Competitive or competent?
U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade
41–50 of 124 posts
Re: U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is news about this today. McConnell is demanding that the Democrats work with Republicans to cut entitlement programs. Even though they control all three branches and are the ones who passed the very expensive tax cuts.
Isn't it too early to say what the cost of the tax cuts were? If the Republicans are right, they'll spur enough economic growth to be a net gain across the board in both new economic activity (wealth). I don't know if there's a proper name for it, but I'd much prefer a dollar spent in the private sector so the government doesn't have to spend two just to accomplish the same thing.
> I don't know if there's a proper name for it
Voodoo Economics
Re: U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade
#43And fewer and fewer people benefit from it.
So okay. Great. Now let's do it in a way that doesn't turn the entire nation into a series of hyper-reactionary tribes fighting over leftovers.
Re: U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is news about this today. McConnell is demanding that the Democrats work with Republicans to cut entitlement programs. Even though they control all three branches and are the ones who passed the very expensive tax cuts.
There has been a clear trend for decades now showing that the defecit grows under Republican presidents and shrinks under Democratic ones. Aside from cultural issues like abortion the Republican agenda seems so far removed from what their constitancy needs it's hard to fathom. The next time Democrats are in control you'll be sure to see GOP complaints that the defecit is a problem and entitlements should be on the ch…
> The next time Democrats are in control you'll be sure to see GOP complaints that the defecit is a problem and entitlements should be on the chopping block.
They are actually doing that right now, even though they created the massive deficit increase.
That's because to them, entitlements are the problem, and the deficit is just the standard excuse.
Re: U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
This was by design. Reduce income and leave no choice but cut spending.
[DELETED]
Is that true? [0]
The real question would be "inflation adjusted per-capita tax receipts over time" but a mid-work googling didn't turn up anything promising; that being said from the above graph _and_ the knowledge that inflation is increasing, your statement doesn't seem to mesh. Feel free to point out if I was really thick and got the wrong data or something.
Re: U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade
#46Meanwhile, household debt is at it's all-time high, $13.3 trillion... surpassing its previous peak in 2008. https://www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomics/hhdc.html This article seems like fluff/propaganda.
when ppl think of household debt, they think big screen TVs and other discretionary items, but it's actually mostly mortgages and student loans https://www.valuewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/US-Hous...
Which is even scarier.
In case of default, discretionary items can be seize and sold to at least repay part of the debt (while decreasing quality of life).
2008 has shown what seizing houses leads to.
Now think that there is nothing to seize for student debt loans.
If you fail to get a good enough income using the degree you paid using debt, you are as hopeless as if you had used it all on hookers and cocaine. At least with discretionary items you have a big TV which holds some value.
Re: U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
There has been a clear trend for decades now showing that the defecit grows under Republican presidents and shrinks under Democratic ones. Aside from cultural issues like abortion the Republican agenda seems so far removed from what their constitancy needs it's hard to fathom. The next time Democrats are in control you'll be sure to see GOP complaints that the defecit is a problem and entitlements should be on the ch…
It does makes sense from their standpoint though. In their mind, everything they want to spend money on is necessary, while everything the other party wants to spend money on is wasteful.
The missing piece of logic is that the Republicans don't actually want to fund their expenditures. Democrats may be the party of tax and spend, but Republicans are the party of just spend. The former provides back pressure to the electorate, the latter is a recipe for ruining the country regardless of your policy preferences.
Re: U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade
#48Is it just me or has the HN front page been more overtly political in the last few days? This is #1, some fear-mongering about China from Bloomberg is #2 (as if we forgot their technical fear-mongering about China the other day), and both of the stories are mainstream news (explicitly discouraged in the Guidelines) and have no particular "hacker" angle, except insofar as many hackers participate in the world economy…
Yea I've noticed that too, especially the number of bogus Bloomberg articles. They get upvoted because people don't know the guidelines and just vote on stuff they find interesting, so perhaps it's a moderator who should be trimming the feed a little more closely?
People always bring up “the guidelines” when they see content they don’t like.
However, the fact of the matter is that people are free to upvote things they find interesting. If you don’t find something interesting, you don’t have to read it or comment on it.
Re: U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade
#49That economic growth came at a pretty severe cost though. The budget deficit blew out by 17% in 2018 as a result of the tax cuts.
For a long time I couldn't wrap my head around why defecits matter to the US when we print our currency. To be honest I still don't fully understand the hand wringing over a balanced budget and reading more about modern monetary theory is leading me to believe that for a superpower which issues it's own currency the defecit is more of a political issue that a concrete one.
The defecit just keeps ballooning but the only thing stopping the US government from running are self imposed restrictions on debt (the "debt ceiling"). The US is not a company, and it's not a normal household, why does the budget matter?
Re: U.S. Is World’s Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't the Bloomberg thing literally about hacking? Or are you talking about a different China Bloomberg article than I am
I think they mean the one that is #2 right now about China's hidden debt.
Economics is totally fair game IMO.
But if we start seeing articles about, say, midterm elections, that would suck. :)