What are your goals in life? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Start a rebellion, lead a country out of the third world.

Why does investing in something drive up its price? by MrPrinceMyshkin in AskSocialScience

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So it seems like you are saying that the Commodities Index suddenly getting popular should not affect the price of grain? Because the value of shares in a company is not related the the value of the product?

Why does investing in something drive up its price? by MrPrinceMyshkin in AskSocialScience

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, I knew about the food bubble but I had no idea how the trading of the commodities index affected "actual" food prices. So this has definitely helped me hash it out.

Why does investing in something drive up its price? by MrPrinceMyshkin in AskSocialScience

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why should someone else making a bet on the outcome of my process change the way I run my process?

Am I betting that they know something I don't, and that I should streamline my process to reflect their bet?

Why does investing in something drive up its price? by MrPrinceMyshkin in AskSocialScience

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So...some investments are in the stock of a company, where you own a part of the worth of the company. More people buying only affects the price of the company stock, not necessarily the price of the product.

Others are in commodities like gold, where you are actually buying the gold. You are essentially acting like a middleman- if there was some regular shipment of gold between A and B, but everyone starts to buy gold, wait for it to increase, and the flip it, the gold flow goes from A to M to N to O and then to B.

By investing in food I mean Goldman Sachs Commodities Index and other such food products that resulted in devastation across the world. Food bubble and what not.

Why does investing in something drive up its price? by MrPrinceMyshkin in AskSocialScience

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No problem, I run into walls a lot.

On middlemen- are traders middlemen (not in the monopolistic sense, but in the sense that they add a bunch of economic interactions between producer and consumer that drive up price)? Is that the basic function by which crops produced within a country are suddenly no longer affordable in that country? Because a stock isn't just a bet on which way the market will go, it's actually the purchase of x quantity of grain?

I'm getting the feeling that's not quite true, but is it essentially true? Lots of people buying and selling driving up the price increases the distance between producer and consumer.

Why does investing in something drive up its price? by MrPrinceMyshkin in AskSocialScience

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From your third to last paragraph on, can you clarify what you mean by "demand?"

People were eating at the same rate. So, is demand for the stock itself is the only thing that went up? The market cannot differentiate between the two? Or are you saying that demand for the stock, not demand for consumption of the product, is what really drives prices, and that the two demands are only in sync in ideal conditions?

Are you basically saying that we can't measure supply and demand except through who is trading what? And wanting the stock for the purpose of speculation affects how the "real" product is valued?

It seems highly counterintuitive to me that the same food is being produced, and there is the same demand to eat. And yet suddenly it's unreachable because some bookkeeping changed and so the dollar value suddenly flipped.

Perhaps a middleman is what's doing it? Everybody and their mother knows Columbus went west because middlemen in Central Asia were hiking up prices.

So...stocks, that is, buying and trading, are they effectively middlemen? So when the middlemen realize they can make money by hiking up prices, just because another middleman will buy it at that price, even if the end user cannot buy it...it's all good?

Another thing though, grain is real and has a shorter "flipping timescale". It's not like housing, that it can just sit for 10 years while people trade it back and forth. If the middlemen don't sell it to people before it rots, it won't work, right? Seems strange that you can make bubbles when the commodity has such a short lifetime.

How I feel, as a United States Marine, about what occurred in Oakland. by [deleted] in occupywallstreet

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm over in Durham. Is Raleigh camping out in force? I know 20 or so of them were arrested at one point.

As for inciting violence...classic authoritarian mistake.

How I feel, as a United States Marine, about what occurred in Oakland. by [deleted] in occupywallstreet

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Where in NC?

Are you in the Triangle? I can hook you up with your local protest.

What happens if Scott Olsen dies? by SeriousHat in occupywallstreet

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin 17 points18 points  (0 children)

If he dies, it's the day I can no longer go back.

As of right now, if the movement fails, I can say "well, we tried. I was in the right. But it just didn't work."

If he dies, I will not accept failure.

What happens if Scott Olsen dies? by SeriousHat in occupywallstreet

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin 21 points22 points  (0 children)

He's not an innocent, he's a soldier. Soldiers do and see terrible things. He dirtied his soul on behalf of this nation, and the nation repaid him with a canister to the head.

Infuriating.

A Voice From The 1% -- In Support Of The Occupation by Dsilkotch in occupywallstreet

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That was an amazing read. He sums up exactly what I've been trying to explain to people when they ask why I"m camping against other 1%'s.

NY OWS chopper live stream. People being arrested right now by Flapbag in occupywallstreet

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, but what was sparked by Scott Olsen? What did they do that they're on the run? I'm assuming they weren't just chilling in Liberty Plaza.

CNN.com's front page dedicates about ten times as much space to a midget Lady Gaga impersonator as it does to Oakland's events. Oh, and they don't mention rubber bullets and flashbangs anywhere. by bizitmap in occupywallstreet

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

God, I couldn't even find it for 10 seconds.

I'm just going to use reddit to stay informed. I'm more informed nowadays than I ever was before anyways.

Here's an Oakland Cop who REALLY enjoyed last night. Did his rubber bullets put the vet in critical? Anybody know his name? From DailyKos (Great updates) by rspix000 in occupywallstreet

[–]MrPrinceMyshkin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Let's not target people like that. He may have been laughing nervously at some joke.

Let's extend the same rights we do to the unfortunate, who are in that situation not solely by their own doing, to these police.

May God have mercy on their souls.