Comments on: 4 Economic Trends and Stories Impacting the way you Live: Retail Sales up Because of easing in Credit Standards, Millionaires no More, Bankrupting on Foreclosures, and Bear Market Rallies come out of Hibernation.

By: Kody

Kody — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:01:35 +0000

This has been some good material you provided relating to this matter. I do not go along with every thing, nevertheless, you undoubtedly made some very nice points.

By: compass rose

compass rose — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:47:06 +0000

Doc, I think we need an Rx for some Nap Time here.
~
Trust you all saw the news that a trillion in Magick Monopoly Money is going to go from the Fed to the T:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/business/economy/19fed.html
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Compare that trillion to the overall M1 and M2 money supplies:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/Current/
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I.e., as an order-of-magnitude exercise.
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Commenter #41 at the NYT piece noted, “It’s not federal and there are no reserves. Just debt, inflation, taxation, war and tyranny.” Hear, hear.
~
rose

By: Sabin Figaro

Sabin Figaro — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:04:16 +0000

@Kaboom
Although it may be futile, I think the point is that although we have been printing money as fast as we possibly can since the S&L bailout of the 80′s, the dollar has actually strengthened in many of those years, backed only by an enormous financial house of cards and the world’s most powerful military. Zimbabwe cannot print all of the dollars that they wish to, but for various reasons we can, until someone blinks (such as Wen Jaibao). We’ve tried the gold standard a number of times, but like everything else, there is no algorithm to compensate for human behavior. The world has become too complex for simple theories, although I like Ron Paul too.

By: Kaboom

Kaboom — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:33:27 +0000

Comment by AnnS
March 15th, 2009 at 1:19 am

And Kaboom – I’ll stack my graduate degrees in those subjects up against the condesending nonsense from you any day!

“Condescending nonsense”?

I fervently hope that you are not going to pull the “Race Card” on me.

Or is it the case that my apparent “condescension” was perceived by you as manifesting a sense of intellectual superiority?

In any case, despite your strident ad hominem quoted above, I can assure you that your post of 13/3/09 11:10 p.m. was full of holes, and I am frankly surprised that you are so offended that someone had the temerity to point this out.

As we say in the GRWC, “tough luck”.

By: Edu-tards

Edu-tards — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:27:46 +0000

AnnS – wow, a degree in economics. Ben Bernanke has a degree in economics, too, as did Sir Alan Greenspan. They’ve “helped” us so much, because their degrees enabled them to sidestep simple, inconvenient things, such as common sense.

I suppose that degrees are so exceptionally meaningful, so unfathomably important, because they convey an intimate understanding of the world that everyone else simply cannot grasp. Just ask, for instance, degreed individuals such as Hank Paulson, G.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzalez, Robert Rubin, or Franklin Raines. Let’s throw Robert MacNamara into the pool, too, because he was one of the “best and brightest.” All hail those with degrees, and bow down to their knowledge!

Sit down and read a book entitled “Propaganda” by Jacques Ellul. You might come to understand that the most “educated” individuals in a modern society, i.e., the society’s intellectuals, are themselves exceptionally prone to propaganda and thought pattern limitation. They’re also the least likely individuals to realize that such is the case, largely because of their self-reinforcing belief that they, being well “educated,” must have “learned” that which is correct and true.

I have multiple degrees, too, spanning both hard and “soft” sciences. BFD. After many decades of real-world experience, I’ve come to realize that modern degrees are basically “certificates of indoctrination compliance,” and they convey nothing about a person’s ability to truly t h i n k. I personally know geniuses that didn’t graduate from college, including one whose highest level of education was the 7th grade. I also personally know several Harvard MBA’s whose institutionally-certified profound educational and business expertise directly ran several companies straight into the ground, despite advice repeatedly provided to these MBA’s by various lesser-degreed individuals over the past several years.

Perhaps, since you’re multiply-degreed, you can tell us exactly why a) society has arrived in the current situation; b) the vast majority of others with single and even multiple degrees (including economists) overwhelmingly failed to foresee the current situation; and c) such degreed individuals failed to successfully navigate society along a (much) less problematic path than we’re presently experiencing. Please also precisely explain exactly what we should do to successfully remedy the present situation(s) in the shortest timeframe possible.

After all, isn’t it time to put each of your degrees to good use?