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Showing posts from November, 2022

The Dot Com Bubble and the Great Recession

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The 1990s was a period of economic growth. Aided by Bill Clinton's post-inflation economic policy, interest rates were considerably low. This lead to a mass proliferation of startup companies, which did business almost exclusively on the internet, or dot com companies. Many of these companies had goals that were far too ambitious, but investors, drawn in by the novelty of the dot com company, put their faith in these goals. This created a stock market bubble, or a massive rise in share prices for these dot com companies, with no real backing. Naturally, when these companies failed to meet their goals, the bubble burst, and stock prices plunged.   Sweat   shows the effect of the burst bubble on the stock market, in their little scene builders, showing how the DOW falls " a record 617-point drop.. after the tech bubble bursts". It is no surprise, that this is precedes the chapter with the greatest economic turmoil, wherein Tracey realizes that Oscar and other immigrant...

Opinion: The MAGA movement is just a skewed rendition of "Let America be America Again"

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On Friday, when we were reading Langston Hughes's poem, Let America be America Again , Sohum was given the last line: "And Make America again!". Sohum, very nearly said: "Make America Great Again!". It may have been an honest mistake, but I found some deeper meaning behind his Freudian slip. I found that the MAGA movement, was just a skewed rendition of Langston Hughes's poem.  The MAGA movement built its roots from the "Occupy Wall Street Movement". Discontent with the disparity of wealth in this country, people marched upon Wall Street in New York City. They deemed themselves the 99%, and hated that the '1%'. In fact, it is through this movement, that major present-day GOP figures, like Ted Cruz, got elected. Though the protest was in 2011, the ripple effect could be felt even in 2015, when Donald Trump descended the 'golden escalator'. To the members of OWS, Trump had effectively cut ties with those that they had fought against, ...

Great Gatsby FanFic Write

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  Note: I chose a derivation of the Canon Fic. This is the events after the Great Gatsby, from the POV of a  gangster, in 1920s Chicago. My pops always used to tell me that the quietest cub in the pack, is the most ferocious one. I never understood what he meant, even to this day. Maybe I should've taken note of the beer bottles next to him, every time he said one of his stupid little aphorisms. Man, the theater can get you in a pensive mood. I walked out of that new theater: The Chicago Theater. I have a soft corner for that building, because it was my gang, that financed that building. We took a 100 million dollars from Big Bill Thompson, when the project cost only 50 million. Sneaky, amirite? Now, you may be wondering what we did with that money. We used it to build that pipeline to Canada. "Hey Babyface." "Hey, BabyToes! How've you been?" "Good, Good. Didja hear about old 1000 Lakes in New York? Someone offed him!" 1000 Lakes was a good friend ...