The incredible sadness of austerity

[d08]

Quote from nitro:

"...During the same period, from 2003 to 2011, Ireland lost 4,408 young men and women to suicide. Let me say that again. The US – with a population of 300 million – lost 4,484 men and women in combat in the war in Iraq. During the same period – with a population of just 4.6 million – Ireland has lost 4,408 men and women to suicide against the backdrop of our national banking and financial crisis...."

A rather absurd comparison, the economy was booming in Ireland before 2008, so why was it happening?
You need to compare with other countries for the number to be relevant and look at the years before and after 2008.
As DT-waw mentioned, sunlight has a lot to do with it. Too cold or stormy outside, use the car instead of walking, natural anti-depressants aren't produced by the organism, depression, suicide. A very simplistic explanation but it's one part of the reason.

 

[nkhoi]

so the thread tile should change to The incredible sadness of lacking Sun.

 

[Scataphagos]

Quote from nkhoi:

so the thread tile should change to The incredible sadness of lacking UV.

Whaddaya gonna do? Just read today about the increased skin cancer risk (from higher levels of UV) of tanning salons....

 

[MKTrader]

Quote from Covertibility:

And yes, the markets are always the cause of speculative booms and busts. The government doesn't issue a list of Winners of the New World or that the market has reached a permanent plateau and it's safe to keep on shoveling that money in.

Blaming the govt for low rates as a cause for the housing boom is like a gunman who shoots up a church blaming walmart for selling him the bullets. If the private sector can't control itself, then regulations need to be imposed or strengthened.

So back-asswards it's almost not worth responding, but...

No, modern bubbles like housing wouldn't be nearly as severe w/out the Fed (not technically "govt" like you said, but their partner-in-crime). How else would interest rates go so low and stay there? You can't blame it on anyone except those who set the rate. The market certainly didn't.

And yes, when HUD imposed requirements that basically forced mortgage lenders to make bad loans in the 90s, it was also part of the disastrous recipe. Both HUD and the DoJ (it was a travesty even before Holder) brought lawsuits against bankers when a "high" percentage of minorities were turned for loans. All of the CRA apologist garbage and Fed academic papers don't change this. They cherry pick data points and ignore the real issues.

As for regs, do you have any idea how many agencies were regulating credit default swaps before the crisis? It has nothing to with "strengthening regulations." That just hurts the little guy and has huge unintended consequences (see Sarbane-Ox and Dodd-Frank). The gov't-corporate coalition always get their regulatory capture perks. That's why Dodd-Frank overregulated small retail FX traders (and many others) while not touching Fannie, Freddie or the big banks.

Since markets are so evil, why do you even bother posting here? Please don't say that you actually trade them...

 

[DT-waw]

Quote from d08:

sunlight has a lot to do with it. Too cold or stormy outside, use the car instead of walking, natural anti-depressants aren't produced by the organism, depression, suicide.

Sun > vitamin D makes your bones and teeth strong. bigger muscles, stronger hair, much better mood. hugely better sexual performance and , yeah, bigger cock.

without sun a man will often feel not enough sexually attractive.
to compensate this weakness irish, british, german, polish, swiss, norwegian men will try to get ahead of everybody else in the financial status.

this psychic mechanism partly explains why swiss, german and brits are rich- they have the motive deeply inside psyche.

when financial crisis comes- oops houston we have a problem!
and what western girls want for valentines day in Feb?
long dark chocolate bars with big nuts

 

[nkhoi]

Quote from Scataphagos:

Whaddaya gonna do? Just read today about the increased skin cancer risk (from higher levels of UV) of tanning salons....

ask yourself do people living in sunny countries have higher rate of skin cancer?

 

[Scataphagos]

Quote from nkhoi:

ask yourself do people living in sunny countries have higher rate of skin cancer?

People living in sunny countries tend to have high melanin content.. so what's your point?

 

[MKTrader]

Quote from nkhoi:

ask yourself do people living in sunny countries have higher rate of skin cancer?

Do they?

All I know is enough sun + lots of Vitamin D when you're not in the sun >>>>> flu shots and antibiotics.

 

[DT-waw]

you can increase your melanin, but you need to tan <B> slowly and gradually </B>

dont lay on the beach from 11 to 3 right after 5 winter months!!!

rastafari men are far from sadness, despite being very poor.

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[adadadog]

Quote from Scataphagos:

Especially when everyone finally accepts the fact that there is NO FIX.

1. Too many people on the planet. Not a decent job for all of them.

2. Too many jobs outsourced to Chindia for low labor costs.

Impression resulted from main stream media differs from reality.
I recall reading from somewhere.
Jobs outsourced in past 10 years:
China: 900k
Mexico: 900k
India: 400k
German/France/Canada/UK are all around 500k