California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: July14, 2008
Latest Update: July 14, 2008
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
patriciaacone@yahoo.com

Topic of the Week:

In Plain English

• Introduction

  "Sometimes I sits and thinks. Sometimes I just sits." Then sometimes, I wants answers. This week, in terms of the finanacial and housing crisis, what it means to us.

  Fannie, Freddie and You By Paul Krugman, New York Times, Opinion Section, July 14, 2008. Good explanatory explanation of the role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in the housing and mortgage market. Backup with highlights and discussion questions. (Just started.) jeanne

  Essay and explanation of concepts, along with link to more contextual materials.

• Discussion Questions

  1. QUESTION

     Consider WHAT JEANNE WAS THINKING ABOUT WHEN SHE WROTE THE QUESTION. AND LINKS TO SOURCES YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER IN ANSWERING THE QUESTION.

• References:

  • Bank Stocks Lead Market Selloff Despite Officials' Rescue Efforts By Peter A. McKay. Wall Street Journal Online. July 14, 2008 5:43 p.m. Reflecting investors concerns that the government doesn't have enough reserve to rescue other banks that may fail, following Indymac and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. jeanne

Announcements:

• Announcement.

Issues

• Economics

  Fannie, Freddie and You By Paul Krugman, New York Times, Opinion Section, July 14, 2008. Good explanatory explanation of the role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in the housing and mortgage market. Backup with highlights and discussion questions. (Just started.) jeanne

Visual Sociology

• "Health Insurance for American Children"
  

  Reference: This Land is Their Land by Barbara Ehrenreich, Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt & Company. Review in the New York Times by Richard Eder. P. B 27, Friday, July 25, 2008.

• 

Online Resources For Governance Discourse

• Newspapers: Labeling here is based on an article by Ashley K. Vroman on the impossiibility of labeling newspapers by ideology. I personally go along with the conclusion of the conservative Media Research Center's L. Brent Bozell III: if the paper never met a conservative cause it didn't like, it's conservative, and if it never met a liberal cause it didn't like, it's liberal. But then, what about the Wall Street Journal whose news staff is considered liberal and its editorial staff considered conservative? jeanne

  Liberal Newspapers:

  New York Times - Los Angeles Times - The Washington Post
  The Boston Globe - The Chicago Tribune

  Conservative Newspapers:

  The Wall Street Journal - The Washington Times - The New York Post
  Manchester (N.H.) UnionLeader - The Oklahoman

  The Ideological Labeling of These Newspapers:

  "To test my hypothesis that people cannot classify newspapers as liberal or conservative, I began searching for any source attempting to classify newspapers ideologically. The sole article I came upon was "Rating the Top 10, Left and Right" from Insight magazine, written by Keith Russell. Insight rates what they deem to be the top five liberal newspapers and top five conservative newspapers in the country. A possible explanation of why I could only find one article in this search is because people, including scholars and academics and most popular magazines, do not try to measure how liberal or conservative newspapers are. Some may know that they cannot do it reliably and validly because different methods yield different results. Perhaps others do not formulate methods or measures lest they expose problems of reliability and validity. Unsupported assertions may be politically and tactically superior to dubious investigations."

  From "Slandering" the News: How Labelers Cleverly Undermine the Reliability and Validity of Newspapers," by Ashley K. Vroman, May 5, 1999. Consulted by jeanne, May 28, 2008.

• Beyond Newspapers

  • The Institute for Public Accuracy The Institute for Public Accuracy seeks to broaden public discourse. With systematic outreach to media professionals, the Institute provides news releases that offer well-documented analysis of current events and underlying issues.

    Paul Loeb, columnist and author, recommended this site for us when we're trying to be sure we've covered multiple perspectives on each issue.

  • OpenSecrets.org "Our Mission: Inform, Empower & Advocate"

    • Inform citizens about how money in politics affects their lives
    • Empower voters and activists by providing unbiased information
    • Advocate for a transparent and responsive government

    David Brooks identified this site in His opinion column on July 1, 2008 in the New York Times. It is a good source of data on issues and the various perspectives on and funding of support for those issues. jeanne

  • I also suggest the use of Arts and Letters Daily the Chronicle of Higher Education Site for clarification on the issues as perceived by other academics. jeanne

  Current Online Sources Freely Accessbile Current list that is being updated and revised, but on which most links are still functioning. jeanne

• Farlex Free Online Dictionary:

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