The United States is in the middle of a domestic and global economic crisis. Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, have suggested a 700 billion dollar bailout to avoid further economic downturn. The bailout has sparked a lot of controversy, and is actively being debated on many news and media mediums. Many people have turned to blogs, a popular new medium for the discussion of current events, to voice their opinions on 'The Bailout'.
Robert Reich formerly the nation's 22nd Secretary of Labor, in a post on Thursday September 18, strongly disagrees with The Bailout. Reich's analysis of the problems with the bailout plan is composed of two points. He starts by saying, 'investors and lenders do not know how much bad debt is out there.' He points out that "As the economy slows, bad debts will grow. Again the problem isn't a liquidity or solvency crisis; it's a crisis of trust." Second, he argues that The Bailout would 'put taxpayers at far greater risk than they are even today', and The plan would also require the government to have an 'unprecedented role in reselling assets, which is a step towards socialized capitalism'. Although Reich is not for The Bailout, he proposes that the Fed and the Treasure 'organize a giant workout of Wallstreet' and focus on the people, 'who really need a safety net right now'.
Alexis Glick , Fox's Vice President of Business News, insists that Americans need The Bailout despite its unpopularity. Glick starts by citing the decline of the Fed's balance sheet from 800 billion to 300 billion. Then mentions the failures of major banks such as Washington Mutual and Wachovia, the enormous 1.3 trillion dollar loss of wealth in one day's trading in the stock market, and the difficulty for companies to maintain cash flow for payrolls. She conveys a growing economic crisis, arguing that 'we are running out of options', so we need The Bailout.
Reich and Glick both agree that the country is in a financial crisis. Glick is in favor of a huge Bailout for Wallstreet. Reich wants the government to completely reorganize Wallstreet. On the bailout, Reich and Glick disagree; however, they both stress a need for the government to play a major role in this current financial crisis.
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2 comments:
You've given useful summaries. However, for a synthesis you would want to attack the topic point by point, rather than source by source.
[Please do not remove this posting.]
have suggested
-->have proposed // argued for ["Suggested" is too weak.]
Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, have
-->Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke have [What you have here is title plus name, not subject plus appositive.]
700 billion dollar bailout
-->$700 billion-dollar bailout [see OH 29c and 19c]
The bailout has sparked a lot of controversy
-->[Delete "a lot of" -- it just weakens.]
'The Bailout'.
-->"The Bailout."
[Whose idea is it to call it that? Reich seems to use capitals only with the phrase "The Bailout of All Bailouts" -- not a particularly clever formulation (based dimly on the "Mother of All Wars"?), and not current enough to justify capitalization of the shortened form.]
today',
-->today,"
and The plan would also require
-->and that the plan...
'unprecedented role in reselling assets, which is a step towards socialized capitalism'.
-->"... ."
the Treasure
-->the Treasury
'organize a giant workout of Wallstreet'
-->".... " [I've never heard the word "workout" used this way; even if his usage is current among economists, you should explain it for the less-informed.]
Robert Reich formerly the nation's 22nd Secretary of Labor, in a post on Thursday September 18,
--> posting on Thursday, September 18, [Great idea to include the link; however, if you are linking directly to the posting in question, I think you should have linked the words "postinjg on Thursday, September 18" rather than "Robert Reich."
two points.
-->[Can you characterize the points? (Are they claims, evidence, or what?)
He starts by saying, 'investors ...there.'
-->He starts by saying, "Investors ...there."[OH 47h; 62c Use double quotation marks. "Asserting" might be better.]
He points out that "As the
-->He points out that "as the
[This formulation is not usually used to cite a full sentence, and is more common with indirect quotation. Even if the quoted part is a full sentence, it is likely to be treated as a truncation, and therefore not capitalized.]
Again the problem
-->Again, the problem
people, 'who really need a safety net right now'.
people "who really need a safety net right now." [This is a restrictive phrase. Reich is referring only to those people who need the safety net.]
The Glick posing needs to be identified (September 30, 2008 9:50AM "Why We Need the Bailout"); there are several postings on that date. Note that she does not refer to "The Bailout."
Then mentions
-->Then she mentions
1.3 trillion dollar loss
-->$1.3 trillion loss
the difficulty for companies to maintain cash flow for payrolls.
-->and the difficulty that companies will have in maintaining cash flow for payrolls.
She conveys a growing economic crisis, arguing that 'we are running out of options', so we need The Bailout.
-->She sees a growing economic crisis, argues that "we are running out of options," and concludes that we definitely need a bailout. [parallelism!]
Reich and Glick both agree
-->Reich and Glick agree
Reich and Glick both agree that the country is in a financial crisis. Glick is in favor of a huge Bailout for Wallstreet. Reich wants the government to completely reorganize Wallstreet. On the bailout, Reich and Glick disagree; however, they both stress a need for the government to play a major role in this current financial crisis.
-->Reich and Glick agree that the country is in a financial crisis. They also agree that the government must play a major role in this current financial addressing the crisis.They disagree, however, on the solution. Glick is in favor of a huge bailout for Wallstreet. Reich wants the government to completely reorganize Wall Street.
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