Why light bulbs and windows? “Because these are things the Han had; we lived in primitive dwellings,” he recalled. “I think that’s when many Uighurs opened their eyes and saw what was happening around them.”

via The Saturday Profile – A Uighur Intellectual Who Won’t Back Down in China – Biography – NYTimes.com.

Ultimatley this is what happens. Whether it is national or global those without will start to foster animosity for those who have and those taking wealth from those without. Look at what happens in Africa and Latin America we take their resources but do we give enough back?

In an email the president sent out today he talked about the loss of the livelihoods that people are enduring.

“Terry Vegas had a similar story. He quit the 8th grade to become a shrimper with his grandfather. Ever since, he’s earned his living during shrimping season — working long, grueling days so that he could earn enough money to support himself year round. But today, the waters where he has worked are closed. And every day, as the spill worsens, he loses hope that he will be able to return to the life he built.”

If we can bail out the banks we can surely bail out these people.

Jason Gooljar
Sent from the iPhone

Posted via email from Jason’s posterous

Well, if this isn’t obvious I don’t know what is.

The African credentials of the event have also been called into question after it became clear that Fifa’s ultra-secure internet ticketing system had left most of the continent unable to buy seats. With Visa as a major sponsor, Fifa kept ticket sales online until 15 April when poor sales forced them to open ticketing booths in the host country. As a result, only 11,000 African fans outside South Africa have purchased tickets, even though a record six African teams – the hosts, as well as Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria and Algeria – have qualified. Local organising committee chairman Danny Jordaan admits the African sales have been a disappointment. “Tickets sold best in countries like the United States, where internet penetration is the highest. Yet we know that African fans often do not have credit cards and access to the internet, and they prefer to hand over their cash and get their ticket. It is a lesson for the future.”

The article says that there will be a noticeable help to the economy from the World Cup, but is it enough? Was it worth it? A columnist had this to say about the money the South African government has spend on the host cities for the WC.

He claims that the £4bn spent by the government on infrastructure development in the nine host cities should have been used to create sustainable jobs in industry.

I recall hearing something similar about Chicago when it was a candidate city for the 2016 Olympic games.

With huge bills about to hit corporations and the federal government around the same time, the worry is that some companies will have trouble getting new loans, spurring defaults and a wave of bankruptcies.

The United States government alone will need to borrow nearly $2 trillion in 2012, to bridge the projected budget deficit for that year and to refinance existing debt.

Indeed, worries about the growth of national, or sovereign, debt prompted Moody’s Investors Service to warn on Monday that the United States and other Western nations were moving “substantially” closer to losing their top-notch Aaa credit ratings.

via Payback Time – Avalanche of Maturing Junk Bonds Looms for Markets – NYTimes.com.

This may actually makes the subprime loan debacle look timid. What’s sad is that this will be used by conservatives to promote belt-tightening by the federal government. Where were they during the eight years of the Bush administration and the Iraq war?

I suppose some measures will have to be taken to stop the federal deficit from increasing. Hopefully, the Congress and the White House will not first go to cutting social programs to the bone and look at other things that could possibly be cut back on.

As for corporations whose bonds are set to mature if they can’t raise new capital or even default on their debt, can we continue to bail them out? I would say that this is not likely. Their days of getting corporate welfare seem to be numbered. We’re going to have to rethink the entire economy of the United States. Hopefully we’ll move from the neo-liberal, free market, Friedmanesque ideology to something more democratic.

Well the United States is calling on China to let it’s currency appreciate in value. For years it has been well known that China keeps its currency low to boost their exports to the United States and other countries. Yet when you’re in debt by an enormous amount to China this puts you in a predicament.

“In the press conference last year, I said I was a bit concerned about it,” he said. “This year, I make the same remark. I am still concerned. I hope the U.S. will take concrete measures to assure its investors.”

China makes a fair case that the United States should get its own house in order before lashing out at them. Why during the Bush years did that administration take a budget surplus and run us into the ground? Also, what about the trade deficit we face? Now all of a sudden Republicans and conservatives want to become “fiscally responsible” but they are feckless and have no clothes on. Furthermore, I’m for balancing budgets and equalizing trade deficits, but not on the backs of people. So first we need to fix the mess we’re in then you can look outward.

At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year.

But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid. Critics say many schools exaggerate the value of their degree programs, selling young people on dreams of middle-class wages while setting them up for default on untenable debts, low-wage work and a struggle to avoid poverty. And the schools are harvesting growing federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants awarded to low-income students.

“If these programs keep growing, you’re going to wind up with more and more students who are graduating and can’t find meaningful employment,” said Rafael I. Pardo, a professor at Seattle University School of Law and an expert on educational finance. “They can’t generate income needed to pay back their loans, and they’re going to end up in financial distress.”

via The New Poor – For-Profit Schools Cashing In on Recession and Federal Aid – NYTimes.com.

I went to a two-year private business school and I’m still in debt. I have an Associate’s Degree in Multimedia Development and Management. I went to school at night while I worked in the retail and retail banking wage slave industries in the daytime.

When I finished school in 2002 I was one of the people who thought, finally I could leave the bank I was working at and do something more in line with what I wanted to do. It turns out I did not get anywhere for two more years. I was stuck working as a bank teller. I would apply for jobs all the time but you could not get anywhere. People have forgotten that the economy then was similar to what it is now. Sure the housing bubble had not burst yet, but there were many people hurting, especially in New York. I do feel the aftermath of 9/11 had something to do with the economy then, but it wasn’t the only thing wrong with the economy.

Eventually, I took back up something that had really interested me in high school and that was politics and government. I became a local activist and volunteer in my off time from my job. Eventually I got sick of sales and banking and corporations and I did something that only a 25 year old still living with a parent in 2004 could do — I quit. I had some money saved that would probably last me a few months and I was going to make sure that I did something I wanted to do from now on.

I was lucky to hop on to a couple of local political campaigns as a paid staffer and do some field work. In 2005 I searched for opportunities and did some part time work. Then in 2006 I went to a training in DC for young political people who they were going to teach online organizing. Since I had the tech background from my Associate’s Degree and I had a little political experience this was a welcome turn of events.

Through the connections I made there in 2006 I am where I want to be today. The funny thing is I’m now applying what I learned in school but to help a good cause in the non-profit world. If I had tried to get into the web design/graphic design world on my own I would have probably still been stuck. It was through becoming an activist that I was able to get where I am now working in DC.

In the end the business school I went to still has my diploma and transcript because I owe them money. For the first time ever I’ve started to save money and hopefully I will be able to pay them off. Then with my transcript and diploma in hand I will be in a better position to see what educational opportunities are out there for me. I’d like to take up something in the public policy area.

I could seek scholarships and/or financial aid. I really don’t think highly of student loans anymore. The only good thing about the federal loan I have is that you can pay as little as $50 a month and it can go back into deferment if you go back to school (at least I think it’s still that way). In any case I’d much rather have a federal loan than a private loan.

This article in the NY Times is very informative. It is true that there are now tons of private schools selling themselves as the solution to putting people to work in a trade or etc. They cost way too much to attend and it is the low-income to moderate income people that suffer. In a way it is privatization at its worst. We should be investing more in our community colleges and state universities. We cannot forget that they too can be expensive for people.

Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.

The New Poor – Despite Signs of Recovery, Long-Term Unemployment Rises – Series – NYTimes.com

Even during the Bush years when we often heard that the economy was strong, we knew that something was not right. It never seemed to trickle down to the level where it mattered the most. The GDP was up but many of our neighbors were down. The article calls them the new poor but as we all know in times of economic down turn it is the already poor who suffer even more.

I’ve always found it sad that banks will prey on the poor with sub prime mortgages and even underwrite pay day lenders. Yet they will not open up branches in areas that desperately need it. It’s the same thing with actual grocery stores. Many lower income areas suffer from the lack of  this essential business as well.

State Senator Jeffrey D. Klein, who represents the area, said Van Nest’s banking problem is one reason the business community is less vibrant than neighboring Morris Park’s, which can boast of several bank branches.

“I don’t think you can have a thriving business community without a bank in the area,” Mr. Klein said. “They really need a bank to serve as the anchor for the community.”

I like reading Robert Reich. I’ve read two of his books and when he writes a column I tend to read it. As far as economic writers go I like him and Robert Kuttner. Of course there are others like Barbara Ehrenreich that I like as well, but I digress.

Reading Reich’s piece in Huffington Post he states that there is a forty percent likelihood of a jobless recovery.

Jobless recovery (40 percent). The stimulus remains in full force, the Fed keeps interest rates low, firms replace inventories and expand production. But with the average workweek hovering around 33 hours, employers don’t add new jobs; they just have current workers put in more hours. Result: No drop in unemployment.

The most startling development for the anti-usury campaign is the endorsement from the CEO of Citigroup, Vikram Pandit. Like other leading banks, Citi has been kicking up its credit-card rates as high as 30 percent, even as Citi is kept afloat with billions from the taxpayers. Nonetheless, Pandit told editorial writers at the Boston Globe he would support a legal ceiling on interest rates if it is applied industry-wide. “Were completely in support of having a rational rate structure.” Pandit said.

The Citigroup executive did not endorse a specific ceiling, but cited the example of the 10 percent credit cards his bank introduced several years ago, believing other banks would follow and lower their rates too when they didnt, Citi lost money in the venture. The Globes exchange with Pandit was most likely inspired by news stories about the anti-usury actions in Boston.

via Stop Usury Now.

This is a most interesting concept. It would ensure that repayment was more feasible for a larger group of people. When you let interest rates skyrocket the defaults are bound to follow.