I would say you're right, and it seems to me (a non-economist) that someone is trying, erroneously, to apply a macroeconomic concept to a microeconomic case. Sometimes it's better to keep the two separate.
Third off, having these huge amounts of debt and all these stock market bubbles and all these housing bubbles (today) is not a normal part of a free market economy.
Really? I would have thought that regulation of a free market economy would arise from three concerns, in rough order:
1. fraud, including insider trading, etc.
2. excessive debt
3. market bubbles.
I think the two 'aberrations' from a free market economy you raise are two of the three most common charasterics of such an economy (along with competition, common information, etc.). Why do you think they are abnormal?
Finally, the rest of your post indicates either a poor understanding of economics or an interesting new framework for economic analysis. If you wish us to abandon everything we believe to be true about a discipline, however, you need to back up your arguments. Can you?
But could you name even one fiat currency that isn't inflating and hasn't been inflating?
> The Yen was deflating fairly recently. It has since gone back to very modest inflation, which is a
good thing because it means the Japanese economy is finally growing again.
Thank you for inserting some sense into "economics by sociology majors".
Inflation isn't just a function of money supply, its a funciton of velocity - how quickly that money changes hands.
Good point. I'm not an expert, but I believe it's somewhat difficult to measure velocity directly -- we tend to infer it from the other variables?
This is to point out but one reason that the notion that there would be no inflation under a gold-backed money regime is clearly wrong. To pick historical examples of inflation in gold-backed economies, there was significant inflation throughout Eurasia during the 12th to 14th centuries, the 16th-17th and centuries, and the later 18th and early 19th century.
True, but inflation did increase dramatically after the USA adopted fiat currency -- 240% in seven years after 1933 http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/2005/0429 .html. I think this is the source of much of the disinformation cited by the GP.
...Munich is incentivating the creation and growth of a local market...
I'm sorry, but your language lost me there. I don't want to be a language Nazi, but "incentivating"? I apologize if you're not a native English speaker, but the rest of your post was well put together, so I believe you are.
Can I suggest, rather than making up nonsense words, use an existing word? I think "encouraging" fits in the context of your sentence, and has the significant benefit that we already know what it means.
Dean
Windows NT(and its derivatives)'s security issues stem from misuse and implementation errors, not design flaws.
I had an IBM laptop with Windows 2000, and I liked the OS quite a bit. I ran as a priveleged user or some such title, not administrator. Until... wireless ethernet came out. I would happily take my laptop down to the pub and try to plug in my PCMCIA 802.11b card. Which I couldn't install or use as a regular user, only as administator. EVERY TIME I wanted to use it, I had to be administrator. Since I couldn't keep configuring two different user ids and maintaining the shared access to data files, I gave up and settled on my administrator account.
If that's an implementation error I'd love to see a better way. Users with laptops should be allowed some control over plugging in PC Cards.
found this organization to be utterly classless, morally bankrupt, and totally incompetent. The sole exception to this was that INDIVIDUAL store managers and a couple of reginal guys were fantastic sales people and had solid retail skills.
I think you've hit on something important here. While this may or may not be characteristic of Radio Shack's corporate culture (it might be based on the few times I've wandered in one), I suspect what you're seeing is an ill-advised effort by an HR Manager, without the knowledge of the senior management. RIFs are fairly commonplace these days, and I can certainly imagine an HR management type given the responsibility for something of this size.
Of course, if it really is corporate policy, they're even worse than I could have imagined.
I'm kind of split on this. Safety where electronics is concerned is important to me - especially when I'm on the plane.
Why? Do you, for example, buy the stupid warning against using cellular phones? Is it issued by the FAA? No, that would be the FCC, soundly captured by telecoms companies. There is no repeatable evidence that cell phone use on a plane interferes with instrumentation, but it truly f*cks up the cellular netowrks, since the plane is traversing multiple cells very quickly
But the person was up front about what happened. And you have to admit, being forced to Ottawa should be punishment enough.
Okay, I'll agree with you there. No proof is needed: Ottawa's abilty to induce boredom is axiomatic.
Good point. but...if we wanted to do a cost-benefit analysis, exactly how many successful terrorist attacks have occured on airplanes since 9/11/2001?
For that matter, how many unsuccessful ones?
Your analysis is interesting, but incomplete. Have we really done anything to ensure we don't miss a terrorist? Have we, in fact, done anything useful at all, in the case of the alleged UK bombers??
Still, if a doctor was at home and someone broke into their house to try and rape their daughter, I'd hope the doctor would have no moral compunctions against shooting the intruder first (in their capacity as father) and then offering CPR as appropriate second (in their capacity as doctor).
Really? I'd hope he would resist as strongly as possible the urge to pull the trigger. Why not just point the gun at the criminal and tell him to back up with his hands in the air?
Is this related to Americans' relatively low reluctance to settle things with deadly force, or am I reading way too much into this? (And, no, I don't know whether parent is American.)
Thousands of people did die today... Due to car accidents, cancer, and poverty. If we're just trying to stop deaths, we should focus on making safer cars, researching cancer, and helping those less fortunate than ourselves.
Yes, obviously. The people in the US government, perhaps understandably, want desperately to be seen to "do something." That is what they're doing. If we trade off the risk that a crazed lunatic is going to kill himself and perhaps a planeload of others, against the inconvenience millions of us will be regularly subjected to, I'm not sure I think we've hit the right point of balance. But, nobody is even raising the question.
When they design roads, they don't make them perfectly safe (impossible) or even as safe as humanly possible. We have speed limits that balance convenience and economic efficiency against loss of life. Engineers and decision-makers have to balance risks and convenience in many things. BUT, in the case of terrorism there is no balance -- everything humanly possible must be done. It doesn't make sense to me.
I suspect, however, that all of this terrorism hype isn't about stopping deaths. We don't even know for sure that there was going to be a terrorist attack. The US and UK governments are far from being trustworthy. The US government has contemplated "simulated" terrorist attacks to change public opinion.
Well, I'll leave that to you. Discussion of how trustworthy governments are just leads to tinfoil hat discussions.
I directly caused this, by finally getting around to installing Core 5 on the weekend and downloading 271 updates over about 36 hours on my slow home connection.
I assume it was only possible to release the re-spin after I had gone through the hassle of yum updating a couple of hundred packages, in the same way that I cause stock markets to drop by buying shares...
I've had Nokias for about ten years, and finally switched -- to an O2 (Microsoft of all things). Why? I always bought Nokia because: 1. I already had a plethora of Nokia chargers; and 2. All my contact detail were in a proprietary Nokia database, which was too hard to crack.
Well, my last phone does it all. I wanted this because I travel a lot to remote locations, and the ability to do email with whatever service is available on a small PDA/phone was too tempting. I'm in the process of hacking the Nokia database to get my numbers off my old phone, and I'm happy not to have to go through endless menu options (the default to forward a text message is to use email???? give me a break).
Give me simple, or give me complete. Nokia does neither, IMO.
Patriotism is being loyal and loving your country unconditionally and your politicians when they deserve it.
Actually, that sounds pretty conditional to me;-)
I think we are probably in agreement on your main point, however. There is a time to submit to a popularly elected government, and there is a time to stop submitting. I like the advice of Junius, the pseudonym of an 18th century English writer:
The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures.
That quote has been at the top of Toronto's Globe and Mail editorial page for generations, but is at least as relevant now as when written.
No! No! A thousand times no! The Elements of Style is awful. It purveys ignorant advice that no good writer would follow.
Ignorant advice like eliminate unnecessary words? Like ensure the subject agrees with the verb? I read your link, and was much more impressed with Messrs. Strunk and White than the author you adore. It seems their advice is good enough for every other author since, except you and the writer you cite, so maybe you should consider, at the least, what they have written, rather than cite another like-minded author who also conveniently forgets to cite any support, or rationale? Why, for example, is it wrong for the conjugation of the verb to agree with the subject?
Wow, my second "me too" post on one article. Sorry, but there's a lot of good stuff in parent's post.
First, get every student a copy of "The Elements of Style". It's a very small book originally written around WWI. It points out the most frequent mistakes in writing. It's an excellent book, following the tips within will make anyone a better writer.
Second, teach people to write to their audience.
The Elements of Style is the single best gift you could give a potential writer. Knowing your audience is a staple of business presentation courses, but often observed in the breach.
Those wishing to learn how to write could do far worse than follow the parent's advice.
E-mail, IM, and particularly SMS is killing proper writing techniques.
Actually, I tend to believe that email has improved writing for many people, given how bad they used to write before. Sure, there are many too lazy to care about how their messages are perceived, but many who were previously poor at writing are at least making an effort to improve. This is only an opinion, however, with no evidence to back it up.
One thing I do know, however, is that "Email, IM...SMS" take the plural. It is debatable whether they *are* killing proper writing technique, but your post could serve as one data point in favour of that argument;-)
Hey, it's an article about writing and a post about grammar, so no flames!
One thing I notice is that people unaccustomed to writing formal papers tend to adopt a very stilted and affected style, thinking it sounds more "official", but it is usually just confusing.
Hear hear! (not "me too", because that would be bad form!)
The single best thing that helped my writing skills was editing the work of others, and I would encourage this as part of a writing course. In my case, I was editing a horrible version of bureaucrateese with long-winded phrases and clauses, all in the third person past tense. That is, after all, how many of us engineers were taught to write -- don't worry about the poor reader. Seeing a writing style we thought was good, from the reader's perspective, quickly breaks bad habits.
The next great lesson I got was learning French as an adult, where grammar was taught extensively. I've already forgotten all the French I learned, but it taught me a lot about English grammar. (I'm not suggesting you also include French grammar in your course.) Otherwise, how would I know what a subjunctive is -- we were never taught it.
In other words, if I were teaching your course[grin], I would not only include writing, but encourage ways of looking at others' writing.
Absent any other factors, I think most slashdotters would say that not having a country-wide ID card is greatly preferable to having one...But there are other factors.
I hate to post a blatant 'me too' but you've hit the nail on the head. I'm Canadian (no id cards) but I've lived in Indonesia for the last 15 years (id cards). I am vehemently opposed to the idea of id cards in principle. But... in 15 years have I noticed any problems or difficulties caused by them? No.
In principle they're awful, but in practice they hve been fine for me so far.
microsoft's... most expensive blunder was the Cairo project
I don't agree. If you believe Microsoft's objectives were to kill OS/2, which they did, then hugely premature announcements of a better OS make perfect sense -- people will stay with Windows not buy OS/2, which is what happened.
Drawing parallels with the browser situation and competition with Netscape (and it's once very valuable server-side business) is left as an exercise for the reader;-)
Windows was waaaayyy behind in things like screen fonts. I remember running Intel 386s (25 Mhz or so) in the mid-80s with scalable postscript fonts, which I believe the main SunOS also used. I dunno why MS finds simple things so challenging (OK, there would be royalties for Postscript, but there were/are alternatives).
Or a new pancreus, good for some insulin goodness, and help the adult onset diabeties.
Not to nitpick, but a new pancreas would be good for Type I diabetics (like me), which used to be called juvenile-onset diabetes. In Type II, which usually hits older people, the pancreas is happily making insulin, but the other cells have trouble using it. My pancreas is as dead as Elvis, so stem-cell based advances would be A Good Thing, in my opinion.
Slashdot Mirror
Oops, losing karma here. Put good post (IMHO) in wrong place. Time for bed. Sorry to all
I would say you're right, and it seems to me (a non-economist) that someone is trying, erroneously, to apply a macroeconomic concept to a microeconomic case. Sometimes it's better to keep the two separate.
1. fraud, including insider trading, etc.
2. excessive debt
3. market bubbles.
I think the two 'aberrations' from a free market economy you raise are two of the three most common charasterics of such an economy (along with competition, common information, etc.). Why do you think they are abnormal?
Finally, the rest of your post indicates either a poor understanding of economics or an interesting new framework for economic analysis. If you wish us to abandon everything we believe to be true about a discipline, however, you need to back up your arguments. Can you?
Dean
Can I suggest, rather than making up nonsense words, use an existing word? I think "encouraging" fits in the context of your sentence, and has the significant benefit that we already know what it means. Dean
If that's an implementation error I'd love to see a better way. Users with laptops should be allowed some control over plugging in PC Cards.
Of course, if it really is corporate policy, they're even worse than I could have imagined.
BTW, I'm an HR Management Consultant.
Okay, I'll agree with you there. No proof is needed: Ottawa's abilty to induce boredom is axiomatic.
Good point. but...if we wanted to do a cost-benefit analysis, exactly how many successful terrorist attacks have occured on airplanes since 9/11/2001?
For that matter, how many unsuccessful ones?
Your analysis is interesting, but incomplete. Have we really done anything to ensure we don't miss a terrorist? Have we, in fact, done anything useful at all, in the case of the alleged UK bombers??
Is this related to Americans' relatively low reluctance to settle things with deadly force, or am I reading way too much into this? (And, no, I don't know whether parent is American.)
When they design roads, they don't make them perfectly safe (impossible) or even as safe as humanly possible. We have speed limits that balance convenience and economic efficiency against loss of life. Engineers and decision-makers have to balance risks and convenience in many things. BUT, in the case of terrorism there is no balance -- everything humanly possible must be done. It doesn't make sense to me.
Well, I'll leave that to you. Discussion of how trustworthy governments are just leads to tinfoil hat discussions.
I directly caused this, by finally getting around to installing Core 5 on the weekend and downloading 271 updates over about 36 hours on my slow home connection.
I assume it was only possible to release the re-spin after I had gone through the hassle of yum updating a couple of hundred packages, in the same way that I cause stock markets to drop by buying shares...
I couldn't agree more.
I've had Nokias for about ten years, and finally switched -- to an O2 (Microsoft of all things). Why? I always bought Nokia because:
1. I already had a plethora of Nokia chargers; and
2. All my contact detail were in a proprietary Nokia database, which was too hard to crack.
Well, my last phone does it all. I wanted this because I travel a lot to remote locations, and the ability to do email with whatever service is available on a small PDA/phone was too tempting. I'm in the process of hacking the Nokia database to get my numbers off my old phone, and I'm happy not to have to go through endless menu options (the default to forward a text message is to use email???? give me a break).
Give me simple, or give me complete. Nokia does neither, IMO.
I think we are probably in agreement on your main point, however. There is a time to submit to a popularly elected government, and there is a time to stop submitting. I like the advice of Junius, the pseudonym of an 18th century English writer: That quote has been at the top of Toronto's Globe and Mail editorial page for generations, but is at least as relevant now as when written.
The Elements of Style is the single best gift you could give a potential writer. Knowing your audience is a staple of business presentation courses, but often observed in the breach.
Those wishing to learn how to write could do far worse than follow the parent's advice.
Hey, it's an article about writing and a post about grammar, so no flames!
The single best thing that helped my writing skills was editing the work of others, and I would encourage this as part of a writing course. In my case, I was editing a horrible version of bureaucrateese with long-winded phrases and clauses, all in the third person past tense. That is, after all, how many of us engineers were taught to write -- don't worry about the poor reader. Seeing a writing style we thought was good, from the reader's perspective, quickly breaks bad habits.
The next great lesson I got was learning French as an adult, where grammar was taught extensively. I've already forgotten all the French I learned, but it taught me a lot about English grammar. (I'm not suggesting you also include French grammar in your course.) Otherwise, how would I know what a subjunctive is -- we were never taught it.
In other words, if I were teaching your course[grin], I would not only include writing, but encourage ways of looking at others' writing.
Well, I'm joining the fight. Now downloading the "frog" and I'll add (slightly) to their woes.
Maybe you do
In principle they're awful, but in practice they hve been fine for me so far.
Drawing parallels with the browser situation and competition with Netscape (and it's once very valuable server-side business) is left as an exercise for the reader
Windows was waaaayyy behind in things like screen fonts. I remember running Intel 386s (25 Mhz or so) in the mid-80s with scalable postscript fonts, which I believe the main SunOS also used. I dunno why MS finds simple things so challenging (OK, there would be royalties for Postscript, but there were/are alternatives).