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Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

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Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#141

Post by lotsofpulp »

IAmBroom wrote: post #115
throwaway5465 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China has grown old before it grew rich. The past decade has been one of a collapsed houehold sector (and birth rate below the already gloomy concensus back in 2010), general deflation, and bright lights and conspicious technology achieved only through throwing government spending at ritzy projects - centrally planned growth and waste. Being unable to escape the domestic security agenda will forever neuter global asp…

> India is yet to harmonise widespread organisation. I've always said that if India got a unified national language they would become a nearly instant world power. Imagine an India where English was mandated in every public school - and every child, regardless of caste (which officially doesn't exist...), attended school. English, because it's more internationally useful than Hindi, and doesn't have the same ethnolog…

Isn’t English the de facto national language in India? Everyone who can afford to, teaches their kid English.

India’s big problem is lack of natural resources, and lack of clear hierarchy to manage the limited resources (including choosing to screw some people for the greater good). China had the same issue of enormous population relative to natural resources, but it had the clear hierarchy to be able to execute.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#142

Post by Hendrikto »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #97
Hendrikto wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you do not get votes, it’s not the voters who failed, it is you. If politicians got that through their heads, and started trying to convince voters on their own merit, instead of simply trash-talking their opponents and telling people they voted “wrong”, they would start to get things done again, and we could actually solve real problems.

When voters vote for the person who baseless attacked an election (counts as treason in my book), and campaigned on aiding and abetting those who perpetrated treason against the country, it is the voters (and non voters) who failed.

You fell into the same trap: You only provided an argument for WHY NOT to vote for Trump. Instead, provide an argument for why to vote for somebody else.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#143

Post by aosaigh »

daft_pink wrote: post #130

Reality is that the US doesn’t want control of the world. Why do we want the blame for the world’s problems. Let the world take care of their own problems.

> Why do we want the blame for the world’s problems

Because the US was complicit in creating many of them

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#144

Post by vdupras »

corimaith wrote: post #140
vdupras wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That "consumption" is such a difficult thing to do is a preposterous idea, since you can always set things on fire. These theories are all make believe. I mean, what makes american so special in their ability to consume? An african can watch football on their 54" TV just as well as an american. Just ship this crap there instead of in the US if you're so concerned about consuming it. It's trade imbalance! You ship stu…

>That "consumption" is such a difficult thing to do is a preposterous idea, since you can always set things on fire. These theories are all make believe. Well if you believe so you can go present your findings to policymakers or the CCP rather than in internet forum comments. They would be VERY interested to know what revolutionary insights you have that hundreds of economists are unable to solve.

Propaganda is supposed to be for the proles. Whatever those bureaucrats say is not the candid truth, that should be obvious to anybody. Once the elite begins absorbing it at its first level of speech, it's a sure sign that the nation is in decline.

We don't refer to the same problem. This problem you're referring to is not about finding those people who have the ability, so rare among non-american people, to consume stuff. It's about ramping up production while at the same time paying tribute to the US. This is, indeed, a difficult problem to solve and no doubts requires the best minds of the economic academia world.

However, the nature of the problem changes once the US stops being the world police. The problem becomes figuring out what's the pecking order now.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#145

Post by rchaud »

IAmBroom wrote: post #115
throwaway5465 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China has grown old before it grew rich. The past decade has been one of a collapsed houehold sector (and birth rate below the already gloomy concensus back in 2010), general deflation, and bright lights and conspicious technology achieved only through throwing government spending at ritzy projects - centrally planned growth and waste. Being unable to escape the domestic security agenda will forever neuter global asp…

> India is yet to harmonise widespread organisation. I've always said that if India got a unified national language they would become a nearly instant world power. Imagine an India where English was mandated in every public school - and every child, regardless of caste (which officially doesn't exist...), attended school. English, because it's more internationally useful than Hindi, and doesn't have the same ethnolog…

India is divided by its caste system and religion to a much greater extent than it is by language. Successive governments have put far more effort into dominating its Muslim and Sikh minorities than implementing a high - quality universal education system that harmonizes a base level of skill across the population. The most educated state in the country is the Communist-run Kerala where the people speak Malayalam.

India is similar to the USSR in that it buckets disparate languages, religions and cultures into a single nation with inevitable separatist tendencies.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#146

Post by giardini »

QuadmasterXLII wrote: post #52
Molitor5901 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the US is giving up control willingly and turning more isolationist. It has been building for some time but I do not thing it is forced. It is a deliberate policy shift turning away from trying to control and police the world. America is pushed in and on to other countries and societies that a retraction might be the best thing

The US is currently starting a war with Venezuela. You are ascribing coherence and deliberateness where I don’t see evidence for its presence.

The US is pulling back from NATO and simultaneously re-asserting dominance in the Americas, i.e., the Munroe Doctrine, which has suffered setbacks in recent decades.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#147

Post by AnimalMuppet »

vdupras wrote: post #131
corimaith wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>for free to the US would suddenly have a big existential problem No they're not sending it for free, the US dollars and IOUs are real and ultimately translated into maintaining the salaries of millions of factory workers. Thats the whole point of export driven growth. Trying to abstract away the balance sheet as imaginary is not how real economics works. The CCP, the IMF, World Bank, BIS, etc certainly aren't thinki…

That "consumption" is such a difficult thing to do is a preposterous idea, since you can always set things on fire. These theories are all make believe. I mean, what makes american so special in their ability to consume? An african can watch football on their 54" TV just as well as an american. Just ship this crap there instead of in the US if you're so concerned about consuming it. It's trade imbalance! You ship stu…

Setting stuff on fire is easy. Setting stuff on fire and getting paid for it in a way that you can pay your factory workers is a lot harder.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#148

Post by AnimalMuppet »

corimaith wrote: post #60
next_xibalba wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why assume rebalancing is mainly a demand problem but not a (slow) supply-constrained adjustment driven by demographics, capital stickiness, and institutional limits (in deficit countries)?

Read Michael Pettis

Could you be a bit more specific?

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#149

Post by giardini »

aa-jv wrote: post #119
pjc50 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's overestimating their influence and, crucially, their size. The country barely has a navy and is dependent on oil imports.

Do you forget their deal with the NSA? And their financial prowess?

What "deal"?

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#150

Post by giardini »

akka47 wrote: post #15

Thank god. I don't understand how we, as in humanity, allow a single country to be "world police". Seriously, no one asked for it.

A "world police" are useful to almost everyone (nations involved in international trade) for situations such as piracy or border enforcement on the high seas. OTOH being such police is a costly endeavor so most nations will do their best to avoid investment and get a free ride.
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