Hilltop Views (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 5, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 8, 2008 Page: 2 of 12
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Wednesday, October 8, 2008 | Hilltop Views
Page 2 | NEWS
Economy could affect faculty retirement
F<
Co
Dale Wooddy
J
Congress approved a financial institution bailout last week.
dwooddy@stedwards.edu
Authors discuss U.S. foreign policy
Megan Ganey
Continued from page l
aburton3@stedwards.edu
mganey@stedwards.edu
Bishop to speak
on politics
con-
new
our
suc-
Cold War doctrine of
tainment, to find this
policy.
"We document in
book the search for the
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the
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wrote the successor to the
“We document in our book the
search for the successor to
containment...”
1
Street-Allen said that eco-
nomic recovery is indeed the
biggest factor affecting the
retirement of faculty mem-
bers.
“People closer to retirement
may have to work longer than
they planned because the
market will have to recover,"
she said.
Street-Allen said some em-
ployees with AIG Valic re-
tirement funds have attempt-
ed to transfer their funds to
TIAA-CREF or Fidelity In-
vestments; however, accord-
ing to AIG, their AIG Valic
retirement funds will not be
affected by the bailout.
verse and conflictual inter-
national scene which could
not be adequately dealt with
by a single policy as had con-
tainment,” Crahan said. "This
challenge required a level of
analytical sophistication suf-
ficient to devise policies and
strategies equal to the com-
plexities of the problems that
emerged.”
Another topic discussed
during the conference call
was the economic crisis in
the United States today and
how it will affect the Ameri-
can foreign policy in the next
administration.
Crahan said the new presi-
dent will have to focus on re-
storing economic stability in
the United States, so that the
international financial system
remains stable.
"There is a saying that when
the U.S. catches a cold, the
they lost, or retire as sched-
uled but with less to live on.”
When asked if he thought
the economy would rebound,
Professor Smith said: "It will
rebound as the economy al-
ways does, but I am unsure
on how long it will take.”
I
I
.....I
I
I
Assistant Professor Fu-
miko Sasaki teaches politi-
cal science and global stud-
ies courses. Sasaki said her
optimism follows the basic
rules of economics. She said
markets go up and down, but
they always manage to even-
tually come back.
“I am not pessimistic about
the financial system because
experts are advising the poli-
ticians dealing with the crisis
and eventually policy will end
up with the proper goals and
methods to get us out of this
crisis,” she said.
Economic rebounds, how-
ever, do take time, and fac-
ulty members who had in-
vested and intended to retire
in the next few years may be
unable to until the market re-
bounds.
$10,000 portfolio is much
less in actual dollars than a
10 percent decrease of $1
million. For those who are
closer to retirement, they are
now in a difficult situation of
either having to work a few
more years to regain what
i Ui V'
11 I
l 4
gt. —
I it-Bk
"I’m looking forward to
hearing what students have
to say. It would be beyond
my wildest dreams to have
students look into the mat-
ter further."
Bishop said he hopes he
takes away new ideas from
students.
"The world changes every
day, and like any piece of so-
cial science, the book is just
the beginning,” he said. "I’m
interested in what [this]
generation has to say on the
matter—I think y’all could
teach me about all kinds of
things.”
Bill Bishop’s lecture will
be Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. in the
Maloney Room, followed
by a short reception and
book signing. Student ad-
mission is free.
The recent collapse and ac-
quisitions of America’s most
prominent banking institu-
tions has thrown American
and international banks into
the biggest crisis many of
them have faced in this cen-
tury, a crisis that could affect
St. Edward’s University fac-
ulty members.
The impact of this crisis on
St. Edward’s is still unclear.
The university uses three fi-
nancial firms or organizations
to handle faculty retirements:
AIG Valic, TIAA-CREF and
Fidelity Investments.
What is clear is that many
faculty members have retire-
ment money tied up in the
stock market through these
funds. These and other in-
Derek Chollet and James
Goldgeier, authors of "Amer-
ica Between the Wars: From
11/9 to 9/11,” said that
America’s foreign pokey was
adrift between the Cold War
and the War on Terror.
Chollet and Goldgeier
spoke Oct. 2 as part of a con-
ference call sponsored by the
Kozmetsky Center’s Council
on Foreign Relations at St.
Edward’s University.
Goldgeier said the end of
the Cold War is an impor-
tant starting point for the
book because it begins the
confusion about the extent of
America’s role in the world.
“Containment was the guid-
ing light for American foreign
policy,” Goldgeier said. “We
can really see the last 20 years
as a search for a new guiding
light. People thought we had
that after 9/11 with the war
on terror.”
Goldgeier said that in 1994,
the Clinton administration
brought in American diplo-
mat George Kennan, who
' -
.7
■
vestments may suffer from
the fallout of sub-prime
lending.
"Most of our employees
participating in retirement
plans with AIG Valic, Fidel-
ity Investments or TIAA-
CREF have their money in-
vested in the stock market,”
Haven Street-Allen, director
of Human Resources, said.
"The stock market is pretty
volatile right now and the
overall economic picture is a
little on the bleak side.”
Political Science professor
Brian Smith said things are
more difficult for professors
close to retirement.
“Unfortunately, the crisis
is going to harm those who
are closest to retirement the
most,” Smith said. "A 10 per-
cent decrease of value in a
developing world ends up
with pneumonia,” Crahan
said."Hence, a priority on the
part of both the new admin-
istration and the Congress
needs to be revamping the
U.S. economy to ensure that
it meets the needs not only of
U.S. citizens, but also does
not destabilize the interna-
tional economy, nor intensify
poverty worldwide.”
Although the economy
will play a major role in the
new foreign policy agenda,
Crahan said that the idea of
America as an “indispensable
nation” is still important.
“There is a great deal of an-
ticipation around the world
that the U.S. will resume
its position as a principled
leader of the community of
democracies,” Crahan said.
"The U.S. is still a super-
power, but it would be more
effective and cost efficient to
have a more multilateral for-
eign policy."
y
E. I
we understand why we are
the way we are, the bet-
ter off we’ll all be,” he said.
“I think there’s a place for
everyone to key in to what
[the book] has to say."
Freshman Kori Aiken
said she is looking forward
to Bishop’s visit.
"I'm eager to eager to hear
what he has to say about
the relationship between
politics and demographics,”
she said. "It’s one of those
things that no one thinks
about but makes so much
sense.”
Bishop said he hopes to
give an overview of the
book and start a discussion
with students about their
opinions during his visit at
St. Edward’s.
"I've found that when
students bring their own
experiences and opinions
on the topic of this book, it
is just fascinating," he said.
cessor to containment; the
efforts to come up with a new
bumper sticker for American
policy,” Goldgeier said.
One idea that was brought
up in the conference call dis-
cussion was that this new
search was really just a way
to fill an American foreign
policy void without consid-
ering the complexity of the
issues.
Margaret Crahan, director
of the Kozmetsky Center of
Excellence in Global Finance,
said she thinks the "search for
a new bumper sticker” did
not cause problems.
"The challenge was to un-
derstand an increasing di-
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Hilltop Views (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 5, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 8, 2008, newspaper, October 8, 2008; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1523359/m1/2/?q=music: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting St. Edward’s University.