Losing Money In Europe

A disjointed post ending in a far different place than it starts:

I post this link only because of the second paragraph:
http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=ca98a2c2-ed7c-4e12-865c-11beea3ff00c

 Just as Europe undoubtedly felt the backlash from America's economic crisis, American companies are now feeling pain as a result of Europe's troubles. j

Two points:
1. If you are writing for MSN money why haven't you gotten the memo that global inter-connectivity is a consistent economic reality for the modern imperialist firm?   Is this really worth mentioning?

2. Regarding the 500 Million dollar loss, but Ford's domestic operating budget is 7 billion dollars.In Europe they sell about 1.5 million vehicles a year.  The average price is around $10 000 US, this means total revenue is about 1.5 billion?  Correct me if I missed a zero?  How does a company lose 1/3 of its total revenue?  I have an idea but I want to look for more numbers before I go nuts.  My guess would be more cannon fodder for the "workers and unions are killing business" right wing.  Historically the far right gains support concurrently with the left.  A bit of a late night stretch for my brain, but this narrative (if it appears) will be more evidence of a political polarization caused by the current western world recession (depression). I love speculation! 

A Lecture (by me) on Why I Choose to Use Political Economics (instead of other methodologies)

This short lecture (20 min) describes why I choose to work from a political economic method in my Intro to Economics of Crime and Social Problems.  The alternatives are of course more commonly accepted, and I feel far less useful to my students.
Despite the awkwardness of filming lectures, and my running out of the room for 30 seconds to get a marker, I feel this is one of my more profound intro online lectures.
I hope you enjoy
https://vimeo.com/43236196
Comments are welcome.

Great Quote on Plea Bargains (Graded Online Discussions are My Favorite Thing To Read)

Just a little late night fun as I am grading...

Generally speaking I subscribe the liberal view of plea bargains.  Namely they are taken by (forced upon) the poor and disenfranchised who cannot afford good legal representation.  Just another bias against the proletariat (and lumpen proletariat) in our criminal justice system.

Sometimes I am surprised by the simple logic and beauty of arguments that I would normally never agree with.  This is a good example.

The following is a mash up of the posts of two of my students from last semester on a casual discussion board.  Outstanding! 

"A person who broke the law earned their punishment.  Why should they get less punishment just to save the state money?  Obama is just going to waste it anyway".

Student Strikes in Quebec Reach 100th Day

Here is a great photo of the protest from David Ruccio's blog:
http://anticap.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/protest-of-the-day-105/

Have "victories" been won?  Yes and no.  I am not going to go with the "overdetermined" summary here, I will save that for another post.

I would suggest that similar to elimination of the penny, (see my older blog post), in the fight against high tuition at public universities Canada is again leading the way.

A large talking point in the current election cycle seems to be the lack of job opportunity for graduates in this country, and thus their inability to pay back their student loans.  Perhaps these unemployed graduates should have spent more time fighting to keep tuition, and thus their loans, at a lower, more manageable level.  Hindsight being 20/20 of course.

Of course when your income is zero, paying back even small loans can be problematic.  As more and more graduates struggle with their payments perhaps my graduate degree will indeed become a requirement for well paying bartending jobs?  Am I ready for the increase in competition?