The Economist: Latin American Universities

The Economist published an article and short opinion piece on the quality of higher education in Latin America. Some of the observations that are brought up, such as low funding, echo the ones we made in class about the American colonies.

WSJ: Census Findings

The Wall Street Journal reports on released census data by the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Some of the observed trends for the recent (post sub prime crisis) years include: increased metropolitan populations, increases in metropolitan education levels and relative earned income, increases in immigration, and decreases in birth rates.

Bloomberg Editorial on China's Development

A Bloomberg Editorial contemplates the possibility of the Chinese economy failing to converge with the leading world economies as expected. Central to the discussion is how in a globalized world, national economic healths can be positively correlated, which is something we did not dwell on in our class discussion of economic growth of the American colonies during the 1700s into the 1800s.

NY Times: Job Losses Across the Developed World

Not surprisingly, the majority of the U.S.'s and many other developing countries' job losses are in the manufacturing, mining, and utilities sector. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/job-losses-across-the-developed-world/

Economix: From Kindergarten to College Completion

Columbia University professor discusses the best way to allocate resources in order to extend number of years students spend in school, or more particularly, college: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/from-kindergarten-to-college-completion/

Converging economies in present day

This Economist article addresses the convergence of emerging economies that are growing at a more rapid rate (at least 3%) onto richer countries that, because of the recession, have been experiencing economic stagnation (growing at less than 2%). However, as countries such as the US have demonstrated, as countries become richer and richer, they must innovate their human capital and financial systems, thus making the next decade crucial and almost make-or-break for emerging economies.
More brief summary article: http://www.economist.com/node/21530122
More extensive special report: http://www.economist.com/node/21528979

NY Times: Fewer Births in a Bad Economy

NY Times' Econometrix blog posted an article commenting that as the US economy growth has slowed in the past few years, so have the birth rates: http://nyti.ms/pVaiST

Europe's Sustainable Economy Proposal

As population continues to grow exponentially and resources continue to be depleted, can we learn something from Europe's proposal for a resource-efficient sustainable economy? "Resource efficiency in Europe to set global example."

Is the Immigration System Broken?

This WSJ article raises a good question on the CA Dream Act: even if undocumented students get in-state tuition & fin aid, how will they use that degree?