RS The End

I think my quality of work has improved throughout my time in this course and I think that is because some of the economic concepts and ways of thinking we have learned in this course. I am impressed with the improvements I think I have made with my writing and with my way of thinking. I think economic concepts like getting the most out of your resources and other concepts we have learned are applicable in real life and can help me going forward. I am happiest about the work I did with the blog posts and the interview project but I found most of the blog post topics very interesting and I really enjoyed the interview project too. It is much easier to do something and do it well when you are genuinely interested in the topic. I felt that way about a lot of what we did in this class.

Although I was very interested in the subject matter of this course, I felt I could have had a better approach to the tests. I like the format of the tests because you keep what is going to be on the tests a secret, and the emphasis is on us to prepare and do a good job. I think I sometimes took the take home format for granted, especially on the first one, but after that one you gave us some tips and ideas that kind of woke me up a bit. Although I didn't do too bad on them, I could have taken a better approach.

I don't think I can retain all of the ideas learned in this course but I don't think it will be too difficult to retain some of the main ideas we have learned. Money is a popular topic of discussion these days and we are thinking about and interacting with it everyday as we make decisions with it. As long as that is the case I think I will retain some of the things I have learned, because those money decisions will give me the opportunity to put those economic ideas into practice.

I think the way I can become a genius is by taking in as much information about the world as possible, but an important part of that is that you have to learn how to apply it to the world. Its good to know a lot of information about a lot of things, but if you can't do anything with it, then it doesn't have much use to you. I think you can become a genius by learning a lot and by applying what you have learned to the real world.

I really really enjoyed this class and Micro when I took it last year and I think I will be able to retain and use some of the things I have learned in the future.

RS The Interview Project Reaction

I enjoyed this assignment a lot because I am a fan of history and it was very interesting to me to see just how much the way we deal with money has changed over the years. I don't think it has changed too drastically since I have been alive but my mother and grandmother have been alive for much longer than I have and they have been alive to see much more drastic changes.

I liked asking the questions that related to specific events or prices. My grandmother was a little girl when the Great Depression hit, so it was very interesting to listen to her account of that because it was a real life account of one of the most devastating events in our history. It was very cool to hear her say things like, they could go to the movies for a nickel or buy food for a quarter and things like that. I can't believe how different the scale of money was back then.

It was even surprising listening to some of the things my mom said because the scale was much different when she was growing up too. She remembers buying gas for one dollar or so and going to the movies for a few cents. I cant believe how much it has changed since they were growing up but I really enjoyed talking to them and learning their perspectives about the questions we asked.

The way we deal with money has changed so much over the years and also perspectives on society have changed a lot too. I am related to both of the people I interviewed, but our answers didn't always match up and sometimes they were very different. It was interesting to interview these people to hear their take on how far we've come and how we have gotten there. I also think we picked very good questions for this assignment because they covered a lot of details. Overall I really enjoyed this assignment.

RS The Interview Project

The people I interviewed were myself(21), my mom Rosemarie Graziano(56) and my Grandmother Julia Graziano(86)

The government should regulate the economy:

Me: Agree

RG: Agree

JG: Strongly Disagree

Politics has a major influence on the economy:

Me: Agree

RG: Agree

JG: Agree

Everyone should take an economics class in high school:

Me: Agree

RG: Agree

JG: Agree

Banks should be government owned:

Me: Neutral

RG: Disagree

JG: Disagree

The government bailouts worked:

Me: Agree

RG: Neutral

JG: Neutral

Local government should have more control:

Me: Neutral

RG: Disagree

JG: Agree

We should invade Iran:

Me: Strongly Disagree

RG: Strongly Disagree

JG: Disagree

In 6 months the economy will be better than today:

Me: Agree

RG: Agree

JG: Neutral

I am well informed about economic news:

Me: Agree

RG: Neutral

JG: Neutral

The recession personally affected me:

Me: Agree

RG: Agree

JG: Disagree

In your lifetime, what city that you are familiar with has changed the most (both positive and negative)?

Me: My home town and the surrounding towns have changed in my lifetime. I live in Scotch Plains New Jersey and especially since the most recent economic trouble, it has changed because a lot of places and business that I grew up with were forced to change or move over time or because of the recession.

RG: Astoria NY has changed a lot because there are a lot more young people living there then there were in the past because those people work in the city and have found that it is a good place to commute from. Also, the stores and neighborhood atmosphere has become more trendy and modern.

JG: NY City, I live there and it has changed for the positive because I think it has gotten more diverse. I think it is an easier place to live than in the past. Overall it has changed for the positive.

In your opinion, what president had the biggest positive impact on the economy? Why?

Me: I don’t really know a lot about the presidents that have been there since I was alive because for most of the time I never understood the economy but I think it was FDR because the economy has never been worse when it was during the Great Depression and FDR stopped the bleeding and got it turned around and on the upswing again.

RG: I think it would be Clinton because it seemed like there were more people working and the government and industries seemed to be in a better place when he was President.

JG: I think Reagan or Clinton, there were more jobs available and when you have a job the economy seems better. It was much easier for me to get a job then it is for people to find jobs today.

What is your first memory of a major economic event impacting your life?

Me: The only major economic event I have a lot of memories of is the recession of 2008 because I was old enough to experience it and understand what was happening.

RG: The most recent recession has affected our family because it has caused us to keep a closer eye on our savings and we have also lost some money because of the poor market conditions and the bad environment

JG: The Great Depression, I was around 10 years old and I can remember people standing on corners begging for money. A lot of what is shown in movies is pretty real and accurate and people were desperate.

How do you get economic news? How has this changed over your life?

Me: I get economic news mostly through the internet and TV. It has changed throughout my life because our society is much more connected and media savvy these days so news spreads much quicker.

RG: I get the news pretty much the same way I always have, which is from the radio and from the news on TV.

JG: I get it mostly from TV and from the newspaper. It has changed because there wasn’t always the TV so the most consistent source has been the newspaper.

What is your definition of economics (when you hear the word economy or economics what do you think about)?

Me: When I think about economics or the economy I think about the everyday interaction between people in a society and their dealings with money and transactions throughout society.

RG: I think of jobs and the way people spend money and interact with each other. I think a lot about buying and selling and jobs.

JG: I think economics is the management of money, how it is used and spent and what you get from it.

How do you deal will rising prices e.g. substitute cheaper brand, stop buying? Any examples?

Me: Rising prices have definitely caused me to pay more attention to what I am buying and whether or not I need some of the things I am buying. It has also caused me to pay more attention to prices and how to search for good deals when shopping. When shopping for food I search for deals like 2 for 1 or things like that instead of always going for a name brand which is usually more expensive. I definitely pay more attention to these things now that prices have risen recently.

RG: Lately, we are spending less time in local markets and going to wholesale clubs and buying in bulk because there is better value and even though you spend more, you get more for it. Also there are more options and cheaper brands at places like that but the quality is not a problem and it lasts longer so you have to shop less often.

JG: I think it forces me to focus more on buying what you need and not buying as many extravagant things. Also you look for more opportunities to get more value for your money.

What product or service has most changed over your lifetime?

Me: Buying gas has changed a lot and also the movies have changed a lot as well. The price of gas has changed a lot and that industry is always under the microscope these days. The movies have gotten much more expensive in my lifetime and they are also changing the way they do things too because some movie theatres are trying to offer more amenities and food options now, even if they have to charge more for admission.

RG: Gas because it used to be so so cheap and now the prices are out of control, the cost of owning a car in general has increased a lot.

JG: The cost of housing has changed a lot because my apartment used to be $68 a month and the cost of housing is so different now than it was. The value of money has changed a lot.

How do you handle saving and how has this changed?

Me: I keep a close eye on my bank account and smart phone apps and more media options have helped me to do that these days. Whenever I get a paycheck or money from a special occasion I deposit most of it into my account and only carry a little for spending, that way I save most of it and don’t blow it on unnecessary stuff.

RG: Saving has become a lot more complicated because there are so many different ways to save money and back when I was younger there weren’t as many options to put money into

JG: The way we deal with money has changed a lot; there are a lot of different things such as 401Ks, CDs and other options like that. Also, there are more people than ever playing the stock market and when I was younger that seemed like something only the wealthiest people did.

What was the price of gas when you got your first car?

Me: The price of gas when I started driving was around $2 a gallon or a little over, I don’t remember exactly but it was around 3 or 4 years ago so it was before the prices got really out of hand like they are these days.

RG: The cost of a gallon of gas when I first started traveling a lot was $1.25, I got my license in 1973 but I didn’t drive consistently until 1980.

JG: I don’t remember exact prices and I never bought my own gas because I never owned my own car, but I remember the prices being well below $1

What was your wage at your first job?

Me: My wage at my first job was around $7.50 an hour, so right around minimum wage.

RG: At my first full time job at a bank I was making about $98 every 2 weeks. I was working 40 hours a week. 

JG: My wage at my first job was $17 per week; I worked at an insurance company. It was a lot of money to me in that day and overall dealing with money was a completely different world back then.

RS: Your Choice

This podcast talked about a few important economic points. The first thing they explained that interested me was about Country Wide and their tendency to give people and their own employees bad loans. I thought it was really awful how they said that Country Wide used a lot of different tactics to get their employees to agree to bad loans. Another interesting part of this was the part about favorability survey they did. This survey produced pretty alarming favorability numbers for bosses and supervisors. Something that was probably related to those numbers was that Country Wide had an extremely high employee turnover rate, with a lot of employees leaving within a year. I thought it was kind of funny how they compared Country Wide to the Titanic. It was all good at first and then all of a sudden there was a thud and things start to go down.

The other part of this that interested me was the part about the employee ethics hotlines and the story about a few specific employees who used these hotlines and then payed for it afterward because they were either fired or reprimanded because they used it. It is dishonest of these large corporations to have something to make their employees feel safe like that if they are only going to punish them for using it. I know it all about making money for these large corporations but I think they should at least be forward and honest with their employees because it will only benefit them. T

There are things in this podcast that are pretty shocking and damning to large corporations. People these days are becoming more aware of these sorts of things and there are more governing bodies and rules to pay attention to, so if companies are still doing these sorts of things they will have to get their acts together. It is not right that large corporations are doing these sorts of things to their employees but if they continue to, it will only hurt them in the long run.

RS Regulators Mount Up: The Warning

I think this story shows how foolish and careless we were being with our spending. The wall street elites were so confident in what they were doing that they felt they did not even need to consider the proposals and repeated warnings of lesser known players on Wall Street. The elite players and big spenders felt like they could trust without question, the opinions and predictions of people like Alan Greenspan, because he had been around for a while and was pretty successful. However, it was really foolish of them not to look into the warnings of Brooksley Born and her agency.

There were warnings before and after Born arrived to take on OTC derivatives. The OTCs were very complicated and not everyone understood what they were. This was evidenced when Banker's Trust pretty much scammed Proctor and Gamble with them and cost them millions of dollars. After Born starts to take on OTCs, she tries extremely hard to get them regulated and takes on all the heavy hitters of Wall Street and Washington at the time. They tore her apart in the media to try and take away her credibility and was defeated in Washington in her efforts to get OTCs regulated. I thought it was funny that one of the people being interviewed said that most people fighting against her couldn't explain what a derivative was but the powers that be in Washington trusted these people. Instead of just blindly trusting these people, the powers that be in Washington and Wall Street should have done more research because then they might have foreseen the danger that Born did.

After she was shot down it did not take long for her warnings to come true. A powerful hedge fund was melting down due to their use or misuse and lack of knowledge on OTCs. This was what she was warning about because, due to the OTCs and LTCM's position in the market, the whole economy was at risk. Although they were able to save LTCM, the should have acted there and moved to regulate OTCs. The powers that be deemed in an anomaly and the OTCs continued to go unregulated. This left the economy open to danger and financial crisis and that came ten years after the initial scare.

The financial crisis of 2008 was in large part because of the lack of regulation on Wall Street and because of this and Alan Greenspan's stubbornness with policies, the market fell and Greenspan's long standing reputation was disgraced. They should have acted years earlier to stop the inevitable fall but thanks to the cockiness and stubbornness of a few, they did not and we are still paying for it today.

RS Regulators Mount Up: Commanding Heights

I like how this documentary started from a very early point of history and uses the course of time to explain the growth and evolution of economics locally and globally. The beginning saw a lot of growth with the advancement in technologies of communication and transportation. This took the economy to a global scale for the first time. This hard work and advancement was torn apart by WWI where countries took sides and although there was a winner and a loser, world powers were devastated and a new economic system emerged from the rubble. Communism sought to do away with capitalism and brought about a new way of thinking based on a classless social order centered around production. Vladimir Lenin said that this system was based on the "Commanding Heights" of the economy, which was the major industries. Communism was an interesting take on how to operate an economy in the post WWI world but ultimately it did not work out for the countries using it at the time.

I thought an interesting note in this video was the part about hyper inflation in Germany and Austria following the devastation of the war. These countries were forced to pay serious reparations for their involvement in WWI. Because they had to pay these reparations, they printed more money and the result was hyper inflation. This greatly drove down the value of their money and greatly increased the price level. It was ridiculous to hear them say that every day items cost millions and billions of Marks. Since inflation is something we talk about pretty frequently these days, that was really interesting and eye catching to me because that level of inflation is about as extreme as it gets.

A topic that has always been interesting to me has been the time period and the cause of the Great Depression. During the 20s Europe was suffering, but Americans were spending like crazy and treating themselves to lavish items and buying a lot of stock. All of the buying created a bubble and when the bubble burst the crash was unstoppable. The value in everything was gone and people lost their jobs and all of their money, which prevented them from spending or earning money. Unemployment was huge and the government could not do anything to remedy the situation until FDR took over as president and implemented several radical new policies to get people working and earning again. John Maynard Keynes was given a lot of credit for creating a lot of the economic statistics and systems that we use today and for analyzing the crash to educate governments on how to avoid it in the future

It wasn't until WWII came along that the economy jump started again. The need for massive amounts of supplies got the economy going again and got people working, earning and spending again. I think it is funny that a problem that started in the aftermath of a huge war, was solved by the out break of a second great war. It is a part of economics that I will always find interesting because of the way it was able to correct itself.

RS: Not Everything Sucks

These two videos contained very interesting and enlightening facts about our world today and where we're heading for the future and they also were also uplifting and put a positive spin on some of the struggles that we are enduring. They made good points to show that it isn't all bad and that there is a ton of hope for the future. Hans Rosling's video showed where we came from in terms of health and wealth. There has been a slow and steady growth all of the world, some countries faster than others, but now a lot of countries are in a good place and if we continue on the pace we are on, a lot more countries will get there too.

Peter Diamandis' video did a good job of illustrating that, although we are struggling over some of resources right now, there is plenty of hope for the future and that we could very well have an abundance of resources that we are struggling with today. The combination of technology and greater inter connectivity among people throughout the world can eventually lead us to an abundance of resources. A new generation of billions of people is growing and will eventually be connected to the rest of the world. This will help to infuse the global economy with trillions of dollars. Advances in technology will help us with water and energy shortages. New technology has helped us to develop equipment for cheap water purification. Technology like this can be applied all over the world. We are also on track to develop incredibly cheap solar energy. New technology and impending inter connectivity all over the world can help us to get to a place of great accomplishments and to a place where a lot of our concerns about resources are solved.

These videos did a good job of showing us that we have hope for the future and that, although we have problems, we have ways of solving them and moving into a productive new age all over the world.

RS Spring Break

My strongest memory of this class so far is of your teaching style and your concern for us to learn and do well. Your style of teaching keeps the class loose and gives us references that we can relate the topics to. Those types of references help me learn the subject matter better and keeps me invested in what we're learning. Also, I thought it was great that around test time you sent us tips and pointers on how to do well on those tests and other writings that showed tips for learning because those were helpful. Overall my strongest memory of the class has been your teaching style and concern for us as students.

My strongest memory from economic concepts has been CPI and GDP because we did a lot of work and assignments in class with them, but we also did a few blog posts and watched and read a lot about them outside of class. All of these things combined helped me learn more about two statistics that are pretty important to know about. Before this class I knew what those letters stood for but I really did not know anything about the actual statistics. All the work we did with these two things has helped me grasp these concepts well and that is important because a good knowledge of these two stats is a good thing to have in order to stay more in tune with how the economy is operating.

My favorite topic that we did for a blog post was the Katy Perry podcast because I love listening to music and I do it all the time, but I didn't know that it isn't just the artist that is making off with all of the money that is made from an album. I didn't know that the money that is made is paid to as many different people as it is and that they have to pay for as much as they do. I think when we hear that an album is doing well we all just assume that an artist is making off with millions of dollars and while most of them still are, it seems like it isn't always as much as we think it is. This was my favorite topic to write about because it gave me a new perspective on something I am very passionate about and taught me about an aspect of that that I did not know much about.

I think the blog post I did my best work on was the Inside the Meltdown post. I think that was my most thorough blog post because I included quotes and ideas from the video about the meltdown and I also included a few pictures so that it wasn't all text. It think it was the best laid out and best looking blog post and the content was the most thorough. That video was very interesting and having an interesting topic to write about makes the work easier.

I think the thing about this class that has made me a better person is the real world application of the topics we do. I like how we learn about a topic with the text definitions and then more real world oriented definitions and examples. Those examples help me learn the material and being able to apply it to examples is good because it helps us expand our knowledge of topics outside of the classroom. Being more knowledgeable about the way our country operates will only help us in the long run and that is a part of this class that I really enjoy and I believe that has helped me. I think being able to learn topics and apply them to  real world examples is a good skill to have and that is a way where this class has helped me a lot.

RS 9

This podcast was very helpful because the people on it did a very good job of explaining CPI and breaking it down simply. One of the things that was most interesting to me was the part about the Economic Assistants and how it is their job to go into stores and compare current prices to past prices to measure inflation or deflation. An interesting point that was made was why do they have to actually go to these stores instead of doing research online or over the phone. That seems like the way most of us would think to do it, but the BLS seems to be going by the theory of, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. That is why there are people driving around all over finding prices of little products all over the place. These points were interesting points that I didn't know contributed to CPI in the way they did.

Another interesting point that they made was that, if people or corporations were able to find out what the CPI change would be before everyone else, they could beat the markets and get rich. I didn't know that gold prices and bond prices and things like that had to do with CPI and that CPI affects prices of everyday products in the way it does. I wasn't aware that CPI affected inflation and deflation and things like that, but the people on Planet Money did a good job of explaining it.

RS 8 GDP

Before this series of clips and articles I knew very little of GDP other than what the letters stood for. After these readings and clips I feel more confident in my knowledge of what GDP is. I think in times of economic stress like we are going through right now it is more important to have some knowledge of what GDP is. Knowing what GDP and other statistics like it are in times like these can help you stay more in tune with whether the economy is trending up or down.

Another important thing that I didn't know about GDP was how it relates to each one of us. Year after year the US produces a huge number for GDP but I didn't know how it relates to each of us US citizens. The GDP per capita is a very important aspect of GDP  because it shows approximately how much we are all making per year and how those who are in less favorable financial situations are involved.

I didn't realize before these readings and clips what GDP was and what its importance to us is. I knew what it stood for but I did not know what its application to our country and to each of us individually was. After these articles I feel comfortable with what GDP and I have a better understanding of how it applies to everyone and our everyday lives. It is important in times like this where the economy is struggling to be more in tune with what is going on on a larger scale in the country and learning more about GDP has helped me do that.

http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=gdp

RS 7 School Kills Creativity

I liked the topic of this talk because it seems like something we can all relate to. We have all been in school for such a long time at this point a lot of the time it seems like we are going through the motions. Our parents drive us to get good grades and do some of the things that Ken Robinson says, like discourage us from failure. This discouragement of being wrong and of failure is handicapping younger generations for the future. Older generations were allowed to go out and explore and fail at things, because that's how you learn what to do and what not to do. 

I like Ken Robinson's explanation of our education systems and how they are centered around academic ability and not the things that we want to do. As kids we were guided to do the things that the world looks for in us and not the things that we enjoyed doing because we were told that we wouldn't get jobs doing those things. We need to do pursue something that we can get a job in. He also explains how in his time a college degree meant you could get a job easily, but now you need to become more and more specialized to meet the demands of society. 

I think his view of intelligence is accurate because it shows that our society only values special traits. People mistake academic ability for intelligence and those who are good in school and the subjects we emphasize are encouraged by the system, while those who are good in other subjects but not those we emphasize are discouraged by the system. 

Ken Robinson does a very good job of arguing his case here because the arguments he presents are very accurate once you think about it. We seem to be going through the motions in school a lot and pursuing the things that we believe will get us jobs and make our parents happy. Accounting is a very popular major because that's where people believe the jobs are. I wish the system had not become so business like and that there was more emphasis on pursuing things you enjoy. We are steered towards things that the systems values because the system "mines" our minds for these things that we have learned. It thoughts like these that make me agree with Ken Robinson and believe that schools are killing our creativity. 

The story he told at the end of the talk was something I enjoyed. He told a story of a girl who couldn't sit still. Her mom thought something was wrong but her and a doctor discovered that she needed some encouragement and needed to be put in the right environment to flourish. She became a dancer and had great success at it. The people who run the system need to be more open to the fact that people thrive in different systems and not just their system.

RS 6 Personality Sorter

Personality test results

Ta-dah, your personality type is ISFJ!

Introverted (I) 54%	Extraverted (E) 46%
Sensing (S) 73%	Intuitive (N) 27%
Feeling (F) 60%	Thinking (T) 40%
Judging (J) 77%	Perceiving (P) 23%

We are lucky that Protectors make up as much as ten percent the population, because their primary interest is in the safety and security of those they care about - their family, their circle of friends, their students, their patients, their boss, their fellow-workers, or their employees. Protectors have an extraordinary sense of loyalty and responsibility in their makeup, and seem fulfilled in the degree they can shield others from the dirt and dangers of the world. Speculating and experimenting do not intrigue Protectors, who prefer to make do with time-honored and time-tested products and procedures rather than change to new. At work Protectors are seldom happy in situations where the rules are constantly changing, or where long-established ways of doing things are not respected. For their part, Protectors value tradition, both in the culture and in their family. Protectors believe deeply in the stability of social ranking conferred by birth, titles, offices, and credentials. And they cherish family history and enjoy caring for family property, from houses to heirlooms.

Wanting to be of service to others, Protectors find great satisfaction in assisting the downtrodden, and can deal with disability and neediness in others better than any other type. They are not as outgoing and talkative as the Provider Guardians [ESFJs], and their shyness is often misjudged as stiffness, even coldness, when in truth Protectors are warm-hearted and sympathetic, giving happily of themselves to those in need.

Their reserve ought really to be seen as an expression of their sincerity and seriousness of purpose. The most diligent of all the types, Protectors are willing to work long, hard hours quietly doing all the thankless jobs that others manage to avoid. Protectors are quite happy working alone; in fact, in positions of authority they may try to do everything themselves rather than direct others to get the job done. Thoroughness and frugality are also virtues for them. When Protectors undertake a task, they will complete it if humanly possible. They also know better than any other type the value of a dollar, and they abhor the squandering or misuse of money. To save, to put something aside against an unpredictable future, to prepare for emergencies-these are actions near and dear to the Protector's heart. For all these reasons, Protectors are frequently overworked, just as they are frequently misunderstood and undervalued. Their contributions, and also their economies, are often taken for granted, and they rarely get the gratitude they deserve.

RS 5 Inside the Meltdown

This documentary was very informative and clarified a lot to me about what was behind the meltdown of the market and all of these high powered firms.

The meeting that is talked about at the beginning of the documentary is very eye opening. Hearing people say things like, "the economy could melt down in a few days" is a really strange and scary thing to hear. For my whole life until then, The US seemed so strong and impervious to things like this, but this showed everyone that we were not and this documentary opened my eyes to the problems that were behind the meltdown. 

All I really knew before this was what caused the meltdown, but I only knew the cause and not why. It was shocking to watch the anatomy of the downfall of major banks like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, but it was interesting to find the cause. The problem of all the mortgages they were giving out and people buying on credit created a monster that would crush them once the housing bubble burst. The "toxic assets" they were holding was what caused their downfall and what caused the government to eventually get involved to save the economy. 

One term I found really interesting was systemic risk. I never realized how the fall of one major firm could effect all the others around it and that the market is so interconnected now. The fact that the market is so interconnected now was a major factor in the downfall once the major firms started to fail. The major players on Wall Street that were involved in this were aware of systemic risk and they eventually realized it was happening and that it wasn't just a few firms that were at risk, it was the entire American economy. 

Although government action on Wall Street is rare and frowned upon by many, once they realized that there was systemic risk, they should have gotten involved. They became aware that this problem was a market wide problem and they should have gotten to work on a plan sooner than they did. The delay in government action allowed the market to slide further towards a meltdown while those in charge mulled over what they should do. 

After Bear Stearns was sold and Lehman Brothers failed several plans were discussed. It took a while to decide on a plan, but eventually the secretary of the Treasury decided on government injections into the economy. He disagreed with this decision, but although he did, an action should have been decided on sooner. 

The toxic assets like huge mortgages that were dragging down big firms, combined with the leaders being unsure of what to do to solve the problem is what led to meltdown of our economy and it is a meltdown that we are still trying very hard to recover from. 

RS 4 A Former Lobbyist Tells All

This podcast was helpful for me understanding a little more about politics because, before I listened to this, I didn't not know what exactly a lobbyist was and how they do what they do. It was interesting to me to hear the process of what lobbyists do and how they support they bills they are lobbying for. I did not know that lobbyists worked for trade organizations or lobbying organizations specifically and I did not know that there was a whole big process to getting the support of the people you are lobbying to.

http://www.sovereignunderground.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/congressseal1.jpg

 I also never realized that they were so important in the lives of those in Washington and those who sit in Congress. Because the people who sit on Congress are always looking forward to their next election, they will always need money for their campaigns and that will leave a place for the lobbyists, because the lobbyists will have someone to entice with a big fundraiser and money to support their next campaign.

Another interesting note was that the lobbyist they had in the studio said that some of the bills he lobbied for were completely ridiculous. It seems completely ridiculous to spend so much time, effort and money on something that you don't believe in. 


The ending was the most surprising and confusing part of this. It caught my attention when they said Jimmy Williams "wants to destroy the system that made him rich". I thought it was crazy when they said he wanted to go all the way to the constitution to ban money from politics. Although they said that the Supreme Court has ruled several times that money in politics is protected, it is an interesting thing to think about and Mr. Williams plan to get money out of politics is very creative and referred to as "crazy". His idea was to gather a lot of trade organizations and lobbyists so they can all get behind one bill or amendment and push that through the process of ratification. This podcast clarified a lot about what goes on in a specific part of politics and has helped me to understand more of what goes on in Washington and why money plays such an important role in everything.

RS 3 My Learning Style

I just took the survey and my results were" 


The results of Matt Graziano's learning inventory are:

Visual/Nonverbal 36 Visual/Verbal 30 Auditory 34 Kinesthetic 32

Your primary learning style is:

The Visual/ Nonverbal Learning Style

 
You learn best when information is presented visually and in a picture or design format. In a classroom setting, you benefit from instructors who use visual aids such as film, video, maps and charts. You benefit from information obtained from the pictures and diagrams in textbooks. You tend to like to work in a quiet room and may not like to work in study groups. When trying to remember something, you can often visualize a picture of it in your mind. You may have an artistic side that enjoys activities having to do with visual art and design. 

RS 2 Planet Money Katy Perry

This is my take on the Planet Money Podcast about Katy Perry.

This podcast did a good job of breaking down how an aspect of the music business works. Katy Perry is a hugely successful artist and I thought it was a really interesting comparison that they made between her and Michael Jackson. Katy Perry just broke his record of Number 1 singles from the same album, but in terms of making money, Michael Jackson made a lot more money from his album then she did from hers. This is because there are a lot more things to be paid for and taken into account now when determining the profit from an album.

Among the many things a record company have to pay for now are royalties for brands mentioned in the songs, like Mustang and Radiohead in one of her songs. They also have to pay for things like radio play time, they also have to pay for Itunes when the songs are sold there, Katy Perry herself gets a cut of it also the writers get some of the cut as well and so on.

The part that I thought was shocking was that, when they quickly calculated how much money they made from her album. The amount they came up with just from sales was $44 Million and after taking away all of the costs and royalties they had an amount around $8 Million. In this podcast Katy Perry was touted as an experiment that turned out perfectly. Even though $8 Million is a lot of money, for an artist that is as successful as Katy Perry you would expect more money to be made on such a successful album.

When a rep from her record company was asked if they made back the money they spent on the record he gave vague answers like "as far as I know". They compared that to Michael Jackson and his record, Thriller. They said that if you asked his record company executive you would get an answer like absolutely because he had a tremendous amount of money coming in.

I think the thing that is creating the difference here is the amount of things record companies have to pay for these days. Katy Perry and Michael Jackson are both once in a generation artist, even if it is in different ways. They both had hugely successful albums and multiple number 1 singles and even though money works a little differently these days, they both should have been "bathing in champagne" like they said Jackson's record company was. So I think the thing that is creating the difference is everything that needs to be paid for these days. Companies these days have to pay for a lot and although Jackson's companies had to pay for things too, they didn't have to pay for the amount of things or didn't have to pay as much and that is what created the difference. Jackson and Perry are both unique and successful artists, but the key difference is all of the little things that add up to a big difference. It is what is really hurting the record industry these days and what created such a huge difference in the bottom line between these two artists and their success.

RS 1 How To Be A Genius

 “How to Be a Genius” by David Dobbs. This article appeared in the September 2006 edition of the New Scientist. This is my reaction to How to Be a Genius.

This was a very interesting article to me and I believe the main point is something everyone can learn from. I think the main point of this article is that, even though we are all different and have different abilities, genius' are built or created and not born. Throughout the article Dobbs references famous people such as Tiger Woods, Steven Hawking, Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, Yo-Yo Ma and Mozart. Although we know these people as superstars or genius' or masters of music today, they had a long road to get to where they are. 

Another part of Dobbs' point is that even though these people may have been born with talents that helped them, they still had to work extremely hard and for a lot of years to get to the top. This holds true for Dobbs story as well. He explained how he easily excelled in school in the beginning, but because of that began to develop a sense of entitlement. He soon realized that rising to the top is not a matter of "natural buoyancy" as he thought it was. His writing talents didn't extend beyond his education at first and he was left wondering why. He eventually realized the key when he started putting in the extra hours of work.  

Although talent can help in becoming great in something, it can also impede your progress. It is easy to become cocky when things come very easily to you. Drive and will to work hard are very important because those are the things that keep you going and keep you focused on your goal. Things like talent and IQ can help but they can also get in your way. Steven Hawking said "people who boast about their IQ are losers". Statements like that show why Hawking was able to eventually takeoff and achieve what he has. It took him until his mid twenties to get his breakthrough, but he did.   

Taking years of hard work and practice to achieve something may seem intimidating, but I think that what separates those who want to get to the top and those who don't. This reading definitely shows through many examples that hard work is just as important as any physical or mental gifts one may possess. The talent will go to waste if you are not willing to work with it and master it. Although it takes years to master one's craft, getting there is the ultimate reward.