Poor school districts denied again

Today Gov. Quinn signed a law that would, according to his press release, require “the history of the United States taught in public schools reinforce the role and contributions of Hispanics.” It also requires that textbooks on American History include events such as “the forceful removal and illegal deportation of Mexican-American U.S. citizens during the [...]

America by the numbers – updated

1 in 10 Americans are on food stamps – average benefit – $112.82 per person
1 in 50 American children are homeless
3,000,000 Americans have been out of work 27 weeks or longer
5,000,000 Americans have lost their jobs since the “recession” started
8,600,000 American workers are underemployed
5,300,000 Americans are on unemployment, the highest number since 1967
Only 37% of [...]

Bailing out investors won’t help the economy

Reuters led the story of yesterday’s stock market rally with the following:
Stocks rose on Wednesday, with the benchmark S&P 500 index attempting the first two-day advance in a month, as investors held out hope that Washington would restore confidence in banks by relieving them of money-losing assets.
This is a rather disingenuous conclusion to derive from [...]

Clinton, Rubin and Summers, Graham, Leach and Bliley – thank you

In the early 1900’s, commercial banks began to establish security affiliates that floated bond issues and underwrote corporate stock issues. (In underwriting, a bank guarantees to furnish a definite sum of money by a definite date to a business or government entity in return for an issue of bonds or stock.)
Then the stock market crashed.
In [...]

So why are we asking the experts anything?

NABE, the National Association of Business Economists, today released the results of their annual member survey. Reuters reports they predicted “the recession-hit economy would begin to recover in the second half of this year, returning to a potential growth trend in 2010.”
I wondered who these people were, and if they were the same people that [...]