September 10, 2013

So much sassafras, New York Times

Image taken from New York Time’s A Viewer’s Guide to the N.Y.C Mayoral Candidates

The New York Time’s coverage of New York’s mayoral elections is surprisingly… sassy. They’ve summarised each candidate by categories such as by their boldest idea pitched or their biggest blunder so far. Take a look at the some of the cheek the Times has put into describing each candidate.

Boldest idea

Weiner: Single-payer, universal health care in New York City.
De Blasio: Universal prekindergarten, paid for by a tax on those earning more than $500,000.
Albanese: Variable toll prices on bridges, based on hour of the day and availability of mass transit.
Quinn: Building 80,000 new units of affordable housing.
Liu: Raising the minimum wage to $11.50 an hour.
Salgado: Creating a city-issued identification card for undocumented immigrants.
Thompson Jr.: Hiring 2,000 new police officers.
Lhota: Transferring control of bridges and tunnels from the M.T.A. to city government.
McDonald: Get the city to buy from local suppliers.
Catsimatidis: Bringing the World’s Fair back to New York.
Carrion Jr: Giving parents online access to student academic and disciplinary records.

Biggest blunder

Weiner: Where to begin?
De Blasio: Keeping a campaign staff member who sympathized with a killer of four people and cursed at the Police Department on Twitter.
Albanese: Hasn’t committed it yet, but we are watching.
Quinn: Opposing family-friendly paid sick-leave legislation until its backers outmaneuvered her. Can women forget that?
Liu: Incessantly reminding voters of the scandal surrounding his campaign.
Salgado: We’ll tell you once candidate forums start allowing him on stage.
Thompson Jr.: “No new tax” pledge may be impossible to keep. (See police officers, 2,000 new.)
Lhota: Calling Bloomberg an “idiot” in earshot of a reporter.
McDonald: Scaring off donors by breaking campaign finance rules.
Catsimatidis: Hmm. His plan to give bullies their own school?
Carrion Jr: Failure to persuade Republican leaders to let him on their ballot.

What you will find endearing

Weiner: The candor of a man with nothing left to lose.
De Blasio: His son’s epic Afro.
Albanese: Refuses to take donations from lobbyists or developers.
Quinn: Having a lesbian with that accent in Gracie Mansion.
Liu: His brothers are all named after a Kennedy.
Salgado: Ends conversations with “God bless you.”
Thompson Jr.: His earnest attempts at Yiddish.
Lhota: Tipsy posts on Twitter, like this one: “Oops! Yankees 10 (not 18), Sox 3 (too much wine).”
McDonald: The story of the Doe Fund, his nonprofit job-training organization.
Catsimatidis: His tendency to tear up at any moment, Boehner-style.
Carrion Jr: A fluency in Spanish now missing from City Hall.

What will grate on you

Weiner: Four months of penis puns in The New York Post.
De Blasio: Occasionally lapses into liberal-activist speak.
Albanese: Sometimes holier-than-thou claims of independence.
Quinn: That wall-piercing laugh. Just wait for it.
Liu: Populism that can border on pandering.
Salgado: Depending on perspective, the intermingling of faith and politics.
Thompson Jr.: Does he ask a lot of rhetorical questions? Yes, he does.
Lhota: Mr. Giuliani’s return to the campaign trail.
McDonald: The candor of a first-time candidate. Asked about Asian businesses, he praised his local masseur for cheap relaxation.
Catsimatidis: Mangled syntax.
Carrion Jr: Dull debate performances.

Relationship with Bloomberg

Weiner: Antagonistic.
De Blasio: Chilly.
Albanese: Nonexistent.
Quinn: It’s complicated.
Liu: Outright hostile.
Salgado: Once stood next to him for a photograph.
Thompson Jr.: As variable as the weather.
Lhota: Technocratic kinship.
McDonald: Philanthropic. The mayor donates to his charity.
Catsimatidis: Billionaire neighbors.
Carrion Jr.: Cordial.

Nightmare scenario

Weiner: TMZ tracks down that sixth woman.
De Blasio: Anthony D. Weiner enters the race.
Albanese: Finishing last.
Quinn: Becoming another Bella Abzug, who was the race’s undisputed star in 1977 but squandered her commanding lead.
Liu: Taking the stand in the trial of his former campaign treasurer.
Salgado: Mr. Sharpton leaves MSNBC and runs for mayor (again).
Thompson Jr.: Black voters defect to another liberal, like Bill de Blasio, whose wife is black.
Lhota: New Yorkers fall in love with John Catsimatidis.
McDonald: Will be forced to give back thousands in campaign contributions.
Catsimatidis: Major food poisoning outbreak is traced back to Gristedes.
Carrion Jr.: Latino Democrats somehow hear about Mr. Salgado.

Bottom line

Weiner: Mayoral campaigning as group therapy.
De Blasio: With the right campaign, he can squeak into the runoff.
Albanese: His best shot was probably in 1997.
Quinn: She is the front-runner. Until she isn’t.
Liu: Long hours on the trail will only take him so far.
Salgado: Pray for him.
Thompson Jr.: Expect a late surge to put him in the runoff. (His rivals do.)
Lhota: Long-shot Republicans have a knack for becoming mayor in this city.
McDonald: If lightning strikes.
Catsimatidis: It will, at the very least, be entertaining.
Carrion Jr.: He is a Republican nominee’s dream — unlikely to win, but certain to lure away Democratic voters.

September 6, 2013

When even banks flee from college loans

From CNBC:

The largest bank in the United States will stop making student loans in a few weeks.

Even banks, who have been known to fish around troubled waters for revenue, such as with mortgage-backed securities during the subprime mortgage crisis, are pulling out of providing further loans to college students who want to take out a loan.

Why? Because college tuition is mounting, and as college students take out more loans to be able to afford that, only to graduate into joblessness or low-paying jobs that are insufficient for them to service their repayments, many default on their loans, causing banks losses.

I bet the student loan sector is so dismal that even the most creative of banks cannot re-package it into a lucrative derivative product. Unless the investors are really that daft.

With over $1 trillion in outstanding loans, the second highest in the country, over $8 billion in default, and about 13% of payers defaulting within three years of servicing their loan, no wonder JP Morgan Chase wants out of this rapidly-collapsing market.

And of course, loans from JP Mogan Chase are a variable prime rate subject to market forces, unlike federal loans, and should interest rates go up, more students are likely to default and less students will be willing to take these loans out.

It is not so much that the jobs students are taking are less capable of living a standard life than they were decades ago; job wage increment has been slight but at least still barely keeping with inflation (2-3% wage increase vs 2-3% inflation) in the past two years. Compare that with tuition increase in the past two years, which has increased by 4-5%, plus state funding for colleges have fallen 15% in the past six years.

The problem is most definitely with the free-wheeling increase of tuition costs with no seeming checks. I have written about this previously and how if we are to maintain the momentum of development and progress in the country, something must be done to the incendiary college side of rapidly rising tuition costs, rather than just working on the palliative side of the solution of providing more government aid.

August 21, 2013

Making the progress of the country affordable

From the New York Times:

Obama to Offer Plans to Ease Burden of Paying for College

It is about time the wildly sky-rocketing prices of a college education be addressed. While not actually depressing or stemming the increase in tuition, offering more aid is just as good a solution as any.

It must be, and I believe it is, recognised that a college education is ultimately how a country can begin progress. Oh don’t get me wrong, a college education is not necessary for an individual to be successful and happy in life — a person who has never been to college, through innovation, hard work and the right mixture of conditions can live the life he or she wants to. I’m talking about advancement and success at a national level.

A lot of the “better life” we talk about is made capable through invention — green energy, more effective farming methods, waste reduction technologies, communication, etc. — all these are the results of research and development, most if not all, made possible by researchers and scientists who have had to start in college. There are not many prodigies around who, without having to go to college, are capable of inventions at a scale enough to impact a nation as a whole; most innovations are from the toil of thousands of regular scientists who become proficient at what they do from having received the know-how and training from college and university. If a prodigy is the equivalent of a hundred scientists, rather than focus trying to find the wayward genius, it makes more sense to groom a hundred scientists instead.

If the very basic step of even attaining a bachelors remains out of reach to many because “college is too expensive”, and there might be countless untapped future inventors and pioneers waiting for the right academic environment to unleash their potential, a lot of talent and potential is wasted; all that is achieved is college heads having their pockets lined with more money.

Why is college the vital stepping stone, and not say, high school, to a country’s advancement? It is true to say that every step along of the path of education contributes to innovation’s path, but high schools being unaffordable is not quite a problem in this country, college is.

The government is investing in the country’s future when it decides to give students access to their own ingenuity by helping make the tools affordable; knowledge, and an environment to inspire.

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August 20, 2013

The forgotten news

Today, we have two headlines from Asia:

North Korean Defectors Tell U.N. Panel of Prison Camp Abuses

Tank Has Leaked Tons of Contaminated Water at Japan Nuclear Site

When was the last time the news talked about either North Korea or of the Fukushima nuclear plants? After the buzz over Kim Jong Un succession and vague threats made died down, after the outcries at the displacement of citizens and the following nuclear contamination have but settled, what now? No one pays attention to these countries any more, because these stories are not shared around on the internet as much as they were when the events freshly happened.

That is the way the news work, I suppose. It is as much the news creating what the readers want to read as it is the news telling readers what to read.

It makes one wonder what is the point of being up-to-date with global news unless one was directly affected by it, or has vested in it. What is the point of me being aware that the Fukushima debacle isn’t yet resolved, and that Kim Jong Un, while no longer relevant to the current interest of the American public, represents a continuation of a long history of human rights abuses?

Other than the self-satisfaction of knowing that I know what’s happening around the world, what’s the value of that knowledge? Conversation fodder? Surely the news must be worth more than that.

I think being involved in world news is part of what being a global citizen is about — that we’re connected, and that as humans we care for each other, no matter how remote.

The Hexacoto

Category: News