Reading for 11/25
Building for the Next Big Storm
A $335 Million Project to save NYC from Climate catastrophe
Reading for 12/2
Read and be prepared to discuss Kai Shafft et al_“Local Impacts off Unconventional Gas Development”
Reading for 11/25
Read and be prepared to discuss Cheryl McEwan and David Bek_”The Political Economy of Alternative Trade”
Readings for 11/11
1. Read and be prepared to discuss Nathan McClintock_”Why Farm the City”
2. Read and be prepared to discuss Gwen Ottinger_”Buckets of Resistance”
Reading for 11/4
Please read the following for the next class on Nov. 4 and be prepared to discuss; if possible, print and bring a copy of the article with you. New York Times Miches DR
Readings and assignments for 10/21
1. Read the following article on sharing economies: http://www.thepressproject.net/article/68073/AirBnb-is-a-rental-economy-not-a-sharing-economy
2. Be prepared to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of sharing economies in class.
Readings and assignments for 10/7
1. Be prepared to discuss Emmons article from last week Dont Expect Consumer_Spending William Emmons, Don’t Expect Consumer Spending to be the Engine of Economic Growth it Once Was.
2. Read and be prepared to discuss Environmental History of NYC Water Supply David Soll, The Water Empire: Environmental and Political History of New York City Water Supply.
3. Do research and read various resources that relate to your research project. Bring a list including at least 3 examples of such resources that are particularly relevant for your research project (e.g. articles, websites). A hard copy of this list is due at the beginning of class. Also bring hard copies of these resources so that you can work on preparing annotated bibliography entries in class.
Readings and assignments for 9/30
1. Economics: Dont Expect Consumer_Spending William Emmons, Don’t Expect Consumer Spending to be the Engine of Economic Growth it Once Was.
William Emmons suggests that American consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of U.S. economic growth as they did in the prosperous post-war era from 1945 – 1980. Emmons identifies five reasons for this. Please identify one of these and discuss/post your views on it by Monday September 28. (Please bring a copy of the article to class on Wed.) .
2. Sociology: The Triumph of the Egg Susanne Freidberg, The Triumph of the Egg
Read this article and be prepared to discuss how our attitudes towards food and diets changed over time. (Please note a change in syllabus–read this article and bring printed copies to class).
Reading assignment for 9/16
David N. Pellow and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. 2013. “An Environmental Sociology for the Twenty-First Century.” Annual Review of Sociology 39:229-50. Pellow and Nyseth Brehm_Env Sociology
Reading assignment for 9/7:
I. Robert D.Atkinson and Darrene Hackler, Economic Doctrines and Approaches to Climate Change Policy, October 2010 and discuss/answer any two of the following questions on the Blog. (Read pages 1 – 10; 20 – 22; 25 – 29 and 30 – 31). Atkinson-etal-2010-econ-climate-change_theories
In class on 9/7: Please print and bring to class (extra copies will be available)
Paulson_The Coming Climate Crash_Paulson
Krugman responds to Paulson
One of the five trends working against consumer spending trends: Lower Wealth
The Great Recession (2007) created lower wealth for all Americans and the recovery still remains in 2015.
1) Average inflated-adjusted income of American citizen wealth of in early 2007, plateaued (to approximately $210K), but remained 24% lower in September 30, 2011 ($160K). not sure which American citizens Mr. Emmons’ is considering in this statistics ?, but all Americans lost significant wealth that can be contributed in large part to loss of jobs which affected many citizens, in my opinion.
2) Negative equity (mortgage debt exceeding market value of homes) affects between 22-29 percent of all households with mortgages- with the lower and middle income households feeling intense pressure to reduce their debt (deleverage balance sheet), will contribute towards less/restrained consumer spending for quite sometime.
3) Home ownership represents principle asset in many cases of, lower-middle income households-they continue to feel pressured as their homes which represent principle asset continues to weaken even as stock market values -owned by high-income households have managed to recover some of their losses since the Great Recession..
Consumer spending grows slowly in the near future due to:
1) lower wealth: many households have lost significant amounts of their wealth, which causes the severe pressure in some of these households. Consequently, consumer spending is more likely to be restrained for some time.
2) stagnant incomes: both the negative correlation between the job growth and population growth, and the average weekly earnings for a private-sector worker that doesn’t’t increase as much as the prices of the products and services, May cause the slow growth of consumer spending.
3) tight credit: due to the banks’restrictions that follow the mortgage loans, it becomes difficult for the borrowers to keep up with their credits.
4) fragile confidence: “major consumer-confidence indexes have rebounded from their lowest levels during 2009 in the immediate aftermath of the recession, but they remain below the levels that prevailed just as the recession began in late 2007.” And
5) looming reversal of stimulus.
==> alternatives:
*consumer spending decreases, so either business- investment growth or export growth would have to double immediately to make up the shortfall,
*consumer spending grows slowly and business investment and export take time to make up the shortfall, then
1- the overall economic growth rate will decline,
2- one could attempt to fill the private demand shortfall with increased direct government spending.
9/30 Weekly Reading Assignments
William Emmons suggested that American consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of U.S. economic growth due to the five trends working against consumer spending. One of the five trends is stagnant income. After the recession had ended, the economy is trying to recover back to its healthiest. However, due to disequilibrium between the stagnant income, job growth and populations, many consumers can not live up to inflation. The level prices of goods and services continue to rise, as it had exceeded the amounts of earnings for an average consumer. As this trend continues, the higher income workers will become wealthier while the average workers will continue trying to keep up with inflation. As the result, it is difficult for American consumers to maintain healthy rates of growth when consumers spending and income does not equate.
Stagnant income
Stagnant wages erode the spending power of consumers. That means it is harder for consumers to make purchases ranging from refrigerators to restaurant meals that account for most of the nation’s economic growth.
Four years into the economic recovery, U.S. workers’ pay still isn’t even keeping up with inflation. The average hourly pay for a nongovernment, non-supervisory worker, adjusted for price increases, declined to $8.77 from $8.85 at the end of the recession in mid 2009. This is the effect of an economic policy that ignores the wages and living standards of workers while constantly seeking to provide cheaper products to consumers. Though consumers remain the biggest driver of the U.S. economy, but without more money coming in, it will be difficult for them to spur robust growth.
Fragile confidence
Consumer confidence is an economic indicator which measures the degree of optimism that consumers feel about the overall state of the economy and their personal financial situation. (Google definition)
The Article talks about consumer confidence that even Income has increasing but people don’t feel like spending their money. One of the reason maybe consumer don’t have faith about the economy, so they it’s better to save the money for now, in case of something happen they still have some money on their hand.
According to that article, “Economics: Dont Expect Consumer_Spending William Emmons, Don’t Expect Consumer Spending to be the Engine of Economic Growth it Once Was,” by William Emmons, an important trend that is hindering the growth of the U.S economy is lower wealth. As stated in the article, the health of the U.S economy is not only beneficial to those living here, but also to the countries where we import goods from. As a consumer based economy, industrial countries such as China, depends on a consistent consumer economy such as the United States for the health of it’s export economy. The U.S is still staggering when it comes to consumer spending because there is an inbalance between the income and inflation in our economy. Prices are getting higher, while there is little to no change in income in the U.S house hold, and even if there is some desposible income, the consumer confidence in spending is not strong. Interesting enough as a means of counter attacking this low consumer spending, the idea of increasing exports and investments, still poses a threat to international economies who still depend on U.S spending, while things may get better at home, offshore trade will still stuffed,
Consumer spending grows slowly in the near future due to:
1) lower wealth: many households have lost significant amounts of their wealth, which causes the severe pressure in some households. Consequently, consumer spending is more likely to be restrained for some time.
2) stagnant incomes: both the negative correlation between the job growth and population growth and the average weekly earnings for a private- sector worker, that doesn’t increase as much as the prices of the products and services, May cause the slow growth of consumer spending.
3) tight credit: due to the banks’ restrictions that follow the mortgage loans, it becomes difficult for the borrowers to keel up with their credits.
4) fragile confidence: ” major consumer- confidence indexes have rebounded from their lowest levels during 2009 in the immediate aftermath of the recession, but they remain below the levels that prevailed just as the recession began in late 2007.” And finally
5) looming reversal of stimulus.
If one of these problems occurs, it might be overcome, but if all are combined, then the consumer spending would be lower.
==> alternatives:
* consumer spending decreases, so either business- investment growth or export growth would have to double immediately to make up the shortfall.
* consumer spending grows slowly and business investment and export take time to make up the shortfall, then
1- the overall economic growth rate will decline or
2- one could attempt to fill the private demand shortfall with increased direct government spending.
According to the article written by William Emmons, he questions “Can American consumers continue to serve as the engine of U.S. and global economic growth as they did during recent decades? Many powerful trends predict that as of now, they can not due to five trends working against consumer spending. One of them is Stagnant Incomes. The economy is still recovering and there is not much movement which means job opportunities don’t necessarily match the populations growth. The correlations don’t align, therefore consumers may not be able to live up to inflation.
1- Lower wealth_First and foremost, U.S. household wealth took a beating during the Great Recession.
2- Stagnant incomes_ The economic recovery under way since mid-2009 has been mediocre, at best. Job growth barely matches population growth, while incomes of the typical worker are barely keeping up with inflation.
3- Tight credit_ Consumer lenders either have disappeared altogether or are offering credit on a much more restricted basis than before the downturn.
4- Fragile confidence_ Major consumer confidence indexes have rebounded from their lowest levels during 2009 in the immediate aftermath of the recession, but they remain below the levels that prevailed just as the recession began in late 2007.
5- Looming reversal of stimulus_ Unprecedented doses of monetary- and fiscal-policy stimulus since the recession began partly offset the contractionary forces on consumer spending noted above.
According to William Emmons, he suggests that American consumers are not able to serve as the engine of the U.S. economic growth as they did in the prosperous years of 1945-1980. One of Emmons reasons is tight credit. Back then, consumers had a much easier time getting banks to loan borrower’s money. But now, lenders are much strict and is barely offering any credit to individuals. Consumers are having a much more difficult time mortgaging houses, even for borrowers with high credit scores; which causes consumer spending to grow more slowly. Between 2006 and 2010, strict credit standards has not changed much.
I agree with Willian Emmons, In the recent years American consumers are not able to serve as the engine of the U.S. economic as they did before . Tight credit has a lot to do with it. It is very difficult to get bank loans, to support peoples intentions of mprtgaging and therefore economic grow is much more slow.
One of reasons why american consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of U.S economic growth as they did in the prosperous post-war era is tight credit. The banks and lenders have for the longest time given out credit without any restrictions or taught about who or where they are giving out money. Because of the tough economic times the banks have started to put up restriction on the credit they are giving out therefore reducing the amount the american consumers can spend.
William Emmons suggests that American consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of U.S. economic growth as they did in the prosperous post-war era from 1945 – 1980. One reason is because of stagnant incomes. The incomes of workers are barely keeping up with inflation. There are so many people out there but there are not enough jobs available. This may cause many consumers to spend less, leading to many workers barely having any earnings. The economic is difficult for a lot of people.
Tight Credit
Montages for homes and business are not being given, expect for people with really high credit scores and even then, they need “substantial equity” in order to borrow money. In my onion, money is needed to start up a business or own a home. Borrowing this money, was a way for people to get a jump on life and at the same time it feeds the GDP. The more money someone has, the more they will spend. Most people didn’t just borrow this money without a plan, but to build towards a better future.