"AND it gives the big finance corporations first shot at all that money, before inflation saps away its worth."
And traditionally these big financial corporation give it away as loans. Which directly benefit consumers they are 'first movers'. And then inflation grinds away their debts.
However, deflation ADDS debt to consumer which banks would gladly accept.
"After nearly 300 years of prices so stable they were almost flat for that entire time"
Also, a 300 years of flat economic development and very stable bad living conditions for most of working class. So yes, if you want feudalism or crony capitalism then hard money is still the answer.
Well, CPI and BPP are in agreement. And BPP certainly isn't affected by the housing as much as CPI. So they are more-or-less correct.
Arguing that government somehow hides oodles of inflation under the rag is insane. Half a percent or so - maybe, depending on methodology used. More? Certainly not.
And I can actually tell you what hyperinflation is - I lived through one. I remember prices going up TWICE within one week.
I also lived through merely 'high' inflation of 20% a year. Then 10% a year.
You can immediately see effects of such inflation. There's nothing like it in the USA.
Stop spreading lies. He certainly supported TOTAL deregulation of the financial industry, he objected this bill because it has not gone far enough for him.
So his ideas are very much at fault.
Here's what he said:
"* Madam Speaker, today we are considering a bill aimed at modernizing the financial services industry through deregulation. It is a worthy goal which I support. However, this bill falls short of that goal. The negative aspects of this bill outweigh the benefits. Many have already argued for the need to update our financial laws. I would just add that I agree on the need for reform but oppose this approach."... "* The better alternative is to repeal privacy busting government regulations. The same approach applies to Glass-Steagall and S. 900. Why not just repeal the offending regulation? In the banking committee, I offered an amendment to do just that. My main reasons for voting against this bill are the expansion of the taxpayer liability and the introduction of even more regulations. The entire multi-hundred page S. 900 that reregulates rather than deregulates the financial sector could be replaced with a simple one-page bill."
"If you think so, then you don't understand how Keynesian money-multiplication and fractional-reserve banking work. Essentially, those concepts allow financial speculators to create money out of thin air. And Keynesian economics counts fiat currency as real money. But as we have clearly seen, most recently in 2008, such fiat currency can disappear as fast as it is created, or even faster."
Yup. And exactly how are you going to ban fractional reserve banking or other similar tools? They existed just fine during the gold standard era.
The only known way to do that is.... SOCIALISM! Yes, you read it correctly. A policy of hard money and banned fractional reserve banking necessarily requires planned economy. Or alternatively a subsistence economy (i.e. no economy at all).
My thunderstorm predictor also works fine - it always predicts that storm is coming. And about once a month it's right!
Paul's predictions are totally bunkum. He was predicting that the currency would implode because of the Ponzi scheme of the Fed. That hasn't happened, not even close.
This year he was predicting that commodities would skyrocket because the Fed was 'debasing the dollar' by QE1/2. And right now commodities have fallen almost back to 2008 levels and dollar is stable against other currencies.
"Outside of CPI, inflation has been going up significantly."
So Paul's economic theories were in essence tested by experiment. And proven to be false.
"They are now. If they had been implemented earlier we might have had a chance. As it stands, the middle class in America will be all but completely wiped out in the next generation. "
And Paul's recipe is: "Wipe out that suckers. We don't need no stinking meedle class". Because he's basically advocating not just continuing the policy of deregulation and concentration of power in corporations' hands, but dialing it to 11. What exactly could have been done in Paul's universe to prevent the bubble?
Let's see: 1) Deregulation - that's what allowed banks to create CDO bubble. 2) Invisible hand of the market - like the rating agencies grading junk as AAA? 3) Gold standard and hard currency - the bubble has happened in the shadow banking system that over-leveraged the debt. Nothing in gold standard could have prevented it by itself. 4) What else?
Now, I agree that Ron Paul is _mostly_ sincere which seems to be rare these days. But that doesn't help in itself if his position is insane. A sincere madman is still a madman.
Ron Paul was 'predicting' the current situation since well into 90-s. So no, it doesn't count. And during the crisis he's been constantly mis-predicting, well, everything (runaway inflation, hellllo?).
Then he has inconsistent views, basically have religious freedom is OK, unless you're not a Christian.
And last, but not least - his recipes to help the economy are disastrous.
It is. Most places have a choice of several broadband providers.
My apartment has a choice of 3 operators providing connectivity by Ethernet lines, 1 cable company, 3 DSL operators and a couple of WiMax operators. If MTS starts to enforce this, then it'll take me about a couple of days to switch to another operator.
Oh, and there are no multi-year contracts, so no early termination fees or anything.
I checked it. Reaction is actually mildly energy-positive.
Nickel is among the elements with the highest nuclear binding energy, but hydrogen (obviously) is the element with the lowest binding energy. So reaction turns out to be very, very mildly energy positive.
The technology to produce cheap EVs is just becoming available. Nissan LEAF borders on being practical, but it uses cutting-edge battery and power electric technology. 10 years ago it would have been impossible (there were electric RAV4s but with much worse params).
Dude, some fuckwit Muslim 'astronomers' claim that the Earth is flat. Because certain verses in Quaran say so. The question of evolution denial doesn't even arise somewhere like Pakistan because it's universal.
There is always a conflict between religion and science. It's just that it's mostly irrelevant for scientists in the USA. And even more irrelevant in Eastern Europe.
Now try to teach evolution in Muslim countries like Pakistan. Go on, try it. We'll pay for your funeral.
On what magnetic fields? MRI fields are _tremendous_, you won't be able to sense anything with simple hand-held magnets, even with the rare-earth ones.
Strengthening immune system is the LAST thing you want to do in a HIV patient.
You see, HIV kills off immune system by keeping it over-activated, essentially burning it out. Immunosuppressors were tried as HIV drugs back in 90-s - it hasn't worked out that well, though.
Current treatments focus on controlling viral load by making it very hard for HIV to multiply.
Not producing adequately priced product is exactly an example of ineptness. A replacement should be ideally as cheap as CFCs or at least not much more expensive. With air conditioning and refrigeration it was achieved successfully.
But yes, medical CFCs should not have been banned too soon.
I don't think treaty creators counted on pharma industry to be so inept. Probably, since CFC ban should have been postponed until good replacements became available.
Well, there are adequate replacements for CFCs. Why existing drugs were not reformulated using non-CFC propellants is beyond me. It'd been known for quite some time that CFCs would be banned.
I think, treaty creators were counting on industry to quickly produce replacement drugs - there was quite enough time for that. So it looks like it's yet another failure of pharma industry.
And that's good. Though the concentration of CFCs in the atmosphere has peaked, it still is significant to cause large ozone hole in the Antarctic region.
Banning remaining CFC sources will accelerate the healing of ozone layer. And it's not like there are no good replacements available.
"So now that global warming has been exposed as a fraud we're supposed to be scared of the Sun as well? Leave it to tree huggers to care more about ozone, which is poisonous, than human life."
I have a wonderful UV lamp that I use to disinfect stuff. Would you care to sit a few days under it?
Slashdot Mirror
Nope, I suspect a lot of people noticed it.
I wonder if Neal Stephenson applied for a patent on business method ;)
So what? Why should I care that I can buy less gold for one dollar than 50 years ago?
"AND it gives the big finance corporations first shot at all that money, before inflation saps away its worth."
And traditionally these big financial corporation give it away as loans. Which directly benefit consumers they are 'first movers'. And then inflation grinds away their debts.
However, deflation ADDS debt to consumer which banks would gladly accept.
"After nearly 300 years of prices so stable they were almost flat for that entire time"
Also, a 300 years of flat economic development and very stable bad living conditions for most of working class. So yes, if you want feudalism or crony capitalism then hard money is still the answer.
Well, CPI and BPP are in agreement. And BPP certainly isn't affected by the housing as much as CPI. So they are more-or-less correct.
Arguing that government somehow hides oodles of inflation under the rag is insane. Half a percent or so - maybe, depending on methodology used. More? Certainly not.
And I can actually tell you what hyperinflation is - I lived through one. I remember prices going up TWICE within one week.
I also lived through merely 'high' inflation of 20% a year. Then 10% a year.
You can immediately see effects of such inflation. There's nothing like it in the USA.
Stop spreading lies. He certainly supported TOTAL deregulation of the financial industry, he objected this bill because it has not gone far enough for him.
So his ideas are very much at fault.
Here's what he said:
"* Madam Speaker, today we are considering a bill aimed at modernizing ...
the financial services industry through deregulation. It is a worthy
goal which I support. However, this bill falls short of that goal. The
negative aspects of this bill outweigh the benefits. Many have already
argued for the need to update our financial laws. I would just add that
I agree on the need for reform but oppose this approach."
"* The better alternative is to repeal privacy busting government
regulations. The same approach applies to Glass-Steagall and S. 900.
Why not just repeal the offending regulation? In the banking committee,
I offered an amendment to do just that. My main reasons for voting
against this bill are the expansion of the taxpayer liability and the
introduction of even more regulations. The entire multi-hundred page S.
900 that reregulates rather than deregulates the financial sector could
be replaced with a simple one-page bill."
"If you think so, then you don't understand how Keynesian money-multiplication and fractional-reserve banking work.
Essentially, those concepts allow financial speculators to create money out of thin air. And Keynesian economics counts fiat currency as real money. But as we have clearly seen, most recently in 2008, such fiat currency can disappear as fast as it is created, or even faster."
Yup. And exactly how are you going to ban fractional reserve banking or other similar tools? They existed just fine during the gold standard era.
The only known way to do that is.... SOCIALISM! Yes, you read it correctly. A policy of hard money and banned fractional reserve banking necessarily requires planned economy. Or alternatively a subsistence economy (i.e. no economy at all).
My thunderstorm predictor also works fine - it always predicts that storm is coming. And about once a month it's right!
Paul's predictions are totally bunkum. He was predicting that the currency would implode because of the Ponzi scheme of the Fed. That hasn't happened, not even close.
This year he was predicting that commodities would skyrocket because the Fed was 'debasing the dollar' by QE1/2. And right now commodities have fallen almost back to 2008 levels and dollar is stable against other currencies.
"Outside of CPI, inflation has been going up significantly."
No it hasn't. Since 2008 commodity prices are basically flat: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/way-off-base-2/ (don't believe Krugman? See http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx?time=24 for another example).
So Paul's economic theories were in essence tested by experiment. And proven to be false.
"They are now. If they had been implemented earlier we might have had a chance. As it stands, the middle class in America will be all but completely wiped out in the next generation. "
And Paul's recipe is: "Wipe out that suckers. We don't need no stinking meedle class". Because he's basically advocating not just continuing the policy of deregulation and concentration of power in corporations' hands, but dialing it to 11. What exactly could have been done in Paul's universe to prevent the bubble?
Let's see:
1) Deregulation - that's what allowed banks to create CDO bubble.
2) Invisible hand of the market - like the rating agencies grading junk as AAA?
3) Gold standard and hard currency - the bubble has happened in the shadow banking system that over-leveraged the debt. Nothing in gold standard could have prevented it by itself.
4) What else?
Now, I agree that Ron Paul is _mostly_ sincere which seems to be rare these days. But that doesn't help in itself if his position is insane. A sincere madman is still a madman.
Ron Paul was 'predicting' the current situation since well into 90-s. So no, it doesn't count. And during the crisis he's been constantly mis-predicting, well, everything (runaway inflation, hellllo?).
Then he has inconsistent views, basically have religious freedom is OK, unless you're not a Christian.
And last, but not least - his recipes to help the economy are disastrous.
It is. Most places have a choice of several broadband providers.
My apartment has a choice of 3 operators providing connectivity by Ethernet lines, 1 cable company, 3 DSL operators and a couple of WiMax operators. If MTS starts to enforce this, then it'll take me about a couple of days to switch to another operator.
Oh, and there are no multi-year contracts, so no early termination fees or anything.
Not really. Even 'mildly energy positive' nuclear reaction is orders of magnitude more energetic than the most powerful chemical reactions.
And the same problem applies - it's not clear how a proton can overcome Coulomb barrier to enter the nickel nucleus.
I checked it. Reaction is actually mildly energy-positive.
Nickel is among the elements with the highest nuclear binding energy, but hydrogen (obviously) is the element with the lowest binding energy. So reaction turns out to be very, very mildly energy positive.
The technology to produce cheap EVs is just becoming available. Nissan LEAF borders on being practical, but it uses cutting-edge battery and power electric technology. 10 years ago it would have been impossible (there were electric RAV4s but with much worse params).
Sura Al-Kahf (18:86), Sura Az-Zukhruf (43:10, 43:38) and so on. Look at http://answering-islam.org/Quran/Science/earth_flat.html and other commentaries.
And yeah, there are actually people in the Muslim world who think that the Earth is flat.
LOL.
Dude, some fuckwit Muslim 'astronomers' claim that the Earth is flat. Because certain verses in Quaran say so. The question of evolution denial doesn't even arise somewhere like Pakistan because it's universal.
So? This video is just a demonstration of a well-known effect. I couldn't care less if it was rendered or staged.
Watt has been exposed as a liar multiple times. Yet all you can offer is a 'proof' that a demonstration video is 'faked'.
Pathetic.
There is always a conflict between religion and science. It's just that it's mostly irrelevant for scientists in the USA. And even more irrelevant in Eastern Europe.
Now try to teach evolution in Muslim countries like Pakistan. Go on, try it. We'll pay for your funeral.
INSERT INTO terror_watch_list (select * from all_people);
On what magnetic fields? MRI fields are _tremendous_, you won't be able to sense anything with simple hand-held magnets, even with the rare-earth ones.
Strengthening immune system is the LAST thing you want to do in a HIV patient.
You see, HIV kills off immune system by keeping it over-activated, essentially burning it out. Immunosuppressors were tried as HIV drugs back in 90-s - it hasn't worked out that well, though.
Current treatments focus on controlling viral load by making it very hard for HIV to multiply.
Not producing adequately priced product is exactly an example of ineptness. A replacement should be ideally as cheap as CFCs or at least not much more expensive. With air conditioning and refrigeration it was achieved successfully.
But yes, medical CFCs should not have been banned too soon.
All I can say, that it sucks to be asthmatic :(
I don't think treaty creators counted on pharma industry to be so inept. Probably, since CFC ban should have been postponed until good replacements became available.
Well, there are adequate replacements for CFCs. Why existing drugs were not reformulated using non-CFC propellants is beyond me. It'd been known for quite some time that CFCs would be banned.
I think, treaty creators were counting on industry to quickly produce replacement drugs - there was quite enough time for that. So it looks like it's yet another failure of pharma industry.
And that's good. Though the concentration of CFCs in the atmosphere has peaked, it still is significant to cause large ozone hole in the Antarctic region.
Banning remaining CFC sources will accelerate the healing of ozone layer. And it's not like there are no good replacements available.
"So now that global warming has been exposed as a fraud we're supposed to be scared of the Sun as well? Leave it to tree huggers to care more about ozone, which is poisonous, than human life."
I have a wonderful UV lamp that I use to disinfect stuff. Would you care to sit a few days under it?
Not really. Right now inhalers are among the most significant remaining sources of CFCs.
The other remaining source is Halon fire suppression systems. Halon is no longer produced, but remaining stocks are still in use.
These rates are pretty much normal.
International data roaming == robbery.