The Senate released a 650-page report attributing the 2008 financial crisis to high-risk loans, conflicts of interest and failed regulation on Wall Street; so, Sun columnist Tony Manfred '11 asks, why isn't anyone talking about it?

Cornell Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians squared off in a debate titled “Financial Crisis Debate: What Went Wrong and How Do We Fix It?” yesterday in Warren Hall.

A man walks into a bar, say Dinos. After fighting his way up to the bar, Joe Smith orders a bottle of Bud Light and pulls out a five-spot to pay for it, to which the bartender responds: “Your money is no good here.” Since having a woman buy you a drink is about as rare as sunshine in Ithaca during February, Joe Smith assumes the bartended is simply a liberal democrat and accepts his free drink.

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest,” economist Adam Smith wrote. Smith transformed economic and political thought with his notion that the pursuit of self interest promotes societal good and that an "invisible hand" pushes markets towards equilibrium conditions without the interference of the government.

This is the third article in a series examining the effects of the University’s budget cuts on individual schools and colleges.

As some of Cornell’s seven colleges scramble to meet Provost Kent Fuchs’ call for a five percent University-wide budget cut, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations has taken it in stride. With the need to cut $1.7 million from ILR’s $34 million unrestricted budget, Dean Harry Katz has pledged that the cuts would not directly affect students, classes, professors or other faculty members on campus.

President Obama signed the most sweeping piece of economic legislation in the nation’s history on Feb. 17 in Denver, Col., officially sparking what may prove to be a long road to financial recovery. On campus, students and professors voiced their opinion, highlighting attitudes ranging from cautious optimism to vitriolic critique.

From unlocking nature’s fundamental principles through elementary particle physics to unzipping DNA to understand the way living cells function, research at Cornell spans across every science department and almost every scientific topic. Scientific research requires equipment, raw materials and people. To obtain these, however, researchers need one thing: funding. According to an annual report put out by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, researchers at Cornell, not including Weill Medical College, spent about $470 million in the 2008 fiscal year.

As America’s financial well-being continues to suffer from the economic recession, individuals likewise share the pain from the emotional repercussions that come with the stress of increased financial hardship.

Matt Boone, assistant director of Counseling and Psychological Services and coordinator of the “Let’s Talk” program at Gannett, said he has seen evidence that the finance crisis affecting the mental health of the Cornell community.

“I’ve seen from myself in my own practice and have heard from my colleagues that students are [more often] presenting issues of anxiety relating to the financial situation, whether it’s things going on in their own family … or whether they are worried for themselves about internships or future jobs,” Boone said.

In these dark times, when betting on horses yields better returns than the stock market, hedge fund manager and amateur hedge fund manager alike must look for other means of making money easily. To those considering selling junk on ebay, stuffing envelopes in your home, starting a Ponzi scheme or gambling to make an honest dollar, hark! I know of a way you can get richer by doing absolutely nothing. Really. And you don’t even have to pay me for a book to tell you how.

This proven and reliable get-rich-quick scheme is called deflation, and it’s a great reason to start recycling your beer cans. Deflation means that the purchasing power of the dollar increases. Or, in simple terms, that the five-cent refund from your beer cans buys more now than it did before.

I feel that anguished sense of desolation that inevitably accompanies news that an aging relative is on her deathbed.

Old, infirm and hopelessly behind the times, the gray lady’s moment has arrived. The stale scent of death has already set in. And yet, I cannot help but resent the loss of so rich a life. Overcome with chagrin, I throw up my arms and plead frantically to the heavens. I dream of miracles.

In my case, the doctor’s prognosis is four months. four months! I should lie down and weep.

You should too.