51–60 of 136 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Envelopes are for sissies ;-)
Well, it is true that probably 100% of my BOEC calculations are done entirely without the use of a physical envelope, so I couldn't disagree with you.
It's an interesting story but the frightening thing is the comments of people wondering out loud what's wrong with inflation, or asking for more inflation in the USA. Out of control inflation is a terrifying, society-destroying phenomenon. Stable and prosperous societies rely on stable money values.
The people who are asking for more inflation in the USA are asking for something in the 2% range, or (for those who are truly bold) asking for prices to rise to the level they would be at if inflation had remained in the 2% range for the past five years or so. Stable money is good, but so is providing people with an incentive to spend and invest, rather than incentives to hoard cash and default on their debts.
What scientists, technocrats and economists forget is that public policy is rarely driven by rationality. It is driven mostly by private interests, demagoguery, blind ideology, prejudice and the public misconceptions.
The idea of taking a little bit of a very dangerous medicine is something that no one should take lightheartedly.
Hopefully the U.S. won't ever have to deal with this type of issue (out of control inflation). I'm very surprised that inflation hasn't hit the U.S. yet in a big way, but from what I hear that is because China and the U.S. are buying U.S. treasury bonds in a big way.
but the big problem for you guys is: it's expected that China holds something around 1 trillion of the US GDP in treasury bonds. So whenever they feel the US economy isn't trustworthy anymore, selling these will hit like a train. their growth rate is really high right now, so it's a delicate situation.
"He said, 'Well, I've just been named the finance minister. You know I don’t know economics, so please come to meet me in Brasilia tomorrow,' " Bacha recalls. So, three things had to happen: 1. A politician had to admit his ignorance 2. Some bright spark technocrat somewhere had the right solution to a seemingly impossible problem. 3. The right politician asked for help from the right technocrat They're not kidding.…
It's a matter of governement control (assuming your are not connected to the outside world/Internet and don't have, therefore, a real-time currency update). Let's assume gov. X, printed an additional $3bn. Will prices increase? No, they won't. The gov. can use this money, to do things, like building roads, schools... These expenses has to be considered as investments; if roads are built, industry will benefit and exp…
The government could do things like building roads, but they are usually just using that extra paper to pay off their debts, which makes investors demand a higher interest rate to hold the debt, which leads to a vicious cycle. Inflation is caused by the speed of money creation exceeding the speed of creation of real value, and the banking sector is not the only actor in the money creation process.
An extra level of indirection? Reminded me of the quote: "All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection"
An extra level of indirection? Reminded me of the quote: "All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It only works the first time you try it. Afterward, everyone with a stake in the country's direction realizes that having a technocrat who shares your views and has personal access to the administration is a great way to influence policy. The money spigot opens, and pretty soon having the 'right' opinion is far better for your career than independence. Survivor bias eventually ensures that the technocracy is dominate…
> It only works the first time you try it. Once for every generation. Don't overestimate people's ability to remember. Besides, if you do it correctly, you only need to do it once. I don't trust the current favorite candidate to keep doing it right, BTW.
It really only works once.
Just like the New Deal only worked once and now every scam just claims it's the New, New Deal.
Sure, the populace might have a memory of a generation but the technocrats have a longer memory and after first success, the next effort is dogged by the realization, "look what I'm going to get, look who I get to be..." (as the gp said, it's the careers of the technocrats one has to look at).
I say this looking at the horrible, awful fail of the current president, a fail of what could have been the renewal of the country but by this very mechanism was fore-ordained to be a lurid catastrophe. Roosevelt sold out a lot to Wall Street too, btw, he just had a clean enough start to make his approach work.
Really, These deals only work once per country...
An extra level of indirection? Reminded me of the quote: "All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection"