patrick.net

It's hard to beat an simple yet elegant --- but false --- conception of reality with facts.

We wonder how bad guys get into power and stay there, it's usually because the "Big Lie" works. The Big Lie is simple and elegant and speaks to common misconceptions, and it's amplified through propaganda. It compounds actually, because the Media knows it will get flak for running "Truth" stories, so it runs "Confirmation Bias" stories instead.

2007 Budget to Scale (HUGE PICTURE)

It's not 2007, but the mixture is about the same. Note this does NOT include the huge "Supplementals" for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Classes, open houses... they will do anything which appears magnanimous or good-willed just to lure suckers into their traps.

lol !! I am attending one offered by redfin.com in the San Fernando valley..I am going just have some free drinks ( not koolaid) and food....I want to listen to the RE morons and see what they said..In QA I will be asking some pointed questions ... lol !! will be fun..

shrekgrinch says

A while back, I started a topic called Democrat Luddite Idiot Displays Poor Understanding of Economics: Blame iPad for Unemployment.

The apologists all made excuses for the Dem luddite in question…that I ‘misinterpreted’ what he said, etc.

Why are you so sure Jesse Jackson Jr's iPad comments weren't the opening shot of a potential shakedown on Apple?

you know you are in a bad place when you show up at lectures that start with "Buy now or be priced out forever".

ChrisLA says

“Buy now or be priced out forever”.

I heard that in 2006. :)

Oh crap--Jeter strained his calf!!

thunderlips11 says

CISG is next on my list. Hmmm, what to do, what to do.
Hold for $10 or get out with 150% gain?
PS CHBT is now halted.
UPDATE: Below $10. Sell?
“Clark?”

“We’ll be Pigs.”

FINAL UPDATE: Cleared out at $8.00/share or about $4.00 for my puts. I’m a happy camper today

nice put! update us on your plans for CISG.

Like every realtorused house salesman I've bumped into since the housing bust started "prices are down, it's a great time to buy!"

Just like "prices are rising so you can take advantage of appreciation, it's a great time to buy!"
and
"Prices are stable and could rise, it's a great time to buy!"

Realtor: There are deals out there. You have to work hard for it.

shrekgrinch says

What does that have to do with profits? Profits are what are left over from revenue after costs..including wages. So, workers never get the profits…never have…yet they still get paid. Miracles of Miracles!

You can't be that stupid. See if you can follow along. When workers' wages go down, profits go up. Money goes from workers' hands to the owners hands. Rich get richer, middle class goes on food stamps.

Do I need to go on?

Still waiting for the part of the quote where Obama OPPOSES anything...

shrekgrinch says

Simply by what you said: “Could you show me exactly where he is OPPOSING anything in his quote?”
I didn’t say Obama opposed being a luddite or anything else

OK--now you are purposely being obtuse because you know that you are wrong. That's fine. You are almost always wrong, so it's probably a comfortable feeling for you.

I'll try once more. One of the prerequisites to being a luddite, according to Shrek, is opposing the changes or outright elimination of existing, status quo industries. Obama doesn't oppose anything, so therefore he can't be a luddite.

Your logic skills are severely lacking, Shrek.

shrekgrinch says

You’re confusing your Jesse Jacksons. This congresscritter is not related to the other one WHO DOES corporate shakedowns like that all the time.

I know people get surprised by this all the time, but Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is quite closely related to Jesse Jackson Sr. of Operation PUSH.

shrekgrinch says

But regardless, you could still be correct. I mean, luddite-inspired corporate shakedowns is a growth industry.

If Jesse Jackson Jr. could shake out some jobs for his district, I'm sure he'd be quite happy to share credit for all the technological progress with Apple.

Cook County resident says

I know people get surprised by this all the time, but Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is quite closely related to Jesse Jackson Sr. of Operation PUSH.

He knows. On my computer at work, I wasn't logged in to Patrick and I saw shrek saying to Tatupu AGAIN "I didn’t say Obama opposed being a luddite."

Shrek has become a caricature of himself. I'm sure he finds himself quite amusing.

marcus says

He knows.

I know. Shrek's trolling and I come up with a snarky response.

Idle hands are the Devil's workshop!

Nomograph says

That’s what happens when you have no substantive ideas of your own.

Oh, I see, ...you're right. The idea of Jackson or Obama being a luddite was such a stupid reach that I totally believed it was his idea, but I see you're correct. Sad.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/freedom-watch/2011/06/16/obama-luddite

http://www.therightsphere.com/2011/06/is-president-obama-a-closet-luddite/

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/barack-obama-luddite/

http://democratsforsale.blogspot.com/2010/05/obama-luddite.html

Here, for Shrek's benefit I will tweak my statement from above.

**Observing technology displacing workers is not the same as opposing the technology (or industry) so the jobs can come back. The latter is what a Luddite does.

Obama was asked a question that he could not answer. But, in his defense, he first answered that companies invest in either people or equipment as they choose according to their own needs.
But, Obama was stumped so he made up some nonsense that technology like ATMs and airport kiosks were a reason we have high unemployment.
The answer is that no one will solve the unemployment mess because our economy was based on a gigantic asset bubble (inflated housing) for a long time. There was literally a $trillion taken out of home equity and spent. There were millions of people building houses that are now going to be foreclosed. This asset bubble and the wall st. profits and realtor's commissions, and house flipper profits fueled a fake economy which is now gone.
The better example of a healthy export economy is Germany, but we cannot have an export economy which supports tens of millions of high school dropouts (illegal aliens).
The fundamental situation means government must try to entice employers and businesses to hire people by becoming business friendly. The production of energy leads to jobs, but Obama is against this. The production of electric power leads to jobs. The production of resources leads to jobs. The production of high tech gadgets and equipment leads to jobs.
A Boeing facility in South Carolina leads to jobs. But, Obama is suing Boeing to stop them using it.
An example of a business friendly environment is TEXAS.
For the time being, I think Obama will offer a tax break for employers in a half-hearted attempt.
Obama is funny sometimes. I know a lot of guys like him. Because he is intelligent, he believes he can answer when even ignorant of the subject. This is very typical of the type.

When it comes to appointments, question is usually who is this appointment tied to?

Who is this person being appointed tied to financially? Washington is a club; those who are in always confer benefits onto their closest friends. To me it's clear, D's and R's are just two wolves deciding how to eat us.

clambo says

Because he is intelligent, he believes he can answer when even ignorant of the subject. This is very typical of the type.

He's an intelligent politician which is why he sometimes has to say the economy is doing great (to build confidence) as they all do, and it's why he can't say that the reason is massive asset bubbles traceable back to Reagan or further.

He shared a thought/observation about "structural changes" in the economy. At least he communicates in a way where it can be parsed.

I understand the critique that the ignoratti would like to make. When in growth periods like the 90s, automation didn't cause loss of jobs, because of all the jobs created making the software and hardware and so on. But it's not wrong to think that in the long run, and even by now, some of the increases in productivity related to technology have displaced employees, or at least lowered the avg. pay of a segment of the increased number of employable people there are now.

Bt I agree the bubble, and the deflationary collapse are a much bigger factor in our current predicament.

tatupu70 says

You can’t be that stupid. See if you can follow along. When workers’ wages go down, profits go up. Money goes from workers’ hands to the owners hands. Rich get richer, middle class goes on food stamps.

ummmm ..... ok, here's another view :
When productivity goes up, profit goes up. Employee keeps their job.
When overhead goes down, profit goes up. Employee keeps their job.
WHen you have such idiotic issues as foced hiring of select sects of the population to match some pulled-from-an-ass ratio that satisfies a liberal/progressive/leftist adgenda THEN you erode both of those profit making systems. The regulatory crap and tax code and welfare mentailty drive overhead through the roof. Gov is hurting workersm not profit. If more jobs paid "piece work" there would be a big new bunch of complaints from one side of the isle.

In my opinion and experience, when a company makes more money so do the employees. If only by retaining a job by keeping a company competitive, a person earns more money. Maybe not per-hour, but a steady job has a value that some would suggest is more than a high paying job that is unsure.

It is time to break up unionized education. The cost is 5X the value. We are having an education fee bubble.

Bap33 says

When productivity goes up, profit goes up. Employee keeps their job.
When overhead goes down, profit goes up. Employee keeps their job

Actually, no. True, if a company goes out of business, everyone loses their job. But profitable companies lay people off all the time. The correlation between profits and hiring is weak.

A company hires worker when it cannot meet customer demand. Not when it becomes more profitable.

If Obama had praised Weiner for the way he handled his "problem," the headline would read "Obama strokes Weiner."

Obama's Weiner showed strain from all the abuse it got. Sad, sad, sad.

shrekgrinch says

No, you do not need to further expose your gross ignorance of basic accounting any further.

lol--another dodge. I expected as much. I noticed you've abandoned your luddite thread. Soon you'll probably leave this thread too. Unfortunately, you'll have started 5 more idiotic fox news propaganda threads to replace these.

shrekgrinch says

It is a FACT that workers don’t get paid out of profits. They get paid out of revenues.

Of course. How does that relate to anything I've posted here??

That's why increasing profits don't lead to increased hiring. And why cutting taxes doesn't increase hiring.

Shrek--

You're playing right?

Profits = Revenues - Expenses

You get that, don't you?

Does that graph look the same when you remove the 20 million illegal aliens?

The jobs are being created in Texas. The reason is they are a pro-business, no income tax, low regulation, low business tax state.
California businesses are moving there. The guys who work for them sometimes like to make the move, saving on their income taxes. I met some California guys who moved to Texas and had moved into much bigger houses and were much happier in that heat, for financial and other reasons.
So, taxes don't inhibit our behavior? Then why are so many taxes put onto things they want to make us stop buying (e.g. cigarettes)?
Driving around the last time I was out there I saw a billboard "free land to start a business here" in a town not far from the airport. The town was trying to attract business.
Nothing in California is friendly towards business, quite the opposite. Ask someone who is trying to run one sometime.
The state will be like this indefinitely. Do not expect a big improvement in our unemployment situation. The high tech jobs are taken and the low tech jobs are fought over with the illegal aliens. The others are government jobs. Stick a fork in California, it's done.

Tenouncetrout says

elliemae says

Just curious, how many of these jobs did you create?

Whoa 1800 tequila just poured me a shot, what can your Tequila do?

Please tell me what kind of tequila is able to pour itself out of a bottle into a glass by itself, and I'll buy it. ;)

Nomo, the argument that businesses leave Cali is ongoing. There are many that leave, but many that stay. And many that move there. This is one of those arguments that people use when they're trying to make a point.

I have a bro-in-law who opened a biz in Cali. He said that he did so because 1) he lives there, 2) he lives there, and 3) location, location, location. There are places that are more lucrative tax-wise and incentive-wise, but people tend to open businesses in the area in which they live. And the draw of sunny Cali vs the weather in the mid-west is surely a factor too.

Numbers can be skewed in any direction. Everyone that blames the economy on Obama ignores the fact that the blueprint was in place many years before. There were actions that could have been taken, both on the conservative and liberal sides, to alleviate the crisis. But they chose not to see it coming.

Now it's Obama's fault personally that the economy is still in the crapper. Elections are all about personal attacks, bragging about how you can effect positive change and winning.

If claims of "winning" were the only criteria, Charlie Sheen would be the perfect candidate. There would just have to be a mountain of cocaine on the East lawn to keep his winning ways. But on the bright side, there would be more openly discussed jobs for whores and porn stars in Washington.

shrekgrinch says

ALL currency values are converted into their dollar values when determining their worth in relation to each other.

That is no longer true. Forex is doing more and more direct currency pairs without the intermediate conversion to dollars, especially with commodity countries currencies.

I don't get it. Mississippi and Arkansas have among the lowest taxes, lowest wages, and the weakest business regulations in the nation.

How come all the Fortune 500 companies aren't relocating there?

Truthplease says

People who owned a bussiness used to care about their workers.

Was that when we had 12 yr olds mining coal? Or when we built skyscrapers assuming a 5% worker death rate?

I don't get the romanticizing of the past....

You left/right idiots are retards. Ever consider the fact that big problems like this often have 'multiple' causes?! Regan, fucked us... just like every goddamn Republican and Democrat in office for the past century. The only real difference between democrats and republicans is how they want to destroy the middle class.

I might be romantacizing because our ancestors of immigrants created the greatest nation in the world just to hand it off a bunch of self absorbed and entilted people.

I question the whole process at this point. Wait and see the 1 billion dollar campaign coffer this next election when the presidency is purchased again. You don't take that much money without shaking some hands and making deals.

At leat Reagan took down a dangerous adversary which was the whole USSR.

You don't get something for nothing
You can't have freedom for free
You won't get wise
With the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dreams might be

Nomo, I am not saying we all are. I am just frustrated and have been this way for the last decade. The rich keep getting richer. You can't watch any news agency without questioning what party they are supporting or if it is real news. Greed and war have nearly bankrupted us. Not just bankers either, average Americans living well beyond their means put this country at risk.

Truthplease says

I might be romantacizing because our ancestors of immigrants created the greatest nation in the world just to hand it off a bunch of self absorbed and entilted people.
I question the whole process at this point. Wait and see the 1 billion dollar campaign coffer this next election when the presidency is purchased again. You don’t take that much money without shaking some hands and making deals.

I suggest you do some reading and learn about our ancestors. You might be surprised to learn that many of them were pretty self absorbed and entitled too.

wormwood says

Also, any thoughtful person can trace the housing crisis, if they were being honest, back to many, many leftists and many Democrat operatives from Wall Street.

Republicans were running the government 1995-2006. It was their policies that created and fed the bubble. Attempts to pin the disaster on Democrats is just partisan bullshit.

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxpayer_Relief_Act_of_1997
2) http://banking.senate.gov/conf/grmleach.htm
3) Greenspan lowering rates to under 6% and keeping them there 2002-2003. This did not cause the bubble per se but it did get the ball rolling as early specuvestors had an easy time scooping gains as home prices adjusted to the lower interest rates of 2001-2004.
4) Bush's "Ownership Society" http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/09/2002-bushs-speech-to-white-house.html
5) Effective deregulation of the mortgage market (suicide lending) and MBS market (misrated derivatives). The suicide lending was a continuation of the interest rate drops of 2001-2003, in that it allowed people to temporarily increase their buying power via teaser-rate / negative-amortization loans.

6) Increase of capital leverage and lessened SEC oversight of Wall Street http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/business/27sec.html?em

The housing bubble pushed trillions of dollars of debt onto millions of Americans. The epiphenomenon -- greed -- was non-partisan, but the causes were entirely driven by conservative/Republican "pro-business" laissez-faire ideology.

The democrats in government 2003-2006 did not cover themselves in glory in pointing out there was a bubble -- they were clearly as complicit as anyone else -- but the active mistakes were committed by Republicans that were in power, especially 2001-2006.

This was your show, own it, and don't try to bullshit people about it.

Both parties are responsible. The original post is a shot at Reaganomics.