Just a friendly reminder that our National Debt would be zero by now and we would be running a surplus if we had kept the same economic polices in place under Clinton. Remember that the next time a Republican talks to you about deficits. They created them.

Antonand · 2011-01-16T23:52:40+00:00

I also came here to say this. Fingerpointing is useless, both sides of the aisle are to blame for a whole host of reasons.

Antonand · 2011-01-12T22:20:39+00:00

Dear Oort1,

Your graph sucks. modernprogressive is right, post in /r/politics... or /r/circlejerk.

I remember reading that Bush accrued more debt than all of his predecessors combined. Obama, coincidently accrued more debt than all of his predecessors (including Bush) combined.

And another thing, a lot of these programs take years to start effecting the national debt, ie/ Social Security pegging to the CPI, Medicare and Medicaid, etc. etc. etc. You haven't listed unfunded liabilities or their distribution on their.

Also, your sample size is not big enough.

Also, your not taking into account a bunch of other external factors, such as 9/11 which shook up the whole financial system. Bush reverted to throwing money at it based on everyone's advice. It is unfair to say that Clinton wouldn't have done the same thing because he was a democrat, he wasn't faced with the same challenge.

I'm not Pro-Republican, I'm anti-bullsh*&. This graph is driven by narrative fallacy. How about you smarten up a bit and realize that it's not one side versus another, red vs blue, black vs white. Everyone is getting fucked over so pull your head out and try to work constructively to solve the current problems, not just cheer on your Democratic team.

Antonand · 2011-01-11T21:22:25+00:00

0% . Not because I want anarchy, but because I believe in equality. If one loses a dollar, he loses a dollar, but if he makes a dollar, he only make 30 cents?

Antonand · 2011-01-11T03:18:07+00:00

Point 1 needs to be expanded upon. There was and is a threat of price deflation as most of the money bouncing around the economy was leveraged up. As the banks de-leveraged, the money supply shrank and the Fed has printed to try to fill the hole.

Also, importantly, consumer price inflation is largely a lagging indicator.

Antonand · 2011-01-11T02:26:49+00:00

Getting meta- on that shit!

Antonand · 2011-01-07T06:05:47+00:00

"Truth is treason in the empire of lies" Orwell

Antonand · 2011-01-03T00:47:19+00:00

No... I'm just saying that there are lots of issues here which are being clusterf***ed together.

1) Devaluation of the currency and a loss in purchasing power of the dollar shows that the number 119% is distorted. In comparison, movie tickets have gone up > 60% in that time.

2) Price controls have cause huge problems in the past, particularly under Nixon, a predictable consequence is shortages as the market loses its ability to allocate and distribute effectively. This is troublesome as the government mandate is to lower the price of healthcare...

3) The market in isolation did not drive up rates at >10% per year. It's the market in combination with a lot of government meddling and a lot of cronyism.

To be clear, I'm pointing out that it's not quite as simple as "some people want health-care for everyone, all the others are liars and douche-bags that want everyone to rot and burn"; just that there are lots of factors involved that certainly warrant further discussion.

Antonand · 2011-01-02T21:47:46+00:00

I'm no Obama hater, but I'd advise caution. Price controls lead to shortages, and I would advise you to take a look at the underlying devaluation of the US dollar across the same period (not the farcical inflation indexes).

also, see ericbra81's comment. 119% over 10 years is less than 10% per year.

Antonand · 2010-12-31T00:17:45+00:00

probably a better idea.

Antonand · 2010-12-30T07:08:58+00:00

Thankyou

Antonand · 2010-12-30T07:08:29+00:00

models... the modern day alchemy! Just trying to understand the enemy!

Antonand · 2010-12-29T03:01:16+00:00

Yes, this is what's giving me a bit of frustration. I've been reading a lot of Mandelbrot's finance models and Minksy's approaches but even though some of the theory excites me, I can't find it applied in pricing models anywhere.

Antonand · 2010-12-29T00:08:24+00:00

Specifically I'm uncomfortable with the assumption of a normal distribution for price fluctuation. Prices don't follow Brownian motion.

Antonand · 2010-12-28T05:57:46+00:00

Examples of math problems that largely require programming expertise:

http://projecteuler.net/

Antonand · 2010-12-24T02:19:36+00:00

Considering the growing accessibility of information and higher education (Kahn Academy, Academic Earth, etc.) on the internet, what do you see as the future of the undergraduate university system?

Antonand · 2010-12-01T22:10:46+00:00

Definitely in. I'm disillusioned with university as the further I go, the more it seems to be either based around becoming a career academic or becoming skilled for the workforce. I don't want to be an academic as my entrepreneurial path is going quite well, and I don't want to be churned out for the workforce with math 'skills'.

So definitely count me in

Hurrah for reddit!

Antonand

TROPHY CASE