Jamie Dimon is at it again. Speaking to his bank's clients yesterday during a panel discussion in Koenigstein, Germany, the chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co. said regulators and banks should come up with a system that lets lenders go broke without hurting the world economy.

"We've got to get rid of too-big-to-fail," Dimon said, according to a Bloomberg News article this morning. "We have to ensure big banks can be taken down without harming the public and at no cost to them."

Remarks such as these, coming from the head of JPMorgan, are maddening. (And Dimon has made similar comments before.) Here he is saying all the right things and making all the right moves from a public-relations standpoint. Of course we should eliminate too-big-to-fail, most of us can agree. Of course we should ensure these monster institutions can fail without harming the public.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-22/jamie-dimon-laments-too-big-to-fail-give-me-a-break.html

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-states-district-attorney-carmen-ortiz-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/RQNrG1Ck

My response was based on your statement above, which was taken from the article, not the title ... I will not engage in strawman

However since you brought it up, I will prove to you and anyone else reading this that it is debt for a lifetime or forever in my book ...

If you take thirty six year old Steve's $75,000 school debt and amortize this debt over 30 years you get a monthly payment of $462.00 ... which I would argue that he will not be able to afford this monthly payment in the current employment environment ... so his payment will be less than the $462.00 which will increase his term length to the end of his life ...

My point is that Steve has a lifetime debt load on his future income ... unless of course he finds a rich aunt or uncle ...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/06/opinion/bennett-student-debt/index.html

Almost 2 generations stands between you and the new student graduating today ...

And that means 2 worlds ago ....

As you well know, in a society based on capitalistic ideals which promote individualism and all its idealistic goals, that the force feeding of these ideas from kindergarten on has created a monster the world has yet to deal with. ie: climate change due to runaway resource grabbing from industrialized capitalistic societies.

As for your assumption, I am content with my doctorate and know that my choices have been wise.

I unlike you, have reasoned that my abilities to be honest with myself and others go beyond how much I have in my bank account.

1. Amortization

2. We students have been sold the idea that a higher education in the USA leads to more and better employment opportunities, which is being proven to be just propaganda by higher education and those whose interests surround the financial subjogation of an entire generation. All the while tuition and fees have risen to levels higher than inflation rates and greedy educators and bankers splitting up the spoils of these heinous promises. Hence your professional life has been riddled with cognitive dissonance the likes of Judas Iscariot.

And your ears must be ringing....

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/06/opinion/bennett-student-debt/index.html

For Newly Minted M.B.A.s, a Smaller Paycheck Awaits

Like many students, Steve Vonderweidt hoped that a master's degree in business administration would open doors to a new job with a higher paycheck.

Soaring tuition costs, a weak labor market and a glut of recent graduates are upending the notion that M.B.A.s and other professional degrees are a sure ticket to financial success. WSJ's Ruth Simon reports on the News Hub. Photo: AP Images.

But now, about eight months after receiving his M.B.A. from the University of Louisville, Mr. Vonderweidt, 36 years old, hasn't been able to find a job in the private sector, and continues to work as an administrator at a social-service agency that helps Louisville residents obtain food stamps, health care and other assistance. He is saddled with about $75,000 in student-loan debt—much of it from graduate school.

"It was a really great program," says Mr. Vonderweidt. "But the job part has been atrocious."

Soaring tuition costs, a weak labor market and a glut of recent graduates such as Mr. Vonderweidt are upending the notion that professional degrees like M.B.A.s are a sure ticket to financial success.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324296604578175764143141622.html?mod=e2tw

A Science Teacher Draws the Line at Creation

As a science teacher, I am always curious about people's attitudes toward what I teach. Since more than 40 percent of U.S. adults believe literally what is written in the Book of Genesis—that Earth and the universe were created in six days about 6,000 years ago—and since I was in the neighborhood recently, I decided to visit the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., run by the Answers in Genesis (AiG) Ministry.

The museum has a brand-new planetarium and 70,000 square feet of exhibits claiming that the story of Genesis happened exactly as written. In the main lobby, a large display depicts life just after creation. Richly detailed with plants and rocks, it features a small boy playing, while two dinosaurs graze nearby. According to the exhibits, the stars are younger than Earth (they were created on Day 4), and Noah saved all animal species that we see today from the Flood. Earth had its one and only ice age, lasting a few hundred years.

What disturbed me most about my time spent at the museum was the theme, repeated from one exhibit to the next, that the differences between biblical literalists and mainstream scientists are minor. They are not minor; they are poles apart. This is not to say that science and religion are incompatible; many scientists believe in some kind of higher power, and many religious people accept the idea of evolution. Still, a literal interpretation of Genesis cannot be reconciled with modern science.

Scientists tell us we live in a remote corner of a vast universe that existed billions of years before humans arrived. The universe and Earth could continue just fine without us. We are one species of many on a little planet with an ancient fossil record that shows that more than 99 percent of the species that once lived are now extinct. This speaks to a tenuousness of our existence as a species—an existence we need to protect vigorously.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=science-teacher-draws-line-creation&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_EVO_20130107

SENECA, Mo. — Ryle Smith could not have had two better companions with him on Friday night.

Smith, 6, of Seneca, followed two of the family’s dogs, Baxter and Bella, into the woods behind his parents’ house Friday evening, and became disoriented and lost as it grew dark.

It prompted a five-hour search that put Ryle back in his parents arms at 10 p.m., thanks to his four-legged friends and efforts from search parties from all over the area.

When Ryle was found, his two dogs were lying on top of him in a ditch, sharing their warmth with him as temperatures dipped into the low 20s.

http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x503814162/Baxter-Bella-protect-child-lost-in-woods-near-Seneca

Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts.

Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/