Going Green Isn't Leaving Any Room for Coal

The Environmental Protection Agency has spoken out against coal and they believe the time is now for it to come to an end with the help of the Clean Power Plan. This plan is trying to put an end to coal use and a start to the all electric age that will effectively address global warming.
 Gina McCarthy is the head of the agency and she claims that they will conclude with victory but not without tedious work. Washington has even acknowledged the EPA's efforts saying, that this group's extensive work to "reverse the Rules" with the Clean Air Act's help is showing progress.

Not everyone is on board, however. The many that are employed in the coal industry are very concerned about their jobs, as they should be. The government is also concerned on how the economy will hold up with the coal industry being absent. A few states' economies has a foundation based on coal, so eliminating coal entirely would be dooming to their economy. They are also concerned with the expense of the Clean Power Plan and will "push electricity rates through the roof", as Obama said they would.

They concluded with a few solutions that included the electricity route. When coal is eliminated as an energy source people will be forced to turn to electricity. The electricity field will then increase in popularity allowing for more available jobs for those who possibly lost their jobs in the coal field.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2015/08/12/the-war-on-coal-and-the-clean-power-plan-are-just-the-beginning

Never Enough Charity

Tyler Cowen, from the New York Times, brings up interesting new views on altruism that push the normal view on charity. Everyone who is prepared to make a donation expects and hopes that their earnings will be put to good use. But how can one person ever be sure if their money is going to the right place or is being utilized in the best way possible. A new group of people known as the "Effective Altruism" has been encouraging donors to have a more scientific approach to their donating. Altruism is the the belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others and this group does their best to achieve this by sharing intellectual ways of this practice. Famous people taking charge on this practice include the GiveWell organization and William MacAskill, a philosophy professor at Oxford University. 
MacAskill's teachings on these concepts are based off of economics, like opportunity cost and the "notion of unintended consequences". He offers three pieces of advice. 1) When a natural disaster occurs do not follow your instincts and drown the needed area with money, because it is probably more than they need, and really more than they can handle. 2) Charities that include an overhead cost is not bad! They have these because usually they have back-office expenditures. 3) Now is an excellent time to donate because of the state our world is in now heath wise. We can look to the Gates Foundation as examples to follow. 
Some believe that poverty is due solely because of bad politics and philanthropy cannot be utilized to fix that. If the government is not using the donations and charity effectively then we will be placed back in the same situation we were before. 
Whether politics is the main reason or not, donations should continue to come flowing in and keep increasing. Even if it seems like money is not needed it can always be utilized in a helpful manner. For example if the money is not spent right away it can always be invested that can later help create jobs and increase productivity. 
In conclusion generosity can never hurt, it can only help, but we have now discovered that it can be more helpful if we donate in a more scientific strategy. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/upshot/effective-altruism-where-charity-and-rationality-meet.html?ref=economy&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

Save a lot! But also spend a lot! (...?)

The author, Mark Gongloff, describes a time before the Great Depression when Americans would spend more then we earned. They would splurge on lavish mansions and other luxuries with little left in the bank account. He says we are now back to those times and supports the theory with evidence from the Commerce Department. Americans increased their spending by .08% in February while their income only increased .02%. This is the third time in four months that the economy has lost money which has concerned some economists, and make them question if we will be heading ourselves into another depression with this excess spending.

The government recently estimated that Americans only save 3.7%, which has been the lowest since 2009 in August and then again back to 2007 in December. that time was shortly before the infamous depression occurred around December. At that time it fell to an all-time-low of 2.6%, and was the official start of the recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Bureau of Economic Research. But fortunately after these recessions, the savings amount increases tremendously. So why is the average amount of savings decreasing and so quickly? I first jumped to the conclusion that people now feel comfortable in their economic situations. The recession was a few years ago, and people have now recovered, so they no longer feel the need to save. Rather they feel like they deserve to treat themselves and since they feel comfortable and trust in our country's current economic status, they won't mind dipping into their savings account.

Gongloff, however, has a different opinion. H believes that Americans savings accounts are decreasing because of "stagnant wages and rising gasoline prices." I believe that those two factors contribute to the lack of savings, but I also believe that Americans don't feel the need to save because they are comfortable. Another note, the economy is benefitting from the lack of saving and increase in spending. When my dad makes a larger purchase he will always treasure us and himself by saying, "I;m just helping out the economy". Economists are hoping that it will end well with job market increase as well as a wage increase, so the savings account is not as relied on. But they are really hoping that it doesn't end in job growth/income becoming stagnant. This could extremely hurt the economy and potentially lead us to another unwanted recession. So, I have concluded that I need to save a fair amount of my earnings, while continuing to spend a lot to keep the economy successfully running. Sounds contradictory...