Political Equinox

Since it’s inception in 1804, the Twelfth Amendment has governed every presidential election since, but the clause regarding ties in the electoral college has been used just once. In 1824, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay all ran for the highest office in the land. Not a single candidate received a majority of the electoral votes.

The process was riddled with corruption and resulted in John Quincy Adams claiming the highest office in the land, leaving the leading candidate Andrew Jackson shortchanged. Jackson had expected the House to vote for him given that he had won a plurality of the electoral vote, but after some bargaining between Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams, Adams was elected.

It’s …

Tags: 270 electoral votes, andrew jackson, Barack Obama, candidate, Congress, constituents, constitutional duty, electors, Henry Clay, house of representatives, IRS, john quincy adams, majority vote, obama, popular vote, president, presidential election, republican, strategy, tution, twelfth amendment, voting

This post is a part of Blog Action Day 2008, which attempts to change the conversation for one day to an important subject that affects our world. In 2008, that subject is poverty.

Every 3.5 Seconds…

…a person somewhere around the world dies of hunger. That adds up to more than 25,000 people every year, that like killing the entire crowd at the Wizards stadium for 2 weeks. However, hunger is not the real core problem here, it is simply the symptom. We’ve got to hit the root cause, which happens to be poverty.

There are plenty of great organizations around the world already doing this and I think it’s best left …

Tags: money, tution, web, wizards

Last Thursday evening I had the honor of witnessing an intriguing lecture by St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard who received his PhD is Economics from Indiana University.

Bullard spoke specifically on the topic of the recent financial crisis focusing on systemic risk, which he defined as “the possibility that the failure of one firm will lead to the failure of other firms.” However, Bullard said the difficulty lies in defining when there is adequate systemic risk to call for government intervention.

Three Pillars of Systemic Risk

Interconnectedness – Recent examples of systemic risk has focused on investment banks interconnecting themselves with complex financial instruments. For example’s sake, suppose Bank A purchases an option from Bank B to hedge risk, if …

Tags: economy, fannie mae, fannie mae and freddie mac, federal reserve bank, financial, government intervention, interconnectedness, investment banks, james bullard, mortgage backed securities, president, systemic risk, tution

Last week Republican Governor Mitch Daniels proposed privatizing the state lottery to pay for his proposed Hoosier College Promise scholarship program. The program offers Indiana residents two years free tution at Ivy Tech Community College or $6,000 to attend another college. Of course, we can’t afford to give this offer to everyone so the program will only be available to those who earn less than $60,000. Sounds great, right?

I’m all for helping people who are on the lower rung of the economic spectrum get ahead and become highly successful individuals (not saying success is measured by an income lesser or greater than $60,000, but I think you get my point). However, Daniels program of privatizing the lottery to pay for …

Tags: educational savings, financial, governor mitch daniels, hoosier, ivy tech community college, Middle Class, money, promise scholarship, republican, republican governor, scholarship program, state lottery, tution

The battle for the border fence just got a little tougher as Department of Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff said that his department will bypass environmental and land management laws to complete a border fence project by year’s end.

The move is touching some hearts in the Sierra Club, an environmental group, whose executive director claims the fence will threaten the environment of the region.

Carl Pope, the executive director, believes waiving these environmental laws is unconstiutional and he is calling for the Supreme Court to look into the issue.

The border fence will be equipped with towers, sensors, cameras along a 470-mile stretch that spans from California into Texas. This fence will cut through many areas of federally protected lands including national parks, wildlife …

Tags: border fence, chertoff, environment, homeland security, immigration, IRS, money, Sierra Club, tution