Indiana’s Experimental Purple State May Just Turn Red Again

In the 2008 presidential election, Democrats in northern Indiana helped sway Indiana’s electoral vote to a blue state; A move that has not been seen in Indiana since 1964. Indiana has historically been considered a conservative red state mainly due to the southern most counties, which are considered to be part of the “Bible Belt”. However, during the last presidential election many moderates, fed up with Bush’s policies, helped sway the state to an experimental state, known as a purple state. A purple state is the mixture of conservative (red) and democratic (blue) votes, which can create a fickle election.

Today, after only two years of Barack Obama’s term, this is no longer the case. Many Hoosiers seem angry over the liberal agenda and policies set by the Obama administration. Several democratic candidates are much less publicly known compared to their republican counterparts. The upcoming November election may help southern Hoosiers and northern moderates turn this experimental purple state back to pure red.

By Michael Rocus

http://www.economist.com/node/17204952

Japan start to implemented the "zero interest rate policy".

This news basically talks about the Bank of Japan implemented of the "zero interest rate policy" after an interval of 4 years. And also it casued the Japan's central bank unexpectedly decided to cut the overnight rate to 0.0% -0.1% range on Tuesday. and promised to maintain the this pocily until the price stabilizes. The purpose for Japan is the government trying to drive down long-term market interest rates and lower risk premium. I think, because the economics going down, the price is going up, then make people more hard to live, so the government take this act to increase the economic and to keep the economic proce situation. Meanwhile, Japan cut interest rates also intended to prevent further appreciation of the economic downturn.

http://biz.cn.yahoo.com/ypen/20101008/41124.html

Fiscal Woes Deepening for Cities, Report Says

Coopers mentions in this article that cities are seeing that they are in the worst finicial shape then they have ever been since the past quarter century. Ever since the "housing bubble burst" there has been an 1.8% decrease in property tax collections. With sales tax collections decreasing and unemployment, its beginning to take a toll on cities that rely on income-tax revenues. The cities have few ideas to help the situation, but their main options are tax increases and service cuts.

This relates to what we discuss in class especially in chapter 2 when birkland talks about the overall process of policy making and eventually implementing.

Elizabeth Sziler

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/us/07cities.html?_r=1&ref=us

Deportations Hit Record Number

The United States continues to put its foot down when it comes to illegal immigration. The US deported a record 392,862 illegal immigrants and arrested more of there employers this past year than ever before. I think the government is correct in doing this because

"nearly half, 190,000, of those removed by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 had criminal records."

These criminal records included murder, sexual assault, as well as lesser charges. I think our government should begin to focus on these types of illegals and not just ones that are here working and are not being a problem.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704689804575536301580024586.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5

IMF, World Bank Try to Ease Currency Tensions

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) - World leaders must defuse currency tensions before they worsen to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Great Depression, the head of the World Bank said on Thursday. The spirit of global economic cooperation, first forged in 2008 during the darkest days of the financial crisis, was weakening as the recession gives way to an uneven and shaky recovery, the head of the International Monetary Fund said. ‘If one lets this slide into conflict, or forms of protectionism, then we run the risks of repeating the mistakes of the 1930s,’ World Bank President Robert Zoellick told reporters at a briefing. ”

Personally, I think that “market sector” and world bank “government sector” power control and regulate the world currency problem. Fears of global currency and trade wars, which were key factors in the Great Depression, have jumped to the top of the agenda at IMF and World Bank meetings this weekend, and are also expected to be a primary topic of discussion when Group of Seven finance leaders gather on Friday. These meetings are expected to provide a forum for intense discussions about efforts to persuade China to let its currency rise and tamp down pressures for other emerging countries to control capital flows as the U.S. dollar weakens. Emerging markets are caught in the crossfire. Investors turned off by low returns in the United States and elsewhere are pouring money into fast-growing economies such as Brazil, driving up asset prices and inflation. Actions to control disruptive currency swings were understandable but over the medium term currencies would have to adjust to permit a necessary rebalancing of the global economy.

Post by: Ziying Yuan

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wirestory?id=11822159&page=3

AIDS still a problem

In 2005, HIV/AIDS was reported the sixth-leading cause of death in Americans age 25-44. There are currently over 56,000 new cases of HIV/AIDS each year with a total of 1.1 million currently. Even with these reports, Americans' perception of the problem has drastically decreased in the past few years. In 1995, 44% of Americans said that HIV/AIDS was the most urgent public health problem facing the United States. Today, that number has fallen to just 6%, this is most notably due to politicians turning their attention to the overseas situation. Public awareness has also dropped, in 2005 35% of Americans claimed they had heard "a lot" about the problem of AIDS. In 2006, that number dropped to just 14%. The Obama administration recently committed $45 million for a public awareness program "Act Against AIDS", a five year program intended to raise the public saliency of the problem. The public must be educated about AIDS, policy makers are faced to ask the public if it feels that AIDS is a serious issue?

URL: http://www.publicagenda.org/pages/HIV-AIDS-May-2009

Using Food Stamps To Slow Obesity

In New York City, Mayor, Michael Bloomberg is pushing for a ban on using food stamps to purchase soda. The city has 1.7 million food stamp recipients this will affect. The reasoning behind this is that obesity and diabetes are increasing in the city and this may help lower those conditions. Not using the food stamps on this "junk food" will allow them to be used on foods with actual nutritional value. This new policy idea allows both a push for healthy society as well as a reason to ensure that food stamps are used in the proper manner rather than on junk food. I think that this is a step in the right direction for both NYC and the country. I would like to see this policy adopted on a larger scale in both a geographical perspective of the policy and a scope of items covered in the policy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/nyregion/07stamps.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper