4A - Tuesday, September 4, 2012 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com 4A - Tuesday, September 4, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com ASHLEY GRIESSHAMMER JOSEPH LICHTERMAN and ADRIENNE ROBERTS ANDREW WEINER . EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. FROM THE UALY A cheat sheet for the news you need to know C lasses begin Tuesday amidst a flurry of frantic text- book purchases and last minute Meijer runs. It's understandable if you're a bit overwhelmed. For those' who joined the annual Ann Arbor exodus in May, it's easy to become removed from the University and local Ann Arbor happenings. However, The Michigan Daily is here to help with a recap of what transpired in the past four months and a guide of what to watch for this fall. An introduction to the Daily Where did the summer go? It seems like last semes- ter's exams just ended, but here we are, starting anoth- er school year. Whether you're new to the University or have been here for decades, I want to use these col- umn inches to introduce you to The Michigan Daily. As media evolves, news organizations are often crit- icized for being out of touch. At the Daily, we believe in transparenc'y. This is your newspaper - the Daily is produced by students with the University community in mind: Hopefully, I'll answer any questions you have about the Daily here, but please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any further questions. If you send me an e-mail at Lichterman@michigandaily.com or Tweet me at @ylichterman, I'll be happy to help you out. Who we are The Michigan Daily is the largest student-runnews- paper at the University. We've been publishing since 1890, and for all 122 years of production, the Daily has been completely student run. There are some profes- sionals who help our business staff (the group of stu- dents who are responsible for generating revenue and managing finances) but we are completely editorially independent. A group of hardworking editors and I are ultimately the ones responsible for what we pub- lish every day, and that freedom is a responsibility we take very seriously. Our mission is to be as fair and accurate as possible and to only publish stories that are pertinenttotthe University community. When we stray from that mission The design of our production process aims to get every story right, but that doesn't always happen. When we mess up, we wantto know about it. Please let us know if you notice an error in the Daily. If there's a mistake, we'll correct it online immediately and run a correction on page 2 of the next day's print edition. I can't reiterate it enough: We want to know when we make mistakes - please e-mail corrections@michi- gandaily.com or me directly to let us know about any mistake. Connect with the Daily We love the Internet. It's changing and challeng- ing traditional journalism and the way we do our jobs. Disseminating news is faster and easier than ever, and there's a more robust dialogue between sources, read- ers and us. Follow us on Twitter (@michigandaily) or like us on Facebook (Facebook.com/MichiganDaily). Both are great ways to connectto the Daily or as away to start a conversation about anything you see on our website or in the paper. There are also more traditional ways to let us know what you're thinking. Letters to the editor can be sent to tothedaily@michigandaily.com, and news tips - which are always appreciated - can be sent to news@michigandaily.com. Several weeks ago, we launched TheBlockM.com, the Daily's new sports-only website. TheBlockM. com is meant to fuel your interest in Michigan sports with up-to-the-minute coverage of every varsity sport - from baseball to water polo. Follow TheBlockM on Twitter at @TheBlockM and like it on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheBlockM.com. The site is still a work in progress, and we look forward to your input as it evolves. Join the Daily Interested in joining the staff of the Daily? Excel- lent. We'd love to have you. There are several ways you can go about becoming a staff member. Check out www.michigandaily.com/join-uscto contact any of our editors.' We also encourage you to attend one of our mass meetings this month. They'll start at 7:30 p.m. and will be held in the Daily newsroom in the Student Publications Building at 420 Maynard St. - near the corner of Williams and Maynard. Here are the meet- ing dates: " Sunday, Sept.9 " Wednesday, Sept.12 Thursday, Sept. 13 Wednesday Sept. 19 " Sunday, Sept. 23 I'm serious: We want to hear from the community we serve. Whether you have questions, news tips or feedback, please don't hesitate to get in touch. We can't do our jobs of keeping you informed without some help. Thanks, and have a fantastic semester. Joseph Lichterman Editor in Chief In a landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court declared key provisions of President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act constitutional (that'sright, CNN). Young adults are now covered under their parents' health insurance until the age of 26, giving students one less thing to worry about as graduation looms. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's adminis- tration continues workingwith the federal gov- ernment to set up a health exchange, and must continue despite expected opposition. At the final hour, Congress finally renewed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. The student loan interest rate will remain at 3.4 percent, instead of doubling to 6.8 per- cent. Hopefully, Obama will be able to work with Congress to ensure this rate for more than just a year, preventing unnecessary gridlock and worry for students. Back in the state of Michigan, the word "vagina" made an appearance in almost every casual conversation during the middle of June. Rep. Lisa Brown (D-West Bloom- field) was barred from speaking in the House after a debate on an abortion bill in which she said, "Finally Mr. Speaker, I'm flattered that you're all so interested in my vagina, but 'no' means 'no."' The state legislature also spent significant time attempting to pass voter ID laws that would counter intuitively make it more difficult to vote. Look for the Michigan legislature to try and pass more extrgme and exclusionary laws - though hopefully with- out avail. Here in Ann Arbor, all City Council wards had open seats, making the competition fierce - between Democrats, of course - in the primaries. Voter turnout was minimal. Sumi Kailasapathy won in Ward 1, Sally Hart Peterson defeated the incumbent Tony Der- ezinski, Margie Teall won in Ward 4 and Chuck Warpehoski won in Ward 5. At the University, the Board of Regents voted to increase tuition rates by 2.8 percent for in-state students and 3.5 percent for out- of-state students for this school year. The University Health System is no longer accepting walk-ins. The new policy was con- veniently put into place this summer when many students left, so it remains to be seen how students will react. Look to The Michigan Daily for continued news and opinion coverage of these issues. The Michigan Daily represents you. Our staff and editorial board are always advocating for students. But, we can only do so much. Make your voice heard and send Letters to the Editor or Viewpoints to tothedaily@michi- gandaily.com. With your input, the, Daily's opinion page can become a forum for discus- sion and every student can have the opportu- nity to contribute to the conversation. Lying about LIBOR EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Kaan Avdan, Eli Cahan, Ashley Griesshammer, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein, Patrick Maillet, Harsha Nahata, Timothy Rabb, Adrienne Roberts, Vanessa Rychlinski, Sarah Skaluba, Caroline Syms HILDA SOLIS Pav it forward My father was a laborer. He worked in the pened if we let affordable college education fields, on the railroads and in the factories become the victim of our economy's swings. doing grueling and dangerous manual labor America has always made a commitment so I could be the first member of my family to put a good education within the reach of to go to college. those willing to work for it. You're reading this column in a college Frankly, it's baffling to me to see partisan newspaper, so maybe you, too, owe your calls for cuts in higher education. Some poli- chance to get this education to someone in ticians are backing a plan to reduce invest- your family who sacrificed for you. Or per- ments by almost 20 percent. That would deny haps you're the one who's making the sacri- a college education to one million students fice - working nights and weekends to put across the country and slash financial aid yourself through school, or taking out loans for 10 million more. These cuts would not go that could take decades to pay back. to reducing our deficit, they would pay for a As we celebrate Labor Day, I'll be think- new $5 trillion tax cut weighted toward the ing about my father - and the sacrifices so wealthiest Americans. many of our families make to help us realize Earlier this year, Obama fought to make our full potential. My dad never dreamed he sure the interest rate on federal student loans would raise a future U.S. Secretary of Labor. didn't go up - his opponents wanted to dou- But since he did, I want to use this holiday ble them. We won that fight. to talk about the urgent need to invest in the We also set up a new college tax credit next generation of American workers. to help more middle. class families save up Higher education is no longer a luxury - to $10,000 on their tuition over four years, it's a necessity. The unemployment rate for and we won that fight, too. The other party's Americans with a college degree is half the leaders want to repeal it. national average. College has never been The Obama administration has helped more important, and it has never been more more than 3.6 million additional students expensive. obtain Pell Grants, and he's fighting to double Tuition and fees at our colleges and uni- work-study jobs. We know the return on this versities have more than doubled over the investment will be worth it and then some. last two decades. For the first time, Ameri- This Labor Day, we should all join the cans now owe more on their student loans debate on college affordability happening in than they do on their credit cards. The aver- Washington D.C. No single issue has a more age college student who borrows today will direct impact on the financial burden you'll graduate with $26,000 in school debt. carry after graduation or the dynamism of We all understand that this country is still the economy you will enter. fighting back from the worst economic crisis My father, and many of yours, worked of our lifetimes. But President Barack Obama hard to give us a chance to achieve whatever rejects the argument that we can afford to our talents would allow. Let's pay it forward, cut higher education and shortchange our so more members of our American family get future as the result of a recession or red ink. their shot, too. Think about all the discoveries, businesses and breakthroughs that never would've hap- Hilda Sois is the U.S Secretary of Labor. CONTRIBUTE TO THE COVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and viewpoints. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while viewpoints should be 550-850 words. Send the writer's full name and University affiliation. to tothedaily@michigandaily.com. arlier this summer, I pre- pared myself for the next Bernie Madoff-like .scandal to unfold in the financial industry. I'm not a guru that can predict big events like this, but it seems that every sum- mer some new ASHLEY scandalor crisis GRIESSHAMMER rocks the finan- cial industry. This was of particular interest of me because I was going to be working on investment banking at a large international bank in New York City. Essentially, the more trouble the financial industry was having, the more difficult my job and the more hours I would work. So what was this summer's head- line story? London Interbank Offer Rate, or as it's commonly called, LIBOR. Oddly enough, many peo- ple haven't heard of LIBOR before this. The LIBOR scandal has been considered one of the biggest in history, but it hardly affected my internship at all, and I rarely even heard talk of it. Maybe LIBOR didn't make every news outlets' headlines since it's not as close to home as Madoff's Ponzi scheme or the U.S. debt ceil- ing that rocked the markets last summer. But though LIBOR hap- pened mostly overseas, it should be of concern to all Americans. LIBOR should be on everyone's radar. At its most basic level, it can be explained as the rate at which banks would lend money to one another. This rate is an indicator of banks' stability, and it can impact profits. The lower a bank's rate is, the more stable they're considered. After the 40 included banks report their rates, the highest and lowest are discarded and the rest are averaged. This sets the LIBOR rate for the day. The bank most commonly asso- ciated with this scandal was Bar- clays, but they weren't the only ones involved. During the finan- cial crisis, Barclays was report- ing much higher rates than other banks, making them appear less stable. So instead of continuing to report correct rates, they started underreporting to make them- selves look better. And, unfortu- nately, other banks followed suit, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America. These interest rates affected tril- lions of dollars of financial prod- ucts, making this a much bigger deal than Madoff was. Some people benefitted from the scandal, while some were hurt. If you took out a mortgage or a student loan when rates were artificially low, then congratulations, you're paying less interest than you should be. But if you did the same when rates were artificially high, then you're prob- ably paying more than what's fair. As expected, those people who believe they received an unfairly higher rate are filing lawsuits, including the city of Baltimore. At its heart, the LIBOR system relies on honesty - honesty from banks, which evidently hasn't been existent of late. The New York Fed- eral Reserve was aware of the scan- dal as it was brewing and offered a variety of suggestions to change the way LIBOR was set. This could have happened some- where other than London, too. In addition to LIBOR, there is HIBOR (Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate) and SIBOR (Singapore Inter- bank Offergd Rate). With an entire system based on honestly, there are bound to be lies and Mistakes, not just in London. A system based on honesty is bound to fail. The LIBOR scandal makes it clear that the system needs to be altered. After the financial cri- sis, a system based on honesty shouldn't have existed. And more importantly, it should have been widely publicized. While the LIBOR scandal happened in Lon- don, the rates affected financial products in the United States, and the scandal involved U.S. banks. Our media sources didn't seem to cover the issue like they have in the past, even though LIBOR affected a much larger amount of money. While major financial news outlets like CNBC covered the story, every local station wasn't reporting on the topic. Even if the event takes place overseas, it can still affect Americans, and should be given the same magnitude of coverage had it happened in the U.S. If it can happen once, it can hap- pen again - and for a system that relies on honesty, it may not be the best policy. - Ashley Griesshammer is the editorial page editor and can be reached at ashleymg@umich.edu. NOTABLE QUOTABLE I've got a bumper sticker for you: Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive." - Vice President Joe Biden said in a campaign stop in Detroit on Monday. 0 0 A