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Author Topic: It's the economy, stupid!  (Read 68585 times)

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Mongrel

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #760 on: November 03, 2011, 02:02:45 PM »

It's good and it's bad.

It's good because Papandreou's use of the nuclear option sort-of forces the Greek opposition parties to finally cooperate with the government instead of spending all their energy demanding RAWR RAWR ELECTIONS. Elections are just a dodge in this case because the real question is what would have been asked in the referendum anyway: Do the Greek People want to take it in the facehole or the pooper?

It's bad because the Greek people may not take kindly to the loss of the Referendum and force the issue. Whether or not this is the case will probably become apparent in the next couple of weeks, or maybe even sooner.
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Thad

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #761 on: November 21, 2011, 07:41:34 AM »

Supercommittee fails to reach an agreement, surprising absolutely no one.

GOP is working on an emergency bill to save military funding.

In an alternate universe where the Dems are competent, they are realizing that all their talking points are already written for them, by the Republicans.

In an even less plausible alternate universe, the Dems are realizing that talking points are completely unnecessary and all they have to do is tell the truth: that Republicans want to fund the military at the expense of Social Security because they refuse to raise taxes on the richest 1% of Americans by so much as a dime.
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Friday

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #762 on: November 21, 2011, 09:10:22 AM »

And in a slightly more plausible universe, the Dems are fighting for humanity against an alien tyrant named Kal-El
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Thad

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #763 on: November 22, 2011, 06:45:16 AM »

Obama seems to have finally figured out that the Bush tax cuts are the only arrow in his quiver, and oh hey they're set to expire right around the time these cuts go into effect.

So let's get the ol' crystal ball out here.  I'm going to totally go out on a limb and say that a year from now, most of the spending cuts will be thrown out and all of the Bush tax cuts will be extended.  Regardless of who's President.
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Thad

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #764 on: November 22, 2011, 07:21:03 AM »

Haha, top headline on Google News right now is Fox News with "Obama Headed to New Hampshire to Push Payroll Tax".

I am sure that the word "cuts" just didn't fit in their character limit.



(EDIT: Fixed now; maybe it WAS just the linebreak in the middle of the title.)
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Brentai

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #765 on: December 08, 2011, 05:43:52 PM »

Not sure where the conversation originally happened (it was a tangent from one of the gaming topics iirc) but now that I'm just coming back from Vegas I'm gonna have to update my theory as to what the hell happened to it.

The truth is, their business volume is FUCKING FINE.  There aren't less people coming in.  But walking around the Strip casinos made two things painfully clear:

1. Like I said before, each person coming in has significantly less money to lose than the casinos are counting on.  This is truer now that the low-rollers have become, well, bottom-rollers basically.  But more importantly:
2. The city itself, operating at maximum capacity, cannot push through enough customers to fund all these fucking new casinos.

There really is a finite number of flights that can arrive and depart from McCarren Airport on any given day, and there is a finite number of taxis that can gridlock up Las Vegas Boulevard.  There are fully twice the number of hotel/casinos crowding up the joint than when I left, and all of the new ones are massive billionaire-funded vanity projects.  Even when the city itself is full, the casino floors are empty - its customers spread out uncomfortably among the various types of expensive floorspace.   It hampers the vampiric moneysucking machine that fuels the city, since all the excitement of being among the crowd is lost (as is the pleasure of ducking out of said crowd into a private room), and more importantly it means that a lot of businesses are hemmorhaging a lot of cash on maintenance for complete junk.  And the worst part is, not a goddam one of them have done the only intelligent thing and scaled it the fuck down.  The glamour of Vegas seems to be more important than the goddam profitability of Vegas.

This is my issue with the American economy in general - it's not that the corporations have gotten greedy, it's that they've gotten fucking stupid.  When the major banks can no longer say "no" to loans they know they're going to lose their asses on, and major hotel owners no longer understand the most basic concept of cost versus return, then the economy is going to do a backflip into the shithole no matter how many smiles and puppydogs the ruling class hands out.
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Thad

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #766 on: December 14, 2011, 11:56:48 AM »

CEO pay up 27-40% from 2009 to 2010.

STOP BURDENING THE JOB CREATORS!  IF YOU RAISE THEIR TAXES A FEW PERCENT THEY'LL HAVE NO INCENTIVE TO HIRE ANYBODY!
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Brentai

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #767 on: December 14, 2011, 03:30:42 PM »

Quote from: https://mobile.twitter.com/pfeiffer44/status/146926829591212033
The House bill simply shortens the review process in a way that virtually guarantees that the pipeline will NOT be approved.

Uhhhh... really?

I mean, there are two possibilities here:

1. Dan is talking right the fuck out of his ass.
2. This really is the opinion and the belief of the Administration, in which case they're willing to go as far as to tie middle class tax cuts to the tracks in order to save the project.

Comments as far as that goes can go a million ways since the scope of he project is really hard to figure out from what information is publically available.  It almost looks like both parties are working for Big Oil, the GOP is being greedy/stupid about it, and the Dems are elbowing them under the desk and whispering "Stop you idiots!"
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Thad

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #768 on: December 15, 2011, 09:04:07 AM »

Census data: Half of U.S. poor or low income

Quote
The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

There's some fucking grist for OWS.
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Brentai

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #769 on: December 17, 2011, 01:10:46 AM »

Looks like a compromise has been reached.  In return for buckling on milionaire taxes and the keystone XL pipeline, we get... looser restrictions on travel to Cuba.

And only a two month extension so we can bend over again faster.

At least we don't have to worry about the middle class paying more in taxes, because all that's going to be covered by slapping huge fees onto new mortgages.  You know, those things that are basically essential for upwards mobility among the non-elite.

How the hell do you negotiate a worse deal than what they offered in the first place?  It's actually a bigger shaft than just letting the cuts expire.  If Obama signs this then I will vote for fucking Santorum over him.

EDIT: Cuts to Pell Grants too, because if you're never going to be able to buy a house, you don't really need an education either.
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Burrito Al Pastor

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #770 on: December 17, 2011, 11:06:46 PM »

What, it took this for you to not want to vote for him? I gave up on Obama when he appropriated the right to drone-murder American citizens without judicial oversight.
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Brentai

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #771 on: December 17, 2011, 11:08:44 PM »

Well there's a whole spectrum between "not actually wanting to vote for him" and "thinking Mussolini would at least keep the trains running on time".
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Thad

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #772 on: December 19, 2011, 08:39:50 AM »

Didn't pass the House.

I'll give the Tea Partiers one thing: they're on the same page I am regarding two-month Band-Aids.

The Democrats, of course, get exactly what they wanted: they get to go home for Christmas and blame the Republicans for raising taxes.

I don't have much of anything positive to say about any of this, but I'm inclined to agree with Brent that we're better off with a tax increase than the deal we would have gotten.
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Thad

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #773 on: December 21, 2011, 10:29:04 AM »

BB: Complex Systems Institute claims "bear raid" market manipulation crashed the global economy

Bit of an exaggeration inasmuch as Citi didn't precipitate the recession all by itself, but leaving aside the headline it's an interesting story of just one more risky investment strategy that contributed to the meltdown.
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Mongrel

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #774 on: December 21, 2011, 02:20:49 PM »

It also appears to be yet another case of post-great-crash regulation, which was subsequantly repealed in the 90's or 00's to disastrous effect.

What do you want to bet that legistation was never restored?
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Mongrel

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #775 on: December 24, 2011, 11:50:44 AM »

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Thad

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #776 on: December 27, 2011, 09:14:19 AM »

Holiday sales not good for Sears this year; they're closing 100-120 stores.
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Brentai

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #777 on: December 27, 2011, 09:56:12 AM »

Considering how badly Sears tried to fuck me over this year, I'm inclined to say that's their own damned fault.
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Thad

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #778 on: December 27, 2011, 11:59:33 AM »

Yeah, but my response is about the same as to the disaster facing the traditional news media: a less diverse market is a bad thing even if I don't feel sympathy for the specific players who have gotten themselves into this mess, and I still feel bad for the thousands of people who aren't responsible but are losing their jobs anyway.
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Mongrel

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Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« Reply #779 on: December 29, 2011, 09:07:53 AM »

What is Money and How Do You Destroy It?

A very good basic primer on monetary policy and currency, courtesy of the WSJ. You may find it useful yourself, or to share with people.
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