Hot Docs: Obama's Education Plan, the Psychology of Spending, and Guns in the Workplace

Obama on Education: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign announces its education plan, which emphasizes "reform and accountability" by government, educators, and parents. Among the proposals: a fund to encourage innovative schools, support for charter schools that are working well, and investment in technology, teacher training, and college preparedness. According to the campaign, "The additional proposals in today's plan will cost about $1 billion per year when fully phased in."

Spending Cash Saves Money? People spend money much more readily when they use a credit card or gift certificate instead of cash, according to a new study published in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. Researchers Priya Raghubir and Joydeep Srivastava performed four experiments and found that the delayed payment of a credit card transaction seemed to "[dull] the pain that is felt in a cash purchase" and that "frivolous spending" was more likely with a gift certificate. In both cases, they conclude, the method of payment seems to affect the amount spent, as "the intrinsic difference in physical form and appearance serves to anesthetize the pain of paying."

Population and Climate Change: A new report from the Center for Environment and Population concludes that population growth must be addressed as a key part of the larger climate change issue because it is a "big multiplier" that "intensifies the rate, scale, and scope of both the root causes and effects of climate change." The effect is particularly intense in the United States, since Americans use more resources per capita than the global average. Study author Victoria Markham estimates that there could be "1 billion high-energy-consuming Americans by 2100" and notes that much of the population growth is happening in ecologically sensitive areas of the South and West.

Preventing Gun Violence in the Workplace: Over 2 million Americans are affected by workplace violence each year—about one fifth of all violent crime in the nation. This statistic includes robberies as well as disputes between coworkers. A report commissioned by the ASIS Foundation, a charitable organization funded by the private security industry, finds that guns have a major impact on the outcome. Relatively few of these incidents involve firearms, but about 75 percent of the fatalities are caused by gunshots. The study reports that in an average year, about 500 homicides occur at work in the United States.

Sovereign Wealth and Sovereign Power: If "political might is often linked to financial might," what does it mean that the United States is so heavily in debt to other nations? In a new study for the Council on Foreign Relations, economist Brad Setser notes that the United States "ran a $750 billion current account deficit in 2007," much of it with nations like China and Russia, which are "not allies." Setser finds this imbalance "risky," calling it a "strategic vulnerability" that could impact U.S. policy. He warns that dependence on the flow of foreign investment is so profound that if were to stop, it "could administer a shock to the U.S. economy akin to the recent subprime credit crisis." He recommends working to lower the deficit, encouraging private savings, and decreasing energy imports.