What might freak out people, is face-recognition (that’s not to say that it’s currently built into Glass). But you should recognize that face-recognition will be coming to every one of those security cameras in the public and private realms. Right now, Androids have the capability to unlock phones via face-recognition, though I’m sure most people are not aware of it.

If people are upset about the pervasiveness of this capability, then Congress should step up and make it clear that such software shall be limited to those in your contacts (Google, iOS, FB, Twitter, etc), or for the purpose of personal security (home security, device security, etc).

The cult of the CEO is a disaster. Every company big enough to be listed on the stock exchange needs a board chairman to oversee the company president and to represent the owner-shareholders.

ML, CU A’76

Capital is the only issue to decide. If a bank is to big to unwind in an orderly fashion than by all means require more capital. The Canadian model (basically 5 large national banks vs +5,000 in the US) works just fine.

If people don’t want to work with a large bank run by a 20,000,000 CEO they can always bank at one of the +1,000 customer owned mutual banks like mine or the +6,000 credit unions like Felix’s.

As an alum, I can attest that Cooper’s fundraising efforts have been weak at best. But these problems harken back to over 20 years ago when the school built the dorm against the will and good sense of much of the alumni, faculty and student body. The president and board were completely dismissive of all differing points of view and barreled ahead with their plans. Now it is clear that this was also a poor financial decision that has contributed to Cooper’s woes.

Salmon’s assessment of Cooper’s problems but also of their strengths is remarkably insightful. Thanks for a critical viewpoint.

Come on man, you’re way to good a policy wonk to use the CBO forecasts unmodified. Please correct me if I’m mistaken but the baseline budget forecast assumes that:

the annual medicare fix doesn’t happen next year (as it does every year) I think that’s almost a 300B 10 year delta by itself at this point.

I think the CBO projections also assume that we’re going to drop back to only 36 weeks of unemployment insurance next year… dubious to the tune of 10 – 20 billion annually.

Also I think the earned income tax credit sunsets in 5 years which pad the back half of the forecast.

Plus we are assuming that accelerated depreciation on capital investment (which we have patched every year since 2008) ends next year.. I think that’s like 25 billion annually.

The unavoidable issue is that the standard of living for the working class in 1st world nations must continue to fall if we are wedded to the idea of a 15 year average government funded retirement. As the ratio of workers to non-workers continues to worsen taxes on workers must rise and benefits to non-workers must fall. The math is the math.

I don’t know what reality will bring. Perhaps the CBO is getting it right this time? But what happens if we instead hit another recession in the next ten years, again slashing revenues while driving up spending? Before you know it, we’ll be at 120% of GDP, with the spendthrifts arguing that the only way out is to push government spending even higher.

Fact is, we’ve already seen moderate austerity measures AND IT HASN’T DAMPENED THE RECOVERY AT ALL! There are more positive signs over the recent months than there were in the previous two years combined. I’ll trust empirical evidence ahead of theory in this.

There is no reason, none, for 60% of the school’s (non-real estate?) assets to be invested with hedge funds. The loan, the new building, all of it, seems to have happened as though there were no board of directors at all.

I cannot see any benefit to selling the leasehold on the Chrysler Building. The current board and managers of Cooper Union haven’t demonstrated much ability to manage the school’s finances to-date. They don’t seem regretful, repentant now, so it is unlikely that they would change their irresponsible ways going forward. Nor is the “Mayor Bloomberg foundation as savior scenario” good, even if he were inclined to pursue such. I’m not implying anything improper about his integrity! Only expressing concern that there is too much responsibility for New York City, its governance and economic dependencies concentrated in the financial sector already, with Bloomberg L.P. being a large part of that. If Mayor Bloomberg had had fiduciary responsibility for Cooper Union, I doubt that the school would be in the situation it is in now! But he isn’t the answer. Appeals to alumni for funds, or selling off, at a minimum, renting out that wasteful new building would be a better place to start.

Also, consider the possibility that there may be restrictions associated with the land under the Chrysler Building bequeathed to Cooper Union by Peter Cooper. The founding documents of the school would need to be reviewed carefully. Even if permissible, I don’t think that selling off that asset, that wonderful income stream for Cooper Union, would be a good thing to do.

We could end federal deficits if those with cash decided to use more of it here. People don’t like the government having to pay unemployment benefits, but the amount the government spends on unemployment is inversely proportional to how many people are employed. If business “leaders” are so upset about the government spending on social programs, they could cause the spending to be reduced by hiring more people and paying for things like health care and child care. Then the government wouldn’t have to do it.