Hey Linh, if you're in Santa Clara you might want to stop by the school of law and engage one David Friedman (son of Milton) in a debate on climate change, which libertarian Dave (his Dad's son through and through) actually believes will create positive economic opportunities (well, perhaps if you decide to grow wheat somewhere north of Winnipeg, I guess). I debated for more than a month on G+ with this guy and my head is still hurting.
Well, if he's in Santa Clara, he will experience first hand the benign effects of climate change as his water runs out, and nearby central valley dries up. The affluent parts of California are kept lushly green with so much pumped in water, but this won't last. I wonder if David Friedman will enjoy golfing on dirt?
This picture represents the devil-in-mankind's advertising. Blonde "hottie" holding money, all types of pleasure avenues available, leading people into debtors hell. For example, "want a boat and jet ski, Sir..., well OK, we can mortgage your house and its all yours!"
Back in early 2004, with our family backs "against the financial-firing squad wall," Carol and I unwisely took a "Sub Prime loan" in order to cover substantial medical bill debt and try and keep my late-father Charlie's Center St. house which needed lots of repair.
In the Sub Prime Beginning (reversal of Genesis) our payments were a manageable $500 per month. In two years, the loan changed corporate hands a few times, and as I think you and I discussed this matter, our monthly loan payment went nuclear to $950.00 a month! With Carol ill, out-of-work, & Taylor Nursing Home's lien on the house, fucked, we had to move, find apartment.
Peculiar thing here, Linh, and despite having read Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfire of the Vanities" in mid-1990s," I was neither intimately familiar Wall Street greedy Ways nor was I yet burnt by such "Masters of the Universe." Nevertheless, Carol and I got waylaid by a slick-broker based in Forty Fort, PA, who upon agreeing to loan us the money, cheerfully said, "Well you two luckies... now you can book a romantic cruise to Bahamas!" Carol quipped, "Uh, Miss, its more likely a trip to Scranton Salvation Army base." Who said, "there's sucker born every minute?"
Do you know how many people work for Wall Street firms and big banks, Linh? In his book, Tom Wolfe said Salomon Brothers occupied 5-floors of a NYC skyscraper, and all the brokers were "Best & Brightest" Yale, Stanford, etcetera, workaholic pedigree mongrels.
To paraphrase Mr. "swindled" comment (above), my ass interior is still red and raw from the Sub Prime fucking that I deservedly sought & got. Thank you for running the picture, maybe it will help other people think more.
Our entire economy is based on unpayable debts that must be serviced, month by month, like a drawn out torture but, hey, she looks so happy holding those Federal Reserve notes!
Linh: I do NOT understand the concept of "monetized debt." U.S. in debt > $13 trillion, it seems, for example, the D.O.D. can go forever, bombing & waving flag, on credit, Federal Reserve notes.
How did "broke" government bail-out Wall Street? Like US wars since Korea, it's said the debt was passed on to future generations. How do they do this shit? Must run, am off on afternoon school bus run. As aside, Scranton School District is in debt $19 million.
First of, with "fractional reserve banking," a bank can lend out much more money than it has, and since money is no longer backed by gold, the Federal Reserve, a cabal of private banks, can generate money out of nothing.
Normally, this would cause our money to depreciate but since the world is forced to use the US Dollar to buy oil and in international trades, the US Dollar has not only maintained but increased its value in relation to other currencies. As the world's biggest FINANCIAL and MILITARY bully, the US has also forced vassal states to print money recklessly also.
China and Russia are moving away from this system, however, for they're no longer using the US Dollar in their transactions with a host of countries.
With so much money being generated, hyper inflation is inevitavble, but it hasn't happened yet because so much of this money is being parked in stock markets. Also, the US Dollar hasn't crashed yet, but it will, for the rest of the world is moving away from using the US Dollar as reserve currency. When this happens, Americans will discover how poor they really are.
As the world's biggest debtor nation, we're literally the poorest people on earth, except that we still have enough military muscles to force the rest of the world to send us merchandises for our Dollars. When this racket blows up, you won't recognize the country you're in.
+Stephen Waterhouse Did you read what's at your link? I note:
1. That's the fourth report. The fifth report retracted the claim about droughts.
2. "There is high confidence that global warming over many centuries"
How seriously should one take threats that will eventuate several hundred years in the future, given the enormous uncertainty in what humans will be doing over even the next century? Do you think a committee of scientists in 1700 could have done a good job of predicting our problems? I note that there were predictions made with some confidence not much over a century ago that have been pretty consistently wrong.
3. Where in what you linked to is the life extinction event claimed in the post we are discussing? David Friedman Oct 2, 2014
Stephen Waterhouse Oct 3, 2014
I could be glib, like the kids in New York: "The Dinosaurs Thought They Had A Lot of Time Too." But the fact is, beyond a three degree rise in global temperatures (Celsius) the forecasting models all break down and we are in nowhere land ... unprecedented sea-level rise (at least in the modern era) and a long stormy trip to an equilibrium our children and their children's children (if we get that far) will never live to see David Friedman Oct 3, 2014
+Stephen Waterhouse writes:
"unprecedented sea-level rise (at least in the modern era)"
Why would you expect sea level rise of a meter a century, which is about the upper edge of the IPCC high emissions scenario (8.5) for 2100, to have catastrophic effects? On a geographic scale that's tiny. It means coastlines move in by about a kilometer every thousand years. Assuming nobody bothers to build dikes.
Unless you live in a very hot part of the world, there are already millions of people living, growing food, rearing children, doing human stuff in places with an average temperature more than 3°C above the temperature where you are.
This sort of rhetoric feels more like an end of the world doomsday cult than the science its perpetrators claim to believe in.
Linh, yeah, and it went on and on like this to the point of ad nauseam. Mostly in the dead of night. 3 am a normal time for a reply--and he'd reply quickly! Maybe in a half hour or so. Does this guy ever sleep? I have to admit, in the end I was impressed by .. uh .. his intellectual stamina? I'm not sure why we even stopped.
Concerning the currency, my view is that devaluations are caused by sudden changes in money supply. Now we have Super Congress overseeing the debt-GDP ratio and Obama was able to destroy civil society in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Ukraine, Honduras, Haiti, Venezuela, at very little expense compared to the greedy, inefficient Republicans. Petras wrote about how Latin American loans from US banks are hurting them as they ' and face onerous payments with a stronger dollar'*, without him - ever candid - predicting a US dollar devaluation in the near future. Where I agree is that the debt to GDP ratio is such that it makes the US currency more vulnerable to economic fluctuations and makes stimulus programs harder to enact. The nasty tactics directed at Moscow shows how much the US is concerned with Russia's economic cooperation, as long as the US props up the Saudi royals and the GCC and tries to weaken Iran. China may be a different story but it is so dependent on exports to US and, unlike Latin America, has an interest in the dollar staying strong as a creditor, unless it hatches some plan to insert the sword into Uncle Sam's belly button. * http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=2028
10 comments:
Hey Linh, if you're in Santa Clara you might want to stop by the school of law and engage one David Friedman (son of Milton) in a debate on climate change, which libertarian Dave (his Dad's son through and through) actually believes will create positive economic opportunities (well, perhaps if you decide to grow wheat somewhere north of Winnipeg, I guess). I debated for more than a month on G+ with this guy and my head is still hurting.
Hi swindled,
Well, if he's in Santa Clara, he will experience first hand the benign effects of climate change as his water runs out, and nearby central valley dries up. The affluent parts of California are kept lushly green with so much pumped in water, but this won't last. I wonder if David Friedman will enjoy golfing on dirt?
Linh
Hi swindled,
Can you share some of your exchange with David Friedman?
Linh
Linh,
This picture represents the devil-in-mankind's advertising. Blonde "hottie" holding money, all types of pleasure avenues available, leading people into debtors hell. For example, "want a boat and jet ski, Sir..., well OK, we can mortgage your house and its all yours!"
Back in early 2004, with our family backs "against the financial-firing squad wall," Carol and I unwisely took a "Sub Prime loan" in order to cover substantial medical bill debt and try and keep my late-father Charlie's Center St. house which needed lots of repair.
In the Sub Prime Beginning (reversal of Genesis) our payments were a manageable $500 per month. In two years, the loan changed corporate hands a few times, and as I think you and I discussed this matter, our monthly loan payment went nuclear to $950.00 a month! With Carol ill, out-of-work, & Taylor Nursing Home's lien on the house, fucked, we had to move, find apartment.
Peculiar thing here, Linh, and despite having read Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfire of the Vanities" in mid-1990s," I was neither intimately familiar Wall Street greedy Ways nor was I yet burnt by such "Masters of the Universe." Nevertheless, Carol and I got waylaid by a slick-broker based in Forty Fort, PA, who upon agreeing to loan us the money, cheerfully said, "Well you two luckies... now you can book a romantic cruise to Bahamas!" Carol quipped, "Uh, Miss, its more likely a trip to Scranton Salvation Army base." Who said, "there's sucker born every minute?"
Do you know how many people work for Wall Street firms and big banks, Linh? In his book, Tom Wolfe said Salomon Brothers occupied 5-floors of a NYC skyscraper, and all the brokers were "Best & Brightest" Yale, Stanford, etcetera, workaholic pedigree mongrels.
To paraphrase Mr. "swindled" comment (above), my ass interior is still red and raw from the Sub Prime fucking that I deservedly sought & got. Thank you for running the picture, maybe it will help other people think more.
Yo Chuck,
Our entire economy is based on unpayable debts that must be serviced, month by month, like a drawn out torture but, hey, she looks so happy holding those Federal Reserve notes!
Linh
Linh: I do NOT understand the concept of "monetized debt." U.S. in debt > $13 trillion, it seems, for example, the D.O.D. can go forever, bombing & waving flag, on credit, Federal Reserve notes.
How did "broke" government bail-out Wall Street? Like US wars since Korea, it's said the debt was passed on to future generations. How do they do this shit? Must run, am off on afternoon school bus run. As aside, Scranton School District is in debt $19 million.
Yo Chuck,
First of, with "fractional reserve banking," a bank can lend out much more money than it has, and since money is no longer backed by gold, the Federal Reserve, a cabal of private banks, can generate money out of nothing.
Normally, this would cause our money to depreciate but since the world is forced to use the US Dollar to buy oil and in international trades, the US Dollar has not only maintained but increased its value in relation to other currencies. As the world's biggest FINANCIAL and MILITARY bully, the US has also forced vassal states to print money recklessly also.
China and Russia are moving away from this system, however, for they're no longer using the US Dollar in their transactions with a host of countries.
With so much money being generated, hyper inflation is inevitavble, but it hasn't happened yet because so much of this money is being parked in stock markets. Also, the US Dollar hasn't crashed yet, but it will, for the rest of the world is moving away from using the US Dollar as reserve currency. When this happens, Americans will discover how poor they really are.
As the world's biggest debtor nation, we're literally the poorest people on earth, except that we still have enough military muscles to force the rest of the world to send us merchandises for our Dollars. When this racket blows up, you won't recognize the country you're in.
Linh
David Friedman
Oct 2, 2014
+Stephen Waterhouse Did you read what's at your link? I note:
1. That's the fourth report. The fifth report retracted the claim about droughts.
2. "There is high confidence that global warming over many centuries"
How seriously should one take threats that will eventuate several hundred years in the future, given the enormous uncertainty in what humans will be doing over even the next century? Do you think a committee of scientists in 1700 could have done a good job of predicting our problems? I note that there were predictions made with some confidence not much over a century ago that have been pretty consistently wrong.
3. Where in what you linked to is the life extinction event claimed in the post we are discussing?
David Friedman
Oct 2, 2014
Stephen Waterhouse
Oct 3, 2014
I could be glib, like the kids in New York: "The Dinosaurs Thought They Had A Lot of Time Too." But the fact is, beyond a three degree rise in global temperatures (Celsius) the forecasting models all break down and we are in nowhere land ... unprecedented sea-level rise (at least in the modern era) and a long stormy trip to an equilibrium our children and their children's children (if we get that far) will never live to see
David Friedman
Oct 3, 2014
+Stephen Waterhouse writes:
"unprecedented sea-level rise (at least in the modern era)"
Why would you expect sea level rise of a meter a century, which is about the upper edge of the IPCC high emissions scenario (8.5) for 2100, to have catastrophic effects? On a geographic scale that's tiny. It means coastlines move in by about a kilometer every thousand years. Assuming nobody bothers to build dikes.
Unless you live in a very hot part of the world, there are already millions of people living, growing food, rearing children, doing human stuff in places with an average temperature more than 3°C above the temperature where you are.
This sort of rhetoric feels more like an end of the world doomsday cult than the science its perpetrators claim to believe in.
Linh, yeah, and it went on and on like this to the point of ad nauseam. Mostly in the dead of night. 3 am a normal time for a reply--and he'd reply quickly! Maybe in a half hour or so. Does this guy ever sleep? I have to admit, in the end I was impressed by .. uh .. his intellectual stamina? I'm not sure why we even stopped.
Concerning the currency, my view is that devaluations are caused by sudden changes in money supply. Now we have Super Congress overseeing the debt-GDP ratio and Obama was able to destroy civil society in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Ukraine, Honduras, Haiti, Venezuela, at very little expense compared to the greedy, inefficient Republicans. Petras wrote about how Latin American loans from US banks are hurting them as they ' and face onerous payments with a stronger dollar'*, without him - ever candid - predicting a US dollar devaluation in the near future. Where I agree is that the debt to GDP ratio is such that it makes the US currency more vulnerable to economic fluctuations and makes stimulus programs harder to enact. The nasty tactics directed at Moscow shows how much the US is concerned with Russia's economic cooperation, as long as the US props up the Saudi royals and the GCC and tries to weaken Iran. China may be a different story but it is so dependent on exports to US and, unlike Latin America, has an interest in the dollar staying strong as a creditor, unless it hatches some plan to insert the sword into Uncle Sam's belly button.
* http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=2028
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