Teaching Economics, Big-Bank Style

[marmar]

from Dollars & Sense:



Teaching Economics, Big-Bank Style
Posted by Susan Feiner


The New York Times, citing results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (publicized as “The Nation’s Report Card”), reports that “42 percent of high school seniors were deemed proficient in the 2006 economics test, a larger proportion than in any other subject over the last decade.” In this era of economic crisis, it would be easy to read this as good news. But doing so would be a big mistake.

Our schools have been snookered into delivering a K-12 economics curriculum designed and paid for by big the banks. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, HSBC, and Wells Fargo fund the Council for Economic Education (CEE). CEE, the leader in K-12 economics education, advances an economics agenda indistinguishable from that of Fox News.

Banker compensation is now at stratospheric levels. According to Reuters, Wall Street financiers received $20.8 billion in bonuses last year on top of pay packets so ginormous they’re almost impossible to fathom. Check this out:

Compensation (pay, benefits, bonuses)

Bank of America $35.1 billion

Wells Fargo $26.1 billion

JPMorgan Chase $25.4 billion

Citigroup $22.6 billion

Goldman Sachs $17.5 billion

Morgan Stanley $16.0 billion

Total $142.7 billion

This money is too good to let anything get in the way. Think of it like this: the aggregate compensation of Wall Street’s big boys dwarfs the gross state product of 20 of the 50 states. Their booty is the equivalent of 5 Vermonts, or 3 Maines, or 2 New Mexicos, or all of Kansas. Wrap your mind around that: the total output of Kansas, population 2.9 million, equals executive pay at 6 banks! The mind boggles. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://dollarsandsense.org/blog/2011/06/teaching-economics-big-bank-style.html

[midnight]

1. This is the obscenity everyone in congress should be addressing....

[Hydra]

2. This is the obscenity that Congress is enabling

Citizen's United FTW.