Entry 2

Regulator Rebuffs Obama on Plan to Ease Housing Debt

New York Times, August 1, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/business/us-agency-bars-fannie-and-freddie-from-reducing-principal.html?_r=1&ref=economy

Summary

Federal Housing Finance Agency rejected the government's policy of alleviating the debts of borrowers for not resulting tremendous outcomes to the taxpayers. The financial administrators Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appraised the actual benefits of the debt forgiving policy inconsequential. Furthermore, the agency's acting administrator, Edward J. DeMarco stated that this policy does not actually helped neither debtors nor taxpayers, and it even casts a doubt that Obama's Administration is enforcing it for a temporary stopgap. On the other hand, there are still some positive prospect that alleviating mortgage may allow millions of Americans to keep their homes while the banks to earn billions of dollars. For the most part, there is no clear appraisal on how debt ease plan can impact on America's economy. 

My thoughts

The core factor that caused huge collapse in American economy in 2008 was subprime mortgage. Since people indiscreetly got a loan to buy the house that they cannot afford, they cannot endure the dramatic increase of interests, resulting millions of foreclosures throughout the states. As a matter of fact, government has an oblige to protect the people cajoled by government policy and banks which instigated subprime mortgage. Even though this massive-scale-financial policy may not be realistically beneficial for taxpayers, the government must compensate the economical loss and protect their rights of pursuing happiness (keep their houses). In last, I believe that the government must take a direct action solving out this issue even if experiencing huge loss in governmental revenues.  

Entry 1

Bicycle Lanes Draw Wide Support Among New Yorkers, Survey Finds

New York Times, August 21, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/nyregion/most-new-yorkers-say-bike-lanes-are-a-good-idea.html?_r=2&ref=nyregion

Summary

New York City has been making 255 miles of bicycle lanes alongside the vehicle roads as a part of the Bloomberg Administration's controversial streetscape planning. According to the polls, about 66 percent of the New York citizens agreed with building separate bicycle lanes; however, it is doubtful whether the bicycle lane actually useful for the citizens. Only one third of the adults in New York owns bicycle and among them, only half of the people ride bicycle more than once a week. Though encouraging the use of bicycle is beneficial for people as well as the environment, bicycle lanes still have many safety issues due to the hazardous environments (vehicles) as well as many other inconveniences that make people avoid using them. 

My thoughts

Before reading this article, I also saw the Youtube video showing the reality of the bicycle lanes in New York City. The lanes are mostly full of parked cars and objects that can severely block the traffic, and it seems much better using sidewalk or vehicle road than using the bicycle lanes. In fact, this bicycle lane planning is a part of government's public service building roads for the convenience of the citizens. On the other hand, only 1/6 of the New York citizens actually use this bicycle lanes actively. In other words, for 1/6 of the population, the rest of the 5/6 New York City population spends enormous revenues on constructing and managing this 255 miles long lane and submit to more traffic jams due to the reduction of road for the vehicles. Even though bicycle lane is ideally beneficial for the community in prospect of its advantages in environment and public health, it is not a discreet policy to build such a lane for no good in Manhattan and Brooklyn, where the traffic jam always happens due to the huge influx of traffic. In last, the government must rethink about this policy whether it is really beneficial for the public and provide service that is more important for the public.