Real World Economics (redux) provides you an opportunity to add points to your RWE presentations on a weekly basis. Every week we do a (S-Option) Student Option choice in RWE I’ll choose one article from all student assignments. I will link that article to the blog and I will post a question or series of questions that you must answer. You may earn up to five points extra credit on the previous week’s RWE assignment. This work will count individually – you do not have to work with your partner. I will post the due date and time, however expect that it will be at 11:00 PM on Wednesday of the week assigned. Students from Government and Senior Current Issues may choose to answer RWE ‘redux’ for extra credit. All written blog assignments must adhere to posted Blogging Guidelines.
Article selection for 9/29/08 – from Courtney Berghuis
Wall Street crisis culmination of 28 years of deregulation – McClatchy News
This article does a really nice job of looking back over the past three decades in an effort to explain how we got to this crisis. I think you’ll find it illuminating. Now for the assignment. Identify four separate thoughts the author has provided – that helped bring on this crisis. Then explain each in paragraph form IN YOUR OWN WORDS. (Hint – there’s more than four in the article)
Assignment must be posted by 11:00 PM Wednesday.
For people, like myself, that have found themselves wondering how the heck the our economy could ever have ended up in such a mess that it is in today, this article is perfect for answering that question. It turns out that there are many reasons why our economy is the way it is.
One reason is that about the time when Ronald Reagan came into office he wanted more separation between the government and the economy. He wanted Americans to feel at ease when putting their money into the free market. This is not to say our bailout problems are all President Reagan’s fault, but that this way of thinking acted as the spark that lit the long trail of fuse that would eventually lead to the pile of dynamite that exploded three weeks ago.
Another factor that lead to the current economic crisis is the continued push for deregulation. The current billion dollar bailout is not the first of it’s kind. In the late ’80s, a $200 billion dollar bailout was needed to cover deregulated savings and loans. Sound familiar?! Despite this bailout, in which the money came from tax payers, the push for more deregulation never subsided.
In 1999, President Clinton signed the Financial Services Moderation Act. This act got rid of the Glass-Steagall Act that mandated the separation of banks, insurance companies, and security firms.
By this point, the spark lighting the fuse to that stack of dynamite is so close that there is definitely no way of avoiding an explosion. One of the most significant events that lead to this crisis is the fact that when we were so deep into regulation, if someone was to even speak up and mention that all this deregulating could be a bad thing, that person would have most likely been totally ignored, therefore, no one spoke up.
Put all of these events together and BOOM!!!-Economic crisis in the United States.
Rachel you get TEN POINTS because you TRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nice job! ONE MORE BECUZ IT’S REALLY GOOD! 11
thanks mr.wood!