The Bigger Bailout.

[Mark S.]

This week Poor Elijah (Peter Berger) provides some interesting
commentary on bailouts and education policy, and the Irascible
Professor chimes in with some comments on how poor we are at educating
students about personal fincance and larger economic issues. Here's a
snippet:

.... I am not a political operative. When it comes to Presidential
elections, I've almost always either voted for the losing candidate or
wound up wishing that the candidate I'd voted for had lost.
I'm also not an economist, although degrees in economics and finance
don't seem to have helped the masters of the universe in charge of our
economy. Every year I teach my eighth graders about the Great
Depression. We talk about how Americans in the 1920s spent more money
than they had. We talk about the enormous debt they ran up, and how
that debt finally caught up with the nation's overheated economy and
sank it. Every year some fourteen-year-old raises his hand and
observes, "Isn't that like what people do with credit cards
today?" ....

Read the entire article at:

http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-11-29-08.htm

Sincerely,

Dr. Mark H. Shapiro
Editor and Publisher
The Irascible Professor
http://irascibleprofessor.com

PS to our writers - the inbox is nearly empty. We could use a few
good articles.

[Herman Rubin]

Post by Mark S.
This week Poor Elijah (Peter Berger) provides some interesting
commentary on bailouts and education policy, and the Irascible
Professor chimes in with some comments on how poor we are at educating
students about personal fincance and larger economic issues. Here's a
.... I am not a political operative. When it comes to Presidential
elections, I've almost always either voted for the losing candidate or
wound up wishing that the candidate I'd voted for had lost.
I'm also not an economist, although degrees in economics and finance
don't seem to have helped the masters of the universe in charge of our
economy. Every year I teach my eighth graders about the Great
Depression. We talk about how Americans in the 1920s spent more money
than they had. We talk about the enormous debt they ran up, and how
that debt finally caught up with the nation's overheated economy and
sank it. Every year some fourteen-year-old raises his hand and
observes, "Isn't that like what people do with credit cards
today?" ....
http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-11-29-08.htm

The big problem with a balloon effect is when to get out.
However, there are many with investments which cannot be
bailed out quickly; money tied up in retirement funds or
other stocks and bonds.

The other part of the article dealt with education, with
both presidential candidates talking about everyone
going to college. There was mention of all being taught
to the extent of their abilities, but Poor Elijah did not
attack this problem at its source, age grouping.

We do not need to send nincompoops to college, or even
have them graduate high school. What we need to do is
to make our credentials meaningful by observing academic
standards, and not having the present rigid grades.

Teach children according to their abilities, not their
ages. Get rid of heterogeneous classes. Require
teachers to understand their subjects, and do not
ask them to teach a class in which the students have
greatly different abilities. And raise the standards.