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PER3PECTIV"
On the brink of collapse
By Christopher Brown
contributing writer
cmbs3l3@p s u.cdu
If you find it difficult to follow exactly
how the United States ended up on the
brink of economic collapse, you are not
the only one. Here’s my understanding of
what happened based on articles I’ve
read and interviews I’ve listened to.
Starting in the early 2000 s, President
Bush decided to push home ownership as
a major goal of his administration, a
respectable goal. They should have been
regulating investment and banks, but no
one wanted to. To hide the risk involved
and make a quick buck, banks bundled a
bunch of securities and mortgages
together and sold them. The only prob
lem was that no one had to disclose
exactly what was being bought and sold.
No one knew the risk or value involved.
But who cared? They were making
money and borrowing was cheap, so no
one bothered to ask exactly what risk was
involved.
Unfortunately, housing prices col
lapsed, interest rates climbed, and fore
closures skyrocketed. No one was willing
to buy them up because their value was
unknown, thus freezing up the credit
market. Businesses can no longer get
short term credit to make payroll or
essential purchases, and there is a real
risk that the economy could grind to a
halt.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke proposed a massive bailout
plan of $7OO billion to buy up all of these
toxic securities, telling Congress that it
may be the only way to avoid economic
ruin.
The originai plan submitted to
Congress included no oversight, no pos
sible review mechanisms for the purchas
ing of the debt, and no guarantee that it
would fix the problem. Instead, the plan
asked for a blank check. Trust him. says
Secretary Paulson. This is the same guy
who, in March, said, “I've got great con
fidence in our financial market, our
financial institutions...our investment
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Relationships or hook ups?
By Alyssa Weinstein
staff writer
abwSOSJ^psucdu
The other night 1 was posed with the
question: should I start a relationship at
this point in the school year or should I
just have hook-ups? A great question: it
is one that I have recently been strug
gling with as well. And all I can say is,
I guess it depends on the person.
Not to knock on guys, but a lot of
them are “non-committal", as my friend
likes to call them. And the truth is, there
are a lot of girls that are that way too. I
can honestly say that I am one of them.
1 have been in some scary relationships
that have led me to believe that maybe
they aren’t worth it. But as of recently, I
have turned over a new leaf and I don’t
think it would be so bad to have a rela
tionship.
What would a relationship provide us
with that hooking up won’t? Well, have
I went about my normal Friday rou
tine: oversleeping, eating a burnt
Bruno’s burger, and picking up The
Beacon. As normal, I found most of the
articles entertaining, but this week, one
of the articles actually caught my atten
tion. After all, what catches the typical
college guy’s attention more than sex?
This article talked about having safe
sex as well as avoiding unwanted preg
nancies and STDs. This is all good and
fine. But if students are going to
choose to have sex, I most assuredly
agree that it should be protective sex
for all the obvious reasons,
banks arc strong.” We’ve been down this
road before with the PATRIOT Act. the
Homeland Security Act and its anti-union
measures and last but not least, the inva
sion of Iraq. Fourth time is not the charm.
The only thing in shorter supply than
market capital these days is trust for the
Bush administration.
Despite the serious nature of this crisis,
it didn’t stop the McCain campaign from
trying to score political points. Barack
Obama called McCain early on
Wednesday, reaching across party lines,
issuing a joint statement to show biparti
san support to find an acceptable bailout
plan.
Then, in what can only be described as
a classic Rovian political stunt, McCain
decided to scoop Obama and “suspend
his campaign" to return to Washington to
help hash out a bailout plan with
Congressional leaders. Though it turns
out “suspend” is a subjective word
according McCain since he’s still running
ads attacking Democrats and Obama as
“Big Government Liberals” and more
false accusations.
John McCain was a week too late. His
first response a week earlier wasn’t to
recognize the crisis; it was to deny it.
“The fundamentals of our economy are
strong,” he said. Then he blamed Obama
for causing it, asking Obama to “admit to
his own poor judgment in contributing to
these problems. The crisis on Wall Street
started in the Washington culture of lob
bying and influence peddling, and he was
right square in the middle of it."
McCain should look in the mirror.
He s the one whose campaign manag
er, Rick Davis, is listed as “one of only
two corporate officers and directors of
the film” on Freddie Mac’s payroll, a
lender at the center of the crisis, for
$15,000 a month through this last
August, according to Newsweek and the
New York Times.
He's the one who only a few months
ago proudly proclaimed, “I’m a deregula
tor."
At his party’s convention, Mitt
Romney declared, to the thunderous
cheers of the Republican party, that
McCain would take a “weed whacker to
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you ever needed a date to an event? A
boyfriend /girlfriend would be expected
to go whereas a guy that you are just
hooking up with could have better
things to do then go. I am not saying all
situations would turn out like that, but
they certainly could.
Secondly, comfort is huge.
Sometimes, you just need to talk to
someone who you know will listen to
you. In a relationship, or at least a good
one, this is to be expected.
Lastly, it is always fun to go to an
amusement park, concert, or other fun
activities with a consistent “someone.”
And plus, you know your families just
love it when you bring your
boyfriend/girlfriend home to meet
them.
There is nothing wrong with just
hooking up though. It is supposed to
take all of the complication of a rela
tionship and eliminate it, but just so
everyone knows- it doesn’t. There will
Letter to the editor: Worth the wait
However, if I want to offer a counter
thought for students. I have befriended
a variety of people over my six years
on this campus. One thing I have
learned is that while a number of stu
dents do have sex, many surprisingly
do not! There are people who wait, and
not because they live in some sexually
repressive mindset, but rather because
they are holding out for something bet
ter.
Most agree that sex is the ultimate
expression of love. To have sex is to be
completely vulnerable, intimate, and
naked (both figuratively and literally)
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excessive regulation and mandates.”
A week later, McCain still didn’t get it.
when asked if he would vote for the
bailout plan as currently written, he
admitted that he had “not had a chance to
see it in writing, I have to examine it.”
Actions speak louder than words and
McCain couldn’t bring himself to read a
three page proposal that may be the only
thing standing in the way of economic
ruin!
Ultimately, it looks like McCain will
play spoiler to the tough agreement
Democrats and Republicans hashed out
in Congress. McCain came to
Washington at the eleventh hour only to
derail the process. Senator Chris Dodd
said on CNN, "what happened here, basi
cally, if you want an honest appraisal of
the thing... What this looked like to me
was a rescue plan for John McCain for
two hours and took us away from the
work we are trying to do today. Serious
people trying to do serious work to come
up with an answer." As of this writing, no
deal has been made.
There is more than enough blame to go
around. It would be all too easy to blame
“poor people who bought houses they
couldn’t afford” when the problem is
deeper than that. I can't help but
empathize with someone whose lifelong
dream was to own a home and were mis
lead into believing they could with the
help from realtors, banks, the govern
ment that they could move into homes
they couldn’t afford. The government
failed to look out for the interests of
Americans while businesses were all too
happy to make a quick buck. Too many
people attach too much worth to the
money in their pocket.
Communities need to start thinking
about what cost a neighborhood incurs
when it is riddled with foreclosures: it is
a no-win situation. I don’t see how any
one could feel so self-righteous about
themselves that they are willing to watch
neighborhoods collapse just so they can
feel good about themselves. It shouldn't
be like that, but it is and this country has
to deal with it. Now is not the time to
blame the victim.
always be one person in the situation
that will get stronger feelings than the
other and that will only lead to the com
plications that we all try to avoid, (i.e.
clinginess, mistrust, and the inevitable
heartbreak). But really, if you don’t
have time for a relationship, make sure
the other party knows that because it is
only fair to make your intentions know
upfront. And on the flipside, if your
intentions or priorities change, you
should inform the other person of that
as well.
So again, the question is if it is ok to
start relationships at this point in
school? I would say yes. 1 know people
that conveniently started their relation
ships a week after we got here, and we
will see how long that lasts, but why not
now, we are as settled in as we are going
to get. So if a relationship is what you
want, go for it. Take a chance. It would
be a shame if you did end up missing
out on something that could be great.
with another human soul. That sort of
intimacy has become so prosaic for our
society that sex has lost much of its
sacredness. In laymen’s terms: we’re
missing out on some great sex!
Call me selfish, but I want the kind
of intimacy that is going to last a life
time and not just until tomorrow. I
want to be able to give everything to
my wife and her likewise to me unhin
dered and unashamed.
So just hold on a little longer those
of you who want to wait until mar
riage. Remember, you’re not alone.
Also, you’re not just waiting to have
Friday, September 26, 2008
niri
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sex, but you’re waiting to spend the
rest of your life in a deep and sacred
relationship. In my opinion, this will
not only foster the best possible sex,
but also the closest human connection
you could ever hope to have. So is this
kind of intimacy worth waiting for;
you bet your sweet childhood fruit
snacks treat it is.
I think I
had an
epiphany
By Jennifer Juncosa
perspectives editor
jdjso6l@psu.edu
Last week I wrote my weekly col
umn about how I have never been to a
football game and how I feel 1 am
missing out. I still believe I need to get
the football experience as soon as pos
sible, but I had an unexpected
epiphany the other day.
A friend of mine contacted me late
Wednesday night and said she had an
extra ticket. My response was “I’ll
call you later,” but when I fully awoke
from sleeping I called her right back
saying yes.
As I lay in bed thinking about which
white shirt I should wear to the first
whiteout and first Big Ten game of the
season, a sudden wave of sadness
over-came me.
My first game was going to be this
year’s Michigan game. My one broth
er, a former Penn Stater, had gotten
two tickets when the price was legiti
mate and offered it to me. It was going
to be a passing of the torch. My broth
er was going to show me the ropes, set
a foundation of how I should do all
football games.
But due to recent events, his girl
friend is now going.
I thought I wouldn’t
care where my first
game was, whom it was
against, or whom 1 was
going with, just as long
as I was going and had
fully charged batteries
in my camera,
I thought I wouldn’t care where my
first game was, whom it was against,
or whom I was going with, just as long
as I was going and had fully charged
batteries in my camera.
Even though this game is in fact the
first big game of the year (a night
game, and a whiteout) I declined the
ticker offer. I always figured my first
game was going to be with a friend or
one of my brothers. Not only did I
assum I would go with my brothers to
my first game, I now know that is
what is important.
1 have two brothers, one five years
older than me and one is four years
older. Their choice to go to Penn State
heavily swayed my decision to apply.
So with nothing else really in com
mon, we turn to Penn State for conver-
My brothers and I never really got
along until they went to college. That
was when I got Penn State sweat
shirts, shorts, and t-shirts for presents.
They would come home for
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and sum
mer telling me stories of the parties
and football games. Their obsession
with Penn State football sparked my
own. So it would be nice to not only
talk about the game but the experience
of going to Beaver Stadium.
So this week, I decline the proposal
I put forth last week. I appreciate the
offer my one friend made and hope
she doesn’t take it personally. As
cheesy as it sounds, I will most likely
wait for my first game to be a family
event. My brothers and 1 have one
thing in common and it only seems
appropriate.
Brad Filch
history major