HIST502/SOSC401 Syllabus
Montclair State University
Department of History
SOSC 401/HIST 502 Social Studies Teaching Methods
Monday 5:30 to 8:00
University Hall 1010
Contact Information
Professor Jeff Strickland
Email: stricklandj@mail.montclair.edu
Office: 425 Dickson Hall
Office Hours: Monday 4 to 5 PM, Tuesday 2 to 5 PM, & by appointment
Professor Fred Cotterell
Email: cotterellf@mail.montclair.edu
Office: 281 Dickson Hall
Office Hours: Monday 2 to 3 PM, Thursday 5:30 to 6:30 PM, & by appointment
Course Description
This course familiarizes prospective social studies teachers, grades K-12, with pedagogical approaches and innovative teaching techniques needed to convey to a diverse population current state and professional standards-based curriculum in the social studies. Innovative uses of technology, development of instructional units, individualizing for students with special needs, and strategies for managing problem behavior will be emphasized throughout the course.
Course Objectives
· You will examine and reflect on the relationships between curriculum, instruction, and assessment in Social Studies classrooms with a particular view to multicultural context, content, and process.
· You will examine and analyze curricular and pedagogical practices for educational significance, integration of history, geography, political science, and economics, sociology, and psychology, respect for students’ cultures, and contribution to equity and social justice.
· You will design a thematic unit.
· You will acquire practical presentation experience.
· You will enhance your knowledge of social studies content
.
Blackboard Web Site
You are responsible for obtaining course updates and submitting assignments via the Blackboard website http://montclair.blackboard.com/. In addition, you will submit all assignments to Blackboard dropbox. Blackboard confirms when files have been uploaded and sent. Please do not send emails to us requesting confirmation.
Email Accounts
You should activate their university email accounts no later than the first week of class. Failure to do so will result in the inability to log into Blackboard, receive course documents, updates and other messages from us.
Required Readings
James Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me
Articles available on Blackboard.
Reading Assignments
You are expected to follow the course outline contained at the end of this syllabus.
Attendance
You are expected attend each class meetings since it is necessary preparation for the final planning unit and each class meeting entails some form of assessment (or preparation for it). It is important that you begin thinking of yourself as a professional, since you will begin teaching soon. If you miss more than one class, you will deduct 15% for each absence thereafter from your final grade average. If you miss more than three classes you will need to retake the methods course (a D is the best grade you could earn).
General Rules
If you arrive after 5:30 PM, you will be marked absent.
If you leave class for longer than it takes to use the restroom, you will be marked absent.
If you attempt to use your cell phone during class, you will be asked to leave the room and marked absent.
If you plagiarize, you will fail the course and we will refer you to the Dean of Students for adjudication.
If you plagiarize, you will be removed from the social studies program.
Reading Quizzes (15%)
You will write a short essay response to a question about the assigned readings during the first five minutes of each class. You cannot make up a quiz without a documented excuse for missing the class.
Primary Documents Lesson Plan (7.5 %)
You will design a lesson based on historical documents located on the Internet and present your findings to the class. Detailed primary documents assignment guidelines will be given in advance of its due date. In preparing your lesson plan, you should provide clear expectations and explicit instructions for your students. You will submit a brief lesson plan on the due date. You are expected to implement the jigsaw method. You should include no less than four documents (one document per group member). In the spirit of the Jigsaw method, each group member will have a specific responsibility in preparing this assignment (presenter is not a specific responsibility).
Historical Geography Lesson Plan (7.5 %)
You will design a history/geography lesson that focuses on historical maps. You should consider the topic, method, and means of evaluation.
Mock Trial Lesson Plan (5 %)
You and your group members will construct a mock trial transcript. You will present the mock trial to the class. Choose a famous trial from Douglass Linder’s “Famous Trials” website at the University of Missouri-Kansas City or some other website. Use the primary sources to develop a trial transcript. You should have at least four main characters and each character should speak at least three times. These are minimums and you can develop a much more elaborate trial if you prefer. Refer to the mock trial guide in the course documents section of Blackboard or the American Bar Association website listed above. Each group will present their mock trial to the class. We will hold three mock trials during class.
Précis on Lies My Teacher Told Me (5 %)
On the week when the class meets to discuss the Loewen, each student will turn in a two-page précis. This can be done in prose, outline system, or with headers. The two-page précis is designed to help you read the book critically for argument, historiographical issues, and provide a "road map" for our discussion. You should address briefly:
(1) The Author's background and other works (search the web, web databases such as "American History and Life," "Historical Abstracts", "World Cat," and the MSU Catalog)
(2) The Historical problem(s) the Author tackles. Pose these problems in the form of a question.
(3) Author's thesis (or theses)
(4) Sources
(5) Genre of History (Social, Cultural, Institutional, Diplomatic, Economic, Intellectual, Political, etc)
(6) Significant findings
(7) Historiographical contribution(s)
(8) Author's Ideological/Methodological Orientation (i.e. Marxist, structuralist, post-structuralist, foucaultian, etc).
(9) The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Book.
Professional Resources (7.5%)
You will complete three two-page summary/reflections of professional publications/resources for the teaching of Social Studies. They will provide you with an understanding of the ideas, rationale, approaches, and strategies in Social Studies curriculum and teaching. You will complete two review/reactions from professional publications and one from the Social Studies in Action PBS series. Reflections and reactions will include the relevancy of the ideas/strategies. You will read/view, summarize and reflect on two full-length articles from two different professional journals of the following three: The Social Studies, Social Education (National Council for Social Studies publication), and History Teacher. The third summary/reflection resource is an online video series from the Annenberg/WGBH series Social Studies in Action at http://www.learner.org/resources/series166.html?pop=yes&vodid=724819&pid=1788#
Instruction Material Analysis (5%)
You will examine and analyze instructional materials created for Social Studies educators. A list of materials, location, and specifics guidelines for this assignment will appear on Blackboard.
Film Lesson (5%)
The public often hears stories about students watching “movies” in their Social Studies/History class. Too often the perspective is that nothing meaningful is happening and that the entire situation is just “filler,” and Social Studies teachers have it easy. Your task is to develop guiding questions that you could use with an associated media clip. Assignment guidelines will appear on Blackboard.
Jigsaw Lesson (7.5%)
You will design a lesson plan based upon the jigsaw method www.jigsaw.org. Detailed assignment guidelines will be distributed in advance.
Final Teaching Unit (20 %)
This assessment represents one of the primary goals of the course. You can include revised work from previous assignments. Detailed unit guidelines will be given in advance of the scheduled due date. In short, you will submit a week-long unit as your final project. You must type your unit with no larger than size 12 font and with one-inch margins all around. In addition, you should provide a title page and bibliography/reference page. The unit must be submitted on the date noted, assignments turned in after then will be considered tardy and penalized a grade and subsequently an additional grade each day late thereafter, e.g. an A to a B, etc. etc.
Unit Plan Proposal
You will submit a two-page Unit Plan Proposal due Feb. 21 at 10PM. If you fail to submit the proposal on this date, you will deduct 10% from your final teaching unit.
Unit Plan Rough Draft
You will submit a rough draft of your unit plan on April 4 at 10PM. If you fail to submit a rough draft, you will deduct 10% from your final teaching unit.
In Class Participation and Discussion (10 %)
You are expected to participate thoughtfully in the discussions. You will earn as much as four 4 points per class. In addition you are expected to attend office hours four times per semester (once per month).
Binder (5%)
Your binder will consist of teaching strategies, handouts, print material, and other resources that you can use in your teaching. You should include materials from your field experience. Assignment guidelines will appear on Blackboard.
Revisions
You may revise any assignment except the final unit. Revisions must be submitted within one week of receipt of the initial grade. You will receive the grade earned on the revised assignment. It is important that you seek advisement on each assignment, rather than submit substandard work. In a case where a student repeatedly submits substandard work, they will receive an average of the grades earned on the initial assignment and the revised assignment. In short, the revision policy is a privilege not a right.
Students with Disabilities
The Services for Students with Disabilities office is located in the Academic Success Center in Morehead Hall (Suite 305). You can make an appointment by calling 973-655-5431. You can visit their website at http://www.montclair.edu/wellness/.
Tolerance to Create a Climate for Civility and
Academic Honesty—Plagiarism—Cheating (Section 9, MSU Code of Conduct)
Plagiarism is defined as using another person's words as if they were your own, and the unacknowledged incorporation of those words in one's own work for academic credit. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, submitting as one's own a project, paper, report, test, program, design, or speech copied from, partially copied, or partially paraphrased work of another (whether the source is printed, under copyright in manuscript form or electronic media) without proper citation. Source citations must be given for works quoted or paraphrased. The above rules apply to any academic dishonesty, whether the work is graded or ungraded, group or individual, written or oral. The following guidelines for written work will assist students in avoiding plagiarism:
(a) General indebtedness for background information and data must be acknowledged by inclusion of a bibliography of all works consulted;
(b) Specific indebtedness for a particular idea, or for a quotation of four or more consecutive words from another text, must be acknowledged by footnote or endnote reference to the actual source. Quotations of four words or more from a text must also be indicated by the use of quotation marks;
(c) A project work shall be considered plagiarism if it duplicates in whole or in part, without citation, the work of another person to an extent than is greater that is commonly accepted. The degree to which imitation without citation is permissible varies from discipline to discipline. Students must consult their instructors before copying another person's work.
Minimum sanction: Probation; Maximum sanction: Expulsion
Grading System
| 95-100 | A |
| 90-94 | A- |
| 87-89 | B+ |
| 84-86 | B |
| 80-83 | B- |
| 77-79 | C+ |
| 74-76 | C |
| 70-73 | C- |
| 67-69 | D+ |
| 64-66 | D |
| 60-63 | D- |
| 1-59 | F |
Course Outline
| Date | Week | Topic | Assignment | Readings | Professor |
| Jan. 26 | 1 | Introduction Lesson Planning Social Studies Standards | Select a topic for a primary documents lesson and submit it to the digital dropbox by January 31 at 10PM. Professional Resource Reflection #1 due Jan. 31 Précis on Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me due Feb. 14 at 10PM | Folder 1 for Feb.2 Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me for Feb. 23 | Strickland Cotterell |
| Feb. 2 | 2 | Unit Planning Historical Thinking | Reading Quiz 1: first five minutes of class. You will respond to a general/thematic question about the readings in Folder 1. Professional Resource Reflection #2 due to the digital dropbox by February 7 at 10PM Two-page Unit Plan Proposal due Feb. 28 at 10PM | Folder 2 for Feb. 9 | Cotterell |
| Feb. 9 | 3 | Teaching with Technology | Reading Quiz 2: first five minutes of class Begin working on primary documents/PowerPoint lesson in computer lab | Folder 3 for Feb. 16 | Strickland |
| Feb. 16 | 4 | Teaching with Primary Documents | Reading Quiz 3: first five minutes of class Primary Documents Lesson Plan due Feb. 21 at 10PM Meeting in computer lab | Folder 4 for Feb. 23 | Strickland |
| Feb. 23 | 5 | Beyond the Textbook Loewen Discussion | Reading Quiz 4: on Loewen Discuss Loewen | Folder 5 for Feb. 16 | Strickland |
| Mar. 2 | 6 | Teaching with films & photographs | Reading Quiz 5: first five minutes of class Develop film/photography lesson plan due Mar. 7 at 10PM | Folder 6 for Mar. 9 | Cotterell |
| Mar. 9 | 7 | Collaborative Learning | Design Jigsaw Lesson due March 21 at 10 PM | Folder 7 for Mar. 23 | Cotterell |
| Mar. 16 | | Spring Break | | | |
| Mar. 23 | 8 | Teaching Geography | Reading Quiz 6: first five minutes of class Historical Geography/World History Lesson due March 28 at 10PM | Folder 8 for Mar. 30 | Strickland |
| Mar. 30 | 9 | Teaching World History | Teaching Unit Rough Draft due April 4 at 10PM | Folder 9 for Apr. 6 | Strickland |
| Apr. 6 | 10 | Writing and Assessment | Reading Quiz 7: first five minutes of class Professional Resource Reflection #3 due April 11 at 10PM | Folder 10 for Apr. 13 | Cotterell |
| Apr. 13 | 11 | Teaching Economics Analyzing Textbooks | Instructional Materials Analysis due April 18 at 10 PM | Folder 11 for Apr. 20 | Cotterell |
| Apr. 20 | 12 | Teaching Politics & Govt. | Reading Quiz 8: first five minutes of class Mock Trial Lesson Plan due May 3 at 10PM | Folder 12 for Apr. 27 | Strickland |
| Apr. 27 | 13 | Oral History & other projects | Reading Quiz 9: first five minutes of class | Folder 13 for May 4 | Strickland |
| May 4 | 14 | Discussion & Debates | Reading Quiz 10: first five minutes of class Teaching Unit due May 9 at 10PM. | Folder 14 for May 11 | Cotterell |
| May 11 | 15 | Student Teaching | Professional Notebook due May 11 in class | | Strickland Cotterell |
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14 comments:
The cause of the problem then, like today’s problem, was at its core one of poor lending standards. However the main culprit 75 years ago was essentially one of “insider lending.” Banks would collect deposits from their community, and then lend that money to the business interests of the directors of the bank and their associates, for increasingly risky ventures. The practice was common at both small local banks and at big money-center banks. The latter might, for example, bring an IPO to the market and, if it looked like it was failing, use depositors’ money to buy up the issue, often using these funds to buy their own shares in the dog issue. The Glass-Steagall Act made it illegal for banks to lend to “insiders.”
Today’s crisis also arose from imprudent lending standards. This time around the profligacy seemed less sleazy because the loans were to the backbone of the American economy, homeowners, not to fat-cat cronies. But a bad loan is a bad loan.
Today’s crisis was also exacerbated by the use of derivatives. It would take a long time to explain how these work – a sure sign they are dangerous – but at root a derivative (eg the now infamous “credit default swaps” or “collateralized debt obligations”) is just another way to make a loan.
If the root causes of the two crises are similar, the nature of the bail-outs are profoundly different.
The most important provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 provided deposit insurance, for the first time, to individual depositors. This got the money flowing back into the banks again. In exchange, the banks had to agree to two things: closer supervision/regulation, and a prohibition on insider lending.
The Harvard Law Journal at the time described this basic trade-off as one that had been talked about over the course of a number of depressions and the runs on banks that followed, dating back to the early days of the country:
“Agitation for an adoption of [deposit] guaranty laws has usually followed an epidemic of bank failures and in the ensuing period of recovery apparent success has been enjoyed. But failure to require a proper ratio of unimpaired capital to deposits and negligent or illegal banking practices have combined to weaken the banks so that collapse of an insufficiently diversified local economic structure has precipitated a heavy concentration of failures in a short period.” (“The Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1933,” Harvard Law Review, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Dec., 1933), 330.)
So the little guy benefitted from the Great Depression bail-out because they got their savings insured. This time around, the little guy is still going to lose his house in a foreclosure. The beneficiaries of today’s bail-out will be the big S&Ls (the biggest bit the dust today, and JPMorgan took it over), investment banks and insurance companies who made all these wobbly loans, either directly to the homeowner or indirectly through the derivatives that were related to loans to the homeowner.
It is important to note that it is not the commercial banks, the ones who had to knuckle under to Glass-Steagall’s tighter controls, that are in trouble now. Indeed, they are the ones buying up the failed/struggling investment banks: JP Morgan took over Bear Stearns, Bank of America took over Merrill Lynch, etc. The entities in trouble were the less regulated investment banks and insurance companies.
We will certainly emerge with stiff new regulations on an even wider array of financial institutions.
In a ScienceDaily article dated September 26th, 2008, the chair of economics at Rice University states that “Ultimately, we have to recognize that a financial system built on credit cannot survive if the issuer of that credit continues to pile up debt." This is very similar to the theories adopted to the economic crisis prior to the Great Depression. Recently, like then, credit has been given out to and eaten up by American citizens like cheap candy. This combines with the the national level debt, and the current economic structure begins to topple in on itself.
Fortunately, we as a nation have been down this road before and our leaders understand that now is the time for governmental intervention. Often we are content to allow the market to regulate itself, but when things get as bad as they have, the economy will need some help to untangle itself in order to prevent a large-scale disaster of a crisis from occurring.
Even more important, we as Americans have come to understand, unlike those of the past, that this is not the end of all things. We have been in situations like this before and will be again. This is not the point of view that many people had in the 1930s, but experience in this department makes all the difference, as does analyzing what worked in the past and what could have been done better.
The beautiful thing about history is that we can learn from it. Understanding the impact of the Great Depression on America can surely help us keep a watchful eye on the current economic crisis. Although these predicaments occurred at different times in our history, they do bare some striking resemblances. Both crises did result because poor lending was exercised in society. In the 1920s, people were buying goods on installment credit and eventually encountered difficulties in purchasing necessities such as food, let alone pay off their loans in full. In addition, there was a large gap of the distribution of wealth in the American economy in the 1920s, leading to an unstable economy. Banks would loan deposits to “prospective” businessmen. Unfortunately, the Stock Market crashed and resulted in numerous bank closings, store closings, and an enormous unemployment rate. The typical view for many Americans was simply that this was the end. Soon after, government intervention hoped to protect America’s best interests and assist Americans in this time of need.
The present crisis can be identified as what “Fed and Treasury officials refer to as the disease, called deleveraging. It is the unwinding of debt.” (Wall Street Journal) After 2000, many individuals, businesses, and banks were purchasing goods once again through credit and now face severe difficulties in paying off these debts. If we do continue down this road, we will see more Americans struggling to purchase necessities such as food, because less consumer spending is already ocurring in society. What we do have now however, is government regulation and agencies to hopefully implement effective strategies to return to a period of economic growth. Since history provides us the opportunity to learn from our past,it is evident that we have previously encountered issues similar to the current crisis and our current situation will improve if managed by responsible individuals.
Citation: “Worst Crisis Since ‘30s, with No End Yet in Sight.” Hilsenrath, Jon, Ng, Serena, & Paletta, Damian. Wall Street Journal. September 18th, 2008.
While I agree with the previous posters that the root of this problem is bad lending practices, I read an interesting article today in the Times magazine that drew an important distinction between this meltdown and '29. The '29 crash was precipitated by bad loans issued for stocks, while this panic bears a resemblance to Japan's housing bubble crash of the 90s, leading to what many in Japan called "a lost decade" in which the economy was stuck in a cycle of stagnation and government bailouts of failing financial firms.
I think therein lies the most difficult challenge of this situation: providing enough of a bailout to prevent an even greater economic collapse, but yet not providing essentially a lifeline for a system that is broken and trapping us in the same cycle of stagnation and bailouts that Japan faced.
While I agree that studying history provides us a beautiful lens to understand the past, I’m not quite sure we have the right answer with the actions being taken on the bailout. In the 1920s poor lending by banks contributed to the stock market crash of 1929. Such practices have continued to occur and as a result we find ourselves in a similar situation (well, crisis) that we’re in today. But who is to say we learnt from the past? Maybe I’m just being cynical but for me, if we truly learnt from the past we wound not have made such a grave mistake once again.
I can’t help but agree with several of the questions Kucinich raised on the floor of the House of Representatives this past Sunday (as cited in The Nation). “Why aren’t we asking Wall Street to clean up its own mess? Why aren’t we passing new laws to stop the speculation, which triggered this?” (Kucinich, as cited in The Nation, 09/28/08). I agree the issue (just as in 1929) is severe. I can’t help but think of how trade internationally collapsed in the Depression era and how rich and poor countries suffered severely.
Maybe I’m entirely wrong on in this but I’m not convinced that giving $700 billion of taxpayer dollars to Wall Street will stabilize the markets and that the bigger issue (poor speculation and lending practices) will not continue. Even now as I write stocks have plunged in anticipation of the bailout. So if the stocks are plummeting even if there is a bailout, who is to say $700 billion is the fix needed? I’m also deeply frustrated that homeowners can go into foreclosure and not be helped by the government. Yet massive companies and corporations who are partly responsible for the crisis can get government aid nearly immediately. This to me is a pretty appalling disparity and shows who and what is valued over others in this country.
Source: John Nichols. “An Appropriately Populist Anti-Bailout Rant.” The Nation. September 28, 2008.
(http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/365657).
OK, just to start with a disclaimer - I have a mental block when it comes to matters of economics/math/anything having to do with numbers. I've been trying to understand all of this the best I can, so here it is!
From what I've read (and been able to understand), it seems that the most apt comparison to the current financial crisis and the Great Depression of 1927-1933 is public opinion. If people feel as though they can't pay their bills, can't keep their jobs, and shouldn't keep their money in their banks, then they will believe the country is going through a financial depression. What makes it different today is the expansion of media coverage - with every new story about failing banks and bailouts and market plunges, public panic only increases. It almost doesn't matter if you're savvy enough to understand the financial principles behind the crisis. To put it another way, I'll take the Mark Twain quote used in Sunday's Washington Post: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes." Most people know that the Great Depression was generally terrible, and now they think the current problem is too similar not to be the same.
Citation:"Their Party Crashed. Ours May Too." McElvaine, Robert S. The Washington Post, 28 September 2008, p. B02.
In researching the interent for an article that did compare the two events i almost got lost and caught up in the amount of information that was out there. The article that i decided to discuss was found in the LA times on March 20th 2008. The title of the article is A new Great Depression? Its different this time. Some of the comparisons that are made are the relationship between the thousands of small banks that collasped in the 1930's to the struggling large banks and other large finacial institutions. Some of the big names are Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, and just in the past week Washington Mutal, and today i heard a report that Wacohvia was about to be bought out. A few months ago as well Commerce was bought out. If you look around the country you can see many of the popular names that you have seen forever failing. Also some other comparisons that the article mentions is the unconsistent and irradic stock market. If you turn on cnbc you might see the dow up 300 pts. one day and then down 500 the next. Some of the contrasts of the two i think in a way out weigh the comparisons. First unemployment is significantly lower by about 20%. Also the 1930's was a world wide depression whereas this current situation is primarily only a U.S. problem.
One similiarity between the current economic crisis and the economic crisis of 1927-1933 is the market before the crash. In 1927 the market set record highs nearly every month for the two years before the crash ("Surviving Black October" New York Times September 30, 1979). The market went through a period of extreme highs - the economy was well-off. The market crisis now is coming off a period of a high economy as well. According to President Bush's speech, the last decade has received a lot of money from investors abroad. This large amount of money coming into the country allowed for low interest rates and American's to get more credit. However, getting more credit is what led to the problems in the economy. Not all people were being monitored and money was not being paid back. This is a similarity between what was going on in the 20s and 30s as well.
We just now experienced the largest drop in the stock market ever. Although the stock market crashed during the 20s and 30s, the banking institutions did not fail. That is different from what is happening now because we are seeing banking institutions fail. For example, Wachovia just got taken over.
I think the economic crisis is similar in some ways and different in others. I feel the main difference now is that the government is able to catch the warning signs and is trying to intervene so we don't experience a period like during the stock market crash of the 20s and 30s. it's kind of a scary situation.
I think the biggest difference between the economic crisis of today and of 1927-1933, is that in the 1920's and 30's they had never seen a downfall in the economy like what was taking place. Today we can look to the Great Depression and see what we can do to avoid getting ourselves so deep into crisis that we cannot pull ourselves out.
People feel they cannot go on, and afford their bills but I feel we have not gotten to that point yet. During the Great Depression, the government had to develop the Civilian Conservation Corps, in order to "bring relief to young men between 18 and 25 years of age", these men would be placed in work camps where they would be paid $30 a month.
Our economy has not gotten to this point yet. People still have jobs and can get food. The stock market is in trouble, but I think it will come back up eventually. I do not know much about the stock market and the economics of what has been going on, but I feel like the stock market always has up's and down's and soon it will go back up. No one can be sure though, the stock market is unpredictable and there is nothing we can do about it. As Doug Bremner said in his article, "The Ups and Downs of the Stock Market: A Personal Perspective", "no one has a clue about what to do about the current financial meltdown, or where the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) will go in the future." We just have to try not to panic and wait and see what may happen in the future. During the Great Depression people started to panic and I think that is what caused it to become even worse. If we can all just stand by for a little and wait to see what may come, then hopefully everything will turn out for the best.
Cited:
Modern American Poetry: The Depression in the United States an Overview. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/overview.htm
Bremner, Doug. "The Ups and Downs of the Stock Market: A Personal Perspective." The Huffington Post, September 30, 2008.
As previously stated in some of the blogs, we should have taken note from previous mistakes during the financial crisis during 1927-1933. The mistakes we are currently making stems from credit decisions. Today, there are sub prime mortgage payments. This type of mortgage does not entail the people renting to make a down payment. Also, these renters have lower monthly rates for the first year or two. Because of the lowering value of houses across the country and the sub prime mortgage they are paying, people feel no incentive to stay if their current property is losing value.
Renters leave and these companies are left with securities and must then foreclose the property. There have been a constant, almost seemingly, nomadic movement of many people and families due to sub prime mortgage payments and lowering housing values.
Once again, if you are not paying anything up front and low monthly payments, why not get out and rent a cheaper property? There needs to be restrictions or cutback on authorizing sub prime mortgages.
Something similar happened during the Great Depression. As noted on wikipedia.com’s page regarding the Great Depression, “American consumers and businesses relied on cheap credit…This fueled strong short-term growth but created consumer and commercial debt.” This cheap credit is what is happening today with the housing market. Cheap credit will eventually lead to little incentive to build and eventually collect more and more debt. Also, another similarity deals with many banks failing and not able to give out normal credit rates, if at all.
Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, recently said, “This is a once in a half century, probably once in a century type of event. We shouldn't try to protect every single institution. The ordinary cost of financial change has winners and losers.”
Source: (http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/2008/09/16/scary-similarities-to-the-great-depression.aspx)
the main cause of today's economic troubles is poor lending standards. with a combination of the lender and the borrower making poor judgments and being unable to pay off borrowed credit.similar to the economic problem of 80 years ago people made poor speculations about the market. Today's market suffered when people over speculated the building boom and property values, while 80 years ago an imbalance of the distribution of wealth and the over speculation of demand occurred because people were buying goods on credit at an alarming rate. the formulation for disaster as it was is over speculation and poor judgment of lending and borrowing.
Articles used-CNN.com Sept 30,2008
Time line: banking crisis
Google scholar- sub prime banking crisis
In many ways, the current economic crisis is similar in pattern to that of the crisis that began in 1927. However, the magnitude of the two events, for now, is some what different. The current unemployment rate is around 4.6 %, while at its lowest during the Great Depression it was around 14 % in 1937. From 1929 to 1932, the Dow Jones declined 85%; today it is also declining but at much smaller rates, with an expectation for investors to return sooner than later (according to Former Fed Chairman Greenspan).
In 1930, there was a large bank failure when Bank of the United States closed, and recently we saw the biggest bank failure in the country’s history with Washington Mutual. Some might argue that the current Senate bailout is similar to that of 1932’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation which had the authority to borrow 1.5 billion dollars for loans to railroads, banks and financial institutions. Like now, many people then argued that although it prevented the failure of important institutions, it was a relief for the wealthy. Also, during the Great Depression there was a recession in the farm, coal, railroad and textile economies. Similarly, today the weaker economic industries include agricultural products, coal and consumable fuels, and railroads.
Websites:
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/briefing/StockTicker.aspx
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/us.html
http://www.businessandmedia.org/commentary/2008/20080227144404.aspx
http://www.startribune.com/business/29776529.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUMEaPc:E7_ec7PaP3iUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU
I was recently in Washington Mutual making a deposit before the JP Morgan Chase takeover and the scene was very reminiscent of the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life. There was enough panic to go around as there were lines of people closing their accounts and taking their money out in fear that all their money would have been lost if they have not intervened. The same thing happened in the movie on the day of the stock market crash. People were in hysteria that day at Bailey Building and Loan, the only difference is that there was not enough money going around so many people did lose their money.
That is the major difference between the current economic crisis and the earlier one. Safeguards were put into place so a massive economic meltdown would not occur again. One of the more famous safeguards that were instituted was the $100,000 FDIC deposit insurance. People in 1929 had no guarantee that their money was safe so the only option they had was to take their money out. Even though people today are still taking their money out with a new $250,000 limit, at least they have a guarantee backed by the federal government.
Source
New FDIC limits could hurt some banks
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/02/news/companies/banks_fdic_limits/?postversion=2008100209
The Great Depression was the first time that anything like that had happened. That in itself makes it drastically different than this economic crisis. Then there was no where to look for comparison or research. Today all are looking towards the Great Depression for dos and don'ts.
Another large difference is that the government is not holding off in hopes of the market straightening out itself. It is aggressively involved with bailout plans. It has already bailed out banks and now its in process of passing a bail out bill to help with tax breaks , increase FDIC insurance to $250,000 and buying bad mortgages. 1
Even though, it is still early the unemployment is nowhere near what is was in 1929. Today's unemployment is about 6% while back then it was an amazing 25%. 2 So even, with the largest dow points drop and banks failing, which wasn't a characteristic of the Great Depression, there does not seem to be the same desperation felt today. Again, as of yet there doesn't seem to be. Mostly, because Americans are feeling that the government's early intervention will save the day. Unfortunately, we can only wait and see.
1 Temple-Raston, Dina, Senate OK's Bailout Package, House to Vote on Friday. NPR, Oct. 1,2008
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95245985
2 Poor, Jeff. US Today Plays up "Gloomy" Attitudes with Depression, Business and Media Institute, Sept. 28, 2008.
http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080929133747.aspx
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