Home
Nathan Rein's Library tagged → View Popular
Patrice Higonnet: On Harvard's Financial Crisis
Patrice Higonnet excorates Dean Michael Smith (FAS, Harvard), for the University's decision to lay off several hundred employees without bothering to explain or justify that decision to the faculty. "Your report should have two additional paragraphs. I urge you to add them as a footnote to your pages. The first would provide us with a precise figure: it would be a statement regarding the exact amount of money that we secured by inflicting woeful pain on the University's staff, together with your justification of that decision. Had we kept them on, how far now would we be below our current 26 billion mark? A calculation made by exact tenth of one percentage point would be welcome."
-
Your report should have two additional paragraphs. I urge you to add them as a footnote to your pages. The first would provide us with a precise figure: it would be a statement regarding the exact amount of money that we secured by inflicting woeful pain on the University's staff, together with your justification of that decision. Had we kept them on, how far now would we be below our current 26 billion mark? A calculation made by exact tenth of one percentage point would be welcome.
Frank Rich, "Even Glenn Beck Is Right Twice a Day," The New York Times (Sept. 19, 2009)
Frank Rich on why Democrats should be paying attention to Glenn Beck. This is actually a really good opinion piece.
Working Class Zero - Timothy Egan Blog - NYTimes.com
From the article: "For average Americans, the last 10 years were a lost decade. At the end of President George W. Bush’s eight years in office, American households had less money and less economic security, and fewer of them were covered by health care than 10 years earlier, the Census Bureau reported in its annual survey.... [T]he decline started before the collapse in the housing and financial sectors — and it was calculated, in the eyes of some. Harvard economist Lawrence Katz called it “a plutocratic boom.” If anything comes close to defining the era, that would be my nomination. President Bush cut $1.3 trillion in taxes — and the biggest beneficiaries by far were the top 1 percent of earners. At the same time, Wall Street was inflated by the helium of a regulation-free economy that eventually gave us Bernie Madoff and banks begging for bailouts."
Down, but not out, in the Motor City - The Globe and Mail
A rather sobering piece about the condition of Detroit. The mayor claims they have about sixty days before the city government will go into receivership and basically shut down.
Reed College, in Need, Closes a Door to Needy Students - NYTimes.com
A profile of Reed College during hard times: their endowment has lost 25% of its value, and demand for financial aid has skyrocketed, with the result that they have had to drop their full-need financial aid policy.
Edmund Andrews, "My Personal Credit Crisis," New York Times (May 14, 2009)
One man's personal experience with subprime mortgage and financial collapse. It's pretty frightening.
David Kamp, "Rethinking the American Dream," Vanity Fair (April 2009)
http://www.webcitation.org/5gVUwZkBr
Michael Brooks, " Born believers: How your brain creates God," New Scientist (Feb. 4, 2009)
Webcite: webcitation.org/5gG8xKWyu
Layoffs are driving change among the Amish - Los Angeles Times
Due to widespread layoffs and the growing impossibility of making a living by farming, Amish leaders are reconsidering allowing members to accept unemployment benefits. Consequences for the community are wide-ranging. "The job situation is dire enough that Larry Herschberger, a 27-year-old Amish man let go last May by RV builder Jayco Inc., went a step beyond receiving unemployment. He began worshiping as a Mennonite, a denomination that allows its followers to drive cars. That decision, as well as one to purchase a 1999 Chevy Tahoe, frustrated his family and in-laws.... 'If I got to make a living, I've got to drive,' he said."
John Strassburger, "Restore high ideals to learning (Op-Ed)," Philadelphia Inquirer (Jan. 16, 2009)
An op-ed by John Strassburger, the president of Ursinus (the college where I work). A fairly broad and provocative statement about the purpose of higher education and, in particular, about its relevance in the current economic climate.
The Crisis of Credit Visualized on Vimeo
Very cool visualization of the factors leading up to the current financial meltdown. The video is part of a project on communicating complex ideas using new media, done by Jonathan Jarvis, a design student at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
Tomgram: Nick Turse, Closing Down Main Street
TomDispatch's Nick Turse on the plummeting fortunes of small towns across the U.S. It's a very, very depressing read. Thank you to Bufflehead Cabin for pointing me to this bummer-fest (http://sn.im/cgukx).
Cindy Jacobs: Prayer Needed for Global Economies
Description of prayers that God will intercede to assist the NYSE and the Fed. Cindy Jacobs says, "We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the 'Lion’s Market,' or God’s control over the economic systems." Seen on Alison Shaffer's Facebook page.
-
Add Sticky Note
For these and other reasons Cindy is calling for a Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies on Wednesday, October 29, 2008. They are calling for prayer for the stock markets, banks, and financial institutions of the world on the date the stock market crashed in 1929. They are meeting at the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank, and its 12 principal branches around the US that day.
“We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the 'Lion’s Market,' or God’s control over the economic systems,” she said. “While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble.”
- Wow... - on 2008-10-31
Selected Tags
Related Tags
Top Contributors
Groups interested in financia...
-
Higher Ed and the Economy
Articles about the impact o...
Items: 91 | Visits: 3
Created by: Kay Cunningham
Diigo is about better ways to research, share and collaborate on information. Learn more »
Join Diigo