Today's Lesson: AB = BC = CA

Ahem.

W.House: Borrowing to Help Fund Social Security Plan

By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Monday for the first time that President Bush's plan to add personal retirement accounts to Social Security would be financed in part by new government borrowing that could top $1 trillion.

Bush has made reform of the U.S. retirement program a top priority in his second term and will push for creating private accounts in a meeting later in the day with top congressional leaders.

Bush's economic advisers have been analyzing financing options for more than a year. But the White House, until now, had declined to say that borrowing would be used to cover the transition costs. Experts say Bush has few other options because of record federal budget deficits. The president has ruled out tax increases.

"There will be some upfront transition financing that will be needed to move toward a better system that will allow younger workers to invest a small portion of their own money into personal savings accounts," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. LINK

Frist Political Fund Can't Cover Bank Loan

Senator's Investment in Stock Market Has Lost $460,000 in Value Since 2000

By Dan Morgan and Brian Faler
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 2, 2004; Page A02

A campaign fund controlled by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has lost almost $460,000 in stock market investments since 2000 and now does not have enough to cover a sizable bank loan, according to federal election records and the manager of the Frist account.

The heaviest losses, totaling more than $500,000, occurred in a stock index fund in 2001 and 2002, years when the securities markets suffered a major downturn. But the Frist campaign account lost an additional $32,050 in July and August, a setback that was only partially offset by a gain of $11,472 in September, according to Linus Castignani, treasurer of "Frist 2000," which was created to finance the senator's successful campaign for a second six-year term in 2000. LINK


U.S. Students Behind Foreign Peers in Math


By BEN FELLER
AP Education Writer

December 7, 2004, 3:11 AM EST

WASHINGTON -- Compared with their peers in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, U.S. 15-year-olds are below average when it comes to applying math skills to real-life tasks, new test scores show.

The U.S. students were behind most other countries in overall math literacy and in every specific area tested in 2003, from geometry and algebra to statistics and computation.

--snip--

Among 29 industrialized countries, the United States scored below 20 nations and above five in math. The U.S. performance was about the same as Poland, Hungary and Spain.

When compared with all 39 nations that produced scores, the United States was below 23 countries, above 11 and about the same as four others, with Latvia joining the middle group. LINK


Sheesh.

How humiliating.

Even the Latvians scored as well as we did.

Stop complaining about homework, America!

If you don't, you'll believe that handing borrowed tax money to your pals equals reforming a national program that doesn't need fixing.

You'll also believe that investing some of your future retirement is a sure thing.

And, unless you at least try to do your homework, you'll never understand this: