funny current event

http://www.telegram.com/article/20090107/NEWS/901070289/1116

A police officer in Virginia used google to track down a 9 year old girl that was kidnapped by her grandmother. The girl's name was Natalie Maltais, and she was kidnapped by her grandma on Saturday. Her parents called the police and they began an investigation. Natalie called her parents who let her talk to the police also, letting everyone know that she was OK and that her grand mother would be turning herself in the next morning. The police waited and the grandma didn't give herself up so they continued their investigation and decided to track down the girls cell phone. They got the GPS coordinates from the cell phones tracking device, and began to try and figure out where the girl was. The police found a general location and then typed that place into google, and came up with the exact hotel where the girl was with her grandmother. The police then arrested her at that hotel and returned the girl to her parents.

I think it was pretty clever thinking for the cop to track the girl down using google. This is also a really good example of just how helpful all this new technology is.

double current events

specific stock: http://uk.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUKLH57141920081217

this article is about the Barrick Gold corporation. Their North Mara Mine in Tanzania was attacked last week by over 200 people and the owners of the mine estimated that there was 15 million dollars in damages, but now they've revised that number and brought it down to only 7 million. They just reopened the mine, which produced 155,000 ounces of gold in the first 9 months of this year. Police said that one person was shot and killed during the attack, but other than that the only other damages done were to the equipment.

i don't know why all those people attacked the mine, but i'm guessing it has something to do with it being on their home land or something. i'm glad that the mine reopened though because i'm hoping their production will go back up and make their stocks worth more too.

Stock Market in General:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/18/markets/markets_newyork/index.htm?postversion=2008121814

this article is basically talking about how since we were officially declared 'in a recession' the stock market has been reflecting that fact. it also says that market specialists aren't expecting big market changes because trading is going down because of the holidays. our economy also isn't doing any better because the stock market still remains really volatile, and people are still losing their jobs.

i think someone needs to figure out a way to bring our economy back up, but i know that's easier said than done...I also thought that because it was the holidays the stock market would be prospering, but i guess i was wrong because it's mostly been going down.

stock market current event for 12/5/2008

Stocks Seesaw in Choppy Trade from CNNMoney.com

This article is all about how the stock market tries to anticipate what the government will say about our economic status. Until the government comes out with news about our economy, the stock market will continue to be extremely volatile. It talks about the different things that cause our stock market to fluctuate such as news about a bailout and other things. It also informs us about the 'beige book' which is basically a survey of our economic status.

i think that if everyone investing at a certain time anticipated that the government was going to give us good news about our economy, then the whole stock market would probably go up and help out our economy. But because not everyone is as optimistic, they cause serious fluctuations that make our stock market so volatile.

Double CE

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/18/news/Domestic_violence_morris.fortune/index.htm

I found this article at CNN Money.com and it's the story of a woman who was being stalked by a man who she had a relationship with for 5 years. They broke it off, and he went crazy and began stalking her everywhere she went. Right after they broke up, Cindy knew he was going to fly off the handle so she changed the locks on her house and went to stay with a friend for a couple of days. When she returned she saw that Michael had broken into the house and caused over $70,000 in damages by throwing paint all over her furniture and appliances and the rest of the house. Cindy's co-workers helped her get everything cleaned up and began helping her avoid Michael. He continued to stalk her, and her friends and co-workers continued to try and protect her. One day after work, Cindy was walking our to her car unaccompanied when a disguised Michael approached and fatally shot her and then himself in the head.

I think it was really good that Cindy's friends and co-workers did everything they could to help her. Its good to surround yourself with people that you know love and care about you, and I'm sure it helped her through that terrifying situation. I also think it's dumb that people can just fly off the handle like that and cause so many people that much grief and terror.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/18/markets/world_markets/index.htm


This article from the same place is about the problems that stock markets in other countries such as Europe and Asia are having. On tuesday, stock markets around the world plummeted with European numbers falling 1.7%, and Asian markets sinking from anywhere between 2.3% and 4.5%. These falling stock markets are caused by the economic problems that now the whole world is beginning to feel.
I wish there was some way that we could help prevent this recession, because it's most likely going to lead to a depression, which no one would enjoy. Hopefully, something will be done to help turn our economic situation around, but i think it's one of those things we'll just have to wait out.

it's weird how a real tragedy can force you to FINALLY take a giant step back, count your blessings, and realize how lucky you truly are.

Rest In Peace Bobby D.

11/18/2008

yet another current event: affect of our economy on college

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/giving/11SCHOOL.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

This article talks about the affects our economic slow-down is having on education. When the stock market was thriving, private secondary schools and colleges were also thriving. Colleges were attracting more students because they were able to help them financially, they were growing and expanding, and attracting better faculty. With the economic problems we have been going through, colleges are cutting spending, not helping their students financially as much as they were before, holding off hiring new professors, and also holding off projects. A big reason for this is more and more families having smaller incomes, and less donations to the schools from outside sources. Some schools are looking for programs and other things that they can cut in order to save money and still be able to help out their students, but most suspect they are going to have to start addressing their enrollment policies to include more people who can actually pay for college without getting help from the school. This poses a problem for people from families with lower incomes, but it's almost the only way to keep the college itself from going bankrupt.

I can understand how the schools probably have to look out for themselves before the people they enroll so they don't go bankrupt, but I think it's terrible that now some schools might start accepting people more for their money than their intelligence or will to succeed. It isn't really a student's fault if they can't pay for all of their college and I think some schools recognize that fact, but don't know how to handle the situation they've been put in. Hopefully our economy will go back to the way it was so everyone has a fair shot at going to school, because uneducated people will probably only make this economic situation worse.

business and obama current events

Business Article: Small business owners lobby to cut credit card fees
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/business/smallbusiness/06sbiz.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

This article talks about the problems that small businesses are having with credit cards. Every time someone uses a credit card to pay for any kind of a small business bill, the business itself is issued a 1.7% charge of the sale price, and a flat rate transaction fee that they have to pay the credit card companies. This extra charge is causing small businesses to lose more and more money because they have to pay the credit card companies when someone uses a card in their business. Last year credit card companies claimed 82.5% of the $61.56 billion dollars in electronic payment fees. Some businesses are claiming anti-trust violations against the Visa and MasterCard network to try and fight these extra charges, but a lot of people agree that if the small businesses don't like it, they can stop accepting credit cards, although that would be a severe problem because not many people pay in cash these days.

I think that the credit card companies are charging the businesses way too much for the use of their cards. I can understand if they issue a smaller charge but I think they're getting out of hand, especially if they are pocketing over 80% of the electronic payments. They are being way too greedy, and could potentially cause some small business that help diversify our economy to go bankrupt.


Obama Article: A Towering Economic To-Do List for Obama
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/business/06challenges.html

This article talks about all of the problems that Obama is going to encounter when he is fully instated as president, such as dealing with our failing economy. It says that he will most likely have problems jump starting consumer spending because people are not spending as much which doesn't help our economy grow, and preventing big organizations such as the Treasury Department from going into debt because of bailouts. Obama and his advisers will most likely start pushing their plans and ideas before he is officially in office. This will hopefully help solve of the current problems, making his future agenda easier to deal with, and it won't allow our economy any more time to flounder.

I think it's good that Obama is going to start trying to make some changes because anything else that Bush will do will probably just cause more problems for Obama in the end. This gives him a head start at doing what he thinks will help out our economy. It would be pretty pointless for Bush to keep doing things if Obama will just undo them in the end. This way, much less time will be wasted, and hopefully they'll be able to get our economy back on track.