Live data from Hacker News

What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis

bloomberg.com

31–40 of 247 posts

Re: What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis

#32

I think they just don't understand almost anything. I have a real problem with the economists. Take four professors of economics into a room and ask a simple question. A question like "is this a good thing for X to implement Y", like "is this good for the Great Britain to exit the EU" or "is this a good thing to increase taxes for the rich". Just ask - you will get at least 5 different answers to every question. Thos…

[deleted]

Re: What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis

#33
Or more simply put...unregulated greed eventually runs out of buyers and the sellers are left with overpriced junk.

Of course I still don't get why the three ratings agencies are allowed to continue without actually doing their jobs or how banks pay the ratings agencies and _tell_ them what their "paper" ratings should be.

It's all a trust game and when one of the players decides (inevitably) to game the game, the house of cards collapses....and those of us that rely on a normalized system of monetary policy are screwed.

Re: What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They know what they are doing, the main players are extracting wealth. The financial market is one big casino were the bankers can extract as much wealth as possible in the name of providing liquidity. The suckers(masses) are the rest of us via our 401/pension funds. They know what exactly they are doing.

Active traders tend to lose money relative to the “rest of us” passive index investors.

Unless they are a market making financial institution, yeah.

Re: What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis

#36
post #9

My own theory after digging sometime into Economics is that no one seems to have a clear idea what on earth we are actually doing. We all seems to have our own theory, and they all seems to answer half of the question. And in practice none of them currently models the world we have now. And it will take a long time before any of those theory are proved to be correct this time around. May be we can finally say Keynesi…

China is not fudging the numbers. otherwise, it would imply that major US companies that do business with China are also fudging their numbers. Trade with china has surged in recent decades.

They could fudge, using subsidies and dumping. For example free overseas shipping for most small items from Ali Express.

Re: What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis

#37
post #9

My own theory after digging sometime into Economics is that no one seems to have a clear idea what on earth we are actually doing. We all seems to have our own theory, and they all seems to answer half of the question. And in practice none of them currently models the world we have now. And it will take a long time before any of those theory are proved to be correct this time around. May be we can finally say Keynesi…

There will rarely be a perfectly correct model of economics, and there are two main challenges of why that is not something achievable.

First, because economics is the study of exchange, which means the exchange between a human being and another one. Understanding human behavior in its totality is like trying to understand our brains or our own consciousness. It suffers from a halting-problem level dilemma.

Second, because the study of economy tends to be about its application, it will always fail to obtain perfectly predictable results because humans are not perfectly predictable. And humans fight back. It is aking to believing you found the perfect method of making someone fall in love with you: as desirable as it is preposterous to believe you can achieve it.

Whatever model of economics you have, if it has room for 1% of human behavior, rest assured that its enough to take it down.

Re: What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis

#38

the post-2009 recovery is now the longest ever ,exceeding the 90's even, and I think it will last much longer given how low interest rates still are and the absence of any problems. I think this calls into doubt business cycles and other concepts economists take for granted. The steady-state economy (similar to that of Australia) where there are few, if any, recessions may be the applicable model. People get too hung…

Australia absolutely has business cycles and recessions. Here's a paper describing them:

  https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/30/Key-Features-of-Australian-Business-Cycles-15438
Granted, the paper is from 2001, but it describes what's unique about the Australian cycle--symmetry between growth and recession periods. Rather than short, sharp recessions with prolonged growth, Australia has extended periods of growth followed by extended periods of recession. Moreover, it says that Australia's cycle strongly correlates with changes in supply, which I suppose isn't shocking considering that Australia in many respects has an island economy.

Re: What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They know what they are doing, the main players are extracting wealth. The financial market is one big casino were the bankers can extract as much wealth as possible in the name of providing liquidity. The suckers(masses) are the rest of us via our 401/pension funds. They know what exactly they are doing.

Active traders tend to lose money relative to the “rest of us” passive index investors.

This is something that will not work forever. If 100% of investors were passive, they would get fleeced.

Passive investing works thanks to active investing. Funny huh?

Re: What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis

#40

the post-2009 recovery is now the longest ever ,exceeding the 90's even, and I think it will last much longer given how low interest rates still are and the absence of any problems. I think this calls into doubt business cycles and other concepts economists take for granted. The steady-state economy (similar to that of Australia) where there are few, if any, recessions may be the applicable model. People get too hung…

"The steady-state economy (similar to that of Australia) where there are few, if any, recessions may be the applicable model"

People talking like this are a strong indicator for a big blow up coming soon from my experience.

Post reply on HN