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Post by Infinite Ego on Aug 2, 2012 15:54:52 GMT -5
Can any of you concisely describe for me the ultimate purpose of inflation? Depends on if you want the economics of inflation, political economy of inflation, anthropology of inflation, sociology of inflation, etc.... Not trying to be a smart ass but there are a lot of perspectives. However, let's just look at one use: devaluing your own nation's currency for the purpose of stimulating exports and making imports less attractive to consumers because their currency doesn't 'go as far' as it used to. |
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Post by chrissh on Aug 2, 2012 17:10:42 GMT -5
There you go, thanks. So it is fundamentally about increasing profits for someone, somewhere, at some point in time.
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Post by aliensporebomb on Aug 2, 2012 17:27:40 GMT -5
Or you could look at what I do where I work: I don't really produce anything - I just keep the system going so workers can work. If something breaks I have to fix it.
But I'm just a cog on the lower level, so if something explodes at 3 a.m. I don't get that phone call.
It's been pretty obvious to me for a while now that they want to get rid of the local IT group so they can have a team in another state do it. That would be their ideal end result I think.
Problem is, much of what we do cannot be performed in terms of automation so I'm not sure how they're aiming to do this. The people behind this kind of retardation are bean counters who want the CEO to get a better bonus next year so who knows what they're thinking.
Maybe they'll just fire the lot of the local staff (3000+) to make it more convenient for them.
I recently became appraised of a job I was qualified for and looked into it and applied primarily because the highest maximum salary was a good bit more than I currently make. I was interviewed. They indicated that they had received 165 applicants and their HR department presented half that amount to them (about 83) to pick candidates for interviewing.
From what I could tell, they interviewed 8 people from 83 candidates. I was one of the 8.
During the interview they told me that they would be calling back potentially 2-3 individuals from that pool of 8.
About 3 weeks later I got an email indicating that they'd extended an offer to one of the applicants which was not surprising. At least I got an interview in!
This was for one position!
In a way it was a bit of relief because at least with the current job I can switch off the cellphone at the end of the workday and concentrate on stuff I want to ala music etc.
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Post by Infinite Ego on Aug 2, 2012 17:52:24 GMT -5
There you go, thanks. So it is fundamentally about increasing profits for someone, somewhere, at some point in time. Sure. The US has figured out ways to have the cake and eat it too so long as everybody is willing to play along. For example, the Treasury can issue billions in new bonds that basically flood the market (massive bubble of money) which should drive up yields (inflate them) if the 'law' of supply and demand were working. Why for example should the Chinese keep buying more T-bills? Give us a better rate of return! No. You'll buy these bonds and get a low rate of return. Defying the tendency for yields to inflate. The US holds a metaphorical and literal gun to their collective heads and tells them that it would be in everybody's best interest if they bought the bonds even though they may not be worth the paper they are printed on. If they don't then deficit spending will grind to a halt and the consumption patterns implode and then China, a manufacturing giant dependent on the US for consuming all their junk, would implode as a consequence. It's the old MAD model applied to bonds rather than nukes. Everybody knows that they 'have' to buy America's low-yield bonds otherwise they will get the hammer (witness Iraq) It's brilliant in a diabolical and malevolent way. This is the face of postmodern imperial tribute. All US allies lose, every day. Funneling money into the US from all directions against their best interest because they cannot afford for the monster to deflate lest they all lose. At some point, however, it will collapse as the veil of intimidation and US military power can no longer project force everywhere it needs to. Nations will calculate that it is better to blow our own legs off now rather than wait and blow our heads off later. Maybe. The US can bank on politicians always kicking the can down the road for another day, when another regime can take the fall for collapsing the global econ. But when it goes it will make the Great Depression look like a footnote. And it will happen. But when?  |
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mirth
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Post by mirth on Aug 2, 2012 19:13:09 GMT -5
Speaking of ridiculous money... Some dude just bought the Cleveland Browns for over a billion dollars.... A football team worth a billion dollars....wow.
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Post by Infinite Ego on Aug 2, 2012 19:52:42 GMT -5
The Dodgers were sold for a record price if I recall correctly. I'm tellin' ya, all this crazy talk about 'sharing the burden' and austerity all the while a top few are literally drowning in money. I'm talking about oceans of money. People don't realize that every year more than one quadrillion (yes, that's quadrillion) dollars worth of transactions occur on the derivatives markets. That's more than the GDP of every industrial nation for the last 100 years combined. A lot of it is 'fictional' value but this shit also buys stuff like teams LOL
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Post by chromedinette on Aug 2, 2012 20:12:24 GMT -5
Or you could look at what I do where I work: I don't really produce anything - I just keep the system going so workers can work. If something breaks I have to fix it. But I'm just a cog on the lower level, so if something explodes at 3 a.m. I don't get that phone call. Once week out of every 6-8 or so, I have to answer the off hours calls. I have never gotten used to it, though I have learned to keep my phone off when it isn't my week. I am sort of in the same boat regarding not actually producing anything, though the place I work sells a lot of new stuff, much of which I sometimes think is designed just well enough that it works, but not so well that it works for a reasonable time period without needing service. |
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Post by dasein on Aug 2, 2012 22:42:53 GMT -5
There you go, thanks. So it is fundamentally about increasing profits for someone, somewhere, at some point in time. Sure. The US has figured out ways to have the cake and eat it too so long as everybody is willing to play along. For example, the Treasury can issue billions in new bonds that basically flood the market (massive bubble of money) which should drive up yields (inflate them) if the 'law' of supply and demand were working. Why for example should the Chinese keep buying more T-bills? Give us a better rate of return! No. You'll buy these bonds and get a low rate of return. Defying the tendency for yields to inflate. The US holds a metaphorical and literal gun to their collective heads and tells them that it would be in everybody's best interest if they bought the bonds even though they may not be worth the paper they are printed on. If they don't then deficit spending will grind to a halt and the consumption patterns implode and then China, a manufacturing giant dependent on the US for consuming all their junk, would implode as a consequence. It's the old MAD model applied to bonds rather than nukes. Everybody knows that they 'have' to buy America's low-yield bonds otherwise they will get the hammer (witness Iraq) This is such an important point. So many politicians and fiscal conservatives gnash their teeth about our "crushing" debt to China, and how we need to cut back on social programs for that very reason. I can picture it now... China coming in like a good ol' fashioned Repo crew, putting up a giant "Foreclosed" sign on the Statue of Liberty while a nuclear family watches in the background, weeping. ;D The fact is, our "debt" makes them more dependent on us than the other way around. |
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Post by Infinite Ego on Aug 3, 2012 7:58:29 GMT -5
Yeah, Tea Party morons don't have a clue how deficit spending works. The US has a free ride....for the foreseeable future anyways....it all comes down to the ability to intimidate others into buying the debt. So long as that holds up we're good to go.
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mirth
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Post by mirth on Aug 3, 2012 17:50:33 GMT -5
Why not add our favorite Italian into the mix....  |
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Post by aliensporebomb on Aug 3, 2012 21:59:53 GMT -5
It's too long for me to comment on completely as I've been fighting a summer cold and just listening to thunderous dins in a big auditorium is fatiguing but something very interesting happening here: all 3 of the G3s have huge stacks with 4x12s and yet Al with his little single 12" Mesa Boogie Mark I actually has better tone than most of them. Content wise, I gotta hit the hay.
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Post by chrissh on Aug 25, 2016 16:49:59 GMT -5
Hello, Chimps  |
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Post by Infinite Ego on Feb 11, 2017 17:16:53 GMT -5
one ping only
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