The Economic Race For The Whitehouse

The Economic Race For The Whitehouse 

The race for the Whitehouse, not just the democratic vote, is already one of the most eagerly anticipated and hotly contested in American history. With the state that George W Bush is leaving the country in, the deciding of the 44^th American president is even more crucial. At the moment, one of the main distinguishing aspects of the potential candidates is their economic credentials. Gregory Mankiew’s blog provides an engaging insight into the economic issues that each candidate needs to address.          

The current American economic recession is causing concern across the globe. The next president is going to need strong economic credentials if they are to succeed. One blogger, an international economist, makes an interesting argument for democratic candidate Barack Obama. He states that Obama has a highly regarded, experienced economist on board and that his rival for the Democratic vote, Hillary Clinton, has no professional economist and her advisors are very much against globalisation (an important trade issue). Obama also boasts a better free trade policy than
Clinton, promising to give tax incentives to those who invest at home. 

Another blogger is finding the policy talk of the candidates slightly confusing. He states that Republican front runner John Mc Cain believes both Democratic candidates are going to pull out of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), which would have serious economic and international relations repercussions between Mexico and Canada, and the U.S. NAFTA is regarded as one of former American President Bill Clinton’s major accomplishments during his term as American president and also presided over one of the most economically successful periods in recent American history. This blogger is concerned that both Democratic candidates could be undoing some very important economic work. 

A blog post by the Wall Street Journal asks the interesting question “will comparable worth become a campaign issue?” The goal of ‘comparable worth’ is to ensure that jobs preformed mostly by men are not paid more than those preformed mostly by women. This blogger argues that both economic theory and history show that using this legislation, which is backed by both Clinton and Obama, is detrimental to the economy. He proposes that wages should be decided on supply and demand factors (economic) rather than social utility. It seems to me that this is an important enough topic to be debated by Republican and Democratic candidates before the election. 

Another economic blogger believes that John Mc Cain has the right economic policies to get his vote for candidacy. Mc Cain believes that, if he gets elected, he will be able to cut government spending sharply enough to reduce budget deficit while lowering taxes at the same time, something that previous presidents have failed to achieve. Mc Cain also believes that his pursuit of additional tax reductions will improve economic growth and he favours government mandates to halt global warming and Medicare costs, something President Bush was rarely interested in. Easy to see so, why the economic race for the Whitehouse is such an important an engaging one.

Sean O’Donohue

Assignment Complete

Well done to all contributors to this blog – I am immensely enjoying reading your intelligent and thought-provoking articles and comments and am very impressed with the high standard of analysis and commentary you have shown. I hope you have enjoyed this assignment and learnt something from posting your own blog as well as reading the blogs of others in the class.

I have disabled login for all users at this stage.

Good luck with your study and exams and enjoy the summer.

Irish economics, do we know enough?

For the last three weeks I have been reading a blog written by Gerard O’Neill on an Irish economic site, Turbulence Ahead. It is updated almost every day but aside from obviously giving his opinions and economical views on, generally what seems like simply, things that he has read from other sites, books, newspapers, etc. he raises some issues that people should perhaps know more about or be more interested in!

The first of which that I found interesting was recession. Something that most of us know that has being waiting to spring on Ireland for a while now. It is inevitable that it is going to happen because the massive boom in the property market has to lead to a crash. But what I found interesting was that in the article, “Woman and competition”, recession was tied in. The article was about how Irish people do not shop around for there goods or services to find the best deals or bargains, instead we simply shop at the most convenient place for us. This issue was raise because before the boom of the Celtic Tiger a lot more women were housewives and therefore shopped around to get better value for their money, but since the Celtic Tiger more women are working, thus shop for convenience rather than value for money. So if a recession were to happen then there would be less women working thus freeing up time to shop. But the irony is that they may not have the money to do so!

Staying with the subject of price, the second article I’d like to talk about is called, “The Farmers’ Turn”. The writer starts this article by saying “I am amazed at how little attention has been paid to the extraordinary trend in food related prices in Ireland in recent months.” He then went on to give the example of milk and cereal, and how cereal prices were up 67.7% and milk prices were up 49.5% in one year alone! I thought these to be really high figures for foods as general as cereal and milk! And then he went on to say how rising energy prices are fuelling rising food prices and eventually, because of a knock-on effect this will lead to higher interest rates. Shocked as I was to read this, although I do realise that it is put into extreme examples, it is still an issue that as O’Neill stated that he was amazed at how little attention it was getting. But then at the same time how much of this are the governments and banks telling us for us to know about these types of issues?

The conclusion to my blog about is Irish economy/economics is that in my opinion, from reading these articles, we as the general public do not know enough about our own economy to be prepared to cope with the best, a boom in the market, and to then be able to deal with the worse, a recession. We don’t seem to even know much, if anything, about what controls rates of interest? What will happen with a recession?

And with more and more of us getting into massive debt, weather it’s for a student loan, a house mortgage, a car mortgage, or even a holiday. The question on my mind is; have we as a country forgotten how to be prepared or even to simply save or money?

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Microsoft bids for Yahoo! A blessing in disguise or cause for concern? (by Alex McDonagh)

In the past there has been much talk of Microsoft buying out Yahoo, although the two companies have never come to an official agreement, the offer has been on the table for some time. If this deal is reached Microsoft would take control of all Yahoos’ online services such as Yahoos’ internet search engine, Yahoo mail and Flickr. If these two companies join, most believe that Microsoft would be in a better position to challenge Google in the internet marketplace.

Although the dealing between Yahoo and Microsoft have been rather ‘hush hush’ Microsoft has finally come clean and announced they have offered $44.6 billion dollars to seize control of Yahoo and all its subsidiaries. Most have varying views of the merger, some believe it is a good, some bad and others are in-between, wondering if this will cause somewhat of an unfair monopoly. If this merger does go through will Microsoft exercise the same inappropriate and some may say illegal influence over the internet as it did with the PC?

Microsoft and Yahoo executives finally meet, both willing to discuss Microsoft’s bid for taking over Yahoo. Although Microsoft is holding firm with their bid of 44.6 billion, Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang is unwilling to accept his counterpart in Microsoft Steve Ballmer’s offer, believing the Yahoo franchise is worth more. Microsoft is reluctant to raise its offer and have warned that if Yahoo continues to resist they will pursue a hostile takeover.

Some believe Microsoft’s take over of Yahoo is a good thing as it will be better able to compete with the ‘Big G’ (Google). Although Yahoo is reluctant to take Microsoft’s offer, it looks like that is their only option. While they have been trying to broker alliances with the likes of MySpace.com and AOL, Yahoo is backed into a corner with only two options. Accept Microsoft’s offer but try to negotiate a higher rate or try to do a deal with Google itself, but with the antitrust laws it is next to impossible for a Yahoo and Google deal to be accepted.
 

It is apparent that Yahoo is struggling, Microsoft is willing to buy them out, and with their financial resources they could launch a new face of Yahoo, maybe a better and more productive one. Nobody likes a monopoly; many believe that Google has monopolized the internet and advertising, and with no one at the forefront right now trying to compete with Google, maybe this deal is a blessing in disguise. A little competition never hurt anyone. 

Although Yahoo’s board are digging their heels in, trying to halt the Microsoft deal, they believe Microsoft is trying to take advantage of Yahoo’s recent weakness and steal the company out from under them. It looks like Microsoft may have to do some ousting of the board members to finally get Yahoo in their grasp. Soon enough a fight may ensue, on one side a struggling company bitterly holding on to their baby – Yahoo and on the other, Microsoft trying to ‘help’ the company and at the same time becoming a bigger competitor against Google and its internet domination.

The one thing that is clear is that this deal in not going to be done and dusted in a matter of weeks. Unless Yahoo gets its higher bid or Microsoft manages to drive out the Yahoo board members, we are going to be hearing about this attempted take over for a long time yet. When the dust settles and we see who has gained control, will there be smiles on people’s faces or worrying looks of the unknown, I guess only time will tell no matter what happens.
     
Blog Read: TechBlog By Dwight Silverman

Irish journalists who blog- A review of davidmcwilliams.ie (by Joseph Duggan)

 I decided to look for a blog in the area of journalism as it seems like an interesting line of work to pursue and it corresponds with my other 2^nd year Arts subject that is English.  It was hard to pick a suitable blog in this area with so many available but in the end I settled for a blog suggested to me by my lecturer. It is written by David Mc Williams, a well-known and respected Irish journalist.  Here is a link to the blog ww.davidmcwilliams.ie/category/articles.

David Mc Williams writes for both the Irish Independent and the Sunday Business Post and has a strong background in economics having held top ranking positions with the Central Bank of Ireland, UBS bank, and the Banque Nationale de Paris.  He has published two best selling books The Popes Children and The Generation Game which examine the economic landscape of modern-day Ireland and how it and the Celtic tiger was created.  Both these books were also made into successful television series.  His writing is noted for explaining his economic concepts in an easily understandable and entertaining way and this is visible in his blog posts.   Also evident in some of his blog posts is his renowned habit of trying to pigeonhole Irish people into easily recognisable sub-groups defined by their ‘clever’ descriptive titles such as Bono Boomers, DIY Declans, Low GI Janes, Breakfast Roll Man, Yummy Mummy and the HiCos.  This can be seen in the post ‘Sliver lining for Ryanair in economic turbulence’ where he talks of ‘the Deckmen’ who live in Dublin’s commuter belt and are obsessed with outdoor barbeques and decks.  Due to his background his blogs deal primarily with social and economic issues on both a national and international level.  These issues include American politics and its influence on Ireland, the EU and immigration, Ryanair, Northern Ireland and globalisation.  In his posts he regularly looks to history to inform and explain his view of the present and his predictions for the future.  For example in ‘We pay for America’s lunch’ he compares the current situation of the dollar’s decreasing value against the euro to events during the 12th and 13th centuries in Venice. 

Many of the issues he writes about are thought provoking and there are lots of comments left on the blog.  Many of the comments are lengthy and you can see that many who do comment do it regularly on various posts.  From the comments you can tell it has a readership both in Ireland and overseas where many of its readers would be of the Irish diaspora.  One nice touch to the blog is that as well as leaving a comment you also have the option to rate each post out of 5 in one click at the bottom of each post.

I think this is a very interesting and thought-provoking blog and I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Ireland today, where it’s going and the economics behind it and even if you weren’t of an Irish persuasion it is still worth a look for it’s insights into Europe, the US and the economic world in general in this age of globalisation.

The Relevance of Mathematics Today (by Mary Keegan)

The Relevance of Mathematics Today

In the blog I choose for my assignment ‘Mathematics under the Microscope’ the author writes on the subject of mathematics and the author’s own views and thoughts on the subject. More interestingly from my point of view the author also writes about a comment left to them, about an exam paper which was produced in 1987, but is, what the author feels, still very relevant in today’s world. One of the more interesting questions on this paper I found was, ‘discuss the public image of mathematics’. I think the answers we would give to this question today would be very different than the answers that were given in 1987. One of the reasons for this, in my opinion, is technology.

Today I feel a lot of people don’t see the need for mathematics after secondary school or some even primary school. I think people feel that as long as they can multiply or subtract for example, that they will never find the need for any thing else related to mathematics. The Pythagoras’ Theorem or complex numbers seem very irrelevant to them especially if they intend on pursuing a career outside the area of mathematics. They see maths as a complete waste of time.

I think one of the reasons for this feeling of irrelevance towards mathematics is the new and improving world of technology. Take the example of the calculator. In the year 2003, calculators were permitted to be used in State examinations across the country. In my opinion, the reduced the need for basic mathematics in secondary school has led to the demise of the public’s image of maths. Even jobs who only use mathematics from time to time, feel that the calculator and other improving technology will always be there to assist them. This leads me to think that in the future maybe maths will become an optional subject in schools. Every year we hear of results slipping in mathematics in leaving cert and junior cert exanimations and sometimes I feel this is due to maybe resentment towards the subject. I fear that this resentment towards the subject may one day become something like the resentment a lot of people feel towards the subject of Irish. I think however that maths is something we will always need in everyday life. We won’t always have a calculator with us when we need it (although the mobile phone is quickly making up for this).

However on reading one of the old posts from the blog ‘Mathematics under the Microscope’, I feel there is some hope. The author feels that mathematics is a ‘weapon of personal empowerment’. I feel if more people began to understand the need for mathematics that its public image will grow.

However in this same article the author also discusses the lack of women involved in the subject of mathematics. The author feels that it is not an issue of women being ‘less capable of independent thinking’ than men but more that women remain a ‘disadvantaged group of our society’. The author believes that the way to introduce women into mathematics is as stated by the author ‘when promoting mathematics, we should put more stress on its personal empowerment aspect; we should encourage competitiveness and independent thinking’. I think this is a very valid point and one that should be said not just to women but to everyone. I think people, both men and women, who have problems with mathematics all feel the same and should be informed of the empowerment one feels when the solve a mathematics questions.

I’m not saying I don’t agree with calculators and other technologies being used when it comes to mathematics, just that I don’t think they should be relied on for all our problems. From my own experience in university, mathematics as a subject is rising amongst female students and I hope it will remain like this in the future.

• Mathematics Under the Microscope

Final deliverable … comment on 5 blogs

Third deliverable: By Friday 11^th of April (or earlier) you should have chosen 5 blog entries by your class and have left a comment on each of the 5 blogs. Note:

• You should indicate, as a comment in your own blog, which 5 blogs you have commented on and also include in each comment your own name.

• The comments must be polite and should also be written in a formal style. They can range in length from approx. 4 to 10 sentences. Note that comments are moderated therefore they will not appear immediately – I have to approve them first.

• I have already commented on a few blogs to give you an idea of what is required:
  Programming as the new Literacy
  The 2008 American Presidential Election (Patrick Gillespie)
  Clinical Psychology: Questioning the role of the leaders(Niall Abberton)
  The Defensive World of Statistics (and those who defend it)

Motivation in schools.

My blog consists of different ways to motivate students to work in schools.  What works and what doesn’t work, to motivate students to do better in school. It is written by Kevin Bushweller and Katie Ash, both from a magazine called Education Week in the U.S. 

I started reading it three weeks ago and since then they have raised issues such as; is homework a good idea, bizarre teaching styles, cash rewards for students and why lunch break matters.  

On the homework issue Katie gave the results of a survey on the blog, which was in an article on edweek.org , the web page of the magazine.  The article says that 85 percent of American parents believe that their children are doing either “the right amount” or “too little” homework. Three quarters of the students said they had adequate time to complete their homework.  All in all from the survey both students and parents think that homework is beneficial.  Those students who taught it was a bad idea were generally not interested in school or were struggling with the work they got. In another blog entry Katie talked about a strange teaching style she came across.  In a letter to the editor of the magazine a teacher told of how when she was substituting in a school she walked into a class where the normal teacher let them read comic books instead of standard English texts.     “These boys and girls, all from working-class families, many of them children of immigrants, were devouring the comic books, and were reading for pleasure for the first time”.   The comics got the students interested in reading and then they started to read conventional novels.  Katie proposed that educational video games should be introduced in the classroom, even though they wouldn’t be as educational as books they’d get students interested in a subject.

 On the subject of cash rewards for students the blog explores if they work or not to motivate students.  In a poll that was conducted many people taught that cash rewards would not motivate students to work, in fact 81% of those that were asked the question said it wouldn’t work.  Only 43 out of 230 people taught it was a good idea.  It is true to some degree I suppose to say that students who are not motivated in the first place would want a big cash reward for them to work well, while the motivated students are going to work anyway to achieve they’re goals.  So I think I have to agree with the point that it wouldn’t improve students motivation, and if it did it would be very slight. 

The last blog entry a few weeks ago which is very interesting is about break time during school hours. Is it a good idea or not in motivating students.  And also is it worth taking the risk that the children might get injured physically while on their break.  I think this point is extremely valid as many schools round our own country have band some physical games of which some students get only exercise from their week, just because the insurance is too high.  In the blog the point is put across that even though the students may receive injuries both mentally and physically from break times it still is the only time during the school day that the student can unwind and do what they want to do, within certain rules and boundaries.  This helps them to be more attentive when they do return to their class work.

This blog on motivation does visit some valid points as to ways to get students to work to their full capabilities. What’s working now, what’s not working and what could work in the future.

Language and Thinking

Stop for a moment and try and clear all thoughts from your mind. You will probably find it very difficult. What sort of thoughts keep popping into your mind? Are they mostly words and sentences? It seems very possible that language plays some role in thinking, but what is the role and how important is it? A very interesting article in the blog Cognitive Daily outlines some research carried out on this topic.

Research suggests that language is not required for all types of mental processes, just some of them. However the research carried out thus far does not take into account people with specific language impairments, aphasia or people who are deaf. Could problems with language have an effect on one’s thought processes? One of the readers who commented on the article in question made an excellent point – some people think visually i.e. in terms of pictures, more than they do in terms of words. Some people can explain or understand concepts better if they are in the form of diagrams or pictures. Perhaps this is how people with language difficulties or impairments think. It would be interesting to see how people with such impairments would perform on tasks involving reasoning or on the change-location task described in the article. This would answer the question of whether or not thoughts require language more certainly.

The test outlined in the article cannot prove for definite that language is a requirement for conscious thought. As some of the readers have pointed out in their comments, the reason so many participants failed the false-belief test whilst being verbally distracted could be because solving the false belief problem and language processing need the same brain centers (the same area of the brain could be in use for both tasks). A particular brain center normally can only carry out one task at a time, and because language processing requires more energy than the other task, attention is focused on the former and it is carried out successfully. Similarly, tapping out a rhythm requires less attention than repeating words heard through a headphone, and so is less of a distraction. This is a very plausible explanation for participants performing with a rhythm distraction performing better than those solving the problems with a verbal distraction.

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is what gave rise to the study of the role of language in thinking. The theory is, very briefly, that how we explain and understand different concepts is constrained by the language we speak. We cannot think about things that do not exist in our vocabulary. This suggests that language is an absolute must for reasoning about things. However, like the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, this has not been fully proven through research.There may be some truth to the hypothesis. How else do we reason about things or contemplate things, if not by the use of our own language? Differing languages would not, as Whorf suggested, stop us from perceiving items or concepts described using vocabulary other than our own, because we can translate that vocabulary to words similar to words in our own. We can learn to understand the vocabulary of other languages in terms of our own vocabulary. This is what we have to do when learning a foreign language, is it not?

Conclusion

It is a plausible possibility that language is required for some aspects of thinking and thought formation, but much research is yet to be done on the subject. It is not yet clear what implications this could have for those with specific language impairments, deafness or other language – related difficulties. It is not clear what sort of thought language is necessary for, although reasoning and abstract thought are good candidates.

The 2008 American Presidential Election (Patrick Gillespie)

The 2008 American presidential primaries have dominated the news both in America and around the world since they began in January in Iowa. There are many websites devoted to the presidential race, such as this blog. While the Republican presidential candidate has been chosen, the Democratic candidate has yet to be chosen. The Democratic campaign has been extremely close with no end in sight.

When the Republican primaries began there was no clear frontrunner and it was uncertain who would eventually gain the nomination. John McCain, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee were the most popular out of a total of seven candidates. John McCain eventually became the leading candidate due to his victories on Super Tuesday. Super Tuesday occurred on 5 February 2008, when twenty-four states voted in primaries or caucuses, the largest amount of states voting on any one day.

None of the other candidates managed to catch up to John McCain’s large delegate lead and McCain finally secured the nomination during Super Tuesday II. Super Tuesday II contained the second largest number of simultaneous presidential primaries after Super Tuesday with primaries in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont. McCain won the primaries in all four states and passed the necessary 1,191 delegates to secure the Republican nomination.

The main focus of the media has been on the Democratic presidential primaries. The historic Democratic contest has been extremely close, much closer than the Republican contest. The primaries are still ongoing with a Democratic nominee for the presidency still to be decided. The two main candidates are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. John Edwards was previously one of the main contenders for the nomination but early disappointing showings led to him dropping out of the race on January 30^th. The race is historic because if Clinton is nominated, she will be the first female presidential candidate, whereas if Obama is nominated he will be the first black presidential candidate. Obama currently holds a lead over Clinton with just over 150 more delegates.

Hillary Clinton made a recent comeback against Obama by winning in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island on Super Tuesday II, with Obama winning Vermont. It was a crucial day for Clinton. Prior to Super Tuesday II, Obama had won 11 primaries and caucuses in a row, surpassing Clinton’s delegate count. Clinton had previously been the leading Democratic candidate and had been the favourite to win the nomination. She needed to win the delegate-rich states of Ohio and Texas to stop Obama’s momentum. Many leading democrats suggesting she should drop out of the race should she not win in Ohio and Texas. Clinton’s wins have given new life to her campaign, however the race is still extremely close.

However despite his losses Obama’s delegate lead is essentially intact. Despite Clinton’s victories, due to the nature of the primaries she has only narrowed the gap by 12 delegates, leaving the current delegate count at 1,362 to 1,210 in favour of Obama. It takes 2,025 delegates to secure the nomination. All indications point to a prolonged campaign.