Dear Ed,
Love your show, and your down-to-eath presentation. Seems to me, though, that lots of folk out there don’t understand the basics of economics. “Trickle Up Economics” chart does a great job, but there are so many more ideas that need to be made clear.
- What is a bank? How does it work?
- What does GDP mean? or GNP?
- How does capitalism work?
- What is socialism?
- Why regulation?
- What’s the Euro? (soon to be huge)
- What’s a Board of Directors?
- What does ‘Incorporation” really mean?
- The difference between TARP and the Stimulus
I’m not suggesting you start a classroom going–that would be really dreadful. But every day, one of the above or a similar economic question comes up, or is caused by one of the above subjects.
So why not have your staff you surely have a competent staff) prepare a whole variety of answers to such questions; then, if there’s a bank failure, say, you can talk for a few minutes about how banks work. Or Congress is passing a national debt constitutional amendment, explain how the national debt works, and why that’s different from the deficit.
In other words, devote a portion of each show explaining the economic (or governmental) underpinnings of the issues the rest of the show deals in.
Just a suggestion; I look forward to seeing its implementation.
Yours,
Tom Bentley
Simpsonville, SC
tbentley@tbentley.com
The Republican attack on birth control, as well as on abortion, is going strong here in the South. This recent article in the New Yorker is invaluable for you guys who don’t know the difficult history of the birth control movment, and its evolution into Planned Parenthood. this is a large pdf file, and well worth the read.
Article on Women’s Health Rights
Pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles:
But he was equal on every side and quite without end, spherical and round, rejoicing in his circular solitude.
How he know about Chris Christie?
James Kwak, at Baseline Scenario, discussing Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan (W.W. Norton, 2009), by Kim Phillips-Fein:
It also contains this gem for anyone who thinks the American people suddenly developed warm and fuzzy feelings about the Constitution in the past two years. Describing the 1934 founding of the American Liberty League—a rabidly anti-Roosevelt, anti-New Deal organization—she writes (p. 10):
“The main topic of discussion was creating a ‘propertyholders’ association,’ as Irénée [DuPont] put it, to disseminate ‘information as to the dangers to investors’ posed by the New Deal. The group decided that the name of their association should not refer directly to property—it would be better to frame their activities as a broad defense of the Constitution.”
South Carolina’s voting law requires a photo ID, typically a valid driver’s license. Getting a driver’s license requires showing a birth certificate. And:
No one knows how many South Carolinians don’t have a birth certificate. One indicator may be a tally by the S.C. Election Commission, which shows 178,175 voters do not own a photo ID, according to the latest available figures.
Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2011/07/17/1900835/many-face-fight-to-prove-id.html#ixzz1SnEylyqf
Matt Taibi in Rolling Stone on Bachmann
Also, Al Gore in same mag.
Krugmann’s speech at Cambridge.
Wendel Potter, Huffington Post:
Over the past several years, insurers have been implementing a strategic plan to “migrate” (their term) all of their policyholders out of traditional indemnity and managed care plans into so-called “consumer-driven” plans, which feature high deductibles. They have been luring people into these plans by setting premiums for high-deductible plans lower than HMOs and PPOs, at least initially.
