I've been wondering over the last couple years during this financial mess, why did we allow those financial institutions to become "too large to fail" in the first place? Aren't there some kind of regulations to prevent that?
Today, I learned a little more about our country's economic history and about the Glass-Steagall Act. Some smart people are recommending setting things back up the way they were when the economy was running smoothly. Sounds pretty reasonable to me. So I decided to write a letter to my Senators and Representative in Congress.
Here's the text of that letter:
Can you please introduce a bill to put the Glass-Steagall Act (Banking Act of 1933) back in place and/or other regulations such as those that served our country so well after the Great Depression? If the deregulation of the ‘80’s and ‘90’s (Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) hadn’t repealed provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act, I’m sure we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now.
Before the Depression, there was a credit crisis in this country every 10 to 15 years. Then after the Depression when the regulations were put in place, the economy was running smoothly. We didn’t have a problem again until after Congress started removing those regulations.
Another suggestion:
I’m sure we will repeat this financial disaster if we continue to allow institutions to become “too big to fail”. Can we not use the existing anti-trust laws to break up these organizations so that this doesn’t happen again?
If these suggestions are not feasible, please explain why.
Thank you.
I've been hearing a bunch about Google Wave, but didn't really know what it was. I just wanted a simple idea of what it
- Google Wave is a web-based application (like google maps, gmail, etc.).
- It's basically next-generation email (what would email look like if it were invented today).
- You would use Wave instead of your other email client (such as GMail or Outlook) to communicate with people.
- The name came from the show, "Firefly", in which communications are referred to as waves.
- A "wave" is like an email thread -- as people reply, the additional content gets added to the wave.
- You specify which people are on the wave -- sortof how you would specify the recipients of an email.
- If you shut down Google Wave and then later re-open it, you'll see if people have updated any of your waves -- just like you see when something new arrives in your inbox in regular email.
- If you're currently looking at a wave and someone on the wave updates it, you see the updates in real-time (character by character). In this way, it's like IM, but better -- you don't have to wait through the "so and so is typing..." before you get to read it, so it's much faster communication.
- Multiple people can edit the same wave at the same time and see eachother's changes in real-time.
- You can drag and drop images onto a wave -- this requires Google gears, I think.
- You can add content anywhere in the wave -- like replying to a bunch of questions in an email "in-line".
- When someone new is added to the wave, they see the whole thing and can "replay" the evolution of the wave from its beginning to see how it changed over time.
- You can do a kind of sub-wave if you want to keep something private from the whole group that might be on the entire wave.
- Embedding/Blogging: You can embed a wave widget somehow in your blog (or in any site/application, etc.). Then if you add the proper "bloggy" robot user or whatever to the conversation the wave automatically is published to the blog. Comments made to the wave on the blog get updated real-time back in the regular wave client.
- It's open sourced
- There's an API that developers can use to do more stuff with Wave and extend it.
For more, there's an hour and twenty minute video here: http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html#video
Earlier today, upon the inauguration of President Barack Obama, I said that I was proud to be an American again. Something has always troubled me about that phrase, though; “proud to be an American”. Does it mean “I’m proud that I’m an American”?
I’m definitely happy that I’m an American. I’ve always been happy, always glad to be an American. I’ve always felt very fortunate that I was born in this country and for all the benefits that have come with it. I’ve traveled to several other countries and couldn’t imagine not calling the USA home.
But pride is different. I’m proud of positive things that I’ve personally done that have taken effort. For instance, I’m proud of my college degrees, I’m proud of the business I’ve grown, I’m proud of my landscaping projects, and I’m proud of my marriage.
I can also be proud of other people for the things that they have done. For example, I’m proud of my wife for her successes in her education and career. I’m proud of my friends and family for their accomplishments. If I had children I’m sure I would be proud of them for their achievements.
Immigrants to the US, who have had to struggle to attain their citizenship have a right to be proud of their US citizenship. But I never did anything special for mine. I was just born here. For me, being proud of my American-ness is like being proud that I’m human, or have brown hair, or that I’m relatively tall, or anything else I had no control over.
So instead of saying that I’m proud to be an American, let me say that I’m again “proud of America”.
I couldn’t have said that honestly for a long time. I was not proud of America during most of the George W. Bush administration. I was not proud that our government removed freedoms from its people. I was not proud of the corruption in our federal government. I was not proud that Bush usurped powers to the point of undermining the government’s system of checks and balances. I was not proud that Bush escaped legal action for the crimes he committed. I was not proud that under the Bush administration, scientists trying to help humanity and future generations – to explain global climate change and urge action, for example – were ignored and/or ridiculed. I’m not proud that industries reliant on math and science in America are losing ground to those in other countries. I was not proud that our government changed its policy of peace to a policy of war. I was not proud that the Bush administration killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people abroad. I’m not proud of the immeasurable damage our government has done to its people, people around the world and to its reputation.
But today, I’m very proud of America. I’m proud of my country, my fellow Americans, for having elected such an intelligent and ethical leader. I’m proud of Barack Obama for what he has achieved on this historic day. I expect to be proud of President Obama for his accomplishments in the coming years. I’m proud of America for having begun to repair the damage done by the Bush administration.
