John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes was a British economist. His ideas helped to recover from the Great Depression. He believed that the government should have control of spending for public works during economic crisis'. I agree with his views. His ideas could be useful during our times.

Keynes was a well learned man. He was involved in overseas finance and was very good at it. With much experience he was able to develop his own strategies to get out of a recession. He published a book called "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money". He believed that during an economic downturn the private sector would halt its investment. That would lead to fewer jobs, and fewer jobs would lead to a lower consumption. This would make the private sector even more unwilling to invest. Keynes saw that the only way to stop this was for governments to come in and increase the spending on public works. He believed that it would lead to higher employment and higher aggregate demand. And eventually it would turn the economy around.

I think that Keynes was a very smart man. He understood economics far better than I can. I totally agree with his views. This is both because his strategies proved to turn the economy around and that it makes sense to me. The government is far more likely to save a country from recession than the people by themselves.

I think that his brains would be very helpful today. History tends to repeat itself, so I think that his strategy would be able to help us during our recession today. I think if our governments took time to study his works that they would be able to come up with newer ideas that would be successful.

John Maynard Keynes was one of the greatest economists ever known. He believed in government intervention. That idea was able to get the United States out of the Great Depression. I think that his ideas would still be helpful for us today. They worked then, and they can work now. We can learn a lot from him.

International Monetary Fund

What is the International Monetary Fund? It happens to be a global organization. What does it do? It tries to prevent and give aid to economic crisis'. How well has it been doing? Not bad, not bad at all.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was born in July of 1944. The main reason for creating this organization was because of the Great Depression in the 1930's. The world recognized the huge impacts of economic depression and decided to do something about it. The IMF is meant to prevent such events from happening again.

The IMF helps stabilize the monetary system. The monetary system is the system of exchange rates and worldwide payments. It is essential that we can buy goods from each other or else our economy cannot grow. To prevent depressions the IMF reviews financial information about countries and gives them advice to fix their economic problems.

Here we are in the 21st century and the IMF is still running. At this time they are dealing with a few different places around the world. Their main focus is on the poor countries. They have helped them by giving them loans and other financial help. As a result the poor countries were able to escape the first impacts of a depression. But now things are becoming more difficult. The IMF is doing all they can to help them.

The International Monetary Fund was a good idea. It helped connect with the rest of the world and now we are able to help and prevent economic crisis'. Our world has been going through a rough patch, but we are pulling through because of the help of the IMF.

Oil Development

1) The oil sands in Alberta have huge impacts on the environment. Our oil sands cover about 21% of Alberta. That is equal to 140 800 squared kilometers. There are two major issues with the oil development in my opinion. The first would be the incredibly intense carbon emissions being released into the air. And the second would be all the toxic waste being created.

The carbon emissions from oil sands is one of the biggest causes of damage to the ozone and global warming through pollution. There is approximately 62-164 kilograms of carbon dioxide produced for every barrel of oil. Canada has actually been blamed for a lot of the environmental problems we are facing at this time. This is a problem that can't easily be fixed. Our world runs on oil. We need it for everything. It would cause a lot of political problems if we just quit producing oil, so that is not a solution.

When oil is produced there is about 2 to 4 barrels of water needed to produce one barrel of oil. This is another huge issue because tons of water is being taken from the Athabasca River. The water levels are constantly lowering and we are losing fresh water. Once the water has been used in the oil sands it becomes toxic. We cannot just throw the water back into the river; it would kill all kinds of ecosystems. So instead the waste sits in ponds. It has been predicted that by 2040 the ponds will cover an area equal to that of Vancouver. So much damage is being done to the land. It is becoming more and more difficult to renew the habitats and ecosystems that have been damaged. We aren't going to have lands suitable for them for much longer. As time continues more issues arise. It will take a lot of effort from everyone to fix these problems. we have about forty years of damage to deal with.

2) If I were to be discussing whether economic issues are more important than environmental issues these would be some questions I might bring up.

a) Would there even be an economy if it weren't for a luxurious environment to get it going?

b) Are you aware of the issues caused by the oil industry and what it can do to the environment?

c) Does global warming concern you? Do you care about the air you breathe?

d) Do you think that we need to be worrying about the environment now or postpone it to increase economic power?

e) How serious can economic problems get if we are doing little things to help the environment?

f) If you could see 100 years into the future and the damages from our industries would you change what you are doing now?

g) What will happen if we use up all of the oil? Would it be worse than reducing our usage now?

h) Which is more important, industrialization that brings wealth and luxuries to people or a safe environment that will continue to sustain life?

i) Are there really any good reasons to avoid tending to the needs of our environment?

j) The economy is the main cause of this damage, why shouldn't they be the ones to fix it?

3)

Dear Journal,

It was announced today that our lucky baseball diamond is being bought because oil was discovered underneath it. We have not lost a single game on that diamond for three seasons in a row! And now the oil companies are going to rip it apart and drill for oil. Well, actually it isn't official. They are going to decide whether to develop it after they buy it. I am so upset. This is a special part of our community. I have so many memories there. It is unfair that they can just take it away from us. People these days are so greedy. It just drives me crazy that they are taking it away when there is still the possibility that they might not even use the land. I am so worried about our baseball team now. I doubt we will ever be able to win a game again!

-Carl