Assignment #8-Michael Kirschbaum

The article "It's not about socialism, it's about rescuing capitalism", written by Harold Meyerson first appeared in The Washington Post. In the article, Meyerson attempts to debunk the myths created by conservatives in regard to the political aims of President Obama and his advocates. Meyerson asserts that the exaggerated claim "We are all socialists now" simply doesn't match the fact that only a small minority of Americans endorse a socialist state. Such claims are put forward by conservative Republicans who, seeing everything in opposite extremes, tend to give rise to sensationalist media. Meyerson defines the middle ground by pointing out Obama's plan to add some regulation to a disorderly form of capitalism. Once the government has created a footing, it can then let off, allowing the economy to settle back into another phase of strong competition, as was the case during Roosevelt's presidency. So while the political state may be leaning more toward socialism than it has in the last thirties years, such government regulation is necessary to prompt a revitalized phase of capitalism, a seeming contradiction which conservatives can never seem to grasp the concept of.

Assignment #8 TPAGE

"It's not about socialism, it's about rescuing capitalism", was written by Harold Meyerson and was featured in The Washington Post. Meyerson speaks about how Newt Gingrich was that American is turing into a socialist republic, because Obama is in office. The writer is really being sarcastic about it. He then goes on to tell about the history of socialist in America and then states the pros of socialist nation, like universal education and health care, which we do not have. He then goes on to defend Obama because of the money from the stimiulas plan and because conservatives think he is turing our country more into a European capitalist. When really Europes has recently become less regulated like ours and their economy is sinking along with ours. We no longer need to take the "hands off approach" towards our economy, it needs to be regulated. He then comes into to conclusion that the reason of the rise of a more socialist capitailst is the result of a deregualted economy.
I think the writer wrote this to refute the critics of Obama turing our country into a more socialist capitalist. He then makes many good point to defend his argument. I absolutly agree with him. This article was very interesting and proved its point.

Assignment #8 M. Thrift

The article was written by Harold Meyerson and appeared in The Wahington Post.The article is written to pretty much everyone,specifically those who wonder if America is becoming a socialist country.Meyerson explains what true socialism is and says that it is impossible to find a leftist group anywhere that would agree with true socialism.

Meyerson goes on to say that deregulated capitalism has "blown itself up" and has played a role in the collapse of economies,the downfall of the U.S. automotive industry,and widespread unemployment,just to name a few things.He tells us that it wasn't any one specific person's fault in this mess,but the system itself that is ruining America.

Assignment#8 JHUNTER

The article, by Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post, speaks on the idea that some believe the country is headed down a socialist, heavily regulated form of economy. This move is a change from the capitalist driven form of economy we know of today. America's calling card as a nation is " a nation where anything is possible ", or " the land of milk and honey " a country that loves (and dies) for its independence and the right to earn a honest dollar without big government sticking in its nose to oversee things. The author of the article is shedding some light that the time maybe right for big brother to give us some guidance through this global crisis and maybe we wouldn't have to go through these peaks and valleys with our economy tanking every so often. He injects the article with facts that, if we are such a mighty nation, why are 50 million of our citizens not covered with health care and why our nations infants rank 41st best on surviving, numbers that are totally unacceptable for a country that flaunts its excess.

Meyerson article is written for everyone. He is challenging those who believe that we are headed down a road where the government will be heavy handed in all aspects of life. He is an advocate of the recovery plan because he sees it as a way to jump start the economy once more and hopefully, with government guidance, build it to where we won't experience these periods of joblessness and financial distress. The fall of the global market can be put on ourselves and an insistence of some for government to stay out of their greedy money grab.

Assignment#7-M.Metcalf

This article was written by Harold Meyerson, and it appeared in the Washington Post. This article was written to show [in the author’s point of view] who is to blame, and how we got into the finical mess that we are in. This article is directed toward anyone that is listing, reading or just happening to looking at the Washington Post.

The basic argument that the author wants to make is that while conservatives blame the Obama administration for being socialists, the real problem is capitalism itself. The author says that unregulated capitalism is the real culprit. And that what is actually happening is that the so-called ‘socialists’ are not ruining the economy; what they are really doing is fixing the economy with better capitalism.

Assignment #6 D. Duryee

This article, "Revenge of the Glut", was written by Paul Krugman for The New York Times. He is writing this article to help inform people about why he thinks we have fallen into these economic hard times. He is aiming this article at the general public and attempting to explain why it seems that the economic problems just keep getting worse. What Mr. Krugman is trying to get across is that we have fallen into this recession because of an influx of money from mostly Asian markets and in turn we raised our trade deficit to its current massive figure. This, with the fall of the housing market and the increase in saving by the American people, has lead to the current economic downturn and has resulted in many other parts of the economy being affected. so basically our want of money to save has brought this economic trouble on us and our refusal to spend those savings now is just making everything worse.

Assignment #6 ECapps

"Revenge of the Glut" By Paul Krugman was published in The New York Times. The article explains how the world has ended up in the present economic crises. It states that the answers can be found in a speech Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, gave four years ago. “The Global Saving Glut and the U.S. Current Account Deficit,” explained that the cause was not in America but in the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98. Yet, America did get hit as well. American bankers, led the world by hiding risk and fooling investors.
Also, we are seeing a huge uprise in the saving glut. The worldwide poverty that has hit has made people resort to thrift and in turn that hurts our economy even worse putting us in a global slump. I think this article was written for the average person to perhaps better educate how this economic crisis started. Perhaps if the world had taken better precautions we would not have out done ourselves when it comes to our economy.

Assignment #8 - RNeal

The article “Revenge of the Glut,” was written by Paul Krugman of The New York Times. Mr. Krugman attempts to explain how the present global debt crisis unfolded and not only are Americans under duress, but other important global markets are being hit hard as well. Mr.Krugman and the Federal Reserve chairman Mr. Bernanke both state that Asia is the cause. According to the speech, titled “The Global Saving Glut and the U.S. Current Account Deficit, spoken by Mr. Bernanke four years earlier, when the Asian markets began to tumble in 1997-1998 they "began protecting themselves by amassing huge war chests of foreign assets, in effect exporting capital to the rest of the world." He then states "the result was a world awash in cheap money, looking for somewhere to go." For a while, the inrush of capital created the illusion of wealth in these countries, just as it did for American homeowners. Asset prices were rising, currencies were strong, and everything looked fine. But bubbles always burst sooner or later, and yesterday's miracle economies have become today’s basket cases, nations whose assets have evaporated but whose debts remain all too real. And these debts are an especially heavy burden because most of the loans were denominated in other countries' currencies." Mr. Krugman wrote this article to explain to the American people how this “global crisis” started.

Assignment #6 T Gombar

Paul Krugman wrote “Revenge of the Glut” for The New York Times. I believe this article was written to inform the American people how this economic crisis began, and that it’s something that has been inevitable and in the making for a while. Also to let people know that it’s not just America struggling right now. Several countries are experiencing the same issues.

I think the basic argument that he is trying to make is that what is causing the crises is still an issue, and maybe we should look at not just trying to fix the problem in America, but if it is stemmed from other countries just fixing our problem may not be enough. At the end of the article it says “around the world, desired savings exceeds the amount businesses are willing to invest. And the result is a global slump that leaves everyone worse off. So that’s how we got into this mess. And we’re still looking for the way out.” I believe that statement basically sums up the article.

Tara Gombar

Assignment #6, J. Helms

The article "Revenge of the Glut," by Paul Krugman, was published in the New York Times. This article is giving the background of this financial crisis we are in. It's directed to everyone arounthe world. Basic argument is that the whole thing started in Asia when they were in financial crisis and to turn it around, they bought foreign assets. They began exporting capital. The result is that there was alot of cheap money in the world which created the trade deficit. This lead to financial institutions lending money out to people who could not afford it and hide the risk on paper to make it look like the people had money. So now, because the money disappeared, people are starting to save their money instead of spending it and this is causing businesses to collapse. People are becoming more thirfty.

Assignment #6- Michael Kirschbaum

"Revenge of the Glut", written by Paul Krugman", attempts to explain the deep-rooted economic problem facing the world. The article refers to the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 as the direct cause of the global collapse. When Asia began exporting large amounts of capital to the rest of the world, giving other countries the illusion that their economies were prospering, these same countries began rapidly investing. Eventually the excessive savings would be their undoing, as the markets collapsed, reducing the value of their gained wealth. Krugman points out that this process had the worst effect in America, due to its unregulated banks. Bankers led many into risky investments as an easy method of enrichment. Now, not only are we largely in debt, but the value of our assets has dropped considerably. This same problem explains the collapse of other nations with large cash flows, such as Ireland, Iceland, and Estonia. Basically, confidence within large cash flow nations allowed for excessive investing and shortened the foresight of the current financial recession. Despite the global problems the "saving glut" has caused, people continue to save, finding relief in property investments and thrifting, furthering the cycle. Krugman ends the article by reminding the reader that we're still looking for a way to recover from the crisis.

Assignment #6 LFraser

The article "Revenge of the Glut," was written by Paul Krugman of The New York Times. This article was written for all those who are interested in how this global debt crisis happened. Krugman says that, "The answer, I'd suggest, can be found in a speech Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman, gave four years ago." The title of the speech was "The Global Saving Glut and the U.S. Current Account Deficit." Bernanke states that Asia is the cause of global debt.  Asia had a financial crisis in 1997-98. After this crisis it "began protecting themselves by amassing hugh war chests of foreign assets, in effect exporting capital to the rest of the world." He then says that "The result was a world awash in cheap money, looking for somewhere to go." "For a while, the inrush of capital created the illusion of wealth in these countries, just as it did for America homeowners: asset prices were rising, currencies were strong, and everything looked fine. But bubbles always burst sooner or later, and yesterday's miracle economies have become today;s basket cases, nations whose assets have evaporated but whose debts remain all too real. And these debts are an especially heavy burden because most of the loans were denominated in other countries' currencies." Bernanke and Krugman believe that Asia's crisis is where the global crisis started.

Assignment #6- JDeVoll

"Revenge of the Glut" was written by Paul Krugman. In the article that appeared in the New York times, Krugman claims the answer for our financial crisis can be found in a speech Ben Bernanke gave four years ago. I believe was written to give some kind of explanation to the American people, and even the world, why our global debt is so large. The author is trying to explain to the people how we got into this financial situation and I think he pretty much sums it up in at the end of the article. "One way to look at the international situation right now is that we’re suffering from a global paradox of thrift: around the world, desired saving exceeds the amount businesses are willing to invest. And the result is a global slump that leaves everyone worse off."

Assignment #6TPage

The article, "Revenge of the Glut", was written by Paul Krugman and was featured in The New York Times. In the article Krugman tries to explain where this global debt has came from. He states that the answer can be found in Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, speach that he gave four years ago. The reason is because Asia has become the biggest exportig capital to the rest of the world. Though some small Eurpoean coutries are feeling the same effects the United States is we have a greater economy then theirs so it hits America harder. He then gives examples of how it is effecting other countries. For example in Europe, Germanies automobile market is going down. Which is very odd because they are the top sellers. He then goes on about how people are now trying to save there money for when they make it out of this economic crisis, that is if we ever do.
In m opinion Krugman wrote this artile to inform people about the economic crisis and how it came about, because many people do not understand how this happened and how it is now a global economic crisis.

Assignment#6 JHUNTER

The article, by Paul Krugman of the New York Times, "Revenge of the Glut " sheds light on the global financial crisis. It speaks on how the problems in one nation such as England's manufacturing economy have a ripple effect on the German automotive market by them being England biggest auto supplier. Krugman connects the pieces on how the American housing market financiers took high risks on clients for nearly three decades and when the bubble burst the fall out was wide spread due lead to America's huge trade deficit. The "Revenge of the Glut" title comes from the fact that it is a savings glut's revenge and everyone caught in the storm of this crisis are tightening their spending/lending belts to make it through to the other side of this mess which ironically deepens the economy crisis.

Krugman article was meant for everyone. He shows how our economic problems here have an effect on the global scheme of things. He paints the picture of the crisis with a broad, but specific strokes which makes for a interesting read.

Assignment#6-M.Metcalf

This article was written by Paul Krugman. The article appeared in the New York Times, so it was probably viewed nationally and possibly internationally. It was written to show Americans that the economic woes that we face are not contained within our boarders. This is truly a global economic problem. This article is directed toward the American people. Most people probably do not realize that this problem is a global dilemma and Mr. Krugman wrote it in order for people to get a better understanding of what is going on internationally.

The basic message in this article is that the current economic predicament that we face in America is also a global problem. The author wants to outline the basics of this financial calamity so that the average person will understand what we are really looking at. The author says that the problem stems from a few areas not just the monetarily overzealous bankers. The author does not particularly condemn one specific group, but attempts to show that problems that are plaguing the entire global financial system.

Assignment#5 RNeal

“The continuing fall of federalism” appeared in The State in late February, amid the controversy surrounding the Illinois governor’s using his executive powers to appoint a replacement senator to the seat formerly occupied by Barack Obama. A special to The State from The Washington Post, George Will writes with a sarcastic undertone. His argument that Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold’s intention to repeal the 17^th amendment would undermine the founding fathers’ intentions and create a country that has little in common with its past.

Assignment #5, J. Helms

The article " The continuing fall of federalism," by George F. Will, was published on thestate.com website. This article is about McCain and Feingold wanting to amend the 17th amendment. This article is directed to everyone in the U. S. The basic argument is that people want to keep the amendment as is and not change it. McCain and Feingold want to change it where when a senator's seat becomes vacant, that the people immediately vote for a new senator. The 17th amendment states that when a seat comes open, the executive authority of that state can make a temporary appointment until the election comes up. Changing the amendment would take away from our country's federalism.

Assignment #4- Michael Kirschbaum

The article "States and Cities Angle for Stimulus Cash", written by Monica Davey, attempts to describe the cautiousness of American officials in dealing with the newly passed stimulus plan. Although many infrastructural plans are ready to begin following the transfer of funds, the plan is far from foolproof. Across the states, politicians as well as community leaders are grappling for what they consider sufficient funds, while building tension within the country. Governors and mayors are working quickly to form the budget plan which will qualify their state to receive the maximum amount of money. Obviously, the distrubution and application of Obama's stimulus package is going to be a distressing process. But this was to be expected considering the conflicting political positions across the country. Whereas some politicans anticipate using the money for highway construction or filling deficits, others pledge not to take advantage of the funds at all, believing it could only have disastrous effects. Placing the political disagreements aside, it is certain that the plan must be carried out with a few essential goals in mind. The funding must be implanted into the economy within a relatively short time span and be spent in a way intended to advance the country as a whole. Without these two guidelines in mind, the outcome of the stimulus plan would lose it's momentum and perhaps have severe consequences on our already ailing economy.

Article 5. B. Nash

“The Continuing Fall of Federalism” was written by the Pulitzer Prize winning conservative columnist George F. Will. The article was an editorial for the Washington Post and was picked up by The State.Com. The article was intended for the readers of the Post and any other national outlet with whom Will is syndicated.
With the recent controversies and the coinciding media attention regarding the filling of the vacant seat in both Illinois and New York, Senator Russ Feingold is proposing that the 17th amendment be changed to allow the equivalent of a run off election to fill a vacant senate seat. This will allow the senate to, in Feingold’s words, “be as responsive to the people as possible.” Will’s basic argument is that the framers’ had intended for the House of Representatives to be the more “responsive body that more closely resembles the will of the people. The Senate was to be a more contemplative body in place to balance the House, as the Framers were both terrified of a tyrannical single ruler and the unchecked will of the average citizen. He views this proposed change to 17th as just one of many small changes that are chipping away at Federalism as the framers intended it.

Assignment #5 S. Blackwelder

In the article, "The continuing fall of federalism," written by George F. Will, of the Washington Post, appeared on TheState.com, South Carolina's home page.

Will writes about Wisconsin Senator, Russ Feingold and his intentions of going through with trying to change the 17th Amendment. Feingold is in agreement with McCain on this issue.

In the past, governors have not chosen Senator positions very responsibly, therefore the decision has gone to the American citizens. Feingold is trying to restore the power of choice to the state legislatures, believing they choose stronger, more efficient Senators.

This article is aimed towards Americans who are in jeopardy of losing this right.

Assignment #5 ECapps

"Will: The Continuing fall of federalism" was and article posted on The State.com by George F. Will. Will, writes about how Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold's trying to change the 17th amendment is an unwise thing. Feingold wants the people to choose the seat but many people do not want to mess with our Constitution. Personally I agree that we should not presume to change the Constitution of our forefathers, why change it now when it has been fine for so many generations.
This article was written in opposition to Feingold's want of revising the Constitution. If this is allowed then what will be revised next? It is one thing to be progressive and another to medal with freedoms and federalism. How far is too far?

Assignment #5- JDeVoll

In the article "The continuing fall of federalism", George F. Will discusses the impact of the 17th amendment. The article appeared in the Washington Post. In it, Will trys to show the american people his views on how Senator Russ Feingold is trying to change the 17th amendment and how (in the authors opinion)it is not a good thing. The author is arguing that by allowing these changes it "nudge the Senate still further away from the nature and function the Framers favored."

Assignment #5 JHUNTER

The article, by George F. Will of the the Washington Post, appeared on thestate.com was a call to amended the 17th amendment of the Constitution. He speaks about Wisconsin Senate Feingold, along with John McCain backing, the need to revise the decision of having state executives fill vacant senate seats until a state can have a popular election. A move that no doubt has gain fueled with the Illinois Gov. Blagojevich scandal in which he tried to allegedly use his power by selling President Obama's vacate U.S Senate seat to the highest bidder in this case Roland Burris. Feingold contends that if it were revised to have just the people choose the seat all this scandal would have been avoided, an idea in which I am inclined to agree with. However the opposition comes from those who think that the forefathers of the Constitution got it right and this process should not be tampered with.

Will's article was written to oppose Feingold's view revise the Constitution and to have elections to fill vacant senate seats. He sides with the idea the framers of the Constitution had of the House, Senate, and the presidency having three different processes to fill vacancies which promotes the theory of checked and balanced. I have no issue with this notion either, but to have a free and open election each time is also fair and would prohibit the notion of selling a seat to the highest bidder which is completely unacceptable and does a disservice to the people it is suppose to represent.

Assignment #5 LFraser

"Will: The continuing fall of federalism," is an article written by George F. Will of the Washington Post. This article is written for the American people about the fall of federalism. In this article, George F. Will writes about the 17th Amendment. Will says, "Some governors have recently behaved badly in appointing people to fill U.S. Senate vacancies. Feingold's solution, of which John McCain is a co-sponsor, is to amend the 17th Amendment." Will then says, "It would be better to repeal it." When the Constitution was written state legislators were the ones who elected senators. "The 17th Amendment says that when Senate vacancies occur, 'the executive authority' of the affected state 'shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature if any State empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.'"

Now Feingold wants to change the 17th Amendment to say, "No person shall be a senator from a State unless such person has been elected by the people thereof. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies." However, Will believes that State legislators should be the ones to elect senators.