Salmonella Outbreak

      2006 - 2007 salmonella outbreak case has now been re-opened. A Con-Agra Food Inc. unit has agreed to pay a fine and also plea guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge. They're calling this a rare criminal case, but it has made enforcement step-up on how food-safety laws is shaking up its industry. Con-Agra Grocery Products will have to pay $11.2 million to clear up allegations that the company had shipped nasty contaminated peanut butter under the brand Peter Pan. Also, Wal-Mart had shipped the peanut butter under the Great Value label. This salmonella outbreak had sickened more than 700 people. The Justice Department's efforts to hold these food companies and/or their executives accountable for these outbreaks have been successful. Since 2013, the Justice Department has won guilty pleas and convictions in four cases. All of those cases had fallen under the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. In recent cases as well, the Justice Department successfully prosecuted defendants for bringing contaminated food into their markets even without proof that the officials acted with criminal intent. These actions have created greater awareness in boardrooms and they have stepped up their efforts to aid food safety. A lot of companies have invested in new technologies to prevent the build-up of bacteria in plants, also to enhance the speed up data collection and analysis. Con-Agra pulled its peanut butter from the shelves in the store after the salmonella outbreak, and on Wednesday's plea agreement they admitted that they'd been aware of some risk of contamination prior to the recall. I think this is awesome, it's about time we're becoming more aware of safety risks and creating food-safety laws. As long as the Justice Department keeps doing what they're doing, they'll keep racking in the money from these companies who think they can just hand out contaminated foods.

Jeb Bush

      On Wednesday, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Jeb Bush had tried to turn the spotlight from what was going on with decisions about Iraq. He wanted to focus it on Obama to criticize his decision to remove U.S. forces out of the country. Former Florida governor put his sense in too. He wanted a strategy to take out ISIS, but he didn't really go into detail about that. He basically argued that since the war started during his brother's administration it created somewhat stability in Iraq. Since then, it's been unraveling because of Obama's policies. When the U.S. withdrew its combat troops from Iraq, it had brought an end to the nearly decade-long conflict that started under George Bush. Obama had asked for more troops to remain on ground, but negotiations didn't go over well with the Iraqi government, and it didn't ensure that the United States military personnel would be granted immunity. Apparently critics at that time had warned that extremist elements would get more powerful without a U.S. presence. Now Republican presidential challengers are saying the rise of ISIS is to prove that the U.S. should have pushed harder to stay in Iraq. I don't believe that Obama should be criticized for all of this. They definitely should have learned from past mistakes. Bush was struggling to answer all of these questions that he was being asked. There was multiple days of unclear answers from him about whether he would've gone into Iraq now knowing what he knows about faulty intelligence that originally stimulated the military action.

Why the Federal Government Harmful

      The Federal Reserve is a privately-owned central bank that has driven the United States government to the verge of bankruptcy, controlled America's currency, and has ran our economy. It's a very private bank, and always operates in secrecy. The actions the Federal Government takes has an impact on every single America. It basically is designed to diminish wealth from the U.S government and provide it to the rich.
      You could say that the Federal Reserve basically creates the money out of thin air. In an article, by The Economic Collapse, there were facts in the article that agreed this is true, however, it didn't seem as if the people had been greatly upset by this. During a hearing, U.S Rep. Ron Paul had straight up confronted Chairman Ben Bernanke about all this money that came from nowhere. All he did was nod his head, because it was essentially the truth.
      The Federal Reserve hurts the middle and poor class. In an article, written by Julie Borowski, she agrees that our hard-earned money is stolen through a hidden inflation tax. The increase in the supply of money and credit is called inflation. this is what hurts the poor the most because they have less disposable income. The consumers that have low disposable incomes will of course be negatively impacted by the higher prices for clothing and food.
      In the video that we watched in class, it talked about how in the 10th century, people traded things they had for things that they wanted. Until a golds man came along and was like "why don't we trade gold for things that we need!" This then led to commerce, which is the act of buying and selling. Then banks came along and said that they could hold everyone's gold for a "little fee". Bankers began to lend out IOU's for all of this money. Prices began to rise as people began to buy things, which is known as inflation. Inflation makes the IOU's less and less until they're worth nothing. This guy worked hard to get his money, and now he has to work even HARDER to get paid less. As soon as everybody wanted their money back, the bank had nothing to give.
      So this is why I think the Federal Reserve is harmful for our economy. The Federal Reserve just creates all of this money out of nowhere, they harm the poor and middle class, and they make people work hard just to get paid less.

Spoils v Merit

The Spoils System is a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to it's supporters, friends and relatives as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party. A Merit System is where offices are awarded on the basis of some measure of merit, independent of political activity. The spoils system flourished in the US from the 1820's until after the Civil war, at which the time the system's abuses prompted civil-service reforms designed to cut down the number of government posts filled by appointment and awarded jobs on the basis of the merit. The spoils system is still used today to award federal top jobs to people.

Business Cycles, Recessions, and Depressions

      It is so tough for economists to predict the business cycle because of the economic growth and falling unemployment began to strain the economy's productive capacity. Inflation is also a big reason as to why it's hard for economists to predict. Since the economy grows because of the rising population and productivity, it goes through cycles of expansion and recession. A bull market is a financial market of a group of securities in which prices are rising or are expected to rise. This term is most often used to refer to the stock market, but can be applied to anything that is traded, such as bonds, currencies and commodities. A bear market is a market condition in which the prices of securities are falling, and widespread pessimism causes the negative sentiment to be self-sustaining. All of the bad that came with the devastating recessions eventually faded. America had depressions in the 1870's and 1930's but both eventually gave way to new booms. Japan has not yet put its debts behind. Millions of Americans defaulted and lost their homes during and after the Great Recession, but America will again grow until something new knocks it down again. A recession is a period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity is reduced, generally identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters. A depression is a long severe recession in an economy or market.

The Underground Economy

     The underground economy involves the exchange of goods and services that are usually hidden from official view. Underground economies are usually found in places like Brazil or in southern Europe. Underground activity in the past year totaled almost as much as $2 trillion. This "hidden" economy can be beneficial because consumer spending in the short term is boosting the economy. It can be detrimental because the workers who aren't on the books don't get social security or health benefits. These jobs run the risk of getting exploited with lower pay or not being paid at all.

Net Neutrality

     Net neutrality is basically the idea that whoever gives you internet access, Comcast, Verizon, etc, should treat all Internet traffic the same way. Net neutrality is important to consumers because it gives free speech online and democratic participation. The FCC will be able to enact new rules that will prevent Internet service providers from manipulating how quickly or slowly sites are transmitted along their networks, which is a huge win for proponents of net neutrality.