Field Trip

I felt this field trip was extremely worthwhile as I learned plenty of what goes on in the Chicago Board of Trade along with what goes on in the Federal Reserve Bank. What I learned from the Chicago Board of Trade was that being in a job involved with money is incredibly risky, as making a simple mistake between communications with a broker can make or break a deal costing costly mistakes. Along with this, the CBOT has it's own unique language with hand gestures that seemed really interesting in which the tour guide explained it would have to be explained in a matter of 3 weeks. In the Federal Reserve Bank, I mostly learned about bitcoins about how internet currency can have an effect on the economy but apparently there have been no plans of yet to ban or adopt this form yet. This trip is really educational as the mandatory questions the students have to ask do a good job of actually teaching of what goes on in the world of economics.

Keeping a Budget

When I first obtained a job I wasn't able to keep a straight budget spending nearly over half my income to unecessary luxuries. I also had to pay several friends back which was also a damper also to pay my mother for gas for transit. It seems that the best way to budget is to form a 20/80 budget. Living on 20 percent and saving 80 percent for later on in life. College debt is also a major factor as not get attracted to credit cards but being responsible with money. But it is easier said then done, it just seems the temptations of having more never fully satisfies me. The idea of minimalism would do wonders for many who can't control themselves including me. Maybe when I get older I will be able to fully embrace minimalism.

Interest Rates

In class this week we mainly talked about interest rates about how it has been the lowest ever being around 3.5%. I found it kinda of disheartening that soon it will be raised as the economy gets progressively better this includes student loans. It seems that every year that college tuition gets even more expensive it seems that going to college for the full 4 year experience seems less likely to be the norm. It seems financially better to attend a community college for 2 years, and to attend a regular one for another 2 years. In the eyes of many including myself it just seems that the economy is getting worse, when in fact it isn't but the large looming student debt just seems to big to handle.

Fiscal Policy

Ever since in class we have been learning about fiscal policy, it got me thinking of how messed up the budget was, that the deficit would only get bigger and bigger. But, in the news relatively the United States has been getting better financially being the expansion part of the cycle. It seems that the only way public outlook will get better is if there are massive reforms to the budget, mainly on military spending and discretionary spending. I still don't get the reasoning on why military spending is as large as it is, consisting of around 528 billion. This could be used for more important things such as education or the research department of the budget having less then 1 percent of what the budget consists of. It just seems that the money is going to all the wrong places.

Prisons

In my Expo Comp class, we were recently talking about how expensive it was to keep a single prisoner in Illinois comfortable for their incarceration while in jail. It costs around 20,000 dollars to keep a single prisoner well fed and "comfortable". In 2009 taxpayers spent more then 1 billion dollars on state prisons, a cost that is too great to be ignored. The crime rates have reduced over the years but there are still those that are in prison. The prison system costs taxpayers a lot of money annually and there needs to be some reform to this system. Along with some reforms among school lunch programs primarily those in inner city schools. It seems now more then ever significant sacrifices have to be made in order to adjust the federal budget, with almost no resources being focused on education but rather more on military.

Taxes

Everyone who has job knows and hates taxes with a passion, myself included. I just hate seeing my paycheck with nearly half the income of what I was supposed to receive, and just feel a little bit angry. It is just the fact that I see the words federal income tax, social security, medicare etc, and notice all the deductions and what would eventually become my net income. Maybe it would lessen the blow if it was hidden in my eyes, but open to my manager. I've always known taxes were important for the federal government, local government, and for the welfare of others. It just seems I want to know what the government specifically does with my taxes such as several corporate bailouts of several corporations that happened nearing the recession of 2008. Overall, taxes can take half my paycheck, but hey it happens to everyone.

CISPA

In the news recently, the CISPA bill has been brought up back in Congress for discussion even though it has been halted before as the general public deemed this bill unfit and too broad of what it seems to accomplish. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act allows large companies to work alongside government agencies such as the NSA to allow sharing of internet traffic information, which in turn would help to defend against future cyber-attacks. Lots of people deem this bill similar to the SOPA act or Stop Online Piracy Act, which intrudes on the privacy of others while on the internet. The internet should remain a wide open forum but not be spied upon by the United States government always living in fear of what to type as it should not be that way. It shouldn't be a police state where everyone is in constant paranoia but rather feel safe and protected by the government without them interfering in private company affairs. If a large corporation wishes to stop piracy, the company should do it themselves rather than ask for help.

Business Decisions

Just recently, Jersey Mike's was selling subs for 1 dollar each, and the outcome was not pretty. There were numerous amounts of people just yesterday willing to line up for what is basically a free sub sandwich. The amount of resources being used seem liked they were about to lose a large amount of money. Comparing Jersey Mike's to McDonald's, Jersey Mike's seems to use fresh ingredients compared to McDonald's where almost everything is frozen or pre-made. I know this is a marketing scheme but it seems the marketing wouldn't work at all, losing vast amounts of money in short time. Due to this Jersey Mike's would have to sacrifice quality for quantity, basically having frozen packaged food rather than the usual fresh food. This can make a difference being cheaper to obtain and having almost no repercussions in the customer's eyes. This could be a smart decision if it were true as word of mouth will get around of how great the sandwiches can be, which can result in more customers and more revenue. In the short run it is probably a bad idea, but in the long run it will be worth it.    

GDP

Gross Domestic Product is a gauge used to measure a country's economic status and it is calculated in expenditures and investments. Many people want GDP to also include many other things such as the black market, or non economic sources of well being an example being happiness. I don't believe that GDP should be drastically changed but should add an addition to the underground economy that goes on in the United States and various other countries. Illegal activities has a lot profit and value over it, but it is not formally accounted for even though it is a sort of income such as major seizures of illegal drugs from a gang or cartel. There are lots of illegal weapons being hopped along the borders from Canada and Mexico, and the weapons themselves have lots of value also. I personally think that GDP should be defined as any item that has value is sold or bought in the U.S. should be accounted for whether it be illegal or not.

Is Greed Good?

Greed is good to a certain extent, those that create jobs for a company created by smart owners, but bad for the rich CEOs that only want money. Greed can help stimulate the economy when those that have disposable income can spend their money on things that may need the help of another person. Prime examples being workers to help if making new additions to a home, or purchasing stock from a newly formed company. Stocks can help build up an entirely new company to the mix, which in turn creates jobs, and possibly gaining more revenue from the enhanced workforce. But the question still remains how much is too much? There are people in the world that only want to gain money that could be at the cost of others. A CEO of a major company may decide to liquidate a company entirely overnight which can cause people to lose their jobs without even noticing. In the eyes of stockholders as long as the stock continues to rise, there isn't any reason to care for the minimum wage worker because money is all they see.

Government Shutdown

The recent government shutdown seems to be the problem of the old Republicans vs Democratic party of deciding on Obamacare even though it is now technically a law. The Republicans are just delaying the inevitable of what will eventually happen, with some politicians afraid of the amount of money being poured into it when the United States is already in deep financial trouble. It seems that opportunity costs weighs heavily on this as the budget for the United States will be reduced in every aspects except healthcare. The fact remains that the U.S. cannot spend any more or else the financial problem will be bigger than ever. The Republicans in this position are only delaying what is soon to come and should just agree to what the Senate did. Congress should also take immediate action to this rather than sit around doing nothing, or perhaps even take a paycut such as those that are on definite leave working for the federal government. It seems that politicians are rather worried about furthering their own agenda rather than opinions of the people.

S.N.A.P.

I personally believe that cutting the funding of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program may be a step in the right direction. This may seem bad as in reducing help to those that need it but social welfare is large part of the federal budget. There are many cases of those that the abuse this system when there are many others that rely on it. This may seem heartless to those that need it, but the U.S. debt cannot be ignored. There has to be cuts in several programs to reduce the spending of the federal budget spending on more important matters. Those that truly deserve the food stamps should have access to it, unlike those that merely play the system to use the food stamps to obtain cash. This is a small step towards the right direction as the U.S. cannot ignore the problems any longer.

On Syria

Currently the situation in Syria is still a bit troublesome, with the U.S. and Russia taking their own sides in this conflict, with the U.S. supporting the rebels and Russia supporting the current government. Although I am in favor that the people should take over when a government is a dictatorship that cannot be tolerated, I cannot condone the C.I.A. sending weapons to the Syrian rebels. This current situation seems like another Iraq and Afghanistan with strong world powers using this as another proxy war. For example Russia invaded Afghanistan intending to take more land, but the C.I.A. sent millions of dollars in weaponry to the Mujahideen in order to stop that from ever happening. Russia lost the conflict and the Mujahideen won, but the outcome was far greater. The C.I.A. may have knowingly or unknowingly sent weapons to Osama Bin Laden funding one of the prime players in the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. The world and its people expect America to do something acting like the world police when it should have never have been in the first place. Although selfish, the United States should look out for itself as a country first than help others in need.

Minimum Wage

There have been a lot of news lately, about disgruntled fast food workers demanding raising the minimum wage to at least 15 dollars an hour. For many in the U.S. this is an extremely bad idea as it could destabilize the economy with the vast amounts of money of flowing through. The rise in pay increase would also be unfair to many others as simply working for a fast food restaurant should not earn 15 an hour. From my experience the work is not hard and there are many people that would love to get a job   I currently work for a McDonald's and the minimum wage is 8.25 an hour and although I would love to earn more it is just not realistic in the state the world is in right now.

Managing Time and Costs

I've always had trouble managing my time wisely whether it be completing homework before the day ends or getting a good nine hours of sleep. Ever since learning about opportunity costs it made me think more wisely about my decisions by weighing the pros and cons of each choices that I had. Yesterday I worked till 8 and instead of wisely doing my homework I chose to watch Netflix, which i almost regretted but I knew that I had study hall and lunch at periods four and five. I had the choice of slacking off because I knew I had ample time to complete my homework, but the other hand was that I spent too much time on Netflix and it was nearly 11:30 by the time I had gone to bed. Another time when I used opportunity costs was buying a couple of movies on Amazon for real cheap, 3 for 10 dollars. This was a special deal as buying each individually would require more money,  and time to navigate each Internet page. Although I only had about 130 dollars left in my checking account, a good deal only comes around every once in a while, so I thought why not. The reason opportunity costs come to mind is that I use it almost every single day, even if I'm not paying attention to what I'm doing.