WilliB

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 10:11 AM

Re: money again

Sorry for muffed italics in last post. Here is an update on my thinking.

Keep in mind this quote from Fisher, posted by Yodaorange in post 4236234:

The tragic outcome is one in which the fiscal authorities—the Congress and the [more]

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 8:59 AM

Re: money again

Quite a lot of banks and credit unions are also authorized to create money - but with a limit

That is correct, of course, and that is how most money is created, I believe.

It is interesting how a stroke of a pen can create [more]

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WilliB posted to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 7:55 PM

money again

As you all know, I've been puzzling over just what money is.
I've concluded that, primarily, it is just an accounting system. It is, if you will, the points that you are awarded according to the rules of the game.

There are rules for how [more]

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 12:49 PM

Re: PD: Owner made fast-food restaurants succes

the large number of Americans who think they are owed some arbitrary level of luxury because they can fog a mirror and were luck in the lottery of where to be born.

I have met very few such people in America, and all of them were [more]

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WilliB posted to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 7:45 PM

coronavirus again

Two hospital workers infected with coronavirus after caring for sick patient

[more]

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 4:02 PM

Re: Middle Class[Income] Jobs ain't Coming Back?

So if my customer base is going out of business, then I'm also going to lose money. So, (duh), I'm going to stop working on AI or robots.

Or anything else that you can't sell, I'd assume. As I said, if your motive is profit, you'll [more]

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 3:21 PM

Re: Middle Class[Income] Jobs ain't Coming Back?

Hmm. If I were the heart surgeon, I'd take a 15% pay cut. I'm now 5% cheaper than the robot, but I also still have a 5% pay boost in real terms. At the same time, the higher relative wages of surgeons is going to draw more people to the [more]

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 3:11 PM

Re: Middle Class[Income] Jobs ain't Coming Back?

And with no profit, you're certainly not going to invest more money on factories or robots, when you're already producing more than anyone can buy...In other words, automation is self-limiting. If you put your customers out of a job, they're going [more]

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 11:03 AM

Re: Middle Class[Income] Jobs ain't Coming Back?

more on the subject, from MIT
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/514861/its-time-to-talk...

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 5:14 PM

Re: Middle Class[Income] Jobs ain't Coming Back?

Government action did indeed make it easier for the rich to thrive, but I don't think that is the main problem. I think the main problem is that

1. People think that machines still create as many jobs as they destroy. They don't.
2. [more]

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 3:43 PM

Re: Middle Class[Income] Jobs ain't Coming Back?

However, the point of the article is that more and more of the pie is earned by capital instead of labor; that is fine for the folks with capital, but it can't last forever; when very few people have jobs and therefore very few people have purchasing [more]

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WilliB posted to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 6:56 AM

Nail hit on head

Kevin Drum on Mother Jones does an excellent job of boiling down the future of labor and capitalism and why we have a social problem that needs solving:
[more]

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 8:47 AM

Re: Amtrak unveils NEW locomotives

Good to hear, but what is really helping Amtrak is that air travel has become a bigger pain than train travel.

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WilliB posted to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 8:36 AM

not really OT

(Reuters) - A second case of a new SARS-like coronavirus has been diagnosed in France, the Health Ministry said on Sunday, in what appeared to be a case of human-to-human transmission....

[more]

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WilliB replied to the Political Asylum board. 8:44 PM

Re: Planned March on Washington July 4

I suspect the organizers have never been in D.C. on July 4. In the first place, the entire mall is surrounded by fences and check points. They won't get a gun in there. In the second place, it is so crowded that you can't even move. In the third [more]

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 9:31 AM

Re: x Post: Older Americans Brutal Job Searches

insurance...
While the government wants people to work until age 70+, the employers (and younger unemployed folk) want them to drop out of the workforce at age 50+...

Which is yet another reason we need to stop making American [more]

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 9:27 AM

Re: x Post: Older Americans Brutal Job Searches

Highly-visible low wage jobs at McDonald's or Burger King might not be very appealing

I see a lot of 60-somethings in these jobs; but they are hard because you have to be on your feet all day. That kind of stamina becomes harder and [more]

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WilliB replied to the Dropout's Den board. 9:18 AM

Re: Hi

Yes, they have to be pollinated by a different variety, which is why we only bought one tree from this source; on top of that, males and females are different trees (are so I'm told--I'm not sure that information is accurate). Anyhow, we are near the [more]

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 5:46 PM

Re: x Post: Older Americans Brutal Job Searches

I think you are underestimating the prejudice against older workers. And if you think that older workers don't take lower paying jobs when they are offered, check out the age of the guy bagging groceries and returning carts the next time you buy [more]

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WilliB replied to the Macro Economic Trends and Risks board. 5:33 PM

Re: x Post: Older Americans Brutal Job Searches

I was nearly there (ready to collect unemployment to make it to age 62), but it looks like I'm going to go to work for the outfit to which my job was outsourced (a firm owned by a corporation headquartered in India). I have no idea what they pay yet, [more]