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Home/ Fall 2012 Challenges Assignment/ Contents contributed and discussions participated by A SN

Contents contributed and discussions participated by A SN

A SN

Tom Thorne's ejournal: Economic stagnation in US means whoever wins the US Presidential... - 1 views

  • The real threat to Canada is not who is in the White House but what they do about the mounting US Government debt now at $16 Trillion plus. To this point there is no will apparent to cooperate for a solution.
  • The real threat to Canada is not who is in the White House but what they do about the mounting US Government debt now at $16 Trillion plus. To this point there is no will apparent to cooperate for a solution.
  • The real threat to Canada is not who is in the White House but what they do about the mounting US Government debt now at $16 Trillion plus. To this point there is no will apparent to cooperate for a solution.
    • A SN
       
      Represents the real threat to Canada; USA's economic stagnation
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • The real threat to Canada is not who is in the White House but what they do about the mounting US Government debt now at $16 Trillion plus. To this point there is no will apparent to cooperate for a solution.
  • If the US literally prints its way out of its economic mess, the mess will be compounded. 
    • A SN
       
      Problems caused by overprinting money
  • Such an action is guaranteed to create inflation and a rise in interest rates charged to service the debt and also generally for business and lenders of all kinds.
  • Lenders will want more interest to cover the risk of carrying US Government debt loads expressed in diluted valued bonds and currency.
    • A SN
       
      The proves that the USA is in really bad debt.
  • Serious debt reduction is needed in the US Congress and Administration.  And there is very little wiggle room to cut US government expenditures. However failure to do so will mean in the middle range of time that the US will become more and more an economic lightweight and hence its world presence will be diminished. That is bad for Canada.
    • A SN
       
      If USA falls into a deeper economic stagnation Canada will be widely affected.
  • The US is making itself militarily and financially vulnerable. Canada, no matter how well we manage our financial affairs, will be forced into the same situation as our major trading partner.
    • A SN
       
      The US is losing it influence throughout the world. This is a problem.
  • It will be tougher for Canada to retain our natural resources.  Potential deals like the Chinese State taking over Nexen in our oil sands, will become more likely if we want to maintain our own economic performance independent of a financially errant US.
    • A SN
       
      problems caused by USA economic stagnation.
  • It really is time for the United States Government and its politicians to bite the economic bullet. Failure to do so means a downsizing of the United State’s influence on the world stage and that can only mean that Canada will need a more independent economic policy as China grows in influence. In short the lack of action on the economic front by our major trading partner is taking us more to Europe and into the arms of the Chinese Government’s hegemony.
    • A SN
       
      The consequences if the USA does not change.
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    Questions: 1. Do you think that eventually Canada will have no choice but to sell its natural resources to the other world powers? Can this be a good change? 2. Canada and the USA share a lot of history and do a lot of activities together, do you think that being financially independent will make us rely less on the US ?
A SN

The Wrong Inequality - NYTimes.com - 2 views

  • Blue Inequality
    • A SN
       
      One type of inequality.
  • Red Inequality
  • It’s between those with a college degree and those without.
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  • Roughly 31 percent started or manage nonfinancial businesses. About 16 percent are doctors, 14 percent are in finance, 8 percent are lawyers, 5 percent are engineers and about 2 percent are in sports, entertainment or the media.
  • people similar to yourself, who may have gone to the same college, who are earning much more while benefiting from low tax rates, wielding disproportionate political power, gaining in prestige and contributing seemingly little to the social good.
  • New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Houston and the District of Columbia.
  • Moreover, college graduates have become good at passing down advantages to their children. If you are born with parents who are college graduates, your odds of getting through college are excellent. If you are born to high school grads, your odds are terrible.
  • more likely to get married, they are much less likely to get divorced and they are much, much less likely to have a child out of wedlock. Today, college grads are much less likely to smoke than high school grads, they are less likely to be obese, they are more likely to be active in their communities, they have much more social trust, they speak many more words to their children at home.
  • But the fact is that Red Inequality is much more important. The zooming wealth of the top 1 percent is a problem, but it’s not nearly as big a problem as the tens of millions of Americans who have dropped out of high school or college. It’s not nearly as big a problem as the 40 percent of children who are born out of wedlock. It’s not nearly as big a problem as the nation’s stagnant human capital, its stagnant social mobility and the disorganized social fabric for the bottom 50 percent.
  • That’s because the protesters and media people who cover them tend to live in or near the big cities, where the top 1 percent is so evident
  • If your ultimate goal is to reduce inequality, then you should be furious at the doctors, bankers and C.E.O.’s. If your goal is to expand opportunity, then you have a much bigger and different agenda
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    Questions 1. Why does this article relate to economics? Honestly, why should we as economists really care about this matter? 2. Inequality is not only found in America, so how can American inequalities be compared to other inequalities found in the world? (This can include gender, race, geographical location, history, and more)
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