Cornell Insider

a blog by the writers of the Cornell Review

Posts Tagged ‘Stimulus’

Obama Funds Obesity Research

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on February 18, 2010

One year into the  $787 billion spending spree that is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we still have high unemployment, low investor confidence, and a ballooning federal deficit which threatens future economic growth. But despite all this, we should be happy that Obama’s stimulus has been funding work at our alma mater:

Examples of the highlighted research include a study of the relationship between depression and heart disease at Emory University; obesity research at Cornell University that tests a variety of strategies for encouraging better nutrition and eating habits…

The problem with the report cited in the article is that it tries to defend the stimulus by providing examples of the beneficial research that has been conducted with stimulus funds. This shouldn’t come as a big surprise to anyone. If you throw billions of dollars of grant money to top universities, is there any doubt that they might crank out some good research? The point of the stimulus was to use government expenditure to jump start the American economy after the 2008 financial crisis, not to fund solar power and obesity research.

Maybe the Cornell researchers concluded that eating less results in less obesity? Who knows.

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MRM #14!

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on August 30, 2009

- President Skorton’s welcome letter discusses low admissions rates, faculty honors and recognitions, shrinking annual deficits, and something about  becoming a climate-neutral university and stopping global warming.

- Senator Edward Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday evening.

- Via VK, the AP uncovers more ridiculous/inefficient pork barrel stimulus spending.

- As Bilmes reports, Cornell hockey stars Riley Nash and Colin Greening will be returning for another season.

- Jenna Bush Hager plans to sell her soul to NBC.

- We may disagree with his policies, and his numbers may be slipping at home, but Obama’s international approval ratings are quite good.

- Even after a properly administered election in Afghanistan, much work remains to be done.

- Rasmussen reports that 57% of American voters would prefer to replace Congress and start all over.

- For new readers of the Cornell Review / Cornell Insider, here’s a list of the Top 25 Economics Blogs by WSJ. HT to the Stanford Review Blog, which you should also check out.

- More on the Sigma Nu pot bust.

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MRM #13

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on August 24, 2009

- Welcome Freshmen! If you’re feeling right in your mind, be sure to check out the Cornell Review at Club Fest! A couple of Review representatives will be visiting Freshmen on North Campus this evening.

- In case you saw/heard all those fire sirens on Saturday night, they were responding to a broken water pipe at Sigma Nu. While inspecting the house for water damages, they discovered a small weed-growing operation.

- Via Bilmes, Cornell Professor Robert H. Frank defends Obama’s stimulus plan and actually says that we need “more stimulus now, not less.” He argues that new stimulus funds must be appropriated to offset cuts in state and local government spending. I don’t disagree with some of his arguments, but I ask why this state/local government assistance wasn’t an essential part of the originally appropriated funds, of which only a fraction have been spent?

- Conservative icon and syndicated columnist Bob Novak passed away last Tuesday. From the linked article by Larry Kudlow: “He was both a conservative icon in terms of his unswerving political beliefs, and a journalistic icon in terms of his unyielding tradecraft.”

- Rose Friedman, economist and wife of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, also died earlier this week.

- As American focus shifts from Iraq to Afghanistan, will the country continue to be the “graveyard of empires”? David Peter examines whether Afghanistan will eventually become Obama’s Vietnam.

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Ibrahim critical of Obama’s “so-called-stimulus.”

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on August 15, 2009

Paul Ibrahim, former President of the Cornell Review, offers a critical assessment of Obama’s stimulus program in his most recent column.

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