patrick.net

Blurtman says

Duckduckgo.com

Yep - it's great - though I still use image search on Google. It's default on my browser.

Next thing I'd like is a non-ARM open source laptop.

The fact that you give Salon a second thought is indicative of your economic literacy.

What happened to your own Pikketty who was even endorsed by Krugman. Even he said inequality was caused by inflation.

Notice the graph below posted by Thunderlips, the inflection point was 1971

Or this one:

1971 inflation was more possible because of the dollar being taken off of Bretton Woods.

indigenous says

Interesting graph.
Notice the steady rise all the way to the first oil crisis of 1973. The high inflation and high interest rates that followed kept the male real wages from rising. We see a sizable spurt during Clintons second term when inflation and interest rates fell, and almost every other economic indicator turned positive. After 911 male wages have had a hard time recovering, because so much of our wealth went towards fighting the post 911 wars.
My guess, even with wars, we will see a sharp rise in wages in the next 10 years.

Wars and inflation go hand in hand. The reason we went off of Bretton Woods in the first place was LBJ and Vietnam.

Wages are a reflection of productivity, productivity is a reflection of investment in producer goods. That is the problem there has been no investment in producer goods. Assuming the US can become competitive through productivity then the wages will go up.

One of the reasons for loosing the production was because of the Chinese devaluing the Yuan over the past few decades. Now that they have to revalue the Yuan some of that work could potentially come back.

indigenous says

Wars and inflation go hand in hand. The reason we went off of Bretton Woods in the first place was LBJ and Vietnam.

Wages are a reflection of productivity, productivity is a reflection of investment in producer goods. That is the problem there has been no investment in producer goods. Assuming the US can become competitive through productivity then the wages will go up.

One of the reasons for loosing the production was because of the Chinese devaluing the Yuan over the past few decades. Now that they have to revalue the Yuan some of that work could potentially come back.

One way of reversing our high taste for imports is through state of the art technology, and robotization in our factories to increase our productivity. Ofcourse, the unions will fight you all the way.

Strategist says

One way of reversing our high taste for imports is through state of the art technology, and robotization in our factories to increase our productivity. Ofcourse, the unions will fight you all the way.

Actually it is though investment in producer goods. If a guy digs ditches for a living he can increase his production by investing in a tractor.

The values of a culture are very much determined by the money supply controlled by state and through mercantilism. E.G. Parts of China and Germany were known for their lavish spending in the past. Currently that is different because in China when the Yuan's value was lowered the purchasing power was lowered which forced the people into more austere spending.

Strategist says

One way of reversing our high taste for imports is through state of the art technology, and robotization in our factories to increase our productivity.

The endgame any way you look at it, is greater unemployment and masses of peasants scrambling for crumbs. And thus we become the Third World countries we set out to take advantage of.

Vicente says

Strategist says

One way of reversing our high taste for imports is through state of the art technology, and robotization in our factories to increase our productivity.

The endgame any way you look at it, is greater unemployment and masses of peasants scrambling for crumbs. And thus we become the Third World countries we set out to take advantage of.

Trust me, it's a myth. I remember taking a class during my undergraduate years - Economics of Technology and Innovation. One of the first things we learnt was "technology creates more jobs than it loses." If you think about it, if technology did cost us more jobs than it creates, by now we would all be unemployed because the last 100 years has seen 99% of all inventions ever made.

jazz music says

Damn liberal! (high 5 me bubba!)

he he he. you can kiss my ass.

jazz music says

We have to get the status quo out of office and keep at the government pressuring them to get a healthy fear into our newly elected that if they keep managing self-enrichment from cultivating conflicts of interest--which is essentially all they EVER do--that they will be not only kicked out of office, but their illegitimate gains will be clawed back via prosecution and they might even do time in prison.

You talk too much. Why don't you do something about it, instead of asking everyone else to.
By the way, your long speeches are so boring, you may have the cure for insomnia. Record your speeches and sell it on E-Bay as an insomnia cure. You will rich in no time.

Call it Crazy says

jazz music says

pologies if I begin to sound like a broken record

At least you recognize that... Now, get back into your cage!

If he gets back in the cage we have to feed him. Let him lose.

Strategist says

More toys than ever before are available to the poorest members of our society.

Obligatory:

zzyzzx says

Strategist says

More toys than ever before are available to the poorest members of our society.

Obligatory:

Why does she need a cell phone? It's obvious she aint a hooker.

jazz music says

inanely points all the wrong fingers in effect trolling the world to irritate, disinform and inflame.

Ambiguous and esoteric, spoken like an artist, an economically illiterate artist...

final goods are not the long pole in the tent here. We've just taken our consumer surplus here and applied it to boosting the costs of housing and health care.

There's no reason the same damn house my parents rented in Salinas CA for $400/mo in the late 70s rents for 5X -- TWICE the rise of what "inflation" says it should be -- that now, other than that's what the housing market has been constructed to yield, through accumulated effects of policy, essentially not building enough housing to oversupply the local market with quality options.

A market not in oversupply is where the rents live!

But if you read about housing in the paper, they refer to a rising cost of living in housing as a "recovering" market!

Housing recovery hitting speed bumps in Fresno, statewide
BY BONHIA LEE
The Fresno BeeS eptember 19, 2014
FacebookTwitterGoogle PlusRedditE-mailPrint

LESLIE APPLETON-YOUNG
Leslie Appleton-Young is vice president and chief economist for the California Association of Realtors.
HDO

A couple years of fast-rising home prices and sales in Fresno and other California cities is showing signs of slowing down and hitting a plateau in 2015, a real estate economist said Friday.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/09/19/4134072_housing-recovery-hitting-speed.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

jazz music says

Of course they pay bloggers and armies of trolls too.

I wonder about that. Financially, the pay off for poisoning the discourse is pretty good, but people are so fucked up now they'll catapult the propaganda on their own time I guess.

Vicente says

The endgame any way you look at it, is greater unemployment and masses of peasants scrambling for crumbs. And thus we become the Third World countries we set out to take advantage of.

Absolutely. The BRICs and others are gaining power, and they're too large and organized with their own interests to be easily coup'd or annexed or bribed into compliance like in the 19th or 20th Century.

A desperate exploiter turns on his own kind.

zzyzzx says

Strategist says

More toys than ever before are available to the poorest members of our society.

Obligatory:

One trip to the doctor for a bad case of the gout is a lot more than $20.

Bellingham Bill says

jazz music says

Of course they pay bloggers and armies of trolls too.

I wonder about that. Financially, the pay off for poisoning the discourse is pretty good, but people are so fucked up now they'll catapult the propaganda on their own time I guess.

Can you guys put in a good word for me? I'm looking for a raise this Xmas.
My fellow colleagues on Patnet too. Appreciate it, thanks. :)

thunderlips11 says

One trip to the doctor for a bad case of the gout is a lot more than $20.

Don't think she will be the one paying.

Strategist says

Trust me, it's a myth. I remember taking a class during my undergraduate years - Economics of Technology and Innovation. One of the first things we learnt was "technology creates more jobs than it loses." If you think about it, if technology did cost us more jobs than it creates, by now we would all be unemployed because the last 100 years has seen 99% of all inventions ever made.

Ah and who taught you that?

People who are invested in that being true.

Look it's very simple.

You eventually automate everything from farms to factories to fast food. Production through the roof, labor costs nearly zero. Robots build the robots.

What's left?

A few technology jobs, only for highly skilled, designing new robots to build the robots. And a huge mass of service jobs for cleaning each other's toilets and marketing each other shit we don't need.

There's a limit to how much anyone can "consume". I only have so many hours in the day in which to sit with eyes glued to Home Shopping Network and be surrounded by all my STUFF, piled to the ceiling. Great you've got a factory that can finally turn out 10 billion F-150's in 30 minutes for $1,000 each. Well I only need one, but I've got no job so I can't buy even the one.

Technologists of your era live in a bubble, look only at the past and don't see what the endgame is. Under unregulated capitalism, technology is for enriching capitalists. Since 2000 all technology advances have only made Richie Rich richer, not anyone else.

Vicente says

Strategist says

Trust me, it's a myth. I remember taking a class during my undergraduate years - Economics of Technology and Innovation. One of the first things we learnt was "technology creates more jobs than it loses." If you think about it, if technology did cost us more jobs than it creates, by now we would all be unemployed because the last 100 years has seen 99% of all inventions ever made.

Ah and who taught you that?

People who are invested in that being true.

These principles have been around for a long time. Most Professors and Economists being extremely liberal with no stake in the matter, would immediately dispel these theories and principles. Don't forget, we would have more unemployment than lets say Bangladesh, if technology cost us jobs.

Vicente says

Ah and who taught you that?

90%+ were farmers 100 years ago, today there are what 2%.

indigenous says

Vicente says

Ah and who taught you that?

90%+ were farmers 100 years ago, today there are what 2%.

Most occupation today never existed 100 years ago.
No NASA, no planes, no pharmaceuticals, no travel, no computers, no iphone 6.
All we had was farming. Do you know why schools have long summer breaks? So the children could go work on the farms during harvest time. Today they go on vacations, summer camps and play video games.

"by now we would all be unemployed because the last 100 years has seen 99% of all inventions ever made."

real per-capita (age 15-54) government spending.

gov't is spending $26,000 per person now, twice what it was not too long ago.

Back that out, cut it down to what the GOP says it wants -- "drown in a bathtub" -- and you'll get a truer picture of how unbalanced our economy really is now.

the issue is not one of productivity, it is one of distribution, and the issuance of a colossal sea of debt to keep the system going.

The reality once again is that investment is what creates jobs. What we have now is speculation but we don't have investment, ergo no jobs

Bellingham Bill says

LOVED IT.

Strategist says

These principles have been around for a long time. Most Professors and Economists being extremely liberal with no stake in the matter, would immediately dispel these theories and principles. Don't forget, we would have more unemployment than lets say Bangladesh, if technology cost us jobs.

The last good economist was Milton Friedman.

Peter P says

Strategist says

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102050849/page/13. Don't forget, we would have more unemployment than lets say Bangladesh, if technology cost us jobs.

The last good economist was Milton Friedman.

Oops I misspoke.

"These principles have been around for a long time. Most Professors and Economists being extremely liberal with no stake in the matter, would immediately dispel these theories and principles" - please add....If they were untrue.
Milton Friedman - One of the best.

Peter P says

The last good economist was Milton Friedman.

Not hardly, he is well accepted but not much to be proud of. The problem with the MMTs is they like the Ks felt that economy could be controlled.

He and Anna Schwartz felt that the government did not do enough to fix the great depression. Which was patently false.

According to Stockman he is the author of the floating exchange rate which Nixon put in place when he took us out of Bretton Woods, that with an automatic target of 3% inflation from the Fed. Is the VERY reason that China was able to exploit the US with mercantilism which has a lot to do with the condition of this country at this moment. Remember Nixon said "I am now a Keynesian in economics"?

Yeah he was better than a hack like Keynes or Krugman but he is no Rothbard or Mises or Hayek.

Oh and Fuck You in advance to the mutts that will dispute this Fact.

indigenous says

Hayek

Who is the first picture?

Yeah yeah taken out of context. Mises does not endorse Fascism, another flavor of communism, he was run out of Austria by Hitler.

Rothbard was making a point about the free market. The diff is the state literally does this every day.

thunderlips11 says

LOL thunderlips, you know why that picture is in black and white? It may have happened before they invented the wheel.
Any pictures like that taken with the iphone? :)

Strategist says

LOL thunderlips, you know why that picture is in black and white?

You do realize Rothbard lived during that time, right? Obviously the pic is joking by some parents - the difference is Rothbard wasn't joking.

indigenous says

Yeah yeah taken out of context

No taken out of context - Hayek was warmly supportive of the Pinochet regime and regularly visited AND defended it in the press. Hayek has said over and over again he preferred Dictators that implement his preferred Economic Solutions to Democracies that restrict them.
http://coreyrobin.com/2012/07/08/hayek-von-pinochet/
http://coreyrobin.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/hayekchile.pdf

Von Mises WORKED for, and SUPPORTED, the Austrofascist Government in Vienna under Englebert Dollfuss as an economic advisor. He left for a teaching position in Switzerland years before the Nazis annexed Austria.

Both Hayek and von Mises loathed any form of Economic Relief that helped the lower classes, and were willing to cooperate with anyone who shared their ideal. In particular, Hayek believed that once a country had too much "Democracy" it would have to be stamped out by a "Cromwell" type figure - a dictator.

thunderlips11 says

Strategist says

LOL thunderlips, you know why that picture is in black and white?

You do realize Rothbard lived during that time, right? Obviously the pic is joking by some parents - the difference is Rothbard wasn't joking.

I understand. But I have never heard of Rothbard.

Strategist says

I understand. But I have never heard of Rothbard.

You're not missing anything.

Basically, the guy called for massive hyperinflation since at least 1980. Obviously that was a bonk. His supporters say it's always "Just around the corner", however.

thunderlips11 says

Strategist says

I understand. But I have never heard of Rothbard.

You're not missing anything.

Basically, the guy called for massive hyperinflation since at least 1980. Obviously that was a bonk. His supporters say it's always "Just around the corner", however.

Well, 1979 was the second oil crisis, and people believing in hyperinflation at that time were dime a dozen. Reagan and Volcker put that belief to an end.

Strategist says

Well, 1979 was the second oil crisis, and people believing in hyperinflation at that time were dime a dozen. Reagan and Volcker put that belief to an end.

Except Rothbard insisted upon it till the day he died, sometime in the 90s.

thunderlips11 says

No taken out of context - Hayek was warmly supportive of the Pinochet regime and regularly visited AND defended it in the press. Hayek has said over and over again he preferred Dictators that implement his preferred Economic Solutions to Democracies that restrict them.

Pinochet is the first picture? Pinochet was also friendly with Friedman. As he knew something that very few politicians knew, which was that he knew nothing about economics, he therefore sought council from Friedman.

Regarding the dictatorship comment it is true exactly as he say a dictator gets things done a committee does not. I think a benign dictator is the best form of government but where do you find such angels? usually they turn into Hitler or Stalin.

thunderlips11 says

Von Mises WORKED for, and SUPPORTED, the Austrofascist Government in Vienna under Englebert Dollfuss as an economic advisor. He left for a teaching position in Switzerland years before the Nazis annexed Austria.

My understanding is that Mises had to leave because of persecution from Hitler and not a supporter at all, he was in his late 50s when this occurred.

thunderlips11 says

Both Hayek and von Mises loathed any form of Economic Relief that helped the lower classes, and were willing to cooperate with anyone who shared their ideal. In particular, Hayek believed that once a country had too much "Democracy" it would have to be stamped out by a "Cromwell" type figure - a dictator.

Yup and he would say the same about the US today. In fact I would say that when you have 10 million people being paid to be gimps, and endless welfare programs, not the least of which is corporate welfare, it will surely be the end of this country.