It is no surprise that the economy is not in good shape. The Great Depression back in the late 1920's left the country stunned as hundreds of Americans began to find a home in the infamous "Hoovervilles". The newly elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt used his New Deal policy to try to bring about reform and reconstruction. Who will be the Franklin Roosevelt of 2009?
Based on the chart above the 2008 Financial Crisis appears to be a nightmare for most homeowners. Even the countries in Europe are beginning to feel the pinch of recession. From the 1980's to 2007 the housing prices began to increase rapidly to 200,000 until 2008, when the prices decreased by $50,000. If this trend continues, the the housing prices may decrease another $50,000, or even more. However, if things begin to look up, they will obviously decrease, but how much? As the prices in housing began to decrease, the amount of sub prime homeowners also began to increase. Although, once the housing prices decreased, the amount of sub prime homeowners began to increase even more. In 1990s, there was about four red dots mixed in with the black. Once the housing prices increased and drastically increased, the number of red dots also drastically increased.
It is quite extrodinary how the different countries in the world depend on eachother. Nevertheless, it is not a good thing when one begins to fail. Because there has been a decline in confidence in the banking systems, the United States, European Union, and also the United Kingdom have began to decline. Japan, China, and Russia have seemed to have a hold on their banking system, although it has had it's ups and downs. Currently, it would appear that the United Kingdom (in 2008) has dropped the most while leaving the United States and European Union in the dust. Our country is entering a long recession, and we are all going to feel it. What will be our"saving grace," and when will it happen?

Task one: http://www.cnbc.com/id/29082942



Task two:

Pork barrel is a government project (for example, Roosevelt's alphabet soup) that helps bring about a surplus of jobs (like the WPA) and can also bring about other benefits by making improvements through funds.



Earmark is something that can identify or help distinguish mark or characteristic.

Task three:

House and Senate views on the different projects and how much they are willing to spend differs. As it would seem, both the House and Senate are willing to spend more money on certain projects than others. For example, the Senate is willing to spend more for Energy and Homeland Security while the House is willing to spend more money for Medical, Bonds, Healthcare, and Infrastructure. Based on what they are willing to spend more money in, it would seem that the House refers to spend more money in Healthcare and Medical,w hich can directly help the people whereas Energy can help the environment.

Task four:

The House wants to use the stimulus plan to help aid education while the Senate wants to use tax cuts and help individuals and families. The House is willing to spend more money on electricity while the Senate wants to spend the money on medical research...ect (an idea of prok barrel)



Money will go to a new MTA in Washington D.C and other capitol projects (pork barrel)

However, the stimulus plan has all the earmarks of something great...but it is promising too much and giving hope to many people. Obama is trying to act as Roosevelt did when he used his "alphabet soup" which did help bring a surplus of jobs and bring about prosperity to the country, however many things that are included for the stimulus plan, in my idea are just an earmark. there is too much controversy at the present moment, and for everything to get done. it will take years...and who knows what shape the country will be in at that point.

Stimulus plan: Is it right for our country?

Obama's Plan:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/01/09/obamas_stimulus_package/


It has been known now, that recently inaugurated President Barack Obama has proposed a stimulus package which is estimated to cost about $775 billion over the next two years. This new package includes heavy tax cuts and a large cut in all of the governmental spending. The tax cuts include to cut taxes $500 for individuals and $1000 for couples. Other points that President Obama wants to hit in his stimulus package are to computerize all medical records in the
next five years, and to help change all educational facilities around the United States to a modern classroom environment. He also wants to expand the internet around the country and start to invest in science, research and technology, just as John F. Kennedy did.

Opinions:
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2009/01/10/team-obama-exlpains-stimulus-krugman-galbraith-not-buying.aspx


The basic idea of President Obama's stimulus plan is to create jobs, since the United State's has come face to face with their own recession. However, the conservatives are arguing that the stimulus package would "fatten" the rolls of the government employees. "...nine out of every ten new jobs will be in the private sector." Paul Krugman feel thats this new economic stimulus is not providing enough for a succesfull recovery. "The plan looks to weak." Another major point that is pointed out in this particular article is that, that chart shown estimates that unemployment will peak about 9%, however, how can they be so sure that something like this may actually happen? "We don't. It's a guess. Essentially, it's a guess made by a technician with a computer."

The main question is not, what will this new stimulus package do for the country, but what needs to be looked at is if this package is fit for THIS particular crisis.

McCain :)

John McCain feels that entrepreneurs are the "heart of American innovation." He feels that they create jobs for others (which is true) and better opportunities for others just in case they are fired are laid off. Therefore, entrepreneurs will always bring about a surplus of jobs. The economy at the present moment is in jeopardy and many businesses are laying off their workers. The small businesses can begin to grow while they are able to choose from hundreds of laid off workers, therefore the rate of the jobless will decrease. John McCain will keep the tax rate at 35% and he wants to maintain 15% rates on dividends. "Small businesses are the heart of the job growth."



John McCain also wants to ban Internet and cell phone taxes. Everyone in the United States uses their cell phone and their Internet at least 4 times or more in a day. By taxing people each time they make a phone call, or use the Internet, some people find it hard to afford to purchase one, since the economy is not doing well. McCain feels that, if someone uses their cell phone for emergencies only, and they need to call 911, they immediately get taxed. Students, who use the Internet for school, get taxed constantly. His main goal is to eliminate what threatens economic growth and prosperity. The one thing this country needs is economic growth and prosperity and i feel that the candidate should do whatever they could to keep our country as prosperous as possible. John McCain feels that it is important to keep the amount of jobs up in the country. Without jobs, there is a decrease in spending and everything begins to fall, like a domino affect. John McCain feels that cutting the tax rates could help the country prosper is indeed a good way to start. When corporate America begins to fail, what else can hold our country together without making everyone jobless and homeless? The small businesses are the key.

Fannie Mae&&Freddy Mac

The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) also known as Fannie Mae was founded in 1938 as a government agency that was created during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Fannie Mae is a government sponsered enterprise which is publicly owned that is used to make loans and loan guarentees. This helps provide liquidty to all of the primary mortgage markets.


Fannie Mae became a large monopoly in 1968, which is when the government stepped in (absence of Lassiez-Faire) and decided to convert half of Fannie Mae into a private corporation. The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC) also known as Freddie Mac was the other private corporation. Freddie Mac was created in 1970; the corporation buys mortgages on the secondary market, pools them and sells them as mortgage backed securities to investors.



Up until recently, Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac seemed "too big to fail", but because of the "behind the curtain" events, no one was watching out for the business. Therefore this eventually led to a domino effect, and the company slowly began to fail because of "extensive financial fraud." Both companies did not raise enough money to reassure Wall Street that they would be able to withstand a downturn. If both companies were being watched carefully, then people who did not own jobs would not have been given mortgages they would not beable to afford. This did not only happen with Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, but it also recently happened to AIG and Bear Stern. What this country needs is more support, and more people to watch the "behind the curtains" activites. Last year, Fannie Mae had 2.8 trillion dollars worth of mortgages and 23% of U.S mortgage debt.

The U.S government ended up taking control over Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac and decided to place the liabilities on the taxpayers of the United States. Both companies are now placed in the control of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. By seizing back both Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac the government will be preventing several actions.
1. If AIG, Bearn Stern, Leighman Brother's all fall, and there happens to be a company still standing, the last company standing could form into a monoply, which will create issues for example like during the times of the railroad monoplies under control on Vanderbilt.
2. If the government did not help, besides the most obvious, the economy beginning to fail, the people would loose their homes, all of their mortgages...ect.

Rape of Nanking (Nanjing)

The way that the Japanese had acted was gruesome and extremely horric for all to recall; whether the people were part of the rape and the invasions, or whether they are just learning about it. Over 300,000 people were killed and over 20,000 women were raped. As if the Rape of Nanjing wasn't enough, the Japanese government had completely denied it and stated that it had never occured. Despite the fact that there are still women alive today that were apart of this tragic time, the Japanese still had stuck by their word. It has been about 50 years and still the Japanese parliment has not apologized.

However, just recently the Prime Minister had apologized to all the women who were forced to serve in brothels. However, despite the poverty stricken Chinese women, non had applied to the Japanese fund. Though there were about 100 that had come out of the shadows. Many women are ashamed and it sickens them to recall this tragic time.

DBQ 17

European imperialism in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries had resulted in transferring areas of Africa and Asia into a colonial empire that had really only benefited the British. This was the case for British colonialism in India. As imperialism began to spread all throughout Europe, the colonizer and the colony itself did not see eye to eye. They both the positive and negative effects of imperialism began to show. Both the colony and the colonizers had a different view on what was happening to the countries. The British, who were the colonizers, had felt that what they were doing to the colony was helping it. They felt that it was right to be able to control a country and alter it as they please. The British had introduced to the colony many new things such as education, means of transportation and most importantly, better and quicker ways of communication (Doc 1). They felt that it would be good to educate the colonies the way that they were educated, passing on their knowledge of how things should work. The British had begun to bring peace and order to the colonies and they had created a good strong government (Doc 2). The English introduced a westernized and more modern education to the people of India. Not only did they westernize their education with modern sciences and modern life, but they also made a frame for them by establishing laws and courts of justice (Doc 3). The English also ran their government for them because they felt that they would not be able to run their government properly. The British were taking over India in a countless amount of ways. They had helped reduce the famine by bringing in a new form of irrigation. They felt that the people of India were living in a cleaner healthier environment because of the British rule. They also did away with the infanticide and the slave trade (Doc 4&5).

England may have been helping India in many ways, but they worked their way around helping the people of India to make sure that they were going to be able to benefit from it all the most. The British had begun using India to help them import raw materials. India had become the “agricultural colony of industrial England.” This lead to poverty all across India and the standard of living decreased rapidly (Doc 6). Little by little the responsibilities of the people of India began to slowly be ripped away from them (Doc 7). They ran their government, not even giving them a representative. They began to establish unfair laws and they lived off of India as if they were living on their own homeland. They took that that India had gained from their imperialistic acts (Doc 2). This had proved that both the colony and the colonizers had a different view on imperialism. England felt that what they were doing to the country was for the better and the people of the colony were going to agree with that they were doing. On the other hand the people of India were suffering from poverty and a very low stand of living. They had no say in their government and were not able to live their life the way they wanted to.

Imperialism was both good and bad for the different countries from all around the world. People wanted to be left alone and live their life the way they had wanted to. Not by the laws of a foreign country. Though on the other hand, other countries had enjoyed benefiting from the natural resources of another foreign country!