22-1 Critical Thinking #4

Judging from the events of the late 20's and early 30's, how important do you think public confidence is to the health of the economy?

The confidence of the public plays a major role in the economy. The public had two very different levels of confidence throughout this era. They had far too much confidence in the 20's, but as the depression came about in the 30's, they didn't have enough. During the "roaring twenties," people were buying all their luxurious goods on a new system called credit, which basically let a person "buy now and pay later." The problem with this was that the public had so much confidence that it didn't even occour to them that they couldnt afford the resulting bill. The public also had far too much confidence in the stock market.
Everyone was so confident they could make a profit by selling their stocks, that nobody was buying, thus, causing the stock market crash. Once the great depression hit, people not only lost every cent, but every bit of confidence they had. People lost the spirit to pick themselves back up from the beginning. The low amount of jobs available didn't help the cause either.

Current Events Summary 2.1 (China)

There have been some some interesting foreign relations in China during the month of November. On November 5th, America's Defense Secretary, Robert M. Gates, investigated China’s aggressive modernization of its armed forces and its even more aggressive expansion of the economy and its growing global role. Mr. Gates stated “China’s increasing political and economic stature calls for this country to take on a greater share of responsibility for the health and success of the international system.” On the 8th of November, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and her Russian counterpart Alexander Zhukov meet at the second China-Russia Business Summit to take advantage of the China-Russia chamber of commerce of machinery and electronic products. They also agreed to deepen cooperation in border regions, further encourage the enthusiasm of local governments and organize time between revitalizing China's former industrial bases in the northeast and developing Russia's Far East region.
Chinese top legislator and chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, Wu Bangguo left Moscow also during the month of November. During his visit to Russia Wu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. the two sides exchanged views and reached consensus on bilateral relations, exchanges of visits and international issues of common concern.Both sides expressed satisfaction over the cooperation between the parliaments in recent years and expressed the desire to improve the mechanism of cooperation between the parliaments. In the business of trade, Kazakhstan agreed to give China a share of 2,000 tons of Uranium a year in exchange for its share in a uranium-processing business. Kazatomprom signed agreements in Beijing with the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group and the China National Nuclear Corporation, who happen to be China’s largest producers of atomic energy.
China and India will hold their first joint military exercise next month. They have reiterated they were ready to take their strategic cooperative partnership to a "new level". Indian Defense Ministry spokesman, Sitanshu Kar said about 100 troops each from both the countries will take part in the military drill. A Chinese naval vessel has set off on a landmark visit to Japan. It will be the first visit to Japan by a naval vessel of communist China. The visit was agreed at a meeting in August between defense ministers of the two nations. The ministers also agreed to set up a military hot line at their talks, the first in the Japanese capital for almost 10 years.

21-4 Critical Thinking #5

What did the Harlem Renaissance contribute to both black and general American history?

The Harlem Renaissance was a literary and artistic movement celebrating African-Americans. Many of these authors, actors and musicians were some of the most famous in their industry throughout general American History. A Jamaican immigrant named Claude McKay, who was a novelist and a poet, was a major figure whose militant Verses urged African Americans to resist prejudice and discrimination. One of the most famous writers of the movement was Langston Hughes. Many of his poems described the difficult lives of working-class African Americans. Paul Robeson, who performed in Shakespeare's Othello, became a major dramatic actor. As Jazz became popular in New Orleans, it came with a young trumpet player named Louis Armstrong, who joined Oliver's group, which eventually became known as the Creole Jazz Band. His talent rocketed him to stardom in the jazz world.