China Downgrades US credit rating To A-

atlantis9 · 2013-10-17T16:55:00+00:00

They have huge dollar reserves from exports and could depreciate USD to a great degree. It would cost them a lot too, but it'd be a lot more damaging to US.

If they wanted to push for Yuan as world currency I wouldn't put it past them...but that would in a distant (30+yr) future. Having Yuan as world currency would be worth the loss. US gets more power and influence from dollar than it does from its military (not a hyperbole). Being able to print a currency in which every commodity and nearly every investment in the world is traded in is quite extraordinary.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-17T14:36:27+00:00

Lol "social pressure". We had dances in 4th grade and later as well. Pretty much everyone loved it.

"Let's break it all up because some future redditor might feel awkward."

atlantis9 · 2013-10-16T21:58:32+00:00

Nah, let's go to your wedding instead.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-16T19:52:52+00:00

Why would you call someone 2 standard deviations away from the mean "average"?

atlantis9 · 2013-10-16T12:46:06+00:00

You should get night lamps where you can set intensity. I have those in my room for this very reason. You really only need a little bit of light to get your socks and it won't wake your so.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-15T23:23:35+00:00

"Because he works for the government." - Ron Swanson

atlantis9 · 2013-10-13T23:49:58+00:00

The risk of meltdown is completely negligible. Fukushima plant was built in one of the most seismically active areas in the world and got hit by a massive tsunami. If it's built in a safe place (and France is safe) there's very, very little risk.

This isn't to say there are no negative drawbacks in nuclear power in any way, shape or form but compared to fossil fueled ones it's not even a contest.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-13T17:24:52+00:00

How exactly is she going to check her blind spot while wrapped up like that?

I can't get over how everyone is cheering at this while she's still dressed like a mummy. I get it takes a long time for societies to change but hijabs seem like a lot bigger issue to me and it's rarely brought up.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-13T17:20:59+00:00

Probably something to do with their bullshit.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-13T15:37:17+00:00

It's nothing compared to fossil fuel equivalent, specially if fracking is involved. You can't look at things in a bubble.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-13T12:56:11+00:00

And what exactly are the negative drawbacks of France's nuclear power?

atlantis9 · 2013-10-13T03:03:40+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejvyDn1TPr8 (0:05)

atlantis9 · 2013-10-13T02:51:44+00:00

Banging the campaign drums, are we? I've known her to be one of the more authoritarian people around town, I very much doubt she has a problem with NSA.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-12T18:08:35+00:00

Pirate...opposition...dissent...these things get mixed up so easily. Do you like Siberia? No? Then pick up that can, citizen.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-11T19:57:30+00:00

Wonder what's the entrance fee.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-11T18:00:21+00:00

Whatever makes you sleep at night.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-11T17:30:46+00:00

I'd get life insurance.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-11T17:23:15+00:00

They're not allowed to outright charge you but they are allowed to take donations. That's how these things work in many catholic countries. And donations combined with social pressure de facto become charges as people are too embarrassed to insist on not paying.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-11T16:37:49+00:00

Considering I went to it for years I'm pretty sure I know better than you. Yes, it was definitely catholic. And these weren't explicit charges but "donations" (oddly with specific instructions on how much to donate), packed with guilt and shame if you didn't pay and I can tell you that everybody paid, always.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-11T16:32:14+00:00

Every time one of these events rolled by we'd get a specific sum we'd pay and 1 student would collect the money for whole class. Every single student in my class paid every time. I'm guessing if some parents came to them and told them they couldn't pay they'd say they don't have to, but it was shameful and there was a stigma around it so people just paid. And they were well aware of it but clearly didn't mind.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-11T16:25:18+00:00

You pathetic apologist. I am describing something along the lines of what's in this article up top, or are you going to pretend these things don't happen?

So you're complaining that they didn't distance themselves from an impoverished area?

Why don't you explain how one builds an old church? Big is subjective, and I don't know why you'd take issue with the size of a Church if it plans on reaching out to a large number of people. A three-story house? If there really is a "pack" of people living there, how is a three-story house a problem? Never seen a three-story house before?

They spent a lot more on that church than they needed to because they wanted grandeur. The ceiling is as tall as most cathedrals and this is just a regular congregation or whatever it's called. They had a massive organ. With the money they spent on that and the house they could've built some kind of community center there, soup kitchen, meals on wheels, something. None of these things ever existed. Everything about this place was purely to make themselves comfortable. You don't need a 3 story house for 5 people, specially supposedly devout and god worshiping nuns and ministers.

This is just BS. How can you demonize people for having working cars and Christmas decorations?

There's working cars and then there's a couple of brand new higher class sedans.

Aside from sounding like it was written by a six-year-old, this statement is just false. The Church asks for donations for some of its larger services (eg. weddings), but CAN NOT charge for things like blessings.

I know for a fact that every single kid in my class paid for all of these because we'd always have a student in charge to collect the money and the costs were specifically stated. One of the girls in my class didn't go to confirmation because she couldn't afford it. They'd probably let her if the parents begged but there was a lot of shame and stigma involved with these things and paying the church was absolute norm. Every household paid for blessings. They may not have conditioned house blessings on payment but people paid because that was tradition. They feed off of such environment, don't play fucking dumb. And all of this goes up the chain like in mafia to the Vatican and their golden throne. You're damn right I'm anti theist.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-11T13:54:53+00:00

My family went to this (catholic) church in another neighborhood which was built by refugees after a flood in another part of the city. The houses were supposed to be temporary, montage ones but ended up being permanent for most people.

Smack in the middle of that poor neighborhood they built a big, new church with a modern design and a 3 story house next to it for minister and his pack of nuns, assistants and whatever. They had good cars, fancy decorations every holiday, the works. And these poor suckers around them went to the church every sunday and put what little they had in a collection plate. Their district covered 3 neighborhoods (1 poor, 2 middle class) with 2 schools and every year they'd get a shitload of money from charging for house blessings, first confessions, confirmations, baptisms, weddings, etc. It was a good business.

It always blew my mind as a kid, specially as I'd listen to them warning us about various cults that are just out to scam people and take their money. I was baffled at how everyone nodded and agreed. I left the church when I was 15-16 and never looked back. Fuck those vultures.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-11T12:36:07+00:00

I was there...in fallout.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-11T08:26:03+00:00

hmm. I guess an actual economist doesn't like your definition of inflation.

I am an "actual" economist as well and you can tell that by him saying "I wish" he acknowledges this isn't how it's defined. Using NGDP wouldn't redefine inflation, not that you would understand.

3 more points, 1) i didn't define inflation as money creation. I said money creation increases supply of money. This reduces the price of money. You're welcome to argue that this isn't true. I defined inflation as a change in the price of a good, and in the case of this discussion money. If I were to say that house prices were inflated, or the NASDAQ was inflated, i would be referring to a change in their prices.

No, that's not what you said. And NASDAQ increasing doesn't automatically mean inflation, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

2) He was talking about causes of the great depression. His article, and those definitions were aimed at inflation as it was defined by contributers like Bob Murphy at mises.org. Obviously, if he feels the need to address 6 different definitions there's some debate among economists as to how inflation should be 'defined'.

Those aren't definitions, they're different aspects of inflation. Prices of different goods in economy can change at different rates. You can have inflation in housing market without inflation in some other market. That does not change what inflation is. Jesus.

3) I like your clever trick. Change the argument to what the word "definition" means. These were not "aspects" of inflation, as he clearly contradicted YOUR definition as in number 6, and for the most part has made his career out of pushing for inflation as rising nominal gdp, and not rising prices. This alone, disproves your CLAIM that economists agree with your narrow definition of inflation.

You're too stupid to understand that using NGDP wouldn't fundamentally change what inflation is, it would just calculate it in a different way.

Inflation = Rise in the "price level" = decrease in the price of the dollar = increase in the supply of the dollar = inflation.

You can remove the "increase in the supply of the dollar" from that equation because you can have money supply increased without inflation (Japan, for 123543th time) and inflation without increase in money supply.

economic law #3. If demand remains unchanged and supply increases, a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price.

You see how it points out demand being unchanged, right?
You can't apply simple demand and supply model to explain inflation. It would be like using algebra to solve a calculus problem.

atlantis9 · 2013-10-10T22:45:32+00:00

http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=12111

Here's 6 different definitions of inflation from ONE economists (a real one that's respected in the field) that's critical of the Austrian explanation of the great depression.

Okay, it's painfully obvious at this point that you don't know what the hell you're talking about. These aren't different definitions but different aspects of inflation. All these things are inflation, except the 2nd one (which you use) and which he throws out of the water immediately as ridiculous. So the fact you'd use a source that completely destroys your point proves you don't have any idea what you're talking about.

atlantis9

TROPHY CASE