Monetizing debt and economic fallacy

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I don't think anyone said that it is a fix. It's a coping mechanism. No one will allow a fix.

Those who want the chips to fall as they may were 100% silent when manipulations were favorable to them.

There's that personal corruption aspect that can never seem to be eliminated.

That is, "bad" things are okay when it serves your best interest. When it turns sour, then it's a crime for the same or different "bad" things to be "forced" upon you.

So, "bad" that serves your interests is ignored ..regardless of the consequences ..until the consequences arrive ..then it's a crime to remedy them since it is "unfair".

Hence only remedies that serve your best interests are acceptable ....which, if past history has ever had you saying that things were great, has unintended (or even predictable) unfavorable consequences ..that you'll probably try and escape from paying for.

It's a perfect circle of assured dysfunction. Self interest ends up being your worst enemy if that interest is advanced under a corrupt model ...a con ..a slight of hand..a manipulation.

It's extremely difficult to enforce a sense of "sensible outcomes" in conduct where the sensible thing may mean that you don't grab for as much of the plate of bacon that you think you're being offered. You then advance to the understanding that the offering is merely a carrot on a stick.
 
With respect to the loss of manufacturing in the US to developing countries with the capacity to do the same...you cannot simply limit this to the US.

All the mature economies have done the same, perhaps to varying degrees.

Today, I'm installing a sound system in my car with components from Pioneer, Alpine and Infinity.

Two Japanese companies, one American.

All products made outside the countries where these companies have their world headquarters.

This isn't atypical.
 
Oh ..absolutely. They're also all advanced industrial nations with a like standard of living and costs of living. At that point, we tend to "exchange" things amongst ourselves "as needed".

It's why Pakistani fighters are made by Saab and GE engines (and some other Euro aspect to them). It was a "shared" expense. It's the same thing why my Caravan was made in Canada when there was a plant here at home. It's the same reason why Japan ended up putting assembly plants for all kinds of stuff in the US. There was no cost advantage to making them domestically, and certain accounts need to be balanced. Is there any sensible reason to have fuel filters sourced in Israel other than someone wanted them there and that it provided jobs?

Once you're at some approximate parity with the USA ..you're not a competitor as much as you are a minor partner in cartel of aligned industrial nations. You typically are under the US's defensive umbrella ..and YOU WILL PAY for it in one form or another in a managed cooperative.

I look at it as Wall St's Euro or Asian offices with local management handling local populations as they see fit.


Or you could look at it like the Corleone family having other families manage their own turf ..while Vito has the muscle to enforce the cartel's authority and apply the proper grease to the wheels.
 
Well, I'm not quite that cynical.

Something closer to the New World Order and all that stuff...probably.

Is that a cartel? More of a pipe dream.

I don't think so as China/Asia are not on board (Japan and S. Korea, perhaps to the extent they distrust China).

In fact singling out Asia isn't fair.

The so called "Western Allies" i.e. Wester Europe, in general aren't on board at all but dampening their ideals of a multi-polar world is the new Russia which looks more and more like the old USSR as time progresses. The Russians do however have history to substantiate their fear of Western Europe, which is perhaps why they fear NATO. I see NATO as somewhat of a farce..maybe that's a bit too cynical.
 
Look man I'll say it again. If you've got something intelligent to say then say. If not, then you know the deal.

While i don't need to prove myself to the likes of you...my mind is hardly empty.

I asked you a question. Your answer has nothing in it.

So as indicated, it's your mind that is empty.
 
Good points digital/Gary.

At the core level, you have to wonder how capable human beings are at managing something as complex as the global economy. Can it be managed and to what extent? Does gov. intervention always produce negative unintended consequences?

I don't think there is anything better than a free market system, despite the negative aspects at times of capitalism. I don't think we have really seen full fledged capitalism.
 
Well, no, we haven't seen unvarnished capitalism. There are a number of reasons for that. A long and complex story that I'm sure I only have a small understanding of.

More important to me is the pitfalls of capitalism when you're not on an ever advancing and growing flame front. This is where we're at now. We're running low on economic resources for many things. It shows in the costs of refitting and refurbishing ..and otherwise maintaining the status quo. We were on an upward curve in terms of benefits for a long while. I think that's our biggest conceptual problem. Several generations have seen only the shiny side of the equation and were totally ignorant of the fundamentals that supported and sustained it.

I know that I sound cynical ..but after living under the myth and illusions for a very long time in ignorance, I find it hard not to be somewhat disenchanted with highly probable outcomes. It's not like anyone promoted the idea of banking your prosperity to avoid just what we're experiencing now ..and more of it in the future.

Our magic has no mojo anymore. We're not continuing to advance as our leftovers get devoured by the developing nations. They're replacing more and more of us instead of just liberating us for other more important and vital tasks.

That's why you see me differentiate between true investment as opposed to just finding ways to make money. Outside of something like drugs, I really don't see our (whomever has it) wealth being directed toward things that offer much to the world in terms of increased benefit. They do offer neat and ingenious ways to turn other people's money into their own.

The funny thing is, out of all the promotion of entrepreneurial motivation and ingenuity, our most profound accomplishments have been done by our government.

Take your car and all the systems that make it run good. Did Detroit offer more than a novel offering of fuel injection? Nope. It took increasing regulation to bring those evolutions to the market place. All of the knowledge that came out of the space race ..would probably have never occurred without government forcing the evolutions and revolutions ..and paying for it. The market would most likely never get there by itself.

Now one can surely comment on someone like Mr. Bill. But anyone who candidly examines how he attained his position knows that it was not some ingenious radical technological concept ..but rather a business model ..and most will concede that the winner didn't necessarily do the globe a big favor in the winning.
 
I'm not sure how one figures the space program provided us with the technology which has improved our standard of living. I'm not saying it hasn't impacted us positively, I'm just saying that the innovations of the steam engine (WATT), the telephone system (BELL), combustion engine (OTTO/DIESEL?), electric motor (TESLA), electric power generation (TESLA), airplane(WRIGHT), television (FARNSWORTH et al) and the transistor (SHOCKLEY, BRITTAIN (sp), BARDEEN at Bell Labs) and the integrated circuit (KILBY at TI) I do not believe came from government spending. Nor did advances in medical technologies (pharmaceuticals, MRI, X-Ray/CAT scans).

Certainly as much innovation grew from the defense industry as the space industry (jet engines, radar, many advances in aerospace and communication systems including the internet and the electronic computer) but I think these are less than what came from private industry where the foundations were built.

Now without a doubt such a thing as space exploration and the country's defense cannot be supported by private industry as there is no return on investment at least in a short enough time.
 
I cannot discount any of those inventions and how they revolutionized the world. I would however point to the time compression of development of new technologies. I'd say that our post WWII America was the shortest span of most development.

Our German scientists had the most money.
LOL.gif
 
Well, the Europeans, esp the Germans, are to be credited with advancing the physical sciences. Of course there were others involved outside Europe.

And prior to them there were great European mathematicians of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

All of whom contributed.

However, it's all to fashionable in the world today to discount and or discredit contributions made by Americans but there are many.


Were you BTW referencing the devalutation of the deutchmark forcing Germans during WWII to push cartloads of them to buy a loaf of bread?
 
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Well, I'd say that we can both curse and praise the Egyptians for all that they've added to my pathetic math skills to the list.
LOL.gif


No, my reference to German scientists is that of those divided up as the spoils of war (5 out of 10 German scientists when surveyed), ours got the most money to be German scientists.

There was a reference to it in a movie called Ice Station Zebra. There a Russian satellite designed by Russian German scientists was carrying a camera built with stolen plans from American German scientists ..with film developed by British German scientists (also stolen) ..went off course and took pictures of Russia (something like that).

...but back to advancement. There's really hasn't been too much of a game of "top this" in terms of grand benefit. We're due for Mr. Fusion or any number of other things that will probably never see the light of day since too many resources are being channeled into ponzy schemes.
 
Originally Posted By: digitalSniperX1
Were you BTW referencing the devalutation of the deutchmark forcing Germans during WWII to push cartloads of them to buy a loaf of bread?


The Deutsche Mark was introduced only in 1948. You mean the Reichsmark.
 
Originally Posted By: Gary Allan


Our German scientists had the most money.
LOL.gif



"Our" German scientists had the most freedom.
 
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