Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve to me is good and band thing for this country at the same time. The Federal Reserve, for the most part, has kept this country afloat for many many years but at the same time it has put us through terrible tragedys such as the Great Depression and excessive national debt. Does the Federal Reserve really have the well being of the countries population in mind? At some points in history it does not seem like it. The Federal Reserve works with the economy in peaks and valleys. In times of "peaks" the Federal Reserve will lend tons of money out which increases inflation. When the Federal Reserve is in a valley it will not lend out money which causes that valley or "recession" to grow. This can eventually lead to a depression. Some may say that the Federal Reserve was created simply to put the country in debt. Every time the Federal Reserve wants to print more money for the United States the government has to go into more debt. So why not just print enough money to pull the United States out of debt? That is not allowed in the current system. The United States cannot print its own money instead it borrows it from the Federal Reserve. "So, when the government needs to borrow money (which happens a lot these days) it goes over to the Federal Reserve and asks them for some more green peices of paper called Federal Reserve Notes," 11 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is Bad. Some say the Federal Reserve has to much power, is this true? "Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has the power to dramatically impact our economy at the drop of the hat...[The Federal Reserve] is permitted to create as much money as it wants out of thin air," Top Ten Resons To End The Federal Reserve. Many bad things can be said about the Federal Reserve, many do not like it at all. Most of the United States population would say that the Federal Reserve puts the United States into debt so that the people at top of the Federal Reserve can live rich without worry. On a very true note though, " ...The Federal Reserve is the largest buyer of United States public debt, enabling the government [and we the people] to live beyond [our] means," A Century Of Central Banking: Was The Fed A Good Idea?"

Blog Cycles, Recessions, and Depressions

A business cycle, by definition, is the "downward and upward movement of levels of Gross Domestic Product". Every free market economy has these, they can not be avoided. Economists fail to predict these business cycles no matter how hard they try. Why is it so hard to predict? The answer to this is, no one can predict the future. Economist can only go by the past and make predictions off of that. Meaning that the predictions will not always be 100 percent accurate. "The future is inherently uncertain, so these decisions often depend as much on gut feelings as cold calculation" (2). A bull market is used to describe a high in the economy while a bear market is used to describe a low or recession in a market. These phrases come from the ways the animal strikes it's opponent. A bull strikes upwards with it's horn and a bear strikes downwards with it's paws. "Bear markets are more violent than bull markets" (2), because of chaos. Way back when there were different causes of an economic recession/crash than there are today. Today technology investments can, oil prices and the house market have all been reasons why there has been an economic recession/crash. In early America an economic recession/crash was usually due to a natural disaster such as crop failure. A recession is a quick lull in the economy. The economy quickly regenerates itself from this though. A depression is caused when this lull is not regenerated and keeps on going lower. Recession and Depression can be described in the words of Harry Truman, "a recession [is] when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours" (5).

Underground Economy

There are people who work a full time job, 40 hours or so a week, pay taxes n the money they make and that tax money goes to the economy. Then there are people who work under the table, or get payed without being taxed on the money they make. This is part of the underground/shadow economy. This underground economy can be good and bad. "There is consumer spending in the short term...and thats boosting the economy," says Schneider. People have money at that mment bu that mney is not getting taxed on. This is good and bad. It is good becuse that person gets all the mney they earned right then and there. But none of it is being put away for Social Security, etc. They also do not get benifits. The government loses tax money by having all of these people work under the table. "...about $500 billion in txes were lost last year because of unreported wages, versuses $384 billion in 2001" (Koba 2). "Those wokring and not paying taxes puts the burden on those who pay the taxes...taxes could be lower if the government were able to capture the underground economy instead of raising taxes on those currently paying the various income and payroll taxes, " says Fiorenza. Basically, if so many people were not getting paying under the table then taxes may be lower.

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality, its probably something that you've never even heard of. I never knew what it was until a few days ago. Net Neutrality is basically making sure there is an even playing feild for all internet companies. "New ruling will enable the FCC to enact new rules that would prevent Internet service providers from manipulating how quickly or slowly sites are transmitte along their networks" (Net Neutrality 1). This is important to both Internet companies and us consumers. Large Internet companies do not like this because they make money when there is no regulation. When there is no regulation they can charge companies more money for better service to the consumers. Smaller, entrepreneur, companies like regulation because they plaing eild is nott even for them and the larger companies. Net Neutrality is good for us consumers because we have more than one Internet provider to choose from, not just one over priced one. The FCC makes sure larger companies are not charging more for better service. They did this under Title II of 1934 Communications Act.

Spoils System vs. Merit System Blog

The development of the bureaucracy began with the Spoil System. This system was first used by Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson’s cabinet consisted of friends he hired for the job. Some of these people may have had previous experience in the field and some may have not. Over the years this has changed. Since then the bureaucracy has greatly grown and the way people are hired has also changed. The merit system began in the 1880’s after president Garfield was killed. He was because his killer was not given a government job. Now the Merit System is used. People have to qualify for a certain job or make it up in the ranks to get to higher positions.

The spoils system can still be found in our American government today. According to Dino Grandoni writer for The Wire, who wrote an article titled, “ Obama Likes the Spoils System as Much as Any President”, Obama has used the spoils system. People who raised money for his campaign have been guaranteed a government job, other presidents have done this; such as Bush. “ Obama has doled out ambassadorships, at the same rate as the Bush administration” (Grandoni 1).

cell phone blog

    The founding fathers did not incorporate cell phones into the constitution in 1787 for obvious reasons, they were not invented yet. Though, that is why the supreme court is around today, to make sense of the constitution and see if certain things are constitutional and unconstitutional. The Riley vs. California case caught the attention of the supreme court, they then had to make a decision on whether a warrant was needed to look through an individual's cell phone just as a warrant is needed to look through an individual's home or car. Personally I believe that a warrant should be needed to look through a cell phone because it is personal property. “When the Founding Fathers sat down to write the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the late 1700s, they made sure that the First Amendment protected the right to free speech… and that the Fourth Amendment protected the right to privacy” (14). The supreme court had the same mindset as me, “The Justices ruled that police need to ask permission or get a warrant from a judge to search inside someone’s home” (14). When a warrant is needed to search a cell phone it takes time, in that time lives could be lost and justice can be brought to criminals. In certain situations like this I believe that it should be alright to look through a cell phone without a warrant in order to save a life of bring a criminal to justice.