Economic Propaganda in Comics!

The good folks at Planet Money inform me that the Federal Reserve published a comic book about monetary policy.

Contrary to legend, the X-Men don't spend all their time battling Magneto.

There's also this 1945 "comic" (really just illustrated bullet points) about how war time economic policy can lead to facism, courtesy of General Motors.

Or maybe you join the party for their artificial elbow implants.

In the spirit of equal time, here's another "comic" about the "Money Myth."  It's long and, well, stupid, but worth checking out if you like your fools raw and unfiltered.

The Evil Banker Oliver Demands Repayment.

European Disunion

Only a few weeks ago it seemed like Greece's EU friends would take care of it. That idea fell through, though, and now Germany and France are squabbling over whether to bring the IMF in to deal with the problem. As if things weren't bad enough on the Continent, Portugal's debt was downgraded with exquisite timing.

Germany's reluctance to bankroll a Grecian bailout is pretty understandable. Athens routinely cooked their books when times were good, and the Greek public is throwing fits over cuts to a posh welfare state they couldn't afford to begin with. Add to the Greeks' own bad behavior the fact that Germany is essentially the keystone for all of Europe's economy these days and you can comprehend why Germans might be getting a little frustrated.

These troubles highlight just how weak the EU is as a political institution. EU member states must beg their sister states for help--the equivalent of Florida having to go directly to New York every time it wanted to repair hurricane damage. Despite all the regulations coming out of Brussels, the EU is still more of a confederation than a real union. During the EU elections last year, I kept hearing a weary sort of optimism from Europeans about the future strength of the EU. The Grecian Dilemma (sounds like a Ludlum story about hair dye) casts more cold water on that dream.

Links

There was a very good article in yesterday'sNY Times about the testing culture in India's middle class, focusing on the need for more good colleges and universities to handle the country's huge young population. Random impressive statistic: 320,000 students applied for I.I.T.'s 8,000 open spots.

The university overcrowding was behind the Cabinet's recent decision to open up higher education to foreign universities--three cheers for another protectionist barrier falling!

To drive home the connection between university quality and development, here's an article from the January Economist about the "Engineering Gap" between the U.S. and India.

But that is not just an issue for outsourced jobs--the Indian tech sector still lags behind in creating new technologies despite its huge domestic market.

The Hearings That Weren't

If you haven't heard any of This American Life's coverage of the financial crisis, check it out. Teaming up with the folks from Planet Money, TAL does a great job. Their most recent broadcast deals with the government regulators and the credit rating companies. Both function - or are supposed to function - as gatekeepers. During the last decade or so, they did anything but.

If the latest episode doesn't clarify why some level of legal literacy is important in a democracy, I don't know what will. For years, under Democratic and Republican administrations and Congresses, American kept saying they wanted less regulation. Based on their anger these days, it doesn't seem like they knew what they were asking for. But they got it, in spades.