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The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

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Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#341

Post by tomcam »

southeastern wrote: post #161
cloudinshape wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to square the circle. Wages in the US are artificially high because of the dollar's position, but the US needs to either a) match the wages of the countries producing similar stuff or b) increase productivity and value to the levels of countries like Germany. Since b) requires decades in factories, supply chains, trade agreements and most importantly training in actually producing things which means science…

>keep forcing the rest of the world to pay for the US standard of living while they themselves live beneath their means, but that is the actual problem now so how much longer can it last Our entire society is built on this, though. Silicon Valley wouldn't exist if electronics couldn't be produced for comparatively cheaper overseas. You bring up an interesting moral point, but if you're serious about that there's a lo…

> Silicon Valley wouldn't exist if electronics couldn't be produced for comparatively cheaper overseas

Silicon Valley literally exists because it was an electronics manufacturing center.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#342

Post by ldng »

slaw wrote: post #336
ldng wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not the point and never was ! When your hospital is saturated by people that ultimately will survive but need 3 to 4 weeks to recover, you're going to die from anything but covid. You're in a car crash? To bad hospital is saturated. You got 4th degree burn in a burning building? To bad hospital is saturated. Do you realise that is the problem?

Sweden's hospitals were never saturated despite no lockdown. Italy's hospitals are saturated every flu season. Hospitals are saturated, because we want to keep these people alive for few more months. Younger people don't need hospitalization. You are in car crash, too bad hospitals are only admitting people with covid. This is current situation in Poland.

Sweden did not need lockdown because, like Asia, people there were more disciplined. Numbers show road traffic dropped significantly during the first semester : people stayed home without being ordered to. Some culture will never do that by themselves.

Youngers are less affected but some absolutely do need hospitalization. Reality is not as black or white as you're making it.

The situation is like that in Poland ... and the solution is geronticide ?

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#343

Post by BoiledCabbage »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #211
omgwtfbyobbq wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

40 people coming from Mexico is highly unlikely to lead to 230,000 US cases/day. It may be inaccurate news, but calling it fake is needlessly hyperbolic. The contention isn't that overall funding was cut, it's that certain groups within the CDC saw significant cuts, and those cuts reduced readiness. https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN21C3N5 Regardless of whether Trump's missteps were politicized, they were…

> 40 people coming from Mexico is highly unlikely to lead to 230,000 US cases/day. Contagions have exponential growth. 40 people coming from Mexico after you've lifted the lockdowns means you need to continue them to keep the 40 from turning into a thousand and then hundreds of thousands. Which means lockdowns of the severity Australia used are useless here because you can never get below the floor necessary to lift…

> The point is that they weren't missteps. Calling out someone for not actually doing something wrong in order to stir up controversy and ratings and politicize a public health issue is contemptible. Defending yourself against a baseless personal attack is not.

What a straw man. You realize there were photos of daily meetings with large groups, bill signings, news reports on how masks were barely worn in the white house. Yes he didn't wear masks as press conferences because they entire administration was lax about mask usage. And then for you to argue and only mention the press conferences is extremely disingenuous.

And that's separate from the Mexico argument. To me, it's incredible how little responsibility certain groups of people take for their own actions. A political party that has continuously downplayed the cheapest, low effort, low cost method of stopping the virus, instead again tries to blame Mexico instead of taking responsibility for their own actions.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#344

Post by moralsupply »

silexia wrote: post #213
ekam wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s wrong with Bitcoin?

If legislation came against it, it would have it's value damaged. No one seems to use it for actual transactions. It uses enormous amounts of electricity.

> It uses enormous amounts of electricity.

Consider that the "proof of work" of fiat currencies is taxation + inflation (which wipes 1/2 of all your productivity), and you'll quickly realize that Bitcoin's PoW is considerably more efficient.

Also, Gold, Silver and other precious metals are more expensive to mine than Bitcoin, when measured on a store of value basis.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#345

Post by CountSessine »

hannasanarion wrote: post #303
CountSessine wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average operating margin for the S&P 500 is 10.53% (although that may have been 2018). And economists are worried that even that is high - traditional manufacturers like Ford typically manage operating margins of ~5%. Workers are already getting 95%. And then everything after that like R&D, marketing, and capital amortization has to come out of that 5%. And then finally a bit is left over for earnings for the own…

workers are not getting 95%. Corporate profit and revenue is at an all time high, but wages are down since the 1980s. All that corporate growth goes into price fixing schemes and mergers to establish monopoly, and "consulting fees" to suspiciously named LLCs in the Caymans.

Read some 10-Qs for some big companies sometime. You might be surprised. Like I said - S&P 500 average operating margin was 10.53% a couple of years ago. And that’s crazy high - probably because of pharma stocks and the US’ dysfunctional generic drug regulation.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#346

Post by BoiledCabbage »

howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #141
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #95

> At this stage, instead of just blue-collar labor in America being hurt by the system, the geopolitical ambitions of United States hegemony are also subverted. As far as Americans were concerned, for 40+ years the petrodollar system used to work for the top half of the income spectrum but not really the bottom half, and now it neither particularly works for the top half nor the bottom half. It’s now a system without…

I'm here to tell you that Democrat controlled Congress will NEVER support the regulatory reforms necessary for domestic manufacturing to flourish in the US. At best, they will enact protectionist legislation that will result in a modest increase in US MFG, but nothing on the order necessary to make the US a major player in the global supply chain.

And I here to tell you that regulatory reforms won't bring back manufacturing jobs because they aren't what's stopping them. The reason items aren't manufactured in the US is due to the dollar being so strong. That's what makes American products so expensive.

No regulation changes bring manufacturing back with this strong of a dollar.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#347

Post by kamaal »

te_chris wrote: post #206
tachyonbeam wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is trying to do exactly what you describe. Build "the machine that builds the machine", as Elon Musk would say. I agree with you that trying to compete on low-cost, low-margin is a race to the bottom. We could conceivably bring manufacturing of iPhones back to America. I would also imagine that manufacturing of silicon is largely automated, so the US could try to build the best fabs.

Tesla has done some reverse Chinese equity investment swap thing and is now at least somewhat a Chinese company building manufacturing capacity and innovation in EVs. Musk is a lot of things, and one thing is clear: he’s an opportunist more than a US economic nationalist. He will not be the saviour of American industry.

>>one thing is clear: he’s an opportunist more than a US economic nationalist. He will not be the saviour of American industry.

Reading this as a non-American. Isn't 'opportunity' the whole reason behind immigration?

If your country relies on continuous supply of heroes and not sound systems and policies, no one single person can save you.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#348

Post by kamaal »

TruthHurts44 wrote: post #337
recursivedoubts wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a recent youtube of a Chinese professor discussing how china has gotten along so well with the US while the great migration of manufacturing occurred. It boiled down to wall street being fine with moving manufacturing abroad, as they don't identify with, and in fact despise, the American working class. Pretty depressing.

If they despised the working class they would've pushed for removal of the useless rules the West has - health and safety, generous pensions for hard jobs(like miners), minimum wage, etc.

That assumes they want to help those people.

In reality they just want to help themselves in the easiest way they can.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#349

Post by pnutjam »

simonh wrote: post #338
pnutjam wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I say taxes aren't necessary. Just hold companies accountable for every step in their manufacturing chain. They need to audit and ensure factories address meeting or standards for the workers. I don't mean wages, I mean safety, overtime, etc. Labor needs to be valued at home and abroad.

I'm all for holding companies accountable for their supply chain management, but within reason. I can't see the US government accepting EU employment contract, health, safety and business practices imposed on the US arbitrarily. There has to be some flexibility. Let's be clear, the west has reaped _staggering_ economic benefits from opening up China. Of course there have been costs too, some of them painful, but that…

It's not the other country accepting, it's ensuring the company adheres to certain standards in it's supply chain. Any penalties would be assessed against the US based company.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#350

Post by mbesto »

jtbayly wrote: post #340
mbesto wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> mocking the idea of bringing manufacturing back and saying how dumb Republicans are for wanting to do it. At what point did I ever say Republicans were dumb for wanting it? I'm mocking the idea that Republicans actively denounced corporate welfare (saying it's a Democratic thing), yet just do it themselves (and then fail at actually make the change for that matter). Take your triggered self over to Reddit.

The discussion was about manufacturing and whether it was a good idea to bring it back and if so how. I don’t think your comments have added anything of value to that discussion, just bringing politics in for the sake of mocking.

The parent comment mentioned he is a registered republican, so its relevant. I was merely making a joke about that since they referenced that in their comment. They also mentioned:

> the last LCD panel manufacturer in the US closed around then and we could no longer manufacture LCD for our military vehicles

Where did they say it was a good idea or a bad idea? Where did I say it was a bad idea? My reply was commenting specifically on the fact that the party he supports literally tried to manufacture the one item he was referring to and failed at it.

Maybe YOU'RE the one with little value added to this discussion other than getting triggered.

EDIT: Just to clarify - you seem to be only focusing on one part of my comment an interpreting exactly what you want to hear. Maybe take a step back and realize what's important to you.

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