Anything good last week? Hmm… Let’s see
There’s this article from former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, on how the United States refuses to practice what it preaches… In regards to rebuilding an economy. See the IMF and the World Bank make stringent and harsh demands on countries which wish to borrow money from them: cut their deficits, let banks and local institutions fail, etc… Pretty much everything the United States hasn’t done, now that it finds itself in a crisis… This fact will be remembered for a long time down the road by other countries and will do much to discredit American-style capitalism in the future and the best way to set up an economy.
Got student loans? Did you know that the Federal government is changing the rules on the direct loans they give to students? The two big changes are debt forgiveness, for those who meet certain guidelines, and new income based repayment plans. If you’re about to get loans, you might want to wait til after July 10, when the new rules go into effect as the interest rate will be dropping and the size of the Pell Grant will increase. Overview here and the official site here.
Wired‘s Editor in Chief, Chris Anderson, wrote an article awhile back in the magazine about how the future of business was free… This was before the economic meltdown… His book on the subject will be coming out on July 7. I read the article and it was an interesting premise backed by some data… I don’t know see how the model Mr. Anderson advocates can be adopted by all businesses without a huge loss of jobs and capital. I don’t know why the release date wasn’t pushed back, in the midst of recession isn’t the best time to bring out a book prescribing business to give their widgets,services, expertise, etc. away.
The Art of Manliness continues with their 30 days to a better man project. Last week they covered memorizing things, giving yourself a testicular exam, creating a bucket list, decluttering, writing a letter to your father, making a meal, and creating a budget. I’m pretty manly this week as I write to my father and cook meals regularly, am constantly decluttering and de-stuffing my life, have a budget and give myself a testicular exam twice a year. I think bucket lists are stupid and the memorizing thing is something I have to work on.
That’s about it… I know there is more but I don’t know what happened to them… If you’re interested in seeing the stories I sites I read regularly and the items I tag to share you can follow my shared RSS feed here. I also post links to interesting tidbits on Twitter.
And the title of your blog translates to what, in which language?
That is Latin for the Gods are Dead