What Trump Should Learn From the 2008 Financial Crisis

With the election of risk taker Donald Trump as president, people should recall what lessons were learned from the 2008 financial crisis.

Many consider the Great Recession to be the most detrimental crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The 2008 financial crisis, or Great Recession, led to the lost of 8.7 million jobs and foreclosure on more than four million homes of American families. Not only did the recession affect American people, but the financial meltdown threatened the world economy.

Government inaction was part of the cause of the 2008 financial crisis. In the years before the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. government policy had emphasized deregulation to encourage business, resulting in less oversight of activities. When lending institutions wanted to profit off of loans to homebuyers; financiers began making subprime mortgage loans. People who could not afford to pay back their mortgage loans were buying houses because lenders said that they could.

High risk mortgages were bundled and turned into supposedly low-risk securities at big banks. Since people could not pay back their mortgages, a high default rate in the subprime home mortgage sector occurred.  The financial crisis occurred because the government was not regulating the unscrupulous, profit-driven behavior of businesses.

Americans demanded government action during the Great Recession. It took a 700 billion government bailout of banks, as well as an auto industry bailout, to stabilize the U.S. economy.

A crucial lesson to learn from the 2008 financial crisis is that the U.S. government cannot ignore its role in the economy. If the government had tried to curtail the subprime loan practice, perhaps the 2008 financial crisis could have been avoided. Laws and regulation are needed to recognize when a problem occurs and deal with them early on.

The Republican Party tends to favor less government regulation in the economy.

President-elect Trump has said that he plans to slash corporate taxes and help businesses. Even though Trump as a Republican obviously believes that governments should be regulating businesses less, he should not be hesitant to intervene.

President-elect Trump should remember that even when the Republican-majority Congress does not agree with government regulation of business, the President has the authority to issue executive orders and bypass Congress entirely. As president, Trump should keep himself informed about business practices and economic activity. Regardless of how optimistic Wall Street might sound, it is always important to keep a close eye on big business.

No regulation is actually worse than having some regulation. Regulation might be needed to ensure a stable economy. If markets begin to fail, the government should take the steps to stop the situation from progressing any further.

While businesses might like to be left alone, Trump should remember that he has a duty as president to ensure the public safety and make sure businesses do not do anything that might cause damage in the economy.

What A Busy November!

November is a busy month. In the United States, election day is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. But November is not just a month of politics, it's also a month about giving thanks. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday in November. It is a day where Americans come together around a table, feast on turkey, and celebrate what they are thankful for.

The first Thanksgiving Day celebration can be traced back to the 1621 harvest meal. The original attendees of the 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation were Pilgrims and Native American. Pilgrims were religious refugees from England; the pilgrims had difficulty harvesting the land in America. The local Native Americans from the Wampanoag tribe saw the hardships of the Pilgrims and wanted to help. The Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to grow corn, beans, and squash and catch fish. After a successful harvest season, the Pilgrims wanted to show their gratitude to the local Wampanoag tribe and invited them to a meal. The meal is known as Thanksgiving. While today's Thanksgiving celebrations would be nearly unrecognizable to the Pilgrims and Native Americans of the original 1621 harvest meal, Thanksgiving still remains a day of giving thanks for family, friends, and the food on the table.

For some, Thanksgiving also marks the start of the holiday season and holiday shopping! The day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, when all retailers offer discounts to entice shoppers to spend money. Another way to look at Black Friday is that it's just another way to get some exercise after a day of eating!

This Halloween-Don't Dress Up Like A Creepy Clown

BOSTON — Communities across the United States have been terrorized by creepy clown sightings. On social media, people dressed like clowns have threatened to kill people at several schools. While police have said that the threats are not credible, the alarm generated by the posts has been enough for law enforcement to take additional precautions.

On October 3, Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass. was placed on lockdown after receiving reports of an armed clown. After police investigation, it was found that the reports were part of a Twitter hoax.

With Halloween coming up, teenage pranksters have fed the urban legend of the scary clown. Young people impersonating clowns have posted threats on social media in an attempt to go viral. NBC News reported that a 13-year-old boy in Connecticut made Instagram posts as clowns and threatening to target four elementary schools. State police arrested the boy on a charge of disorderly conduct.

Christy Balandino, a sophomore at Northeastern University, said that she would punish the creepy clown pranksters. “No one should try to scare children,” she said. “People are dressing up like the creepy clowns for attention.”

The clown sightings first started in August with South Carolina residents reporting stories about scary clowns luring children into the woods. The stories of creepy clowns quickly popped up in other states, mostly fueled by social media users.

Some people do not view the creepy clown phenomenon as a threat.

Erin Solinger, a sophomore at Northeastern University said, “I don’t know why people are going crazy over clowns. People are just taking pranks too seriously.”

Evil clown stories are not new, nor is a fear of clowns. Throughout history, creepy clown stories have garnered more attention in the weeks leading up to Halloween. The panic over clowns attacks has gotten worse this year with social media giving children and parents a unique platform to spread schoolyard rumors and parental worries to a wider audience.

At a White House Press Conference on October 4, press secretary Josh Earnest addressed the creepy clowns situation.

“[The phantom clown] is something that I have read about in the news coverage.” said Earnest. “Obviously this is a situation that local law enforcement authorities take quite seriously [as they] review the perceived threats to the safety of the community.”

Museum Day Live! Draws Crowds to the Harvard Museum of Natural History

On display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History were colorful sulfide minerals from countries around the world. Photo and caption by Beverly Duan.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Harvard Museum of Natural History was one of 46 Massachusetts’ museums to participate in the Smithsonian magazine’s Museum Day Live!, a nationwide event offering free admission on Sept. 24 to participating museums. Organizers say it’s an annual celebration of curiosity.

“There’s probably a few hundred more visitors today than usual,” said Allison Gruber who sells tickets for the museum. “I think it’s really good that people are taking the opportunity to come and explore.”

The Harvard Museum of Natural History at 26 Oxford Street is a member of the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture. It was established in 1998 to be the public face of three Harvard research museums: the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Harvard University Herbaria, and the Mineralogical & Geological Museum. 

Each year, more than 230,000 people visit the Harvard Museum of Natural History which, according to the museum website, is Harvard’s most popular museum attraction. Visitors have included school age children and adults from all fifty states of the United States, as well as tourists from other countries.  

Many visitors traveled to Boston just for the Museum Day Live! festival.  

New Hampshire resident and recent Dartmouth College graduate Tien King said she saw the advertisement for Museum Day Live! on her social media. 

“My friend and I came from New Hampshire because we really like natural history,” King said.

Weighing 1,600 pounds and measuring a yard across, this amethyst geode rested on a pedestal in the middle of the Earth & Planetary Sciences Gallery at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Photo and caption by Beverly Duan.

After seeing the museum, she said, she wished she could change her college major from geography to geology.

“The rocks were the best,” she said of the Earth & Planetary Sciences Gallery, which displays thousands of rare minerals and sparkling gemstones, including a 1,600-pound amethyst geode from Brazil.

For some, it was a family affair. Strollers lined the entranceway to the museum as parents carried their babies and toddlers up three flights of stairs to the exhibitions.  Tyler Sydin, a Cambridge resident and father-of-two, took a picture with his cell phone of his children standing in awe next to a display of ancient helmets.

“Normally, I don’t come to this museum,” he said. “But I’m happy that I came here with my family today.” “My kids learned a lot about ancient warfare tools, and I think it’s important for people today to learn about things that happened in the past, to put the present into context.”

On display in the Arts of War Gallery at the Harvard Museum of Natural History was a steel helmet made in Milan, Italy around the 1550s. The decorative gold elements on this piece of armor would have made it suitable for use in tournaments or parades. Photo and caption by Beverly Duan.

Religion: A Sad Excuse for War

How many wars have occurred due to religion? I'd never realized it before when I was studying European history; but thinking back on the history of mankind I've discovered a pattern. Lots of wars come about because of slight disagreements over religion. I wouldn't say it's religion that's to blame, but rather it's the human tendency to take advantage of an opportunity. Religion, in unscrupulous hands, becomes a tool of manipulation. The better lessons of an ideology are overlooked, while a dictator twists phrases into something that he can use to conquer people with.

In Professor Dimendberg's class, we watched a film about Christianity in Germany during World War II. In this film, it talked about how Hitler and his National Socialists took control of the churches and claimed that it was part of God's plan that the Germans take over the world. Hitler wanted to take over the world, but he knew that no one would follow his commands unless he could suggest that there was a higher order watching. It seems reasonable to assume there were church ministers or church goers who disagreed with Hitler. In the cases of avid church-goers, couldn't they distinguish between what was said in the Bible and what was made up by Hitler?

Religion under the Nazis

The Germany around the time of the Second World War can be best described by one word: chaos. While there were church leaders such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer who saw the problems with Hitler's teaches, there were some who were too timid to call out Hitler and his soldiers. Furthermore, there were simply those wanted to choose the easy path and believe in Hitler and his extreme stances. The conditions of life were so destitute that Hitler's words of inspiration and promise for an invincible Germany worked and made the people of Germany listen to him.

The Wars of Religion, English Civil War, the First World War, the Second World War are among the wars that have in some way, religion as the root cause of them. Many wars in the world have been caused over a disagreement over religion. It's not that religion causes the wars, but rather the leaders who choose to use religion in order to further their own interests. Indeed, the threat of a higher order that is capable of evaluating people's actions is effective at controlling people and rallying up motivation. In my opinion, fights over religion should have concluded with the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the European Wars of Religion and declared that the ruler of each nation-state would make the final decision over the religion within their territory. With this treaty, religion should have already become separate from wars and other national disputes.

I believe that it would be quite possible to eliminate wars concerning religion if people become more acquitted with the teachings of various religions. It would be a good idea to implement programs that teach students about the world religions during history class. Religion has had such a huge impact on the history of humanity that ignoring the power of religion would lead to greater problems in the future.

Group Mentality Equals Mind Control?

Anyone who has ever been part of a clique knows what it feels like to be in a group. There are unspoken rules that must be followed in order to remain in. Cliques in high school are extremely exclusive and that's part of their allure. There will always be people who are left outside a group even though they want to be part of the inner circle. This privilege of being part of the in-crowd that causes people to be aloof and act cruel to the "outsiders." Cheerleaders, jocks, even the nerds—  they all do their part to keep their positions in the high school social landscape. In trying to keep up their image and emphasize the unity of a group, members of a clique act in ways they normally would not.


In Grease: As one of the bad boy T-Birds, Danny has to act cool in front of the guys

After seeing the movie Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick, I was reminded of how group mentality can alter peoples' personalities. Full Metal Jacket is a movie set during the Vietnam War and tells the story of new recruits receiving military training. In the process, the drill instructor singles out the recruits who are weak and prone to mistakes. Leonard Lawrence, whose name is changed to Gomer Pyle, is one such recruit who is slow to respond to the drill instructor Hartman's discipline.

Pyle serves the purpose of a scapegoat. A scapegoat helps unify the people against a common enemy. Pyle earns the hatred of his fellow soldiers when the drill instructor punishes the platoon for every mistake that Pyle makes. In retaliation, the platoon hazes Pyle by beating him with bars of soap in the night. Even Joker, the person who was helping Pyle, joins in during the hazing and lets his anger out on Pyle.

How is it possible that a patient and kind person like Joker would be able to beat up the same person he had just taught to make a bed and lace up boots a day before?

The herd mentality type of mind control is highly underestimated. Being part of a organization makes people act in ways they normally would not. When people are swept into a sort of mob mentality, such as when the soldiers are hazing Pyle, they become part of a unit and that changes their personality. The members of the group feel anonymous and less responsible for their actions. This is known as de-individuation. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to consider mob mentality a form of mind control.