Brontoforumus Archive

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:


This board has been fossilized.
You are reading an archive of Brontoforumus, a.k.a. The Worst Forums Ever, from 2008 to early 2014.  Registration and posting (for most members) has been disabled here to discourage spambots from taking over.  Old members can still log in to view boards, PMs, etc.

The new message board is at http://brontoforum.us.

Pages: 1 ... 26 27 28 29 30 [31] 32 33 34 35 36 ... 50

Author Topic: It's the economy, stupid!  (Read 68577 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Büge

  • won't give you fleaz
  • Tested
  • Karma: -65304
  • Posts: 10062
    • View Profile
Logged

Mongrel

  • Emoticon Knight-Errant
  • kodePunc Team
  • Tested
  • *
  • Karma: -65340
  • Posts: 17029
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #601 on: July 04, 2011, 07:50:26 PM »

Er, that's 5 billion.
Logged

Büge

  • won't give you fleaz
  • Tested
  • Karma: -65304
  • Posts: 10062
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #602 on: July 04, 2011, 08:34:01 PM »

Oh.

Oh well, that's much worse.

Happy 4th of July, everybody!
Logged

Mongrel

  • Emoticon Knight-Errant
  • kodePunc Team
  • Tested
  • *
  • Karma: -65340
  • Posts: 17029
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #603 on: July 05, 2011, 03:46:37 AM »

Well, it ain't all THAT much these days. :/
Logged

Büge

  • won't give you fleaz
  • Tested
  • Karma: -65304
  • Posts: 10062
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #604 on: July 05, 2011, 08:28:08 AM »

It's enough to shut down a state government.
Logged

Brentai

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnXYVlPgX_o
  • Admin
  • Tested
  • Karma: -65281
  • Posts: 17524
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #605 on: July 09, 2011, 07:49:48 PM »

Debt ceiling agreement talks break down over that pesky tax-breaks-for-the-overly-wealthy and nothing else.

This sort of shit is going to happen forever as long as it's the overly wealthy making the decisions.
Logged

Thad

  • Master of Karate and Friendship for Everyone
  • Admin
  • Tested
  • Karma: -65394
  • Posts: 12111
    • View Profile
    • corporate-sellout.com
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #606 on: July 09, 2011, 09:59:49 PM »

That is, quite clearly, :justasplanned:.  It's why Obama pissed off his entire party by offering to cut social security and Medicare.  Now he can say "See?  I offered to cut entitlements, and that wasn't good enough for them; the Republicans are holding our economy hostage for the sake of the richest people in America."

Politically, it's a great strategy, as long as he can manage not to fucking cave this time.

Guess how confident I am in that outcome.
Logged

Mongrel

  • Emoticon Knight-Errant
  • kodePunc Team
  • Tested
  • *
  • Karma: -65340
  • Posts: 17029
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #607 on: July 10, 2011, 04:46:38 AM »

This reminds me about a joke Warren Buffet made. He said something to the effect that you guys would never run a deficit again if you just passed a law that made all sitting representatives ineligible for re-election whenever the deficit went over 3% of GDP.
Logged

Thad

  • Master of Karate and Friendship for Everyone
  • Admin
  • Tested
  • Karma: -65394
  • Posts: 12111
    • View Profile
    • corporate-sellout.com
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #608 on: July 19, 2011, 09:49:07 PM »

...haven't talked much about the debt ceiling; mainly that's because I think it's a goddamn political sideshow.

James K. Galbraith summed up my opinions nicely: Obama gets to score a political victory here, by taking money away from people who need it (and declaring victory by taking almost as much away from people who don't).  The debt ceiling itself is a relic intended to appease a population reluctant to enter World War I, and violates the Fourteenth Amendment ("The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.").

I will say this: I totally support a balanced budget amendment.  Because it would be the end of the Republican Party as we know it.



(And yes, I'm joking with that last part.  The insanity of a no-exceptions balanced budget amendment is obvious, and we've already seen the Republican Party settle the "we can go to war without paying for it" issue simply by not including the war in the budget.  But the hypothetical case of "Okay, you can have your war, but you have to raise taxes on the rich or tell your constituents you want to eliminate Medicare" DOES make me smile.)
Logged

Rico

  • Tested
  • Karma: 18
  • Posts: 1916
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #609 on: July 19, 2011, 10:19:09 PM »

Not enough is being made of the part where raising the debt ceiling has nothing to do with current expenditures and everything to do with paying bills already accrued (by previous administrations....).
Logged

Cait

  • Tested
  • Karma: 1
  • Posts: 269
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #610 on: July 20, 2011, 07:06:10 AM »

The fundamental problem with budgetary accounting as practiced by most U.S. governmental entities is that it essentially treats a given year/biennium as if it were in a vacuum. As a result, shortsightedness looks best on paper: if you borrow a trillion dollars, that's a trillion in revenue this year, and a trillion plus interest as expenditures in some future year. Similarly, expenditures now that would save money in the future only reflect the expenditure portion in the current budget; to someone wanting to look 'fiscally responsible' at a surface glance, this is a poison pill.

Double-post avoiding EDIT:

As well, the problem with balanced budget proposals is that governments function similarly to not-for-profit entities: They're fundamentally expenditure-driven, not revenue-driven. Effort can (and should) be made to control expenditures, but they're still the primary driver for a functional government. Balanced budget proposals inevitably try to force cuts in expenditures to match incoming revenue, which throttles the effectiveness of government during lean years. Not that forcing increased revenues to cover expenditures doesn't have its own issues above and beyond being political suicide.
Logged

Thad

  • Master of Karate and Friendship for Everyone
  • Admin
  • Tested
  • Karma: -65394
  • Posts: 12111
    • View Profile
    • corporate-sellout.com
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #611 on: July 20, 2011, 04:32:50 PM »

It's a lot broader than just government entities; that's the problem with EVERYBODY who's got an annual budget.  Quarterly budgets are worse yet.
Logged

Brentai

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnXYVlPgX_o
  • Admin
  • Tested
  • Karma: -65281
  • Posts: 17524
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #612 on: July 20, 2011, 08:43:41 PM »

Okay either my reading comprehension has gone to shit after a month of being fucked over by property laws or we've somehow, as democrats, went from demanding a lapse on tax breaks for the top bracket to stumping a plan that lowers the top bracket tax rate 10% over THE CURRENT TAX BREAK.

Help me out here.
Logged

Rico

  • Tested
  • Karma: 18
  • Posts: 1916
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #613 on: July 20, 2011, 09:48:10 PM »

You can go even broader than that: short -term thinking is the cause of almost every economic problem we're currently facing.
Logged

Cait

  • Tested
  • Karma: 1
  • Posts: 269
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #614 on: July 21, 2011, 06:59:59 AM »

It's a lot broader than just government entities; that's the problem with EVERYBODY who's got an annual budget.  Quarterly budgets are worse yet.

There are other methods of budgetary accounting in practice, some of which address the aforementioned issues to varying levels of success. Of course, none of those would be remotely considered by FASAB, which is largely toothless. (Unlike other bodies of governance for accounting practices, the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board is... well, an Advisory Board. They make polite suggestions to the federal government.)
Logged

Thad

  • Master of Karate and Friendship for Everyone
  • Admin
  • Tested
  • Karma: -65394
  • Posts: 12111
    • View Profile
    • corporate-sellout.com
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #615 on: July 21, 2011, 01:20:38 PM »

Okay either my reading comprehension has gone to shit after a month of being fucked over by property laws or we've somehow, as democrats, went from demanding a lapse on tax breaks for the top bracket to stumping a plan that lowers the top bracket tax rate 10% over THE CURRENT TAX BREAK.

Help me out here.

Last I heard we were looking at $4tn, $1tn of which would be in "revenue increases" (mostly subsidy cuts) and another $1.5tn each on entitlement and defense cuts.  The deal is, of course, a moving target, and the situation you propose is not in the least bit surprising if true.

You can go even broader than that: short -term thinking is the cause of almost every economic problem we're currently facing.

Arguable.  I would submit that the Iraq War was a case of planning that ignored short-term reality in favor of a long-term fantasy.

And that a lot of the other decisions that got us into this mess are ideological dogma that has no basis in either short- or long-term reality.
Logged

Mongrel

  • Emoticon Knight-Errant
  • kodePunc Team
  • Tested
  • *
  • Karma: -65340
  • Posts: 17029
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #616 on: July 22, 2011, 06:15:38 AM »

This might be the funniest economic study ever (usefulness, well, that's another question):

Finnish research suggests there is a correlation between average penis size and the rate of GDP growth

How do you even go about asking for a grant for this?
Logged

Beat Bandit

  • be entranced by my sexy rhythm
  • High-Bullshit
  • Tested
  • Karma: -65418
  • Posts: 4293
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #617 on: July 22, 2011, 07:09:09 AM »

Quote
The bottom line is that the smaller the penis, the faster the economic growth. Indeed, for every centimetre more, there's a 5-per-cent to 7-per-cent decline in expansion. The strongest economies are those where men have average penises. And if you want an economy that promises you a job, you'd better hope you weren't too blessed
*High-fives R^2*
Logged

Thad

  • Master of Karate and Friendship for Everyone
  • Admin
  • Tested
  • Karma: -65394
  • Posts: 12111
    • View Profile
    • corporate-sellout.com
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #618 on: July 22, 2011, 09:24:42 AM »

How do you even go about asking for a grant for this?

Well, if the guy signing grants has either a very large or very small penis, you're in.
Logged

R^2

  • Not in the game.
  • Tested
  • Karma: -61931
  • Posts: 5164
    • View Profile
Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #619 on: July 22, 2011, 02:27:33 PM »

*High-fives R^2*

Owww... That wasn't my hand...!
Logged
Pages: 1 ... 26 27 28 29 30 [31] 32 33 34 35 36 ... 50