The incredible sadness of austerity

Scataphagos · Dec 30, 2011

Quote from syswizard:

"...answer is: Creeping socialism and swelling of entitlement programs.
Disincentives to entrepreneurism and hard work in general.

Why take risks or work hard when Big Govvie has got your back covered ? Then this thinking spreads like a disease.

CORRECTAMUNDO!

Scataphagos · Dec 30, 2011

Quote from syswizard:

I love that term, CHINDIA.

Lawyers in Washington are responsible for this situation you know.

Most people have barely given it a thought... yet it has been like a dagger through the heart of the American middle class and our culture in general.

jem · Dec 30, 2011

Quote from nitro:

LMAO!!!

You guys are toooooo funny

I remember meeting this Columbian guy, and he pointed out that the reason that Latin American countries are backward economically to the US is that it is too hot. I pointed out that if that happened to Americans, we would just invent air conditioners.

There is something to this kind of analysis, as pointed out by Jared Diamond in Collapse. But you guys are taking to extremes.

right now, I have a issue.

work on trading systems.
work on my websites for my business.
Play golf with my kids.

Tomorrow I have to decide - drive to mountains to stay at friends cabin with my family and go skiing or do more work.

Those kinds of decisions wear on you productivity after a while.
Its very stressful.

Stok · Dec 30, 2011

Quote from syswizard:

And the answer is: NONE OF THE ABOVE.

answer is: Creeping socialism and swelling of entitlement programs.
Disincentives to entrepreneurism and hard work in general.

Why take risks or work hard when Big Govvie has got your back covered ? Then this thinking spreads like a disease.

+1

It is how the liberal democrats have gained their power....buying votes. When all societies collapse, the finger will point to democratic policies and class warfare...all in the name of their own power and greed.

How does someone like Harry Reid, who when he got into office had a low 6 figure net worth, and now has a 8 figure net worth on a $180k annual salary. Scam, scum, unions, insider trading....scum scum scum! In order to get their power, they need big entilements (buying votes), guberment handouts (buying votes) and class warfare (enraging the masses) to sell the "hope and change" theme the democrats have done since the beginning of time. The dems want their voters to stay down, so they can rinse and repeat the same shit over and over to get the votes.

d08 · Dec 30, 2011

Quote from ammo:

haiti was 137th from the top in another list but figures were from 03,here they have 0,one of the poorest countries on the globe http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide_rates/en/

Statistics should only be taken seriously when the methodology is same. What some countries consider suicide, others do not. I wouldn't trust any numbers from the Haitian statistics department, even if it really does exist.

d08 · Dec 30, 2011

Quote from Scataphagos:

Most people have barely given it a thought... yet it has been like a dagger through the heart of the American middle class and our culture in general.

When the US is profiting by using the brains of 3rd world countries, causing problems for those countries; when people in 1st world countries become accustomed to buying thousands of dollars worth of Christmas presents which are made in Chindia and complaining when they can't, while being unemployed - can't really feel sorry for those people.
I love it how the 1st world is screaming "Hey, this globalization has started to work against us, we should only promote it when it's working for us!". You can't have it both ways.

syswizard · Dec 30, 2011

Quote from jem:

right now, I have a issue.
Play golf with my kids.
Tomorrow I have to decide - drive to mountains to stay at friends cabin with my family and go skiing or do more work.
Those kinds of decisions wear on you productivity after a while.
Its very stressful.

And how is this even remotely relevant to this thread ?

MKTrader · Dec 30, 2011

Quote from Covertibility:

Fed Reserve PDF:The Subprime Crisis: Is Government Housing Policy to Blame?

ABSTRACT
A growing literature suggests that housing policy, embodied by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and the affordable housing goals of the government sponsored enterprises, may have caused the subprime crisis. The conclusions drawn in this literature, for the most part, have been based on associations between aggregated national trends. In this paper
we examine more directly whether these programs were associated with worse outcomes in the mortgage market, including delinquency rates and measures of loan quality.

We rely on two empirical approaches. In the first approach, which focuses on the CRA, we conjecture that historical legacies create significant variations in the lenders that serve otherwise comparable neighborhoods. Because not all lenders are subject to the CRA, this creates a quasi-natural experiment of the CRAâs effect. We test this conjecture by examining whether neighborhoods that have been disproportionally served by CRA-covered institutions historically experienced worse outcomes. The second approach takes advantage of the fact that both the CRA and GSE goals rely on clearly defined geographic areas to determine which loans are favored by the regulations. Using a regression discontinuity approach, our tests compare the
marginal areas just above and below the thresholds that define eligibility, where any effect of the CRA or GSE goals should be clearest.

We find little evidence that either the CRA or the GSE goals played a significant role in the subprime crisis. Our lender tests indicate that areas disproportionately served by lenders covered by the CRA experienced lower delinquency rates and less risky lending. Similarly, the threshold tests show no evidence that either program had a significantly negative effect on outcomes.

-------

There is no cherry picking of the data. Frank Luntz nor any FOXNews employee had any involvement in the above mentioned or any other empirical study. I haven't seen Heritage, Cato or AEI refute the findings. I'll have to go back and take a look at the 90's again but this past crisis wasn't govt programs.

Low rates made the banks want to loan more but it was the duty to not make loans to people who couldn't afford them. We all know the stories of how easy it was to buy a house with no money down and how no income verification was done on many loans. This is private sector's fault. Just because money becomes cheap doesn't mean you do stupid things with it.

So only those who condone fraud or have some sort of special gift to become oblivious to bullshit can trade?

So every Fed paper is the gospel? In 2004 two of their economists wrote an paper called "Are Home Prices the Next Bubble?" They ruled out lower interest rates as the cause of a potential bubble and of course they looked like idiots a few years later.

You certainly can cherry pick data and reach whatever conclusions you want to reach. Did you miss ClimateGate Parts 1 and 2? Quoting an abstract you don't understand doesn't prove your point. There are many consquences of CRA you can conveniently ignore and avoid with such studies. If their "study" reached the opposite conclusion, you think they'd publish it? If so, you know nothing about how they or the academic world work.

And where did I condone fraud? Do you just enjoy throwing out baseless charges since that appears to be all you have?

budcampbell · Dec 30, 2011

Quote from ammo:

http://www.met.ie/climate/rainfall.asp compare the number of days of overcast or cloudy /rainy weather per yr to portland.our suicide capital..68 days of sunshine per yr

In addition add Irish whiskey to the mix and there it is........seasonal affective disorder. Really there is no difference between the US meth-addict and the raging Irish drunk. One dies suddenly, the other perishes after their teeth begin to fall out.

kcgoogler · Dec 30, 2011

Quote from MKTrader:

This thread needs a new title: "The incredible sadness of overspending, paternalistic nations."

Whether it ends in austerity, default or hyperinflation is a moot point.

+1 and very very sad indeed.

But guess what; the people responsible for the whole thing got away without a scratch and are in helm again. And more sad"er"; where is the motivation for them to do anything different the next time around. Guess how long before we see this sad movie again?

-gariki