Obama Administration Takes Aim at Executive Pay

The Obama administration is making attempts to reign in on Wall St, to penalize those companies who have not given back their share of bailout money. Where are they starting? Executive pay.



Too much government involvement? You tell me.

Pro: Wall St. got the money in order to fix the problems, but now they are just going back to business as usual, continuing to take risky moves. GIVE IT BACK.

Con: There were no stipulations placed upon the funds prior to them being given out that demands that the recipients had to give it back. This is another example of government meddling in business.

What do you think?

--
a.Rias
www.poli-babble.blogspot.com

Jim Cramer says Obama got the Bail Out Right

What's next in this economic stimulus effort?

A real stimulus: "Replace the smell of decay with the smell of construction."



Does Obama deserve any credit for stabilizing the economy? Does he even want to take credit for it yet?

I say maybe not. There is still no job creation. So although a great depression was avoided, this is not the time to sit back. Now that we've leveled off, let's build!

What do you think?

--
a.Rias
http://poli-babble.blogspot.com/

Michael Moore vs. Capitalism

Amid a number of battles the U.S. finds itself in the trenches of (foreign efforts, health care reform, drug law reform, big pharma, etc.), the questions swirling around the country's economic solvency have started to bring focus away from the symptoms and closer to the root. The place of Capitalism within our Democratic fabric is now within the cross-hairs of filmmaker Michael Moore. Closing in on the opening day of his new film "Capitalism: A Love Story", the filmmaker is making his rounds on the television interview circuit (links below).

On CNBC: (Link to video)

On CNN w/Wolf Blitzer: (Link)


On MSNBC's Hardball w/Chris Matthews: (Link)


On MSNBC's Countdown w/Keith Olberman (Link)


On CNN's Larry King Live w/Larry King (Link)


Official Trailer (Link)


--
a.Rias
poli-babble.blogspot.com

Public vs. Private Healthcare

A link (to more links) to help frame our understanding of the debate:

Public vs. Private Healthcare

http://bit.ly/c52Un

--
a.Rias
http://poli-babble.blogspot.com/

National Debt for Beginners

For anyone puzzled by economic catch phrases, code words and terms, I present (really NPR presents):

National Debt for Beginners

This is a good, concise piece putting national debt into context.

With the annual U.S. government deficit recently projected at $1.2 trillion (not counting additional spending expected from the fiscal stimulus package now before Congress) and President Barack Obama warning about "red ink as far as the eye can see," government debt is once again near the top of the policy agenda. Which raises the question: What is government debt? And what's so bad about it?

National Debt for Beginners

--
a.Rias
http://poli-babble.blogspot.com/

Students as Investments?

We all may (or may not) know that the President wants to see an evolution of the education system, where merit and quality are enhanced for both teachers and students.

I got this from the Freakonomics blog from the NY Times (from Planet Money blog on NPR)
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What if teachers were paid based on the future income their students make. For example, student A grows up to make 100k a year. We look at the records and find the 20 teachers that taught student A and compensate them based on that. Compensation could be based on number of months spent with student.

That way the students would turn into "investments" for the teachers.
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I'm curious what you all think about this. Some questions come to mind:

1. What benefits could come out of compensating a teacher for a student's future earning potential?
2. What are the downfalls (could this benefit some teachers of areas that generally earn more than others [ie: arts teachers versus business teachers]).
3. Is this method of compensation flawed from the beginning (equating quality of education with money earned--some careers just don't pay as much as others, regardless of how talented you are)?
4. How else can student/teacher productivity be related to encourage high quality, meaningful education and educators?

--
a.Rias
http://poli-babble.blogspot.com/