The Quick Buck

A few weeks back, I became a member of Hillel at Baruch. Prior to attending Baruch, I never really explored religion, epistemology, and philosophy. I always questioned the things that occurred around me but never looked into my Jewish background for the answers. Hillel at Baruch College gave me an opportunity to do this as students informed me about EMET Fellowship, a seminar held every Thursday in which students can discuss a variety of topics and how they relate to Judaism. Other weekly discussions are held as well by Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov, giving you another outlook on the same topics. Being that I never considered myself religious, it took some convincing on behalf of my friends to actually attend this event but I finally did and can only regret I hadn’t come sooner.

The Hebrew word, EMET, in itself means truth. If you look at its Hebrew spelling, it is made up of three letters, the first, middle and last letter of the alphabet. This indicates that truth encompasses all things, and prevails from the beginning to the end. The first two letters alone mean death, and the last letter on its own represent being one with god. Essentially, truth is all around us, begins at the start of our life, and becomes most clear with increasing awareness of god. This is just one of the interesting and thought provoking things I learned at this event but the list goes on as each rabbi brings forth his own perspective and interpretation of the Torah, applies personal stories and events that are relatable, and makes you understand the religious significance of simple daily events.

At the seminar I attended, we talked about doing positive things for others and how this in turn would bring us happiness and good fortune in our future lives. From a modern perspective, it sounds a bit like karma and the idea of doing unto others as you wish to be done unto you. Although this event itself is very difficult to relate to the theme of economics aside from the fact that is an outstanding, free and openly available resource at Baruch College, the lessons you learn can be applied to daily life. For example, one prevalent idea in Judaism is that God is the creator of man, man lives and aims to become closer with God and God enables you with certain possessions that allow you to lead the best life you can and a life that was essentially created for you. If you look at it from this point, the accumulation of wealth is a virtue not a vice but you must put in the effort in good faith to achieve that wealth. I think this applies to us as students because it gives us the incentive to do our best and be a few steps ahead in order to be more prepared for the future as we venture into the job market and deal with the economy. If we remain dedicated, steadfast, act in good faith and set goals for ourselves, wealth will gravitate toward us. Overall, these seminars have made me question the world and the people around be both in a positive and negative way while simultaneously pointing me towards answers and solutions to problems. I feel that a lot of the things I learn here fall into a category of ethics as well and can be applied not only in my daily tasks, but in business ethics as well.

The battle between Republicans and Democrats have grown so large that both parties managed to shut down the government with sheer stubbornness.  Despite this dispute, there looms a larger problem that can effectively prevent the goals of both parties.  The current U.S. economic growth has decreased.  The U.S. enjoyed a period of great economic growth due to all of the working baby boomers.  But now,  60 years later, the boomers are starting to retire, and economic growth is starting to slump.  If this trend increases, there won’t be enough funding to realize either parties’ goals.  Fortunately, many economists say that this slump will not last, and that these economic problems will fade.  Kathy Bostjancic, a director for macroeconomic analysis at the Conference Board, states that this period is a “pause, not a trend”.  Hopefully the professionals are correct, or else these forecasts will bear bad tidings for us students.  If the current economic situation continues to decrease instead of improve, we will be entering the job market in an era where potential employers will be facing cutbacks and financial issues.

On october 15th, republican leader Joseph Lhota and democratic leader Bill de Blasio squared off against each other in the first televised 2013 New York City mayoral debate. In an aritcle published by the “The Ticker”, Baruch’s own newspaper journalist Nicole Clemons covered the broad range of topics discussed by the candidates. Perhaps none more sharply debated then that of the parties disagreement in taxes. While Lhota plans to maintain the cities tax rates De Blasio believes that the city need raise taxes only on the wealthy. Most political experts point to this policy of taxing the wealthy as the reason for De Blasio holding a commanding lead over his opponent. With promises to redistribute the wealth of the successful among us to the average New Yorker, it is no wonder the masses will be running to cast their vote for the democrat. Indeed the “anti wealthy” sentiment which has been growing for years has finally taken to the polls.

In a term coined by the protesters of the occupy wall street movement, De Blasio is championing the cause for the “99%”. While economic fairness sounds morally correct do we really want to structure our society around government entitlements? Or is it wiser to reward individual responsibility, innovation and self-reliance? Will taxing the wealthy treat the source or simply ease the pain of our ailing economy?

In an article published by The Boston Globe during the Occupiers movement in 2011, Columnist Jeff Jacoby  had this to say: “From the belief that you don’t have enough because others have too much, it isn’t that great a stretch to the belief that those who have too much should be forced to make do with less. It shouldn’t be surprising when a movement obsessed with what rich capitalists earn rather than with what they produce starts treating other people’s property and persons with contempt”. Clearly the Occupiers have left there mark.

“Thou shall not steal except by majority of vote”. This satirical quote of a modified approach to the 10th commandment illustrates the direction our economy is headed towards. More taxes and more entitlements will lead to a heavier reliance on government which will in turn lead to greater economic inefficiency. With some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached the stage of governmental dependency the economy simply can not bear the burden much longer. Yet, Bill de Blasio wants to increase taxes on the wealthy.

Are taxes on the wealthy necessary to maintain a supportive economic system for those who need it? Absolutely yes. But, at a certain point we must realize that our strong support system can become counter-productive by causing people to rely heavily on the system while at the same time discouraging work ethic. My advice to the voters of New York who will be casting their vote for Bill de Blasio: If you have faith in him to usher New York and her people into an era of growth and prosperity then by all means vote proudly for your mayor. Just make sure you are not being blinded by the generous gifts from the public treasury he is promising to the masses. We all know a bribe when we see one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/12/your-money/for-students-of-all-ages-an-online-course-on-retirement-planning.html?_r=0

Tara Siegel Bernard’s article “Finance Class on the Web, for Students of All Ages” stood out as I explored the myriad of economy articles on the NY Times site. Being a student at Baruch where taking finance classes is an opportunity within my reach, reading about the influence basic knowledge of investments, the stock market, retirement and budget balancing made me realize the advantage I have at this school. However, perhaps one doesn’t want to major in finance? What if your classes don’t share or discuss these essential topics? What if you are already out of school and never had the chance to learn about these things? Finance professor Joshua Rauh addresses this issue and creates a series of free online video lectures, complete with interactive graphs and animated visuals that make understanding graduate-level courses on the finances of retirement and pensions simple. Although as freshmen at Baruch, speaking about retirement seems to be a far stretch, having information like this in our back pocket surely helps as we venture into the job market in the near future.

Learning about pensions and retirement comes gives you an understanding of the basic foundation of the economy and business markets today. Wisdom in the stock market and success with investments and funds can be acquired solely through understanding the basics of finance and through knowledge of money management and savings.  A free “crash course” such as the one created by Joshua Rauh would provide many people with advice, examples and a helpful perspective on the issues that surround us daily.

As students, we believe the more accessible, informative, intriguing and interactive classes are those that resonate more deeply in our minds. Sometimes a class in finance isn’t enough to answer all the questions that we have. These online lectures give us a choice of whether or not we want to learn more and the best part, no tests. We fill in the possible gaps in our studies and if such courses were created for all business and economics classes, similar to Khan Academy, an incredibly useful resource for many subjects, not only would students be more educated and intrigued, they would have more resources at their fingertips, helping them conquer future job prospects and how to behave in the business market and economy, properly managing their money in an organized, lucrative way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/19/us/shutdown-to-cost-us-billions-analysts-say-while-eroding-confidence.html?_r=0

“Shutdown to Cost U.S. Billions, Analysts Say, While Eroding Confidence.”

Choosing to focus on the theme of business and economics in the news and failing to mention the most controversial aspect of today’s economy, the government shutdown and the raise of the debt ceiling, would be entirely unjust. Talking to students, many understand little more than the fact that the government has an unsolved quarrel where the blame is consistently shifted between President Obama and the republicans in Congress and aren’t aware of the impact this shutdown has on the general public.

The government shut down for a period of sixteen days, wrecking havoc and controversy throughout America. Every time you stepped on the train or spend some time at a coffee shop, at least one person standing beside you would raise their argument as to what they think of the shutdown, Obamacare, and our government in general. However, before picking sides, it’s important to understand why the government was shut down in the first place. According to the Constitution, the House of Representatives and the Senate are supposed to agree on appropriation bills that state how much funding will be given to certain federal agencies and where limits on spending will be set. However, when Congress cannot reach an agreement on how to allocate funds, most functions of the government, like permit offices and funding agencies, are thwarted. The ongoing disagreement on certain policies of the Affordable Care Act was the major reason for this shutdown and the refusal to negotiate had created doubt and chaos. While republicans fight to delay, repeal and do essentially everything they can to stop Obamacare from happening, it seems inevitable.  This debate of how to break up funds without increasing our country’s debt has been longstanding but the shutdown itself seemed counterproductive as it “cost the United States economy several billion dollars”, adding to our already $17 trillion national debt.

While services like Social Security and military pay continued, 800,000 federal government workers were barred from doing their jobs and thousands weren’t paid for this unexpected break. Now that the government is back on its feet, many of these workers will have to work overtime to compensate for all the work that has piled up over the past three weeks. It will take quite some time for the Obama administration to deal with the consequences of this shutdown. The government hasn’t had such a shutdown in 1996 and in comparison to the combined cost of “about $2.2 billion in today’s dollars” this years “government shutdown will cost the economy $3.1 billion in GDP from lost government services.”

Aside from the Monday lost on a large scall, private sectors and business like the fishing industry lost significant profits as well. During this three week period, fishing permits weren’t issued, passports were left unprocessed, mortgage loans were ignored, parks and museums lost $450,000 a day, tax forms were not filed and the list goes on. Economists say “the indirect costs of the most recent shutdown will be much bigger than the direct cots to the taxpayer”. Now that the shutdown is over, the thousands of employees that were furloughed, or placed on temporary leave, are coming back to their offices while some are still waiting to hear whether they can resume work. Many will not receive back pay for the days they missed which causes new controversy as family bills must be paid and life continues on.

This government shutdown revealed how difficult it is to come to agreements and how intricate and significant each move the government makes is. Even though support and confidence for government administrations has wavered, over time problems will be solved and we can only wait to see how. However, being students in what is often labeled as a business school and having access to this breadth of knowledge about business, economy and politics, we can become active participants in society and learn how we can make our own positive contributions on a small scale. Perhaps in the future, we can have a greater voice and involvement that would assure such a shutdown doesn’t occur again and that our job prospects and the jobs of others aren’t put at risk.

JP Morgan Chase is trying to cut a deal with the U.S. government. The bank has agreed to pay the government a $13 billion penalty for its previous shady business practices, and has requested that the government end companion criminal investigation that centers on the quality of securities it sold to investors, including thousands of home loans that borrowers are defaulting on.  Fortunately, the government has refused this bid, and is still continuing its investigation into JP Morgan Chase as well as other major banks.  This recession has caused many economic issues to arise, and many people point the finger at large banks, who are not altogether blameless.  How these investigations can effect the banks and subsequently their customers remains uncertain.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/29/us-economy-global-weekahead-idUSBRE98S0E420130929

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