It’s been coming for a while, what with our insane deficits and all, but now they are shifting their reserves away from the dollar, and things may go downhill fast for the U.S. economy.

I understand some of the pros and cons on privatization of social security. The way we organize it now, it is a very safe way of providing that our older folks not end up impoverished, but it’s very inefficient in rate of return. That’s pretty much how investments go: low risk investments offer less return on your capital but are safer, while higher risk investment offer more potential return but also a great chance of loss. Another advantage of the current system is that it has very low overhead costs, which a privatized system won’t be able to match, but … Continue reading →

In light of the fact that our Republican-led Congress just voted to cut Head Start funding again, you might be interested in this article in today’s New York Times which explains that pre-school education not only helps when children are young, but has benefits even 40 years later. The information is from an extraordinary longitudinal study started in the 1960s. The same group of high-risk inner city children have been followed the entire time. Based on past experience, it was a near certainty that most of these kids would fail in school. During the previous decade, not a single class … Continue reading →

Well, I watched CSPAN2 for a while, and apparently they figured out how to take the anti-tax-privacy clause out of the bill while still reconciling it with the House (which is in recess, so that’s a nice trick). I don’t really understand how they did it, but everyone seemed satisfied. I wasn’t surprised to find that funding was cut for Head Start, public housing, and the National Science Foundation, but I was horrified that they cut funding for extra police (first responders you know), and that they took $235 million from Veteran’s Health Care. Now that’s supporting our troops.

More damage from the omnibus spending bill: a $300 billion cut in student aid, changing eligibility rules for Pell grants in such a way that nearly 100,000 students will lose all or part of their grants. Republicans attempted to pass this rule change last year, but Democrats fought them back. Now they’ve brought it back as part of the budget package. Tuition has been rising since Bush came into office, as state budgets tighten and more costs are passed on to students. I know this country used to want an educated population. I fear the people in power now prefer … Continue reading →