Favorite profs 2007 - 2009 Edition

Pointless little post about some of my favorite profs I have encountered so far.

Consumerism and the Subprime Lending Crisis

Well, it looks like my consumerism article isn't going to be published, so I guess I'll post it here! This is the prequel to the previous posting.

If you are able to read this article, chances are you live in what is called a capitalist society. A society that has barely averted an economic catastrophe that could have easily surpassed the depth and severity of the Great Depression and would’ve have brought social order and civilization to its knees.

Although capitalism has enabled many great things, such as the freedom for individuals to pursue their economic goals, it has also indirectly enabled an entire culture. A culture that has gripped many parts of the world for generations. I am referring to the culture of excessive consumerism, gratification, and idolization of material wealth. A culture of vanity, where people of greater wealth are powerful and worshipped, and lesser wealth are made to feel unsuccessful. A culture that deifies and glorifies the one that is with everyone, the one that is called Money.

Finance, Society, UW

I'm going to try something different here. I have submitted an opinion piece to Excalibur (York U's community paper). If all goes well, it gets published, and this blog post will serve as a supplemental to that article. If it does not, then at a later date, I will post the original on this blog.

To give you some background, my (hopefully soon to be published) article talks about the role of culture, financial system, and the current economic crisis. I asserted that the excessive, note how I bolded and italized the word excessive, consumer culture is partly responsible for the current economic crisis, or can be seen as at least a contributing factor (as in, if consumer culture didn't exist, then we wouldn't have the current economic situation).

Background information on economics for those that are unfamiliar with the landscape

Here are some more information about the current Keynesian vs. Monetarist debate. It is a very accessible article in the New York Times Magazine written by Paul Krugman, a Keynesian professor and a feature economics columnist at the New York Times. His article provides an excellent overview of the debate as well as some reasons that explains for the current economic debacle. Obviously, it is from a Keynesian perspective, but really, aren't monetarists discredited enough?

Also, made a lot of improvements to the readability of the interview as well as this site overall. Feedback are appreciated.

I will post some opinions on the content of my interview with Larry soon (ones that were already in there notwithstanding), as well as some personal opinions.

Interview with Larry

Yesterday marked my first venture into the world of feature journalism. After all the brainstorming sessions, pitching ideas to my editor and research planning for my feature article on economics, I was ready to start packing my stuff, leave my room and start playing journalist. Of all the people and places to start gathering information for my first article, I decided to pay a visit to my former economics professor in my former school.

Writing a feature article for Excalibur (York's student newspaper)

Just a heads up to the 4 people that I can make to read my blog. I am writing a feature article for Excalibur. When it is done, I will provide a link to it.

RIP Michael Jackson

Well, Michael Jackson's death is everywhere right now. The combined resources of all of the world's medias are focusing on Michael Jackson and his accomplishment.

The first wind of this news I got from watching the 6 o'clock CityTV news. "Michael Jackson has died." I was like, well, okay, that's interesting, but I don't really care. Get on with the news please. I basically dismissed Michael Jackson. But now this thing had a few days to sink in, and I thought about it some more, I realized how enormous he was and how big of a reach he had in the world.

Trying something different

I decided to try something different today. A lot of the times I find myself having thoughts about school, work, and life in general, and sometimes they are somewhat profound, but I never bother to write them down, so I end up forgetting about them, only to leave a wisp of an evidence of what was probably something profound remain in my head the next day. So I decided that it might be a good idea to write it down, so people and I can read them in the future.

Today, I was watching Grey’s Anatomy on my computer.