Response to Greece Articles

Wow. Where to start in on this heavy material?  A good place is how bad the euro was and still is.  I personally didn't know how the situation in Europe had gotten.  Greece seems to be one of the worse off countries currently.  I took away from the articles that Greece feels like they have been slighted by other nations and government around them.  The prime example is Germany against Greece.  Many diehard Greeks have claimed they have felt these German/Nazi effects since World War II and even before then.  Even the Greek president has gotten negative remarks from citizens who call him a "traitor" for even trying to work with the Germans on different agreement procedures.  This conversation of improvement of the Greek economy and the entire European economy as a whole can be identified with the Recession the United States has suffered from in the last several years.  The Recession had some of the same causes as this European crisis has.  When looking at a recessionary period from another point of view, Americans analyzing Europeans, there can be similar aspects that present themselves, but there can also be interesting contrasts.  Americans never put blame on anyone but themselves as a government and nation.  We fell into debt, and never recovered and it reached a peaking point late in 2008.  The Greeks and other European nations have different opinions on who has created their economic crisis.  This brings up an interesting economic question:  Could the American Recession have been formed by another nation's relationship with the United States?

Interesting Article that Expands on These Articles

http://thesportseconomist.com/2010/07/11/cowboys-stadium-financing/

This is an article that I found very interesting.  It caught my eye when I was looking at different Economics in Sports Articles.

Response to Economics in Sports Articles

Will posted some great articles with some great information hidden in them.  Sports, in cities like Memphis, are a big source of revenue as seen in the article.  I can see why the NBA season not happening would hurt Memphis in many aspects.  18 million dollars lost is a lot of money folks.  So, is it wrong for the the Memphis Grizzlies to want to sue the NBA and take them to court? No!!! They were guaranteed by the association that they would be guaranteed seasons after seasons of basketball.  A city like Memphis cannot take a hit like this to their  revenue and to their influx of economic growth.  The frustration by the team and their Memphis area fans can by far be understandable.  Along with this posted article was the article about the "Occupy the NBA" article.  I love the comparison made with how the economics of the NBA is so similar to those of different states that have "Occupy" situations as well!  There is also a great comparison between the NBA's billion dollar owners and Wall Street.  I love how the article brings up how much these big money players are going to to have to learn from this situation.  It is so true how these big name players like Lebron James and Dwayne Wade are going to have to grow a backbone and fight against these big business owners who want to take a large portion of their income away.  It truly is like people fighting against big businesses.  This same aspect was seen in the recent NFL lockout which lasted for a substantial time period.

Social Security 10/19

Social Security is a problem that even I have addressed in our recent topic essay for class. Social Security is  slowly decreasing in many areas and by the article that Dr. Herron has given us to review, you can see the decrease in Social Security Funding by the trustees.  Social Security Reform has been started though in the form of a 75 year reform that plans to officially start in the year 2014 or 2015.  Is this reform really going to help the current and recurring social security problem.  In a time of downturn in the country's economy, it will be tougher for the government and United States as a whole to help the social security funding problem.  What will the future look like for social security and how will future generations be taken care of by the suffering retirees and senior citizens today?  Reforms are in place by the government and officials across the country.  As the year of exhaustion of all funds for social security draws closer and closer, it will be interesting to see how the government reacts by reforms that are put in place for the future and for now. In closing, the struggle for Social Security Reform will be one that is dealt with many decades, but how will this nation react to the changing ways of taxation and government manipulation in the next ten to twenty years?

Earnings Cap Democratic Debate (President Obama CNN)

Barack Obama strongly supports raising the earnings cap on Social Security, which is currently $102,000

"Q: We all know that Social Security is running out of money, but people who earn over $97,500 stop paying into Social Security. What is up with that? A: I think that it is an important option on the table, but the key, in addition to making sure that we don't privatize, because Social Security is that floor beneath none of us can sink."

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Post of ABC News President Obama interview

Barack Obama strongly opposes privatizing social security throughpersonal Social Security accounts

"Privatization is not something that I would consider. And the reason is this: Social Security is the floor. That's the baseline. Social Security is that safety net that can't be frayed and that we shouldn't put at risk."

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"We need to preserve Social Security by stopping any efforts to privatize it and will work across party lines to maintain Social Security's solvency for generations."

Response to 10/5 Podcast

Banking and marketing are both very important to move forward.  I really like the examples used that describe owning a pizza place and an ice cream place.  These are great examples that show how the business world has recently changed over the past few years.  There is a rise in capitalism and a rise of monopolies.  This may be a good thing and from the podcast you hear that many excellent economists have said that there should only be about 3 companies in any major form of business anyway.  There is a new form of business and I agree with how it works; that the actual returns in the "financial markets" will return over 3 to 4 times as much as the old business would return to you.  "Old business" would be considered building things like airplane wings or buildings and selling them in the open market. Finally, close to the end of the podcast, there is a description on how the economy has slowed down to a very slow rate ever since the end of the 1980s, and that is something that could be a slight cause of the Recession that we are still feeling today.  Overall, this was a great audio recording that broke down many aspects of banking and marketing that I now understand much more clearly.