patrick.net

tatupu70 says

theoakman says

That’s not true. There are a ton of super talented scientists and engineers that could be adding to the productive capacity of the US in private jobs that are currently employed by the military. Unless we plan on selling weapons to the rest of the world, we would be better off employing those individuals in jobs that add to the productive capacity of the economy.

Agreed–but before they could find those new jobs that add to the productive capacity, they’d be unemployed. And that would be bad in the short term. That’s why it’s better to make the cuts during good times when jobs are available.

So, you give them their severance and let them find a new job.

Shouldn't Mikey be in the hall of shame? He's just a serial punster who likes to milk it. I know it sounds corny, but I guess that's Life.

PS: Don't forget that Ray guy. He wants everything to be all right.

Who gets the remote is still a war, regardless of orientation. Things do change after sanctioned marriage.
The kink factor evaporates after nuptials, gay or straight, and few survive the Cinderella syndrome when the white picket fence fades with familiarity.
The trouble starts even before the rice is thrown.
Male and female is a bad mix all around, except perhaps, in the animal world, where sex leads to much less drama.

There was a guy named Surfer-X who posted quite often in the old days. He has a penchant, a flare shall we say, for profanity.

theoakman says

So, you give them their severance and let them find a new job.

Meanwhile the economy goes further down the dumps and more people get laid off. Which in turn lowers your tax revenue and actually increases the deficit. No thank you.

mikey says

Shouldn’t Mikey be in the hall of shame? He’s just a serial punster who likes to milk it. I know it sounds corny, but I guess that’s Life.
PS: Don’t forget that Ray guy. He wants everything to be all right.

See number ten, dude. I nominated you, 'twas a nominal effort.

tatupu70 says

theoakman says

So, you give them their severance and let them find a new job.

Meanwhile the economy goes further down the dumps and more people get laid off. Which in turn lowers your tax revenue and actually increases the deficit. No thank you.

Isn't that what unemployment benefits are for? They would be better off getting paid to look for a new job than getting paid to develop missiles.

I like the list as revised in Nomo's last post. And I remember Surfer-X from my lurker days. He could be on that list too.

marcus says

Most in need of ignoring the other: Ray and Ellie

It's been about a week now. where ya been?

Coming to a television near you very soon: "Gay Divorce Court"

I can't wait. :)

elliemae says

It’s been about a week now. where ya been?

Well done. Hope the withdrawal symptoms haven't been too bad.

lol, u left out loads of important people during the earlier days, HARM, PeterP, Facereality, Marinisprime, FakeP, etc... It's too bad they don't post here anymore

Didn't Surfer-X bought a house? No surprise that he don't visit this forum anymore.

What about Shyfire (was that her name?) who lived in Florida, sold right as the bubble burst and her sale nearly fell thru. Moved to the woods with her man to enjoy the peace... and Bobby80... and Frodo, dear frodo.

marcus says

Well done. Hope the withdrawal symptoms haven’t been too bad.

That's what she said!

(as I said before in another post, I feel like Michael Scott from the tv show "the office," where he can't resist saying "that's what she said!" and the company insists that he not say it anymore because it's sexist. He nearly explodes).

elliemae says

mikey says

Shouldn’t Mikey be in the hall of shame? He’s just a serial punster who likes to milk it. I know it sounds corny, but I guess that’s Life.
PS: Don’t forget that Ray guy. He wants everything to be all right.

See number ten, dude. I nominated you, ’twas a nominal effort.

Silly, Ellie, that's the hall of a Fame, not shame. Still, it is an unexpected honor and I must thank all the little people behind the scenes who worked their fingers to the bone for me day after day with little recognition for their efforts. Bless them all, every one.
Please pardon me while I fetch a Kleenex to soak up my happy tears.
I need a few quiet moments to appreciate my good fortune. You understand.

oops - my bad. it's these f-in' boney fingers, get in the way.

tts says

You’re right it usually isn’t, but this is not a usual recession we’re going through. This is a financial crisis worse than what we went through in the 70’s. It took the Volcker FED years and and a forced double dip recession and rates of around 20% to fix that mess. It’ll take far more to fix this one.

I agree that it will take a lot to heal the economy--I just disagree with your prescription...

elliemae says

That’s what she said!
(as I said before in another post, I feel like Michael Scott from the tv show “the office,” where he can’t resist saying “that’s what she said!” and the company insists that he not say it anymore because it’s sexist. He nearly explodes

That episode was just on TBS and it is by far the best of the series. Although any episode with Packer is a good one in my book.

That is fair. After all, plenty of people have claimed "this time its different" and been wrong before. The thing that really frustrates me is that we'd probably both agree that things are far more messed up then you're hearing the gov. or any mainstream economist say, we'd probably both disagree as to just how bad things really are.

If we can't even agree on what the facts are how are we supposed to communicate at all?

This isn't directed at you but I see this as a major problem not just on this forum but also with Americans in general right now. We can't agree on what is right or wrong, and many of the progressive reforms that are probably needed get shunned as "socialist" or even "communist" even though most people seem to hardly understand what those terms mean any more. Lots of parroting of the talking points by supporters of both political parties right now. No true Progressives can get elected as long as that is true, so even if you wanted to primary a truly good politician against the current Dem/Rep incumbent you'd have no chance of winning.

The present from Packer was good too.

marcus says

Most in need of ignoring the other: Ray and Ellie

Give me a hint. Who is "Ellie?"

At the end of the day, there is very little the Fed can do to stimulate the economy. They're already at 0%. They can throw money at banks but the banks are scared of lending and businesses and consumers are scared or borrowing. Bernanke does not have a helicopter. He cannot conjure money out of thin air - only Congress can do that. Only Congress can decide to drop money from helicopters. If they're going to do it they better get on it - I have a feeling come November the Dems aren't going to control both houses. That will make it a lot harder to pass more stimulus measures.

I'm ok with the idea of stimulus on its face but the money needs to go to something useful like doing research or building "useful" infrastructure (not resurfacing perfectly good roads in the middle of nowhere). Unfortunately the Republicrats only enrich themselves and their friends.

But what about the early 2005-2006 crew, such as RandyH, DinOR, OO, HARM, Jimbo, EBGuy (he is still here), Allah, Astrid, PeterP (RayAmerica but with a brain, just kidding Peter :)), nuttyneutron, sqt, Micahel Holliday, KurtS, Different Sean, Zephyr, FormerApartmentBroker, Skibum, StuckInBA, SP, Vicente, Claire, HeadSet, Brand, and many others that I should recall at the top of my head. I'm apologizing already for the several worthy not mentioned (yet).

And then there are slightly newer people like The Original Bankster, Malcom, pkowen, sybrib, Simchaland, Kevin, Troy, .. [more to come].

I'm talking about people who were around while there were still moderators/threadmasters (I forget the correct term). And the forum was not full of right-wing goons and free-for-all thread privileges. Those were the days, I tell you :-).

I'm glancing through some early thread and updating the list above.

One of the most interesting aspects of this thread are the tidbits that some poster remembers about other posters, apart from the funky and snarky one-liner characterizations.

Some people have a very sticky brain for trivia, and others are very good at reading between the lines. That's one fact I have learned here.

justme says

[I’m glancing through some early thread and updating the list above]

how do you access early threads? I'm dumb.

Pick a low 3-digit number at random, for example

http://patrick.net/?p=297

Before Patrick started the nursing home forum, almost all numbers were for bubble threads. Later it got more complicated.

You can go even lower

http://patrick.net/?p=9

Before that there was apparently blogspot.com. Patrick, do you have an archive of those?

I miss Ocuile(sp) the first guy to use Koolaid as his moniker. What ever happened to that guy?

Sufer X was really good and an absolute riot. He used the F word like Picaso used paint.
Harm was really good
Allah was really good

These guys and others, and Patrick, seen the bubble way way way before it was cool to see the bubble. The media and REwhores were still broadcasting the normal "now is the time to buy or be priced out forever" and all the other caacaa. There was at one point a Patrick.net word dictionary being made of all the new words being created by this bubble. My entry was "Specuvestor" .... it was cool to make the list.

As a matter of fact, the first use of "troll" was when a REwhore came on here telling us we were all stupid. Then that Casey guy was in the news. Hate that guy.

Peter P was great ... I think he may be a lurker or opened under new moniker.

elliemae says

(10) Mikey, a very punny guy.

without a doubt the best I have ever seen at proper pun prolification.

bob2356 says

Anyone on a fixed income is left destitute, the middle class is wiped out. imports cease, anyone with savings (and your 90% number is bs)

The bottom 90% of this country has 17% of the financial net worth.

61% of the bottom 90%'s total asset is their home, which is inflation-proof.

The bottom 90% also has 73.4% of the debt, compared to 20% held by the next 9% and just 5% for the top 1%.

Inflation event would be a nice little reset for 90% of the population and mostly screw the top 1% who own most of the debt (60.6% to be exact).

Sadly, inflation will also greatly benefit the specuvestor upper middle class invested in real estate, the 90-99% percentile owns about half the commercial real estate.

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

too kind too kind

#9: Nomo ... I would say your intellect and depth deserve to be logged. Do not be modest. In my opinion good humor requires intellect - both to create and to "get it". Your logic stands tall.

What a great post idea -- another point about Nomo's mind.

You are both insane. What about the 29% of the 90% who have savings. That represents a lot of people who will be left destitute. What about anyone, like everyone that is retired, that is on a fixed income? No problem with them either? Bs. People will starve. Don't hand me the garbage about Argentina or Germany coasting through either. People starved, people died of exposure, people died who couldn't get health care. Either your history is superficial, self serving, or selective. People ate sawdust bread, shoe leather soup, and rat burgers. Just because your ivory tower big picture history didn't go into enough depth to see this doesn't mean it didn't happen. It would happen here.

Let's take one tiny small aspect of your scenario of good hyperinflation just for kicks. If you are truly a student of history then you will agree that the first thing that happens in hyperinflation is that imports simply cease. No one will sell to a country in hyperinflation because they can't get paid and exchange the money fast enough to avoid losing money. This has been true time and time again. Now please feel free to lay out a scenario of what life in America will be like without the ability to import oil.

The end result of hyperinflation is almost always the same. A few well connected people who are very rich with everyone else very poor or destitute. The biggest legacy of German hyperinflation was a small number of very very rich industrialists and millions of destitute people who went on to become the NAZI party because they simply didn't have anything else to lose. That's a fact.

A nice little inflation event? By definition hyperinflation is out of control. You have more courage to look into the abyss than I do. Be careful what you wish for you may get it.

bob2356 says

What about the 29% of the 90% who have savings.

They get screwed?

That represents a lot of people who will be left destitute

Welcome to the New America. Perhaps you haven't been watching the news much?

What about anyone, like everyone that is retired, that is on a fixed income?

COLAs were established in the 1970s to fix this, no?

People starved, people died of exposure, people died who couldn’t get health care.

Many in Weimar Germany did OK because it was a bona-fide wage-price spiral going on. Labor unions were the drivers of the inflation. It was no picnic of course and that kind of hyperinflation that happened at the end of the event was and is indeed insane.

People ate sawdust bread, shoe leather soup, and rat burgers. Just because your ivory tower big picture history didn’t go into enough depth to see this doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It would happen here.

Ah, but hyperinflation did happen here. Well, not hyperinflation, but certainly a nice reset of the system, 1973-1983.

What cost 25c in 1973 cost 50c in 1983. I should know, since I was without employment for most of that timeperiod and every quarter counted (even if it usually ended up in a video game).

I don't think anyone wants hundred dollar bills to become worthless. Before the wheels fell off of the Weimar inflation game their mark had depreciated from ~1 to 1/60 to 1/300 to 1/8000 (it ended at 1e-9). However, another 100% round of inflation would in fact knock the national debt back to where it was in 2000, 30% of GDP. This would also, of course, prevent the present $4T in mortgage overhang from crashing down upon us

I have no policy recommendations, but I certainly admire the problem.

I love the positivity of this thread! :)

You people are being ridiculous. Nearly half of all federal payment obligations are indexed to inflation. A devaluation/hyperinflationary event would not help reduce this debt one iota, especially if the inflation statistics could not be cloaked (ie. official/formal devaluation). The other half of the obligations could by hyperinflated away but at the expense of losing the USD as world reserve currency and triggering a complete and total collapse of all US financial markets. The stampede to the exits would be unprecedented - TRILLIONS of USD-denominated assets, stocks, bonds, etc. would be attempted to be liquidated by foreigners all at the same time. A mass panic would ensue that would obliterate global liquidity beyond all measure, and the world economy would collapse - quickly. In such a scenario it is extremely doubtful central bankers could do anything to ameliorate the situation as all trust and confidence in the markets will have been lost.

War at this point (probably nuclear) could commence. A great boon for the economy, that'd be. Sarcasm off. Massive riots due to goods shortages would overwhelm local authorities, and the country falls into utter chaos.

Now, for the ridiculous notion that real estate benefits from inflationary events. It does not UNLESS there is a stable wage price spiral and the accompanying jobs to support it. There will not be this time. With billions of peasants in the Third World and increasing technology and automation, wages will NOT go up to match the inflation rate. This will impoverish the vast majority reducing their ability to buy things other than food and energy. Any further cost increases in the West will simply be matched by more outsourcing to the East. Cost pressures in the First World will encourage further Third World job creation and further First World job loss.

Look at Iceland's currency collapse a little while ago. Home prices CRATERED during their inflationary event. Why? The economy was collapsing! No bank would lend, and everyone was so worried about affording the basics (food, water, energy, etc.) the market completely seized.

Also Weimar. The amount of a person's budget spent on housing went from 30%before the hyperinflation to less than 1% during the event as people spent 99% of what they had on food and energy (bare essentials for life).

The USA of 2010 is not the USA of 1940, 1970 or any other time. We are the kingpin in a global interconnectedness that is unprecedented. If you think you can just mess with the most important entity in the entire world (the USD) without dire consequences, you need to go back to school.

A deflationary bust could at least be gradually ameliorated via bailouts, public works and benefits until all of the excessive debt had been cleansed from the toxic economy. This is what is happening right now. What's going on in the economy currently is THE CURE - THE DISEASE is what happened from the 1980s until 2007 (excessive debt creation).

schmitz_kris says

You people are being ridiculous. Nearly half of all federal payment obligations are indexed to inflation. A devaluation/hyperinflationary event would not help reduce this debt one iota, especially if the inflation statistics could not be cloaked (ie. official/formal devaluation)

You're confusing debt with current account. Of course we have to fix the budget too, but inflation will help reduce the debt.

Nomograph says

Being an investor and owner shields me from the ravages of inflation.

It did no such thing as the krona collapsed (if you're referring to RE). An owner of gold, however, made out great.

People need to have equity and investments, obviously. The trouble is, if you're paying a large percentage of your income into one asset, your house, with little left over, you never get a chance to diversify your holdings. You would've done far better buying stocks and precious metals over the last 50 years than RE, especially in most of the country. THE WORST PART IS YOU NEVER GET TO BUILD AN ACCOUNT THAT YOU CAN SNOWBALL THAT PAYS YOU INTEREST AND/OR DIVIDENDS. Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe. You might get capital gains with a house, but you don't get interest and/or dividends that you can reinvest every year and use to snowball your account. You need to sell your house (and subsequently rent or buy a much smaller/crappier place) or go into further debt (HELOC) (and pay more interest to a bank) to get access to those capital gains.

There is no reason for anyone to be paying rent (or any other bills for that matter) after their income-earning years are over. By that time their investment income should be paying their rent and other bills with tons left over to re-invest for an even bigger snowball. I'm very young and am already in this position. Unless the world totally collapses, I'll be retired well before I am 40.

BTW, there is plenty of opportunity for yield even in this environment. A bank is not the only "safe" place you can put your money, obviously.

I also hate it when people say "poor, elderly." That is so factually incorrect it should be embarrassing. Our elderly cohort is the second wealthiest in the USA according to the most recent Fed data we have available. There may be a few poor, old souls out there, but there are far more driving around in Cadillacs (poor taste, I know, but I digress...). They had the best economic boom in the history of the world to pad themselves down with cash. Their INCOMES may be lower, but their expenses are lower as well. As a general rule derived from Fed survey data, old people are wealthy, the young are poor (obvious as it takes time to amass wealth).

Troy says

I don’t think anyone wants hundred dollar bills to become worthless. Before the wheels fell off of the Weimar inflation game their mark had depreciated from ~1 to 1/60 to 1/300 to 1/8000 (it ended at 1e-9). However, another 100% round of inflation would in fact knock the national debt back to where it was in 2000, 30% of GDP. This would also, of course, prevent the present $4T in mortgage overhang from crashing down upon us

So let me get this straight in my head. People here are seriously suggesting that very high inflation or hyperinflation would be a good way to bail out the irresponsible people who voluntarily went way over their heads in debt to live a lifestyle they couldn't afford while financially crushing anyone who lived within their means and saved or worked all their lives and are retired on a fixed income pension (I certainly never used the phrase "poor elderly" but there are a lot more than a "few" poor old souls out there by the way). Perfect, just perfect.

Maybe, just maybe we should let the gamblers go to bankruptcy court and put the government's house in order. Fix social security (doable despite the naysayers), cut defense in half, go back to progressive taxation, stop going to war on credit, stop all bailouts and subsidies (why do we still have farm subsidies that 95% of go to large corporations by the way?), and live within our means. It would certainly be less disruptive than very high inflation or hyperinflation. This something for nothing mindset is the root of the problem, not the solution.

I'm already picking out my outfit for the awards ceremony.

Nomograph says

As far as “retiring at 40″ on an interest-bearing account, good luck but I think you’re speaking from youthful hubris and bravado.

Technically I could already retire, but I want to err on the side of caution, of course.

There is nothing wrong with living off 5% a year, Nomo. There's plenty of places to get that guaranteed as well.