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I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

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Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#491

Post by throwmeariver1 »

skeptikal wrote: post #443
throwmeariver1 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weaker fundamentals? Do you really think the relationships with third world countries are more strained than were during active colonization? Russia and China did a lot of work with their infrastructure programs but I am still not sure they have the upper hand.

Our industrial base is gutted and we don't have enough resources. Not enough to sustain our extravagant lifestyles. Europe has to find a way to buy Rubles quickly or choose between freezing or damaging capital goods (there are industries that cant be shut down because they get damaged). There’s not enough American LNG to rescue Europe, and if there were there arent enough ports to import it. Anyway, nascent American…

I would suggest different wall colors and some daylight.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#492

Post by everfree »

bradwood wrote: post #487
everfree wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Treasuries are considered zero risk in the sense that if they default, the rest of your portfolio is going to be worthless anyways and you're probably better off investing in guns, water, and cans of food. Because the US government prints the dollar that the debt is denominated in, there is no risk that they would be unable to repay the debt, so it would have to be their explicit choice. Technically the USA's elected…

If there is a coupon on the bond, then there must be risk. No risk, no reward. You've only addressed credit risk above. But come on, we all know there are all kinds of other risks at play here.

I don't think that's clear at all, and I don't think it's helpful for you to handwave those other risks as if everybody already knows what they are. What is an example of one other risk?

The only other risk I can think of is interest rate "risk" - the "risk" that rates go up right after you buy a bond, and you'll wish that you'd waited and gotten the better deal. But I wouldn't really consider that a true risk. The bond you bought is still perfectly good, so that's just plain old buyer's remorse.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#493

Post by adolph »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #480
adolph wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, not certain if I agree with that. It may boil down to defining “care.” If people did not care, they wouldn’t read and comment, would they? We can observe there is enough attention and salience for this other person’s situation to achieve some level of “care” in other people’s minds. Maybe the caring involved is a more distant and superficial sort? Maybe it is the kind of caring that comes out of avoiding one’s o…

It is an ambiguous term on it's own. I didn't provide enough context to illustrate that my point was about selfishness and avoiding feelings of obligation or guilt? I am not immune myself even though I levelled the charge. I only get through the day by generous application of denial. If I can't avoid seeing someone hungry, then plan B is figure out a way to conclude that it is within their own power to feed themselve…

Is this a fair summary?

I rationalize my choice of inaction when I feel obligation or guilt to take action. I am unable to observe the interior rationalizations of others' inaction.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#494

Post by skeptikal »

otterley wrote: post #481
butlerm wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a state did it, it would be a straightforward violation of the Contracts Clause. With regard to Treasury bonds and gold certificates it was the government rewriting its own contracts. It was a violation of the contract on every Federal Reserve Note and bank deposit as well. Redemption in gold had been suspended before, but the value had not been, and in the late nineteenth century the government started redeeming…

The Supreme Court disagreed and held the Gold Clause constitutional: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Clause_Cases

Of course. And the SCOTUS under FDR was ruling under the threat of court packing. A lot of rulings from then are risible.

My favorite is telling a farmer his homegrown pig feed is illegal because it effects interstate commerce.

The one that best illustrates bad law with good intentions is the migratory birds act: protect wildlife -> good. Doing so by making international treaties supersede the constitution -> not good (that ruling has been cut back)

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#495

Post by skeptikal »

throwmeariver1 wrote: post #491
skeptikal wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our industrial base is gutted and we don't have enough resources. Not enough to sustain our extravagant lifestyles. Europe has to find a way to buy Rubles quickly or choose between freezing or damaging capital goods (there are industries that cant be shut down because they get damaged). There’s not enough American LNG to rescue Europe, and if there were there arent enough ports to import it. Anyway, nascent American…

I would suggest different wall colors and some daylight.

My house has 9 skylights, a 20 sq. m deck, a pool and a quarter acre lawn. Add three kids ages 8 mo to 7 years.

I get plenty of sunlight.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#496

Post by bradwood »

everfree wrote: post #492
bradwood wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there is a coupon on the bond, then there must be risk. No risk, no reward. You've only addressed credit risk above. But come on, we all know there are all kinds of other risks at play here.

I don't think that's clear at all, and I don't think it's helpful for you to handwave those other risks as if everybody already knows what they are. What is an example of one other risk? The only other risk I can think of is interest rate "risk" - the "risk" that rates go up right after you buy a bond, and you'll wish that you'd waited and gotten the better deal. But I wouldn't really consider that a true risk. The b…

Inflation/monetary policy risk.

Liquidity risk.

Market risk.

Geopolitical risk.

To name a few.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#497

Post by everfree »

bradwood wrote: post #496
everfree wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's clear at all, and I don't think it's helpful for you to handwave those other risks as if everybody already knows what they are. What is an example of one other risk? The only other risk I can think of is interest rate "risk" - the "risk" that rates go up right after you buy a bond, and you'll wish that you'd waited and gotten the better deal. But I wouldn't really consider that a true risk. The b…

Inflation/monetary policy risk. Liquidity risk. Market risk. Geopolitical risk. To name a few.

Those are risks of the currency and risks of your personal finances, not risks of the bond not being paid back.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#499

Post by efreak »

folmar wrote: post #412
yesenadam wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have to edit the HTML every single time to remove "readonly" on that field Couldn't you do that with a bookmarklet, so it would just take one click?

Given websites with CSP bookmarklets generally are a dead thing now as they are usually blocked by the policies.

That's why I use tampermonkey/userscripts. Make a script that removes disabled property from all form elements in the page, and set it to run when the document finishes loading on every website, then disable it so you can turn it on when necessary. I've got a number of similar scripts (the most used one is generally enabled; it prevents squarespace sites from navigating to a site login even I hit esc to stop the page from loading).

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#500

Post by efreak »

loeg wrote: post #265
ntkachov wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is ridiculously annoying. I have to edit the HTML every single time to remove "readonly" on that field and paste in my randomly generated password.

Just edit it to 'value="mypassword"' directly.

It will enrage you to find out that some sites actually track the value, and if more than one character changes per keystroke, it'll reset the value. It's rare, but I have seen it.
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