patrick.net

thunderlips11 says

The absence of inflation, or very low inflation, is troubling.

That was Milton Friedman's view. But his is the other side of the coin of the Keynesian view. I believe the primary fallacy is that the economy can be controlled or manipulated by the government. Any attempt to do so result in an imbalance. Friedman instituted a 3% target inflation rate in regards to the dollars exchange rate. This is a big part of the reason for the inflation we have as certainly today we do not have a closed economy.

The Austrians believe that the business cycle is a way of reconciling the weak from the strong in the economy and should not be stopped or hampered as this is a healthy thing for the economy. E.G. if the TBTF were allowed to the economy would be in good shape today.

thunderlips11 says

Despite some neoliberal reforms, Germany, Sweden, etc. are doing very well with a strong Keynesian System.

The metrics that you look at these countries through are too narrow. Sweden was very much a free market before it switched to socialistic policies that create the current meme. Germany has been the beneficiary of mercantilism to the rest of Europe.

thunderlips11 says

Moderate inflation

If we're talking 0.5% to max 1%, then we can agree ;) Likewise moderate deflation is not a bad thing either as a price-correcting symptom/event.

"In the future, there's potentially two types of jobs: where you tell a machine what to do, programming a computer, or a machine is going to tell you what to do. You're either the one that creates the automation or you're going to get automated." -- Tom Preston-Werner

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-07/silicon-valley-tech-entrepreneurs-behind-the-stereotype#p6

The Jetsons future had us working 2 hrs a week. But there weren't any racial minorities in that future, just whiteys . . .

Bellingham Bill says

"In the future, there's potentially two types of jobs: where you tell a machine what to do, programming a computer, or a machine is going to tell you what to do. You're either the one that creates the automation or you're going to get automated." -- Tom Preston-Werner

Well, looks like it's either Socialism or a Fritz Lang Metropolis Dystopia.

thunderlips11 says

But they're got to get profitable somehow.

Why? Gross revenue has doubled 2010-2013 and they cleared over $2B in after-tax income in these 4 years.

hmmm, looking at their balance sheet, they're kinda like a shark I guess, swim or die, given they don't have a large cash cushion to fall back on -- $24B in cash, $20B in A/P and debt -- $2B in retained earnings is all dey got!

AAPL on the other hand is sitting on $100B of retained earnings; 6 years of operating costs. (MSFT has $17B, GOOG $68B)

Bellingham Bill says

cleared over $2B in after-tax income in these 4 years.

In 2013, they cleared about $0.25B net profit on sales of ~$75B.

Meager as last year’s profits were, they represented a small improvement from 2012, when Amazon actually lost money. Even with the slight uptick in 2013, Amazon earned substantially less profit than it did back in 2008, when it posted a net income of $645 million on relatively modest sales of $19.17 billion. Over the past five years, in other words, the retailer of the future managed to more than triple its sales while slicing profits by more than half. It’s a business success story like no other in the world.

If they do have all that cash, they should start Altywood / Altcomcast and start offering film content.

I can't believe in all this time somebody hasn't started a non-Cable Company "HBO" that streams digitally.

This is one reason the Fed had to throw in the towel on the unemployment metric ....I sure hope these millinenials will be able to find a way of reinventing themselves for the survival of the fittest because all the grassy patches on the farm are wearing thin