Friday, February 22, 2008

A fix for our falling savings rate? (2:38 pm)

To some extent, I agree with Dalton Conely’s op-ed. America’s falling savings rate is a big problem, and one that has roots in our consumer culture as well as in our economic decision making. But this passage seems fundamentally wrong to me.

The last time the savings rate dipped into the red was during the Great Depression. At that time, of course, it made sense not to save. Joblessness was high and money scarce; we needed to dip into our kitty to survive. But our negative savings during the Bush boom had a different cause. Evidently, we felt so flush with (paper) gains in the stock and housing markets that we spent money as if there were no tomorrow.

The most enduring characteristic of the “Bush boom” has been soaring inequality, a macro-trend that often inhibits broad saving. For the wealthy, there is flexibility to spend more income than they have historically. Their nest egg is set, and you can only save so much, so why not buy a luxury car? For the rest, it’s virtually impossible to save when health care, housing, transportation, education and food costs are soaring and incomes are falling. People aren’t spending as if there was no tomorrow; they are spending so they can get to tomorrow.

The working and middle class will save when their wages allow them to. Instead of tinkering around the edges, why don’t we rebuild the safety net and redistribute some of that wealth that’s being wasted up top?

posted by Adam Doster | start the discussion

Viva Obama! (2:14 pm)

Yesterday, Hooman Majd made the case that an Obama presidency would immeasurably heal America’s reputation in the Muslim world.

Rather, a President Obama will likely engage the world in the way it should be engaged — with respect, understanding and a clear sense of purpose. He will be, at the very least, a symbol of what can restore greatness to America — a greatness that millions of people outside America want to believe in, but have up until now had difficulty reconciling with the facts.

Litttle did he know that Obama’s global support is booming in this hemisphere, too. Witness: Viva Obama!

posted by Adam Doster | 1 comment

Friday prison injustice blogging (2:02 pm)

1) Mississippi’s forensics department is f-ed.

2) Bush’s choice for Tennessee’s federal trial court judge is general counsel for the nation’s largest private prison corporation. So everybody sentenced is a potential profit-maker for his former employer. And he’s not even qualified.

posted by Adam Doster | start the discussion

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Tuition break in the Bay (3:02 pm)

In a time of economic recession, outlandish gas prices, and a national rising deficit our children’s children will be paying off, the last thing college or high school students should be worrying about is an annually growing tuition fee. An arm and a leg of college debt has become a standard amongst students today of all races and socio-economic classes. However, it does seem like there is a light at the end of a dismal tunnel.

Stanford University today announced a big boost in financial aid that would give free tuition to most undergraduates from families that earn less than $100,000 a year and a complete package of tuition, room and board to those whose household incomes are less than $60,000.

Although Stanford’s acceptance rate is diminutive, especially for out of state students, one can’t deny the domino effect after Yale, Harvard, and Ponoma’s lead in the cheaper cost of higher education. When lower to middle class families can depend on a free or even a discounted education, hopefully students can move past a day where they are knee-high in debt before they even receive their diploma.

Maybe it won’t be a stifling $100,000 a year to send my kids to college after all…

By Suzanne Block

posted by Intern | start the discussion

Marching to vote (1:01 pm)

Give it up for the 1,000 students at Prairie View A&M, an HBCU in Texas, who marched over seven miles to the polls on Tuesday to protest the lack of an early voting location on their campus.

Freshman Brittney Veasey, who was voting for the first time, said she took the 2 1/2 -hour journey because she believes her vote will make a difference. “I feel like we’re making history today,” she said. “Instead of making it inconvenient, students should be encouraged to vote.”

This isn’t the first instance of student voter disenfranchisement at the university, either.

Perhaps the most blatant attempt to intimidate young voters took place at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. The school is the last place one would expect a battle over voting rights: Twenty-five years ago, when black students at A&M were denied the vote by white county officials, the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling affirming that students can cast ballots where they go to school. But in November, District Attorney Oliver Kitzman published an open letter in a local newspaper accusing unnamed citizens of “feigned residency.” Kitzman warned that any “illegal voting” would lead to a ten-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine.

For more on this problem and what students are doing to fight back, you can read my piece for TAP here.

posted by Adam Doster | start the discussion

Obama isn’t Muslim, he’s a Commie! (12:59 pm)

Hey National Review? What year is it?

And yet, all of my mixed race, black/white classmates throughout my youth, some of whom I am still in contact with, were the product of very culturally specific unions. They were always the offspring of a white mother, (in my circles, she was usually Jewish, but elsewhere not necessarily) and usually a highly educated black father. And how had these two come together at a time when it was neither natural nor easy for such relationships to flourish? Always through politics. No, not the young Republicans. Usually the Communist Youth League. Or maybe a different arm of the CPUSA. But, for a white woman to marry a black man in 1958, or 60, there was almost inevitably a connection to explicit Communist politics.

H/t MoJo.

posted by Adam Doster | 1 comment

Lunchtime links (12:34 pm)

1) The perils facing Chicago print media, although Rosenberg should be criticized for not mentioning one thriving rag.

2) Not surprisingly, the Gitmo trials are rigged, or so reports the Nation.

3) Maybe voters are nervous about the economy because real hourly and weekly earnings for most workers are falling.

posted by Adam Doster | 1 comment

McCain’s weak Pakistan claims (10:55 am)

McCain also levied a weak critique of Obama during his victory speech last night.

Or will we risk the confused leadership of an inexperienced candidate who once suggested invading our ally, Pakistan, and sitting down without pre-conditions or clear purpose with enemies who support terrorists and are intent on destabilizing the world by acquiring nuclear weapons?

Why weak? Well, it just ain’t true. This from Joe Klein.

I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an Al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.

If you want more info, read about it here, here, and here.