Ryan Wey's Blog

Inequality and the American Dream

2009-12-09T06:04:00.000-08:00

In this article written by the European Magazine "The Economist" the author discusses the downfalls of the American Economic System. The introduction of the article shows that American business is performing well and profits are fat. The author then goes to show that while businesses on the whole are doing well, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing very fast. This is effectively "squeezing" the middle class as he calls it. Apparently data processing and accounting jobs which are "white collar" jobs are being outsourced. I have no heard much new of accounting jobs being outsourced but we will continue on with article. Apparently the poorest of jobs are incapable of being outsourced (cleaning and table waiting). I think that these jobs are under the fire of immigration from peoples outside the U.S. entering to work. Obviously these jobs cannot be outsourced and this is a gap in the author's logic.

The author is right though when it comes to his idea of social mobility in the economic system. I believe that the first and second conditions which allow for inequality are true where the third is faulty. 1.) society as a whole is getting richer - true
2.) there is a safety-net for the very poor - true
3.) everybody regardless of race, class, creed, or sex, has an opportunity to climb up through the system - false
Because local and public schools are funded by locally based funds. It does not take a brilliant economist to realize that schools in poor districts will not have adequate funds to operate a successful school. Also, the political relationships between labor unions and political parties create more of an unequal opportunity to allow for social mobility. This education system is the most important aspect and must be fixed for there to be true gaps in inequality. Where poor underprivileged students can still get the same type of education that middle and upper class students take for granted.

Don't Blame the Eater, Blame Ronald

2009-12-09T05:49:00.000-08:00

David Zinczenko makes some good points and insights regarding the health of many young people across the world in this short essay. The issue is complex though as it is not as easy as just placing warning labels on the hazardous big macs and others that are served in fast food restaurants. A warning label on a hamburger I am afraid will not be read 75% of the time. If we are talking about lower income families that are eating McDonalds frequently throughout the week, the chance that these families can even read is quetsionable. My mom frequently tells me of stories where patients come in to her hospital without following the procedures necessary to undertake surgery. The patients are mailed a packet of information that must be read and tells the patients what they can and can't do prior to surgery. Most often they are not supposed to eat 12 hours until the surgery. My mom usually tell me that these people cannot read the packets they are sent and do not follow the directions.

I think that the bigger problem with these issues lies in the education system. The education system could effectively solve all these problems under one broad spectrum. Requiring classes which stress personal health and dieting habits could help these students learn to control their diets and lead a healthy lifestyle. This educational approach can not be used to solve all ailments though, and the author lends to the fact that they just did not have enough money to buy any other food alternatives. The parents of these children carry the burden here and have a responsibility to monitor the foods that their children eat. This is what a parent is created for, the need to GUIDE your children on the decisions they should be making. But, I do think that Zinczenko's suggestions would help the situation regarding fast food. I am also unsure as to how effectively these companies can be sued for making children fat. If the company is complying with all current laws they could have a hard time creating a basis for their lawsuit.

Ravens get shot down in Lambeau

2009-12-08T19:34:00.001-08:00

As an avid fan of the Baltimore Ravens, I was extremely disappointed in the outcome of the Monday Night Football game in Week 13. The Ravens really needed to get a win this week to ensure their place in the wild card hunt for the AFC and failed to come up with the win. It is particularly frustrating to sit through an entire game where your team is struggling and making careless mistakes throughout.

The Ravens had many chances to turn the game around and failed to capitalize on the opportunities. Flacco had a particularly bad game throwing three picks with a dismal qb rating of 27.2. Whatever the circumstances you cannot expect to beat quality teams in the nfl when your qb is throwing 3 picks. Ray Rice also had a crucial fumble on the opening drive for the Ravens which resulted in a loss of a touchdown/field goal which killed the momentum for the Ravens early. The abscense of Ed Reed also presented real problems as the Ravens' secondary was torched throughout the game.

Give credit though to the Green Bay Packers for getting the win against our Baltimore Ravens who were playing well up until this game. The conditions did favor the Packers though in this regard. The Ravens are probably not used to playing games in 10-20 degree weather which is commonplace for the residents of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

With this loss, the Ravens drop to 6-6 and are in a three way tie of overall record with the Patriots and the Steelers. The Ravens are going to need to some help with Denver (8-4) and Jacksonville (7-5) currently holding the two wild card slots the American Football Conference. At this point the Ravens have been plagued by bad circumstances throughout the year but have definetly missed crucial opportunities to win games when given the chance. It will be a suprise to find the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs this year after playing in the AFC championship game last year against the Steelers.

3-D Television?!

2009-12-08T19:05:00.000-08:00

Sony has announced that hey have started development on three dimensional television shows and movies. Additionally ,they will be releasing 3-D coverage of the 2010 World Cup in cooperation with FIFA. The downside is that you will not be able to view these 3-D viewings of the soccer matches unless you go to the location which has the sony televisions. The initial tv's to be released by sony will require the use of 3-D glasses to see the 3-D content. Sony has said that they are also developing televisions that will not require the use of the 3-D glasses.

So far mostly animated movies have been the only ones that were being shown in 3-D. They say that the sports content will really show the strengths that 3-D programming can offer. Also the new movie "Avatar" that is going to be released will also have 3-D functionality. It is amazing to think that there is soon going to be three dimensional television. One can only wonder how much of a success these new 3-D televisions will be and what will be the next step in technological advancement for multimedia entertainment.

Adderall and the College Student

2009-12-08T13:38:00.000-08:00

Adderall is quickly becoming one of the most widely used drugs in both the College Education system and in high schools around the United States. The primary use of this drug is to slow down the mental processes of people with "ADD" and "ADHD". This allows these students to focus better and retain an adequate attention span. Adderall has even been found to be taken by models in Hollywood as an appetite suppressant. It is my suspicion that large numbers of students are taking this drug around campuses whether they are prescribed it or not. There are a few issues I would like to discuss about this drug.

First is the problem of diagnosis. I think that it is particularly hard to diagnose someone that has add and someone that does not have add. Anyone can go to the doctor and get checked to see if they have add or not. The doctor or psychiatrist will basically ask you a series of questions or have you take a test to determine whether or not you have add. Any semi-intelligent person can figure out what answers to give to make the doctor prescribe them to adderall or some other amphetamine to help them study. So, now you have people that are "supposed" to be taking adderall and others that are on it just because they know it will keep them up all night to study. This is a problem because taking adderall in excess can have very serious side effects that most people are not aware of. Increased heart rate and blood pressure can make it very easy for someone to have a heart attack and die. Introduce this combination with sleep deprivation so you can party all night and drink alcohol in excess while you are on adderall, and you just escalate your chances for major damage to your body.

The second problem with adderall is the weight loss issues that are associated with taking this drug. I am prescribed adderall and when I first began to take this drug, my weight loss dropped rapidly. The drug suppresses your apetite so that you are not aware or motivated to eat. This is harmful because for people that are sometimes lazy, as I am, the task of making food is not my highest priority. It takes some control to eat at regular intervals when you are taking adderall daily and can cause serious health issues for those that are not accustomed to the drugs effects.

Third are mental and emotional issues that also come with the drug. One major area here that is a problem is sleep deprivation. Adderall is also used to treat people with a disease called narcolepsy. Narcolepsy involves uncontrollable urges to fall into deep sleep and random times throughout the day and is a very serious health issue for people diagnosed with this disorder. It is not surprising then that adderall has serious side affects including sleep deprivation. If you take adderall too late in the day you will have a very hard time going to sleep. This is another problem which can cause an unhealthy sleep cycle for college students.

Whether or not adderall can be taken in moderation is the key to it's effectiveness for students I believe. Taking it only when it is absolutely necessary and in conjunction with a strict diet will provide the best results for students taking it regularly. Also, staying up all night taking adderall is obviously a very bad idea and should not be done by students who have regard for their own health.

Steelers/Redskins Blow it in Week 13

2009-12-07T10:04:00.000-08:00

Could I have asked for anything better? The two most despised teams of any true Baltimore fan lose in dramatic fashion in week 13 of the 2009 NFL season. When the headline for the espn article giving the recap of the game is titled "Steelers D Melts in Pittsburgh" you know it's going to be fun to read. I'm not sure which team I like to see lose more, the Steelers or the Redskins. Enough of the trash talk though, let's actually analyze

these games. I'm not quite sure which type of attitude the patrons of the Redskins had entering week 13. My friends that are Skins fans seemed pretty intense upon the fact that they would somehow beat the 12-0 undeafeated New Orleans Saints. I mean, just beacuse an analyst projected that the Colts and the Saints could be upset this week does not mean that your sub .500 team is going to win. They did provide a hopeful chance for a win but their kicker shattered their hopes with a missed kick from inside the 40 yard line. I had been watching this game on T.V. until I saw that the Redskins were looking as if they were going to win. I did not find out until today (Monday) that the skins actually lost this game.

The Steelers game was also another interesting match. I did not catch the game until into the fourth quarter when Gradowski for the Raiders did the two minute drill to win the game 27-24. Whether or not the Steeler's D can be completely be blamed for this loss is another issue. It is comical to me to see that the Raiders were averaging just 9.5 points a game in their past 10 games and somehow manage to put up 27 points against Pittsburgh on the road. Prior to this game Pittsburgh had the #3 ranked defense in the NFL, not so much anymore. This seems to contradict the ever so wise Mike Tomlin's comments that the Steelers would be unleashing hell in December. It was a great nfl weekend.

The Growing College Gap

2009-10-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

The Growing College Gap

This essay written by Tamara Draut (pictured left), provides some good insight into the rising tuition costs and strict academic requirements held by reputable employers. She is the director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos, a nonpartisan public policy reasearch and advocacy organization. In her essay she explores the challenges of lower income famililes in sending children to college.

Not particularly mentioned in her essay but an issue that is of importance, is the quality of high school education lower income students are provided. Low income families and households are generally restricted to the poorest high schools and elementary schools that provide their students education. As a result, these students that were unfortunate enough to receive this situation are clearly less likely to receive the "merit" based scholarships that more and more institutions are turning to. This decline in need based scholarships in combination with a cost of tuition rising much faster than aid is allowed to provide is brushing away students that would otherwise be able to afford college. How are these already financially burdened students when the average amount of student aid only covers 33% of the costs of tuition? This forces students that do enroll in colleges to work full or part time while attending school full time. I can tell you from experience that this situation does not work, and will result in poor grades in the majority of students. Students are constantly burned out, agitated, exhausted, and have trouble keeping up with all the tasks they are required. With education advancing, students are required to take courses that demand time and simply should not be subjected to an excessive work schedule (greater than 10-15 hours per week). It is my opinion that every student should devote the majority of his/her time to studying and applying themselves academically to reap the full benefit of attending college without the burden of financial distress.

Students working excessive hours run into other problems as well while attempting to put themselves through college. They typically have problems registering for the next semeseter because they have not generated enough money to pay their current obligation. As a result, and while their credit is damaged in the process when their student accounts are transferred to collection agencies, they are at a disadvantage to every other student that may register on time. They pick up the teachers with the poorest teaching abilities in the school, they have a tough time enrolling in the classes they need to fulfill their majors, and have no flexibility in the timing of their schedules. It seems reasonable that a student that typically works later hours (such as a waiter and bartender) will likely rise and go to sleep later in the day. If this student had the flexibility to pick the schedule they wanted, they could maximize their opportunity to learn by taking classes at times that suited them best.

This poor performance of financially burdened students paired with the growing number of college hopefuls that are discouraged by financial distress present real problems in our economy. Human capital is typically referred to as an important dynamic in the output of any economy. Until these problems are fixed and students can find the financial aid they need to make it, grades will decline, and the "growing gap" between graduation of the richest and poorest students will continue to diverge.

Improvements in Drug Addiction Services

2009-10-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

In Philadelphia and other parts of the country, private and public agencies are cooperating to improve the services and programs used to treat drug addiction. New improvements to these systems are providing better, more effective care to patients as well as cutting costs substantially from an economic standpoint.

This article in the New York Times tells the story of the man addicted to various drugs including heroin, cocaine, and others. His addictions stemmed from a rough childhood and relations to gang activity. Drug treatment programs were the only solution for this man, and until recently they had been ineffective. Ultimately this particular man, Keith Garrett, came to the conclusion that no one cared whether he lived or died, and checked in to drug rehabilitation. Anyone who has experienced the terrible effects of these powerful narcotics on family members and loved ones, as I have, knows the enormous struggle it is to break these addictions.

These new programs are developing the parts of drug rehab programs that occur after the patient would normally discharged under the traditional 30-60 day programs. The typical 30-60 day program is usually court mandated while the costs are covered by insurance. The rehab programs only have to deal with them for 30-60 days until their benefits run out, then they are released with "little more than a mandate to join a 12-step group like Alcoholics Anonymous". These traditional programs offer little support during the crucial restructuring period where the addicts fights the urges to relapse and fall back into bad social ties. The new program offers counseling, housing, and recreational activities for individuals released from treatment. The costs of this project are trimmed by the addition of volunteers to counsel and guide recovering addicts through their transition to come "out of that darkness". These costs are also cut by the decrease in potential relapses requiring additional treatment programs.

It is good to see the public taking an interest in the individuals that were raised with shaky childhoods. Often times the potential drug addicts have underlying mental disorders, in Garrett's case, bipolar disorder. These benefits give hope to cleaning up areas plagued by drugs and gang related violence, while helping individuals create a better life. As peer specialist William Baker says best, "There’s nothing more beautiful, than seeing someone come out of that darkness.”

Hedge Fund Insider Trading Lawsuit

2009-10-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

For those that are so inclined, today's blog post will be regarding corporate finance, and more particularly, the recent allegations of insider trading against several people. The U.S. attorney in cooperation with the F.B.I. has charged hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam and 6 others working with Raj with a hefty $20 Million case. The current case is being coordinated by the U.S. Attorney's office, the SEC and the FBI. The article can be found here on cnbc.com.

Hedge fun manager Raj Rajaratnam(above)

This case is of particular importance both to those with an interest in the stocks affected, and also to the general morality issue at hand. The stocks of companies involved in these proceedings, such as Intel Corp., IBM, AMD (advanced micro devices, involved in the manufacture of several types of computer hardware, mainly central processing units.), to name a few. These stocks subsequently experienced a drop in percentage values in the range of 2.5% to as much as 8%, whether or not these drops were exclusively caused by this case is another topic of discussion. These percentages are of significant proportion, because a seemingly small percentage drop in a short time period for these major companies could represent tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in shareholder equity.

These allegations are also very concerning due to the nature of their implications on the current financial system. The case being conducted has been in the works for several years and brings the issue of hedge fund managers hiring employees with inside information on the companies to which they are trading. This is very important because in these circumstances, very wealthy hedge fund managers are allegedly using this inside information to drain the value of shareholder equity to the general public, something that is very inefficient and bad to the general economy. The scale of these operations are enormous, citing that Raj had about $7.1Billion dollars under his management at one point. The various strategies that can be used with this extreme amount of capital can be very maniuplative of the market with inside information. These financial managers can take their capital and leverage it several times, (trade with 2 to 3 times as much money as they have available) to manipulate the market by shorting stocks and making huge short term gains. They have an unfair edge against the typical investor both in the information they hold and their capital solvency, with as much as 1,000-100,000 times more money than the majority of investors on the market. This type of activity would not be destructive to the market without the addition of the insider trading. With inside trading these hedge funds can make incredible amounts of profits in very short periods of time, effectively draining the equity from the general public shareholder. This is not too much unlike a ghost buying and selling stocks in incredible quantities when they are undervalued and overvalued. This unknown force in the market then holds the securities for brief periods of time (perhaps hours or a few days) until the stock prices react to market activity. After the information has been distributed through the market under the normal discourse, then they take appropriate action to sell or buy at their benefit. This can be very unprofitable for those outside the loop.

The practice under scrutiny of hiring managers with insider knowledge about the companies they trade, is directly related to this issue. Raj is valued at $1.3Billion dollars currently, which is disheartening to the general state of the economy and the public at large. If he is indeed convicted, there will be vast implications and the SEC will have to develop major changes in policies to control these apparent practices in financial markets.

I am very concerned about cases like these, because they present a very real problem to both the economy and the average American's pocket. This cannot be tolerated and must be eliminated for the sake of our economy and progression.

Graff Ch 5 and 6

2009-10-12T17:54:00.000-07:00

Reading chapters five and six in Graff, I learned new material I had not previously known. The author provides clear insight and examples into each of the topics he addresses throughout his book.

Chapter five discusses the various ways to incorporate other views and quotes into your paper. The need to address when the writer is speaking and when someone else is speaking in your paper seems to be a fundamental skill. This distinction influences the views that are expressed in your paper through the eyes of your potential readers, making your points clear. I found Graff's discussion of first-person perspective to be most interesting in chapter five. Graff argues that a paper may be just as self-indulgent without the use of the word I (referring to the first person), as a paper that expresses the writer's first-person. Graff further writes, the use of the first person should be limited in certain circumstances to maintain the flow of the paper or article. This first person discussion was very informative to my knowledge regarding this area.

Chapter six addresses the topics of adding critics and "naysayers" to your persuasive argument. Graff discusses adding these critics into your paper to enhance your credibilty, while displaying that you are indeed "open minded." This chapter was very helpful in showing how to refute opposition to your argument, while strengthening your views. I think it is particularly imporatant, after reading this chapter, to display an "open minded" argument to the reader. By not stereotyping various groups (liberals, femenists, etc...) you can also present an open minded argument and may even change your stance during the writing process.

Overall, these two chapters were quite helpful in developing a thought process to write the persuasive argument assignment.

Response to TV articles

2009-10-09T13:55:00.001-07:00

In response to these two articles discussing the effect of television, there are clearly two ends of the spectrum. On the one hand you have the conservative Steven Johnson claiming T.V. is "nourishing" the mind. On the other hand you have the more liberal Dana Stevens arguing most of Johnson's points to be "deeply, hilariously bogus" with several criticisms.

I have several comments regarding Johnson's article, Watching TV Makes You Smarter, that I would like to emphasize. Johnson's example of the dialogue in ER is a good description of engaging dialogue that makes the viewer think about the storyline. This argument makes sense to me as the more engaging and complex the "threading" is in these stories, a more intuitive approach the viewer can take from the experience. Other portions of Johnson's article appear to be somewhat ridiculous. For example, the graphs of threading in modern television shows depicted by shaded squares in a coordinate plane (graph). These arbitrary graphs do little to reinforce the author's point and have little explanation as to how these graphs were conceived. Overall, Johnson's article seems to point out some advancements in the television content explained today, but generally does not prove the point that TV actually makes you smarter. His article also seemed to drag on, and towards that latter parts of the article, stagnated a bit.

Dana Stevens' response to Johnson's article, Thinking Outside The Idiot Box, aims at tearing down Johnson's argument. For the most part, from a literary perspective, I find Stevens' article to be more convincing. She criticizes Johnson for failing to address the racial profiling and torture depicted in "24", which seems to be a valid point. I particularly like the stance she takes against the anti-tv puritan groups. To my understanding, she finds it hard to sympathize with a group of people that is actually promoting a remote control that can deactivate most public televisions. In my opinion, no one has the right or authority to go into a public place and tamper with commercial products, (a t.v. in an airport for example) just because you feel strongly about the issue! I think that it is absolutely ridiculous, I can just picture some angry disgruntled parent walking into a bar and switching off monday night football because they felt the need to be righteous today.

Stevens' conclusion is most convincing for me, "But shouldn't grown men and women be trusted to judge their own dosages, just as they would decide on the number of drinks they can handle at the bar?" Grown men and women can make the judgements about how much t.v. they should or should not be watching, its a simple as that. I find Stevens' article to be most convincing of the two articles. Her article seems to better written and developed as a piece of literature. She also conveys an open minded response in between the two extremes of anti/pro t.v, while limiting the length of the article to maximize its effectiveness.

Oregon Football Fight, was it worth it?

2009-09-05T16:55:00.000-07:00

The pieces all came crashing down for Legaratte Blount, Oregon's premier running back on Thursday night. Following the conclusion of the Thursday, September 3rd football game between heated rivals #16 Oregon and #14 Boise St, chaos hit the blue turf in Idaho. Boise St player defensive end Byron Hout made the unfortunate mistake of taunting Legarrette Blount following Boise St's victory in their Thursday night opening game. Blount retaliated with a right hook that swept Hoyt off his feet. It was a knee jerk reaction fueled by adrenaline that will forever change the life of this young man. The youtube video covering the events has generated well over 300,000 views in as little as 4 days as well. It's one of those moments on sportscenter where you turn to your friend and say, "Dude, did you see this?" Unfortunately, Blount will be notoriously remembered by his actions following the game, not his ability to play football. Oregon University responded with a swift one year suspension from all games in the 2009 football season for Blount. It seems as if the university made a statement out of Blount with a harsh penalty to keep the reputation of the school intact, but was it necessary? The suspension will cost Blount dearly in his hopes of reaching the NFL. He will be able to participate in team practices but will not be able to reap the benefits of game-time experience. Negative media attention is the last thing that Oregon was hoping to attract over the course of this opening weekend for College Football.

It is very hard to assess how harsh the penalty should be for the player in this situation in my opinion. First, the consequences of the penalty have the ability to alter a persons life significantly in a very negative way. Second, how can you be certain that under the same circumstances that Blount was under would you have not done the same thing? Third, no one knows what Hoyt said to Blount that caused him to erupt. I would not like to be the one deciding on how long to suspend him for it would take an eternity for me to weigh all the factors involved. I am not quite sure what motivated Hoyt to taunt a player of the losing team in a large scale football game. I feel that Hoyt should have been penalized as well for demonstrating very poor sportsmanship. After punching Hoyt, Blount proceeded to walk off the field and try and jump into the stands and pull a Ron Artest. He was so enraged by the situation that he tried to attack people in the stands who were also taunting him. This person obviously has some anger management problems and he was not prepared for being taunted. His penalty is deserved but it is very disheartening to see a young man with so much to lose use such poor judgement.

With modern technology and youtube, being able to access virtually any clip of any video from almost any location in the world an event like this does not go unnoticed. Blount is going to have a very hard time staying motivated for a season in which he will never play a game.

(The youtube video was cancelled by youtube, as espn has the copyright rights to the film. At the time I wrote this it had about 300,000 hits)