In the News - Gas Prices

Yasim's presentation today was about the falling gas pricesd and what we can expect to see in the upcoming years. I don't see gas prices going up much in the next 6 months, only because demand will stay low due to businesses having less business gonig on, and consumers cutting back on travel and spending.

I'm not sure the president can do much in the short term to affect gas prices, since any new drilling will not affect the U.S. supply for several years, and he can't directly control much in terms of global demand. In fact, the thing the president is most likely to do is raise gas prices. If the economy improves and people begin working, manufacturing, and such at the same levels previously dnoe, then demand for gas will rise and prices will as well.

The only thing I've always wondered is how gas companies balance the cost it takes to extract gas at times of low demand with the amount they sell it for during periods of high demand. Or the reverse. How can you have abusiness mdoel where the cost of producing the product can be very unrelated to the cost it sells for?

In the News - Poverty

Isabella's presentation today reminds us that the luxuries we live with every day (eklectricity, air conditioning, health services) are not available to a large percentage of the world's population. Even the things we would think of as necessities (food, water, shelter) are not available to many. Child poverty is perhaps the most troublesome aspect of this situation.

Some theorists might point out that capitalism is based on paying people less than their labor is worth, and that competition among companies will result in paying the least possible to workers. It's not realisitc to blame individual people, as a country's lack of infrasaructure, resources, opportunity, or political stability is much more likely an immediate cause than a person's industry or ability. When you're fighting to survive, it's hard to blame someone for not getting an education.

Writers of the book _Empire_ call this the "problem of the serf"--that many of today's political movements appeal to people who have much more freedom to make political decisions and have control over their lives. Asking the poor to participate in political action is often a greater burden for those who have no stability elsewhere in their lives.

In the News - GM and Other Bailouts

Amelia's presentation today dealt with the (further) bailout of U.S. auto companies such as GM. The U.S. auto industry is in bad shape, hemorrhaging jobs and money in what the article Amelia discussed calls a "downwaard spiral." But since 1 in 10 jobs in the U.S. is part of the auto industry, the loss of any of the major automakers in the U.S. would have a major impact on the economy. The phrase "too big to fail" definitely applies to this feild, just as it applies to the banking industry.

Do these failures and the catastrophic effects they can have on our economy mean that we should be encouraging more small businesses? By doing so, we would lose the economy of scale that huge companies depend on, which brings consumers lower prices based on the efficiencies of being so big. But failures in such large companies mean that people can mismange these companies without fear that their company will be allowed to go bankrupt.

On the radio today, I even heard that some investors in China are saying that the U.S. should provide direct aid to Chinese businesses that have been hit by the now global recession. Since China owns so much of our debt, you might say that stabilizing the market is already helping them. But we may be approaching an era where people want the U.S., not so much as the global police force, but as the global relief organization. Perhaps saving the U.S. economy is the best thing we can do for all countries.

In the News - Steroids in Baseball

Ryan's In the News presentation today covered Jose Canseco's problems with steroid use in baseball and the actions he took that exposed other player's use of these drugs. I imagine that book publishers pushed Canseco to produce a tell-all book that would intrigue readers and cause a stir. If he headn't named names, it's unlikely the book would have been as successful or generated as much interest. So, while Canseco may have regretted such revelations, the balem for it may lie with the publisher, the econmoics of the publishing indiustry, and the desires of the reading public, and not just Canseco's desire for revenge.

I would say that American sports istarnished by drug use, but not irreparably. One could say that professionalization started the conditions by whcih players and teams would do things such as use performance-enhancing drugs. With the big salaries, the pressure to perform, and the public's demand for more records broken, you might say that baseball needed performance-enhancing drugs. No one really gets excited over amateur sports; but you also don't find steroids there either. How many fans of baseball play baseball? Maybe if sports were more participatory and less professional, we'd have less demand to have such high levels of performance.

IN the News - Job Loss in the U.S.

Greg's presentation today dealt with job loss in the U.S. Unemployment has been climbing, especially following the economic crisis of the last few months. It seems the government is bailing out larger companies, like banks, that directly affect the ability of other companies to pay their workers and stay afloat through loans. this may seem a bit unfair, as these companies at top, many of whom engaged in risky investing behavior, do not seem to be bearing the brunt of the economic downfall. Even those companies benefitting from government bailouts are cutting back workers, and those not benefitting are doing so or are planning to do so. the spiral efefcts of job loss will impact the whole consumer arena--people with less money to spend will buy less, causing other companies to scale back their workforce and so on. I'm not sure there are any recession-proof industries, although energy and food and other necessities can not disappear. I've heard that certain companies that cater to bargain-hungry consumers, like McDonald's and Walmart, have actually posted some gains. So, choosing who you work for is more important than ever.

One grammatical issue. Phrases like "drop in unemployment" seem like a double negative, since we assoicate a drop with a decrease and, combined with un, this phrase might suggest that we are actually seeing a rise in employment. the employment numbers are indeed dropping, but for unemployment to drop, should employment have to rise?

In the News - Obama's Acceptance Speech

In Renae's presentation today, she discussed Obama's presentation of change in his acceptance speech Tuesday night. He made sure that people knew that change did not end with his election, but that his election was only the marker of the opportunity to change. This seems like a message that Obama will need to keep reiterating, since it is far too easy for people to become complacent and expect others to make change happen. Voting is a decent example of civic duty, but it only happens periodicially. To change the country, Obama will emphasize the need to make change a daily struggle, to sacrifice rather than sit back and watch.

One big question is the degree to which Republicans will support or sandbag upcoming initiatives. They still have the numbers to filibuster the Senate (which is not a bad thing, necessarily). But Obama saying he wants to work in a bipartisan fashion only really works if both sides agree to do so. It looks like Obama is going to appoint cabinet members from both parties, and make some effort to court Republican leadership. Will they accept the invitation or reject it so as not to allow the Democrats to take credit for positive change in the future?

In the News - Voting for Obama

In Lisa Wikner's presentation today, she drew on an article about the recent election looking at the number of people who voted for Obama. It's clear that an increased number of minority voters voted in this election, many of them having voted for Obama. The article doesn't doesn't cover the fact that an increased percentage of white males voted for Obama (compared to the percentage that voted for Bush and Kerry in 2004). So, while there was an increase in minority voters, as the article suggests, there was an increase across all groups, which I think speaks to Obama's broad appeal.

Obama never positioned himself as the "African-American candidate," which was probably a good idea. He didn't need to do so to win minority votes, and doing so could have alienated some white voters. I'm surprised, however, that we continue to think of someone who has parents of different racial backgrounds as either black or white. This smacks of blood quotas and other racist ideas that claimed that one drop of African-American blood meant that you were no longer white.