Topic: It's the economy, stupid! (Read 73305 times)

Thad · « **Reply #780 on:** December 29, 2011, 09:32:10 AM »

Good link.

The WSJ is, of course, a fucking great source for actual information about money and economics, even after the Murdoch buyout. It's just the editorials where it's completely nuts.

Mongrel · « **Reply #781 on:** December 30, 2011, 09:01:41 AM »

A good general history on the Euro's path to destruction.

If you want the best "Idiot's guide to what went wrong with the Euro" history summation, this isn't it, but it's still a decent overview. The main bonus for this particular article is a wide range of direct interview material with former European leaders involved in the creation of the common market and the Euro, so there's some nice history in there.

Mongrel · « **Reply #782 on:** January 18, 2012, 08:48:28 AM »

From a fellow I know in the UK

Quote

Quote
Thatcher state funeral to be privatised

Responsible department: Cabinet Office

In keeping with the great lady's legacy, Margaret Thatcher's state funeral should be funded and managed by the private sector to offer the best value and choice for end users and other stakeholders. The undersigned believe that the legacy of the former PM deserves nothing less and that offering this unique opportunity is an ideal way to cut government expense and further prove the merits of liberalised economics Baroness Thatcher spearheaded.
An amusingly satirical petition I found on the UK Government website.

Büge · « **Reply #783 on:** January 18, 2012, 09:03:01 AM »

govt worker 1: "So how much did we make?"

govt worker 2: (shakes a coffee can) "We've got enough here to tie her up in a garbage bag and throw her in the Thames."

Shinra · « **Reply #784 on:** January 18, 2012, 09:42:51 AM »

The cleanup cost for the river afterwards would far exceed the savings on the funeral. Better to just encase her corpse in cement and dump it in a clean, dry tunnel under the earth.

Mongrel · « **Reply #785 on:** January 20, 2012, 09:21:14 PM »

I think my fellow Brontos will appreciate it more than most that the phrase "Aggregate Demand" is returning as a popular economic buzzword.

Mongrel · « **Reply #786 on:** January 22, 2012, 10:55:49 AM »

The governor of the Bank of Canada think the US economy may never fully recover

Right or wrong (and Mark Carney is a bright guy who I like quite a bit), that's quite a statement.

Brentai · « **Reply #787 on:** January 22, 2012, 11:11:46 AM »

He's probably talking about the grossly overinflated bubble of the Bush years, which is fine. If we DID recover to that state then it would just be another setup for a worldwide crapper drop.

Now, ask most of the REST of the country, and those years were our divine national mandate and Carney is committing some sort of blasphemy by saying that.

Thad · « **Reply #788 on:** January 22, 2012, 11:32:58 AM »

Well, those or the Clinton years. That's the beautiful thing about partisanship.

(On the whole I DO think the Clinton boom was more sustainable, but it relied too heavily on the dotcom bubble, on deregulation and other corporate asskissery that has since come 'round to bite us, and didn't do much to help people living under the poverty line.)

Thad · « **Reply #789 on:** January 30, 2012, 10:38:26 AM »

Krugman: The Austerity Debacle

Quote

How could the economy thrive when unemployment was already high, and government policies were directly reducing employment even further? Confidence! “I firmly believe,” declared Jean-Claude Trichet — at the time the president of the European Central Bank, and a strong advocate of the doctrine of expansionary austerity — “that in the current circumstances confidence-inspiring policies will foster and not hamper economic recovery, because confidence is the key factor today.”

Such invocations of the confidence fairy were never plausible; researchers at the International Monetary Fund and elsewhere quickly debunked the supposed evidence that spending cuts create jobs. Yet influential people on both sides of the Atlantic heaped praise on the prophets of austerity, Mr. Cameron in particular, because the doctrine of expansionary austerity dovetailed with their ideological agendas.

Mongrel · « **Reply #790 on:** January 30, 2012, 11:40:54 AM »

In fairness to the pro-austerity crowd, the issue is deeperm, in that horrific overspending resulted in debt levels that were questionable before 2008 and horrible after the initial round of post-2008 stimulus.

In theory debt carry levels could have been pushed higher and overall debt loads would have been high, but still somewhat sustainable. But aggressive ratings-agency action has created a problem for everyone (At the end of the day, did anyone really think even the shakier European nations would realistically default? They were caught in a ratings spiral that really could have been avoided).

Which is not to say Krugman isn't right. An austerity death spiral will fuck up anyone. The real victim of the ideological nonsense is a sensible solution plan that would feature a substantial tax increases for higher earners as a centrepeice (and serious labour-market reform in Europe).

Thad · « **Reply #791 on:** February 01, 2012, 08:54:16 AM »

Probably the most important story of the week but I'm not seeing much coverage outside of NPR:

Quote from: http://www.propublica.org/article/freddy-mac-mortgage-eisinger-arnold

Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-owned mortgage giant, has placed multibillion-dollar bets that pay off if homeowners stay trapped in expensive mortgages with interest rates well above current rates.

Freddie began increasing these bets dramatically in late 2010, the same time that the company was making it harder for homeowners to get out of such high-interest mortgages.

(ALSO: this would be a case of NPR exposing embarrassing and potentially shady dealings at Freddy Mac. Who are Republicans to side with when two of their favorite boogeymen are at odds?)

Brentai · « **Reply #792 on:** February 01, 2012, 09:29:14 AM »

I'm going to go with the entity they have stock in.

Mongrel · « **Reply #793 on:** February 12, 2012, 04:57:53 PM »

Looks like Greece voted for the new austerity measures, nominally staying in the Euro and avoiding all-out default. For now.

At this point I'm not sure if anyone anywhere really has any idea if that's the best decision for them or not.

Büge · « **Reply #794 on:** February 13, 2012, 08:11:20 AM »

I'm sure that future historians will say that they were careening towards something and will debate as to how they could have not seen the outcome from this juncture when all the signs were there.

Mongrel · « **Reply #795 on:** February 13, 2012, 09:20:12 AM »

Shit, half the analysts are saying that NOW.

The main reason we're all playing the denial game is because oh shit Portugal, Spain, Italy, etc. Hell, France even. If Greece stays as the main show long enough, those countries have a sliver of a ghost of a hair of a chance to pull out enough to merely be in bad shape as opposed to trapped in the drain-circling nightmare the Greeks face.

Thing is, new federal elections in Greece are scheduled for April. And pretty well all the main parties are set to be destroyed and replaced by sharp leftist and rightist fringe or semi-fringe parties. So the next chapter is coming soon.

JDigital · « **Reply #796 on:** February 13, 2012, 02:51:52 PM »

Whose fault is all this again?

Mongrel · « **Reply #797 on:** February 13, 2012, 03:08:05 PM »

It's always all my fault.

Pacobird · « **Reply #798 on:** February 13, 2012, 03:42:43 PM »

Don't know if I saw it here or elsewhere but Vanity Fair's got Michael Lewis's (Moneyball, The Big Short) most recent article up, this time on Greece and how Greece is insane.

I've only had time to read a little bit, but so far it's almost as hilarious as his Vanity Fair article on Iceland's financial meltdown a few years ago.*

*iirc he asks the interim minister of finance if he knows Bjork, and the minister replies that of course he does; everybody knows her and her mother and they have a reputation around Reykjavik (pop. 120,000) for being nuts.

Mongrel · « **Reply #799 on:** February 13, 2012, 03:52:31 PM »

Can't find any new such article, but Michael Lewis did a previous Vanity Fair article on Greece in 2010 (It's agonizing to think how long this has already gone on) which is just as ridiculous, no doubt.

I think I've linked this before, but here it is again.

News:

Author Topic: It's the economy, stupid! (Read 73305 times)