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Here’s an opportunity to sit in the classroom and listen to a discussion about the current global financial crisis.   It’s located in Boston at MIT.

http://baselinescenario.com/2008/11/06/downloadable-mit-class-on-the-global-crisis/

And then they have a hook up with a couple of reporters who are sitting in NYC.  This is one of the  places I used to run around decades ago so I am enjoying the quantum leap forward in teaching methods available to these young people.  They even bring into the discussion a guy who is being driven around in a cab somewhere.

Also here are some interesting links for financial matters.

• Planet Money is an excellent, excellent podcast for people who are relatively new to the world of economics and the financial crisis, and for people who commute and can listen to it in their cars. I listen to it for fun.
• Real Time Economics (Wall Street Journal) gives you rapid coverage of economic issues as they arise.
• Calculated Risk and naked capitalism are good sources for near-real-time news about the crisis and the economy in general. Calculated risk has a particular focus on housing and mortgages; naked capitalism has incisive commentary from one side of the political spectrum.
• Econbrowser is more technical and data-oriented; more advanced readers will like this one.
• Economist’s View and Marginal Revolution provide in-depth articles applying economics to broad range of phenomena.
• And James Surowiecki has a blog!

All of this is available through The Baseline Scenario

http://baselinescenario.com/

One point they make that I have recently thought about is the fact that young people under thirty have not experienced a severe downturn in the economy.   This is new territory for them.  Hopefully it will help them remain positive and resilient.  Maybe they will even continue to spend some money and keep the economy going.

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there are men on base. ~Dave Barry

I’m convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile. ~Tom Clark

Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field? ~Jim Bouton, 1988

A critic once characterized baseball as six minutes of action crammed into two-and-one-half hours. ~Ray Fitzgerald, in Boston Glove, 1970

About this poem…

I enjoyed writing it a great deal. But actually I feel sometimes like someone is guiding my thoughts . It’s a new way to go in any case. A new direction for this blog.

Davidlind and me.

This one is about the trip Beth and I took to Boston this summer. We went on a boat ride on the Charles River. And I could see the Boston University campus where I went to school along the shore. A LONG time ago. I was an English major then and enjoyed reading poetry.  In 1972 I  applied to take part in a seminar conducted by Anne Sexton who was teaching there at the time.  Unfortunately she did not accept me into the group. And I went to hear Auden read some of his poetry at Boston College shortly before he died.

I should have made an appointment to see Ms. Sexton and talk to her about my desire to be in her class. At the very  least it would have been a great if brief experience and something to remember always.

***************

In my youth I wandered here

Or went from door to door

And pleaded, begged and lost my heart

To someone who was bored.

It never seemed to matter much

The things we tried to do.

We came and went and learned about

True loves that were not true.

And now I glide upon the wake

And laugh about those days.

I see my ghost upon the shore

And raise a hearty wave.

“Prepare my son for what will come

Forget about the morn.

Someday true love will follow you

And children will be born.”

“Have no fear about your days

Sleep soundly through the night.

Be a man and fear no woe

Seek beauty in the light.”

“Try to watch how others feel

And listen, think and grow.

Be a gentle man always

And plan where you should go.”

*******************

The river ever softly flowed

He turned and walked away.

But I could see he smiled awhile

Into the fading day. As though

He heard a voice inside and saw

A silver path. That led one day

From his hard way into my heart

At last.

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Here are some more photos from our day trip to Boston

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