page I found while using StumbleUpon.
You have to love Glenn Beck.

The Recession and the Military

This article is about the enlistment and reenlistment numbers for the Army rising because of the recession. The Army offers a steady pay check, health benefits, and an experience in leadership. Sounds enticing for an unemployed person. So, the reccesion may be bad for the military in funding, but for recruitment numbers it's great.

Defense Spending

21% of the federal budget for fiscal year 2009 is appropriated for defense spending. The budget is eight time larger than the next largest military, the People's Republic of China. Most of the money does not go to the payroll of soldiers, but to new technologies. The amount spent on planes, bombs, and tanks is astronomical.

Even in this economic climate, the military is still spending away. One of the largest contracts to come is one for new tanker airplanes. The military is currently using relics form the 1960s. This contract was supposed to have been tendered out years ago, but the process stalled twice. The first time, a lease deal with Boeing was botched due to corruption. The second time, European manufacturer EADS won, but the Government Accountability Office (GAO), canceled the contract. The DoD is trying again. This article is about how the Air Force is going to direct the new round of bidding.

Google Wave

Interesting article on CNN today. The "wave" of the future? Here is the link to Google's preview.

website: http://crisistalk.worldbank.org/2008/11/microfinance-an.html

how the economic crisis affects global micro-finance.

Microfinance and the financial crisis

Editor's Note: Elizabeth Littlefield is Director and CEO of CGAP. From November 18-20, CGAP is running a virtual conference on microfinance and the financial crisis.

Throughout past financial crises—especially those of the 1990s (Mexico, Asia, Russia)—financial services for poor people have shown remarkable resilience to shock. In fact, the loan portfolios of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Asia during the Asian crisis and in Latin America during various banking crises in that region barely blinked while corporate portfolios collapsed.

This is because these banking and currency crises had little relevance to subsistence-based economies in closed ecosystem markets. Our present financial crisis is like no other, and microfinance is far more connected now. Although microfinance still has deep shock-resistant roots, there will be impact—both on the institutions and the clients they serve. The medium and longer term effects of a global recession are likely to be punishing to poor people.

Low-income people in many places already have been suffering from high food and fuel prices. A recent CGAP survey of MFIs revealed that many clients were withdrawing savings, cutting back on nonfood expenses and in some cases struggling with repayment. While prices have come down in recent months, inflation is poised to surge. Making matters worse, remittances from the United States and Europe are down sharply. Mexican remittances from the United States are slowing significantly, and now the same is happening in Europe, Africa corridors, and elsewhere. So, in many places—though not everywhere—clients are feeling serious pressures.

MFIs will likely feel the first effects of the financial market turmoil in sharply curtailed funding. From domestic and international lenders, investors and depositors, money will become more scarce, more conservative, and more costly. Refinancing risk is a serious concern for some institutions.

Many MFIs depend on financing from local and international banks. They face more pressure today than MFIs that have built a deposit base. Some are already seeing their banks withdrawing loan offers, cutting credit lines, or raising rates. Some banks are even asking for loan prepayment and offering to waive prepayment fees. Steep rate increases are being announced—from 250 basis points in Eastern Europe, to 450 basis points for top-tier institutions in South Asia. While the immediate reactions have come from international banks, domestic ones may well pull back too.

A stronger U.S. dollar and steep local currency depreciation in developing countries means the cost of dollar financing for MFIs has increased dramatically. While the dollar may well soften, unhedged principal and interest payments in dollars will be difficult for MFIs to fund in the interim.

A few private equity transactions have closed even in the past few weeks, but these have been in the very deep and heated Indian market. For the most part, we are sensing that most private deals are slowed up and the few planned IPOs are on hold.

Financial pressures on families may lead to less savings and more withdrawals from deposit-taking MFIs. Also, some clients may understandably worry about the safety of their life savings and decide the mattress is safer. In previous banking crises depository MFIs fared well, but we worry that this one is different. Thus far, we have seen only a few isolated deposit runs, and these seem to have been triggered by a combination of factors beyond the crisis. But we worry about how rumors could shake confidence even amongst microfinance clients in today’s globally connected and wired world.

NOTES: this article is really interesting because it explains the damage being done to businesses which are trying to help and save people all over the world. This economic downfall is lowering MFI's income becuase banks and partners can no longer loan money that a micro finance firm would distribute to get poor people a chance at living; usually, third world countries.

The Recessions effect on Religion

For my topic I chose to research the effect of religion during the recession.

Here is an article that I found about my topic:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090928/ap_on_bi_ge/us_rel_meltdown_religion

Impact on the Entertainment Buisness

As of now, this is my topic. I found an overall article on how the crisis is affecting this buisness. Its here.

Women in the Recession

http://www.docuticker.com/?p=28082

This article is very interesting because it is saying that women are re-considering having children until later, or not at all. This could be the opposite of a baby boomer. I wonder what will happen.

Banks too big?

This article is about a British banking regulator who believes that the banking industry is too big for its purpose: serving customers. Instead, banks just "push money around" and enrich themselves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/business/global/24turner.html?_r=1&hp

Unemployment Article

This Article talks about why the unemployment rate is so high and the history of employment issues in this country.

Homework 9/23 The Free Market (Con't)

I feel that we did not get through the entire article on Tuesday so tomorrow I would like to continue the discussion on Free Market economy. Here is a rather interesting take on this economic theory. And this article and this one from the same source are very interesting as well. Please look over this information for Thursday. The first site is really just for grazing and the other two are very short.

You also need to decide on a particle aspect of the current financial recession that you would like to investigate further. This topic should be something that you are particularly interested in researching. You will become our "resident expert" on this topic and will use your research to keep the rest of the class aware of current events happening in your subject. Possible topics include:

the credit crunch
government financial institutions (e.g. the Treasury Dept, SEC, Federal Reserve System)
international financial institutions (the World Bank, IMF)
Wall Street practices
Wall Street firms
Banking Crisis
government response (TARP, bailouts)
impact on Main Street
Unemployment
impact on various professions (retail, housing/construction, sports/entertainment, advertising, etc.)
economic theory (free market, regulation, planned economies)

Remember that I will not be in class on Friday and we have a holiday on Monday. By Tuesday you need to have chosen a topic and begun your research. You are required to have at least one blog post on your topic by Thursday 10/1. Please email me as soon as you have your topic.

P.S. I'm sorry that this is so late in the evening. I'm afraid some of you may not see this before class Thursday. Please, as always, do what you can. And some of you have not yet posted articles and/or the required number of comment. Now would be a good time to do so. This is part of your grade.

British Parliament

Last Friday we discussed British Parliament and I though I'd share what it may actually look like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsAa9VmwOaI

My articles

This first article is from the New York Times website. It's a very specific article concerning the industrial banks in Utah and how they are fighting against more regulation from the government and the government is saying that they are an unnecessary risk to our economy. It is a relatively long article.

My second article is much shorter and is about how the self employed are the happiest people in America. The article lists a series of occupations and show how they rank according to the Gallup-Heathways Well-Being index. If you click on the second link it will take you to their main website where the article is a bit longer and has other polls as well.

This Made me Laugh SO Hard...

Ok. So I know a lot of this footage has been circulating, but this is an amazing clip of the 9/12 "Tea Party" in DC. Its here.

Its not immediately relating to our topic, but I think its important to realize how ignorant some citizens are of what is actually going on with the economy, and especially right now the health care plan.

I don't know weather to laugh or cry.

Emily Watson

Recession Humor?

I-Panic

Videos Today

Here is a link to the animated video we watched today. And here is a link to the two men discussing the crisis. It is British humor so sometimes it is difficult to follow...

Homework 9/21 The Free Market

This article is from the website Investopedia which is produced by the business magazine Forbes. Please read the article for homework and post a comment for discussion in tomorrow's class. You should note that this site includes a section on Economic Basics and a Dictionary that are very helpful in explaining complex terms and concepts.

Jocelyn Cole HW

Here is my first article:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/u/united_states_economy/index.html
It is about the overall US economy. It gives a good understanding of the economy and what is happening and what happened.

Here is my second article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-laracy/new-poll-shows-americans_b_291317.html
This article is more about what is happening to Americans and how they are being affected from the recession. It also talks about the governments involvement in the economy and what the people want and expect of the government.

Cholena Smith Recession Articles

http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/25/news/economy/recovery_unemployment_jobs.fortune/index.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/business/economy/16bernanke.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=FEd%20Chief%20Says%20REcession%20Is%20%22Very%20likely%20Over%22&st=cse

victoria de lesseps

second article:

website. http://www.nydailynews.com/money/investing/2009/09/15/2009-09-15_bam_speaks_street_shrugs.html

notes: This article is interesting because it shows wall streets lack of participation in trying to regulate health care prices. Also how people on Wall Street believe they can stop a consumer America but that’s because they want the support of banks. Wall street seems to only be looking at the money not the people.

here the webstie= http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/show/3423

articles:

U.S. to Hit Debt Ceiling- Again

Published 09/17/09 Dustin Ensinger - Print Article
E-mail - editor@economyincisis.org

Sometime after the battle over health care reform is over, for the 90th time in the past 69 years lawmakers are set to engage in another contentious debate, this one with a foregone conclusion.

This fall, lawmakers will once again increase the national debt ceiling. The debate will be highly partisan, but the outcome will assuredly be that the U.S will raise its credit limit by about $1 trillion.

At $12.1 trillion, the national debt ceiling was just $349 billion away from being topped after unprecedented intervention into the financial markets that included $700 billion in bailouts and a $787 billion stimulus package.

On August 7, the U.S. Treasury Department sent a letter to lawmakers warning them that another vote to raise the national debt ceiling was imminent. Since that time, the economy has improved somewhat. Lawmakers are hoping that this will allow them to put the vote off until later in the year and provide them with some political cover.

"We're getting some signals that the economy is perking up a little bit so that we don't have to face (debt limit legislation) until maybe November," Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus(D-MT) said, according to the ,Associated Press.

Still, the vote is certain to be one fuel of political bomb-throwing. As is typically the case, the party out of power will almost uniformly oppose any debt increase, calling it an undue burden placed on future generations.

Even so, lawmakers have little choice but to go ahead with the debt increase. Without it, the U.S. Treasury Department would be unable to pay the holders of securities when they came due, meaning that the U.S. would essentially default on its debt obligations.

If that were to happen, it would send shockwaves through the world’s economies .

"Our credit as a nation would plummet immediately and throw the world economy into a depression," Charles Konigsberg, chief budget counsel for The Concord Coalition, a deficit watchdog group, toldCNNMoney.com.

The debate and ensuing vote could, however, have major implications for President Barack Obama’s domestic agenda that includes a nearly $1 trillion health care reform package, cap-and-trade legislation and other forms of expanded federal spending. In addition, the current White House budget projections estimate a budget deficit of $9 trillion over the next decade.

“Passing a trillion-dollar health-care bill on top of a trillion dollar deficit won’t convince Americans that Congress is serious about reining in spending, and it won’t put our fiscal house in order,” Senate Minority Whip John Kyl wrote in theNational Ledger.

notes: this is interesting because it talks about raising the national debt and how that would be the only way to help the market. and the health care base been reformed over 80 times in less than 70 years. and without this raise of national debt america would not be able to measure up to its "debt obligations".