Incredibly upsetting: For Many Poor Students, Leap to College Ends in a Hard Fall, a piece published yesterday by Jason DeParle in the New York Times, gives a glimpse into the lives of three Latinas who attempt college and don't make it.

Six Infuriating Morals to the Story:

1. Guys are the best way to sabotage your education, especially if they cheat on you, propose to you, break up with you, avoid college, get back together with you. But, hey, at least you're not alone!

2. Read the fine print of your financial aid package or else a school like Emory will find ways to saddle you with tens of thousands of undischargeable education debt. And then they'll wash their hands of it, "Hey, we were following standard procedure!"

3. Check your school email. Frequently.

4. Talking to professors and advisors when and even before things go badly is necessary. We're not mean, even if we seem gruff and when we say things that sound really hard, sometimes it's because we're upset for you.

5. Having a hard time? Non-traditional student? (Working class, minority, first generation college, veteran?) There's no structure that explicitly teaches you the hidden rules and hidden curriculum.

6. Why try? You'll still end up working retail for $8 an hour.

UPDATE: Itaipú pension fraud gets worse.
Apparently,  $123,000,000 are missing from various wealth management firms entrusted by the pension fund's directors.

Informational graphic from ABC Color showing the make believe firms.

Zapatistas eating at Sanborns in Mexico, DF.

Por : david te amamos y creemos en ti 2008-12-28 01:50:58

dios mio gracias por poner en mi camino a un ser tan extraordinario como david murcia guzman dios mio gracias por mostrarme que en colombia no todo es corrupcion y maldad dios mio gracias por presentarme al ser mas humano,bueno y generoso te amo dios por esta oportunidad que me das de ver un ser limpio como david dios mio gracias por ese privilegio que me das de pertenecer a la familia dmg

Spanish bank Santander, Europe's second largest, is the biggest loser (among banks) in the Bernard Madoff fraud. And apparently the bulk of those losses are actually in Latin America. The Wall Street Journal writes:

And a bit of hubris/comeuppance:

Santander has largely skirted damage from the global financial crisis. Mr. Botín talked proudly last year about how the bank had avoided troubles experienced by other institutions by sticking to commercial banking and shunning exotic financial instruments. The bank had become a rare corner of stability, buying up more distressed banks whose value had plummeted.