Pennsylvania
Higher Education
Fig. 1. The Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh (“Pitt”). Photograph by “RealNordyNed,” December 17, 2015, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Actually, no, the article doesn’t say what, beyond funding, what “needs to be fixed.” But a lot of folks would sure like to be consulted.[1]
On principle, I hate when politicians meddle in education. Between neoliberals and white Christian nationalists, it seems like the answer is almost always in some way a diminution of academic freedom, an increased emphasis on job training (that is, preparation for serfdom), more adjuncts, and an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM, that is, the development of new ways for the rich to extract wealth from the rest of us) at direct expense to the humanities and social sciences.
I have little reason to hope that what emerges under Josh Shapiro will be any better.
Maddie Aiken, “Gov. Shapiro said Pa.’s higher education system ‘isn’t working.’ Here’s what education advocates say needs to be fixed,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 25, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2023/03/25/shapiro-pennsylvania-higher-ed-budget-reform/stories/202303240122
Banking
Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Credit Suisse, 2023
Fig. 1. “The monument sign in front of the parking lot of the Silicon Valley Bank headquarters at 3003 West Tasman Drive, Santa Clara, California.” Photograph by Minh Nguyen, March 13, 2023, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Banking’s last crisis featured subprime borrowers, specifically people with troubled credit who were given mortgages by bankers who ignored the risk that the borrowers wouldn’t realistically be able to afford them. Banks that got into trouble were ones that churned out such loans or gorged on them in securitized form.
The current emerging turmoil is, so far, featuring the opposite. Banks such as Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank that catered to some of the wealthiest, most creditworthy clients—those with superprime credit scores—are the ones running into the biggest problems. . . .
It isn’t that the rich are defaulting on loans in droves. But the most flush depositors with excess cash last year started taking their cash and seeking out higher yields in online banks, money funds or Treasurys. On top of that, startups and other private businesses started burning more cash, leading to deposit outflows. [2]
Telis Demos, “Welcome to the Superprime Banking Crisis,” Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/welcome-to-the-superprime-banking-crisis-9ab6b6d2
- [1]Maddie Aiken, “Gov. Shapiro said Pa.’s higher education system ‘isn’t working.’ Here’s what education advocates say needs to be fixed,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 25, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2023/03/25/shapiro-pennsylvania-higher-ed-budget-reform/stories/202303240122↩
- [2]Telis Demos, “Welcome to the Superprime Banking Crisis,” Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/welcome-to-the-superprime-banking-crisis-9ab6b6d2↩