The Common Disaster and the Unexpected Education: Delta Flight 1141 and the Discourse of Aviation Safety

News coverage of transportation disasters, such as the crash of Delia Flight 1141, reveal the disaster behavior of passengers, flight personnel and rescue workers. Within a mystery framework, the Flight 1141 discourse provides clues that readers can use to construe ( their own disaster behavior awareness. The media must expand their pedagogical role beyond natural and technological disasters and begin providing basic airplane safety behavior information

The bunheads are dead: Discovering high tech, high touch opportunities in Library and Information Science

Conjure up a picture of today\u27s librarian, and you are likely to be wrong. Professional librarians are information analysts, freedom of information and protection of privacy officers, family literacy specialists, Internet trainers, teen specialists, genealogists, Web designers and technologists, database managers, historical researchers, information brokers. Indeed, few have the title of “librarian” but all have the master\u27s degree in Library and Information Science (LIS). Graduate LIS programs are appealing to a younger and more diverse student population, yet recruitment is still problematic due to misconceptions about the career and the little-known fact that the first professional degree is at the master\u27s level. For the past several decades, MLIS programs have recognized the morphing of the library from book repository to community information provider, and have redrawn the set of technical skills that go along with the degree. Those who have discovered the contemporary version of the MLIS have been able to dismiss the bunheaded-librarian stereotype traditionally associated with the degree

Should the decline in the personal saving rate be a cause for concern?

The personal saving rate has received particular attention recently because saving was negative in 2005 for the first time since the Great Depression. Although saving declined in other developed countries during this period, the U.S. decline was more pronounced than in most of these countries. ; A major concern is whether U.S. households are providing adequately for long-term needs, such as future retirement and medical expenses. In addition, low personal saving has created short-run concerns that a sudden increase in the saving rate could reduce growth of consumer spending, real output, and employment. ; But there is another, often overlooked side to this story. Two major factors suggest the decline in the personal saving rate may not be as alarming as it is sometimes made out to be. First, various measurement problems with the personal saving rate from the national income and product accounts suggest household saving may not have declined as much as the statistics suggest. Second, economic theory assumes that households rationally anticipate future labor income and asset returns and plan their spending accordingly. If this assumption is correct, the low personal saving rate may not foreshadow wrenching future adjustments in consumer spending. ; Garner provides some perspective on the decline in the personal saving rate over the last two decades. After weighing the issues, he concludes that, although there are some legitimate reasons for concern, the decline in the personal saving rate may not be as alarming as it first appears.Saving and investment

Offshoring in the service sector : economic impact and policy issues

The United States continues to run an international trade surplus in services, but business stories frequently appear about service-sector jobs moving offshore. Many Americans are particularly concerned about the loss of skilled, well-paid jobs in such fields as computer programming and accounting. These jobs seemed relatively secure at a time when many manufacturing jobs were being lost to import competition. Similarly, telephone call centers, once viewed as an economic development opportunity in some areas, increasingly are moving to low-wage countries, such as India and the Philippines. Reflecting this growing concern, some members of Congress and state legislators have focused attention on the offshoring of service jobs and production, even introducing legislation to limit the outsourcing of jobs to other countries. Offshoring raises many questions for policymakers and the general public. For example, which service jobs will be affected most by import competition? What are the most likely effects of service-sector offshoring on U.S. output, employment, and, most important, our standard of living? Is offshoring really a problem that requires restrictive government actions, or are other kinds of policies more appropriate to give Americans the highest possible living standard? ; Garner examines the economic effects of offshoring and possible policy responses. He finds that although the offshoring of service jobs hurts some workers, offshoring should not permanently lower U.S. employment or production. ; Moreover, the average living standard can benefit over the long run if the nation adopts policies to retrain displaced workers and move them into expanding industries.Service industries

The World War II Patriotic Mother

The archetypal good mother and the archetypal patriotic mother are important symbols in American culture. Both are rooted in maternal work but are separated by two conflicting assumptions. The good mother nurtures her children and protects them from harm, while the patriotic wartime mother remains silent when the government sends her child directly into harm\u27s way. This study explores how the World War II press positioned mothers of soldiers to sacrifice their children in support of the nation\u27s war effort. The findings point to the importance of understanding the role of archetypes in news narratives

Consumer confidence after September 11

The terrorist attacks on September 11 dealt a serious blow to the U.S. economy. The damage included the tragic loss of human life, massive property destruction, and disruptions to the travel and shipping industries. But immediately after the attacks, many observers also worried about the possible harm to business and consumer confidence. Although the effects on business confidence are hard to measure, regular surveys of households make it easier to assess the effects on consumer confidence. These surveys show that consumer confidence was surprisingly resilient.> Faced with this resilience, forecasters and policymakers struggled to interpret the movements in consumer confidence. Did consumers quickly return to more normal economic behavior even though they were shocked by the terrorist attacks? Or was the resilience somehow illusory? Were measures of consumer confidence actually lower than would be expected based on prevailing economic conditions? The answers to these questions might have implications about the economic outlook or the proper settings for monetary and fiscal policy.> Garner examines the impact of the terrorist attacks on consumer confidence at the end of 2001. He finds that the terrorist attacks did not cause a clear weakening of consumer confidence after September 11. As a result, the consumer confidence indexes maintained a fairly normal relationship to other economic indicators and did not contain much new information for forecasters and policymakers. The resilience of consumer confidence may have offered some assurance, however, that the worst fears about the economic outlook would not be realized.Consumers ; Consumer behavior ; Terrorism

Middle-income tax rates: trends and prospects

The federal tax liabilities of different income groups change constantly in response to new tax laws and shifting economic circumstances. For example, in recent years, Congress has lowered individual income tax rates, increased child and dependent care credits, and reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains. Much of the economic analysis and political debate about these federal tax changes concerns the impact on upper- or lower-income groups, while the impact on middle-income taxpayers sometimes gets forgotten. ; The trends in tax rates can be difficult for middle-income taxpayers, themselves, to discern. Modest revisions to the federal tax code may hardly be noticed in any given year; yet these revisions could build over time into a large change in the middle-income tax rate. Some taxpayers may also find it difficult to determine whether changes in their tax liability are due to legislated changes in the federal tax code or shifts in their own circumstances. ; Davig and Garner define the effective federal tax rate for middle-income households and discuss the problems in computing this measure. They find that the effective federal tax rate facing middle-income households has trended downward over the last 25 years and is currently low by historical standards. Moreover, the composition of middle-income tax liabilities over this period has shifted away from individual income taxes toward payroll taxes. Finally, they show that under current tax law middle-income taxes are projected to rise in the future.Taxation

An inflation report for 1999

The U.S. economy turned in an exceptional performance in 1999, combining strong real output growth with moderate inflation. Real GDP, a broad measure of the nation's output of goods and services, grew 4.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 1998 to the fourth quarter of 1999. Employment also rose solidly, and the civilian unemployment rate declined to the lowest level in about 30 years. Although rising world oil prices caused consumer prices to increase faster than in 1998, core inflation measures, which exclude food and energy prices, were about the same or slightly lower. Moreover, survey measures of long-term inflation expectations were stable despite the robust pace of the economic expansion.> What accounts for this exceptional combination of rapid growth and moderate inflation? Several factors helped hold down the inflation rate, including strong import competition and ample industrial capacity at home and abroad. But many recent discussions have emphasized the pronounced increase in productivity growth, reflecting both the high level of business investment and accelerated technological change. In particular, new information technologies, such as computers and the Internet, may be increasing economic efficiency through better coordination of business activities and reduced inventories. The evidence is unclear, however, about how much of the productivity acceleration is due to new technologies, and whether faster productivity growth can be sustained in the years ahead.> Such questions are crucial in judging whether rapid growth can continue without undermining the Federal Reserve's long-run objectives of price stability and sustainable economic growth. Garner examines recent inflation developments and the policy implications of faster productivity growth.Inflation (Finance) ; Economic conditions - United States ; Productivity

How useful are leading indicators of inflation?

Many economists expect inflation to rise in 1995. These expectations are based on various approaches to forecasting inflation. One approach is based on the standard economic theory that inflation rises when slack is eliminated from the economy and production exceeds capacity constraints. According to this view, measures of economic slack such as unemployment and capacity utilization provide useful information about the inflation outlook. But the relationship between slack and inflation is complicated and subject to variable lags.> Uncomfortable with this complex relationship, some analysts rely on alternative approaches to forecasting inflation. One approach is based on "leading indicators" of inflation. The leading indicators typically incorporate information on selected prices to augment or replace information on economic slack. The prices selected are usually key commodity prices that fluctuate more or less continuously in response to changing economic conditions. Prominent leading indicators of inflation include the price of gold, broader indexes of commodity prices, and composite indicators that combine several economic series believed to predict the inflation rate.> Garner examines five widely watched leading indicators and concludes that the composite indicators have given the most useful early warning signals of inflation turning points, but none of the indicators has recently been successful in predicting inflation magnitudes.Economic indicators ; Inflation (Finance)

The Birth Control Divide : U. S. Press Coverage of Contraception, 1873-2013

For more than 140 years, religious, medical, legislative, and legal institutions have contested the issue of contraception. In this conversation, predominantly male voices have attached reproductive rights to tangential moral and political matters, revealing an ongoing, systematic attempt to regulate human bodies, especially those of women. This analysis of 1873-2013 press coverage of contraception in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune shows a division between institutional ideology and real-life experience; women’s reproductive rights are negotiable. Although journalists often reported that contraception was a factor in the everyday life of women and men, press accounts also showed religious, medical, legislative, and legal institutions debating whether it should be. Contraception originally was predominately viewed as a practice of prostitutes (despite evidence to the contrary) but became a part of everyday life. The battle has slowly evolved into one about the Affordable Care Act, religious freedom, morality, and employer rights. What did not significantly change over the 140-year period are larger cultural and ideological structures; these continue to be dominated by men, who retain power over women’s bodies