Both Sides of the Story

With my parents and grandparents being staunch GOP supporters, I was pushed into a conservative mindset ever since I was a young child. The test telling me that I am a Main Street Republican comes as no surprise, for FOX News seems to perpetually be on the television sets in my home. Regardless of my predetermined feelings on issues, I do enjoy hearing the other side of the argument in order to not be ignorant of good details and valid viewpoints. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote a very nice piece on the government shutdown and the Republican faults in the issue. Although I feel at some points he is being very narrow minded, his opinions seem to have a solid backing.

As a historically Liberal writer, Krugman obviously points out many Republican stances that are causing this temporary shutdown. I do agree with him that it would be asinine for Republicans to refuse the raising of the debt ceiling because of their positioning against Obamacare. That can cripple our rebuilding economy and push us back into yet another Depression. I just wish that Krugman would address both sides of the issue a little more rather than just beating down on one party. In every disagreement there are two sides to a story and he is just giving his readers a very one-sided viewpoint. Articles like this are great to read if the person agrees with the stance and wants reassurance on their opinions, but for a person that wants factual information on both sides of the issue, it is not very helpful.

Racism to Blame for GOP’s Fight Against ObamaCare?

Although I am still finding my own voice and forming my own opinions, the quiz reaffirmed that I am a “main street Republican.” Some things that I know for sure: I am pro choice and I believe the government is too big right now–spending is out of control and our deficit is a major concern. 

Still Making Demands?

I enjoyed taking the political quiz to begin this exercise, however I felt that the polarity of the choices undermined the real potential of asking tough questions and may not offer the most complete political profile.   Of course, the face value of a twenty-question quiz is not equal to rational, informed decision-making when choosing a political stance.  Forming insightful, rational opinions is the theme of this week’s blog, and a crucial skill for forming an individual opinion.  While it may seem trivial, many of us (myself included) often take headlines and statistics as fact, and base our reaction and response off of that information alone.  Just as a political quiz may present “obvious” options for many questions, they may not truly be the best answers.

Does Bigger Mean Better?

The Original TBTF one way ticket to icy fun

It should be noted that we have seen the notion of  “too big to fail” long before Congressman Stewart Mckinney’s use in the 1984 Congressional hearing. There was once a ship, a rather large one called the Titanic , whose creators believed that its size and technological advances made it indestructible. The biggest ship of its time, it set off on its maiden voyage to much glory and praise. It was in every sense,  “too Big to fail”. We all know how this story ends. (Side note: Titanic was financed by J.PMorgan). I think it is hard, especially after watching the film, to think the notion of  “too big to fail” does not still exist. The 6 largest banks in the U.S control more than 66% of the $13.1 trillion worth of assets in the economy. These figures stand as evidence as to how much  larger these banks have been allowed to grow. With the events that unfolded in the film, one would think government would put measures in place to make sure the exact opposite of this happened. The financial industry has slowly come under more and more of a monopoly for these larger banks as they absorb smaller banks in their path. It was interesting to see that one of the solutions presented was merging banks to make them even larger despite their already large size was the reason for the problems being faced. There is a dire  need for government intervention to help regulate the market and reduce the power these corporations have over the global market. These banks were given federal funds to increase lending as a way to increase capital in the market. Instead they showed their true greed and reduced lending to one of its lowest levels in years. As former politician David Stockman said, ” If they’re too big to fail, they’re too big to exist. They should be broken up, reduced in size if we’re to have a safe and stable financial market.”(http://marketsanity.com/banks-too-big-to-fail/).  However, with the ongoing shutdown it seems the government has a hard enough time regulating their own day to day business to take control of the market.  These institutions should have never been given the power to cripple the entire global economy. But as the saying goes, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.