2016 Economic Crisis Thread - Duck and Cover?

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Will the global economy implode in 2016?
	We're hosed - I have stocked up on canned goods
	My private security guards will shoot the paupers
	We'll be good or at least coast along
	I have no earthly clue

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Accretionist: Nov 7, 2012; I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Can't run afoul of classism, either. Free money to the rich and well-connected? Yes, please. Free money to the demand-side? What is wrong with you (loving hippie)

# ¿ Aug 17, 2016 23:02

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 18:19

Accretionist: Nov 7, 2012; I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES

My Linux Rig posted:

So basically in 8 years, we'll have a recession that a democratic administration will likely be cleaning up

Is it me or does it feel like the country is circling the drain at this point?

As far as I can tell, the trajectory started here:

quote:

On August 23, 1971, prior to accepting Nixon's nomination to the Supreme Court, Powell was commissioned by his neighbor, Eugene B. Sydnor Jr., a close friend and education director of the US Chamber of Commerce, to write a confidential memorandum titled "Attack on the American Free Enterprise System," an anti-Communist, anti-New Deal blueprint for conservative business interests to retake America for the chamber. [...]

...

The memo called for corporate America to become more aggressive in molding society's thinking about business, government, politics and law in the US. It sparked wealthy heirs of earlier American Industrialists like Richard Mellon Scaife, the Earhart Foundation, money which came from an oil fortune, the Smith Richardson Foundation, from the cough medicine dynasty [13] to use their private charitable foundations, which did not have to report their political activities to join the Carthage Foundation, founded by Scaife in 1964[13] to fund Powell's vision of a pro-business, anti-socialist, minimalist government-regulated America as it had been in the heyday of early American industrialism, before the Great Depression and the rise of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

The Powell Memorandum thus became the blueprint of the rise of the American conservative movement and the formation of a network of influential right-wing think tanks and lobbying organizations, such as The Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as well as inspiring the US Chamber of Commerce to become far more politically active.[15][16] Marxist academic David Harvey traces the rise of neoliberalism in the US to this memo.[17][18]

...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_F._Powell_Jr.#Powell_Memorandum

Turns out when you're rich as balls and have some like minded friends, you can buy enormous social and political change.

(Capitalists of the world unite!)

# ¿ Dec 3, 2016 04:09

Accretionist: Nov 7, 2012; I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES

It was my understanding that rising inequality can spur secular stagnation.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2017 02:22

Accretionist: Nov 7, 2012; I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Aren't pharmaceuticals more reliant on buying successful start-ups these days anyways than in-house R&D?

I'm always reading about them spending more on advertising than R&D and that R&D largely going to poo poo like non-patent infringing knockoffs of competitors' existing lines

# ¿ Jan 9, 2017 14:54

Accretionist: Nov 7, 2012; I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Two good agenda items:

De-normalize corruption.
Move the center of power out of the economy and into representative government.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 14:16

Accretionist: Nov 7, 2012; I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Productivity-gains and improved technology have not raised wages in any of the industries I've worked in. They've especially done the opposite in the last one. Is that something they teach in econ? Where/when is it supposed to be true?

Is it one of those equilibrium things that's never actually true because all markets are always distorted?

# ¿ Mar 15, 2017 23:29

Accretionist: Nov 7, 2012; I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Thankfully, employers can hold out for extended periods, bring in immigrants or use improved technology to lower the bar

# ¿ Mar 16, 2017 18:17

Accretionist: Nov 7, 2012; I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES

BrandorKP posted:

Pretty butt hurt there wasn't any real math or evidence behind Bernie's economic plan huh? Because that's pretty straw there.

Iirc, it was, "Large Input → Large Output," and a de facto campaign ad yet Krugman's initial criticism was lazy Appeal to Authority bullshit.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2017 15:53

Accretionist: Nov 7, 2012; I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES

uncop posted:

To paraphrase Steve Keen, mainstream economists aren't experts on the economy, they're experts on a model of the economy that doesn't apply to the real economy.

The dirty little secret of models is that all models are wrong. But they're useful so we keep them around.

It's a question of what can you use one for? What can't you?

# ¿ Apr 11, 2017 19:42

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 18:19

Accretionist: Nov 7, 2012; I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES

The DPRK posted:

On a slight tangent: I found Mark Blyth's book on Austerity really interesting. It helped me understand some aspects of the cause of the 2008 GFC. I'd like to understand what happened in the 1970's that caused the lurch towards what we have today, is there a book or a commentator as erudite and entertaining as Blyth on this subject?

I've seen a lot of angles on this over the years, but if you're interested specifically in why our wannabe oligarchs bought and repurposed conservatism...

quote:

On August 23, 1971, prior to accepting Nixon's nomination to the Supreme Court, Powell was commissioned by his neighbor, Eugene B. Sydnor Jr., a close friend and education director of the US Chamber of Commerce, to write a confidential memorandum titled "Attack on the American Free Enterprise System," an anti-Communist, anti-New Deal blueprint for conservative business interests to retake America for the chamber.[13][14] It was based in part on Powell's reaction to the work of activist Ralph Nader, whose 1965 expos� on General Motors, "Unsafe at Any Speed," put a focus on the auto industry putting profit ahead of safety, which triggered the American consumer movement. Powell saw it as an undermining of Americans' faith in enterprise and another step in the slippery slope of socialism. [...]

The memo called for corporate America to become more aggressive in molding society's thinking about business, government, politics and law in the US. It sparked wealthy heirs of earlier American Industrialists [...] to use their private charitable foundations, [...] to fund Powell's vision of a pro-business, anti-socialist, minimalist government-regulated America as it had been in the heyday of early American industrialism, before the Great Depression and the rise of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

The Powell Memorandum thus became the blueprint of the rise of the American conservative movement and the formation of a network of influential right-wing think tanks and lobbying organizations, such as The Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as well as inspiring the US Chamber of Commerce to become far more politically active.[15][16]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_F._Powell_Jr.#Powell_Memorandum

And now we have several hundred billion dollars worth of assholes trying to bring back the Gilded Age

Edit: This Bill Moyers piece provides good historical context.

Accretionist fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Jun 28, 2017

# ¿ Jun 28, 2017 19:50

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > 2016 Economic Crisis Thread - Duck and Cover?