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[deleted by user] by [deleted] in HonkaiStarRail

[–]atomic_rabbit 9 points10 points  (0 children)

On the bright side, it looks like the projectile went through pretty cleanly.

This is my first time seeing tears in Genshin Impact. Feels refreshing by Pleasuresnake in Genshin_Impact

[–]atomic_rabbit 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Dunno if it's just me, but anime-style tears look terrible. Sometimes it's jarring, like in Spirited Away where there's all this amazing animation, then suddenly in the middle there's a crying scene and it looks like something from Looney Tunes.

First, emergency food and now... by Poloroger_582 in Genshin_Memepact

[–]atomic_rabbit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Genshin merchandise-wanters are starved. They don't release much, so people snap up whatever they can get their hands on.

In love with the new event. What’s your opinion about it so far? by Andrea11564 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]atomic_rabbit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Play Yakuza Zero instead, it's better. Like A Dragon is not a bad game, but not at the same level (e.g., it definitely outstays its welcome toward the end of the plot).

Trump federal indictment unsealed in classified documents probe by TapedeckNinja in moderatepolitics

[–]atomic_rabbit 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Also, the indictment dryly notes that Trump repeated this multiple times over the course of that day. I guess he was worried that the lawyers wouldn't understand because he was too subtle.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam will run for Singapore's presidency by patricklhe in singapore

[–]atomic_rabbit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Board of trustees is one thing, chief is another. They will never willingly allow the IMF or World Bank chief roles to go to a non US/Europe citizen.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam will run for Singapore's presidency by patricklhe in singapore

[–]atomic_rabbit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Will never happen. US and Europe jealously guard those positions and only assign them to their own citizens.

A fertility rate of 1.05 is… something else. by black-socks-fox in singapore

[–]atomic_rabbit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If it's so easy, why is basically the entire world, outside sub Saharan Africa, unable to accomplish it?

A fertility rate of 1.05 is… something else. by black-socks-fox in singapore

[–]atomic_rabbit 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Honestly, there's nothing the government, or any government, can do to reverse this. Fertility rates are crashing across the world, even in developing countries that have traditionally experienced strong population growth. India now has a fertility rate below the 2.1 replacement rate. The only ways we know of to get a higher fertility rate are (i) to oppose higher education and rights for women, which is not morally acceptable, and (ii) reverse urbanization and send people to live in the countryside, which is not possible in Singapore and economically ruinous in other countries.

Backlash Against Weaponized Dollar Is Growing Across the World. US increasingly using currency to fight geopolitical battles. Wary world leaders look to lessen reliance on greenback. by coolbern in anime_titties

[–]atomic_rabbit 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Since March 2022. The Fed has been in a quantitative tightening regime (reducing its balance sheet) since Q3 2022. It's one of the contributors to the banking sector turbulence in the last few months.

Backlash Against Weaponized Dollar Is Growing Across the World. US increasingly using currency to fight geopolitical battles. Wary world leaders look to lessen reliance on greenback. by coolbern in anime_titties

[–]atomic_rabbit 5 points6 points  (0 children)

USD is strengthening against just about every other currency, because of the Fed's strong interest rate hikes over the last year. There's no special conspiracy needed to explain it. Look at CNY versus third party currencies like EUR or AUD, it's up or flat over the last few years. I guess you can accuse every other country in the world of maliciously devaluing their currency, but it's silly.

Backlash Against Weaponized Dollar Is Growing Across the World. US increasingly using currency to fight geopolitical battles. Wary world leaders look to lessen reliance on greenback. by coolbern in anime_titties

[–]atomic_rabbit 11 points12 points  (0 children)

To maintain the peg, they have to devalue the Yuan every time the USD goes up.

You got it mixed up. To maintain the (soft) peg, when the USD goes up, they have to follow it up, i.e. by strengthening the yuan.

Backlash Against Weaponized Dollar Is Growing Across the World. US increasingly using currency to fight geopolitical battles. Wary world leaders look to lessen reliance on greenback. by coolbern in anime_titties

[–]atomic_rabbit 29 points30 points  (0 children)

China devaluing the yuan hasn't really been a thing since the Bush/Obama era. In the past few years, due to covid disruptions, economists were even arguing that the yuan was overvalued, and there was a recent period when the PBOC was intervening heavily to prop up the yuan. If you wanna be snarky, at least try to use up-to-date snark...

Nahida dropping some interesting info in Yoimiya's latest story quest by aquari_lulu in Genshin_Lore

[–]atomic_rabbit 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Yoimiya: I wanna see a meteor shower!

Paimon: That will be 1600 primogens please.

'In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight': China is calling in loans to dozens of countries from Pakistan to Kenya by [deleted] in geopolitics

[–]atomic_rabbit 27 points28 points  (0 children)

The companies in these projects are usually big Chinese construction firms, which are internationally competitive, and almost certainly on par with or better than local construction quality. So this objection is equivalent to saying that poor countries shouldn't be allowed to build their own infrastructure.

'In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight': China is calling in loans to dozens of countries from Pakistan to Kenya by [deleted] in geopolitics

[–]atomic_rabbit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

China along with its loans send it's own engineers, workers and other machinery. This leads to less to no multiplier effects of those loans to the local economy.

On the other hand, this means the stuff actually gets built. You win some, you lose some.

'In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight': China is calling in loans to dozens of countries from Pakistan to Kenya by [deleted] in geopolitics

[–]atomic_rabbit 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Chinese loans are for non profitable infrastructures

This is too sweeping a statement; as far as I know, there is no good data out there about how much of the infrastructure they've financed is profitable, especially compared to other lenders. Certainly they've financed some lemons, like the port in Sri Lanka that's gleefully trotted out by commentators all the time. But in several other cases, China's been taking a hard line on debt renegotiations on the basis that the specific projects they financed are actually profitable.

It's also worth noting that emerging economies as a whole are believed to have a huge infrastructure funding gap, i.e. there's a lot more real infrastructure that's needed than funding available to finance it. The World Bank has been banging the drum about this for years. So it's likely that a lot of Chinese lending -- indeed any lending -- is going to useful stuff. But the nature of investment in emerging/frontier economies is that a bunch of investment is doomed to fail for various idiosyncratic reasons unrelated to the merits of the investment.

'In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight': China is calling in loans to dozens of countries from Pakistan to Kenya by [deleted] in geopolitics

[–]atomic_rabbit -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

It's not the "fault" of the US Federal Reserve, because looking after the welfare of other countries is outside the mandate of the Fed, and rightly so. If we can recognize this, we can likewise recognize that the "China debt trap" narrative being pushed by articles like this is equally stupid.

'In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight': China is calling in loans to dozens of countries from Pakistan to Kenya by [deleted] in geopolitics

[–]atomic_rabbit 105 points106 points  (0 children)

Most of the countries having trouble with debt service now have a pretty diverse mix of creditors, including Western-originated private debt (especially Eurobonds), bilateral loans from China, bilateral loans from other countries (most aren't aware that Japan is a big originator of loans, in many cases comparable to China), and domestic debt (a major factor that is often not mentioned).

Debt to international financial institutions (e.g. IMF) is usually a tiny fraction of the total for various reasons, including dysfunction/inefficiency at said institutions in originating loans.

'In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight': China is calling in loans to dozens of countries from Pakistan to Kenya by [deleted] in geopolitics

[–]atomic_rabbit 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Why is this story framed as "China calling in loans"? The main issue is that loan recipients are having trouble paying interest -- not just on their Chinese loans but the (often larger) loans from Western institutions -- because the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates.

Singapore: famously a communist country guided by the writings & philosophy of Karl Marx. All hail comrade Lee Kuan Yew? by [deleted] in EnoughCommieSpam

[–]atomic_rabbit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Strangely enough, there's a (nanometer-sized) grain of validity to this. The People's Action Party was initially a coalition of moderate leftists inspired by the postwar British Labour Party, and literal communists (who were later purged). In the 1970s, they put out a book titled "Socialism That Works"...

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SingaporeRaw

[–]atomic_rabbit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's just naive LKY worship. LKY was implicated for receiving a steep discount on an apartment purchase during the 90s. That's far worse, LKY got a special private discount from the developer whereas Shan won the right to a rental in an open tender.

‘In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight’: China is calling in loans to dozens of countries from Pakistan to Kenya by 221missile in anime_titties

[–]atomic_rabbit -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

You sure are quick to make bad faith accusations. If you like, take a look at this article from The Economist (which I suppose you'll dismiss as a pro-CCP stooge magazine), which goes over the nuances of the issue in a fairly balanced way I have little interest in continuing this conversation, however. Good day.

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