Bits Bucket for June 20, 2014
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The Housing Bubble
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Name:Ben Jones
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PB, I saw your late post from the 15th only late last night (been busy on my end lately…
re: your proudest moment.
WOW, that is an amazing story! I salute you for having the wherewithal and bravery to take prompt action under pressure, at risk to yourself. You have every right to be proud.
I’ve been meaning to post this for a while:
Is going back and reading the previous day or few days posts a sign of mental illness?
Is posting a reply therein?
I try to avoid both but I think posting would be far more problematic.
the printing press is controlling you.
I suppose that there is some truth to that statement: I am being nudged in the direction of NOT buying, largely due to reality that the markets are being massively manipulated by the printing press. Thus, perhaps my actions are being controlled by it, albeit not in the direction intended by the manipulator-in-chief.
Many other are being controlled in the opposite direction, obviously.
To Adan:
Dan, your references regarding IQ in sub-Saharan Africa do not inspire confidence in the results.
Having briefly surveyed the referenced “R. Lynn, G. Meisenberg / Intelligence 38 (2010) 21–29″, the authors apparently take “an average” of three other studies, each of which was already presenting results for an average IQ.
As any undergraduate student in statistics knows, it is not statistically valid to average averages. If you are trying to reason about the mean of averages, the correct statistical method is to take a harmonic mean.
This is very much a nit, as the result would not be dramatically different with a more-appropriate harmonic mean; but it does call into question in my mind at least whether they are able to ask the right questions about the underlying studies, and how valid those test scores are in the light of cultural bias.
Dan, your references regarding IQ in sub-Saharan Africa do not inspire confidence in the results.
I don’t really find this surprising.
Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice
http://www.livescience.com/18132-intelligence-social-conservatism-racism.html
There’s no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.
The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.
“Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood,” he said
I doubt your IQ is above 100 but in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king, since Brazil has an IQ in the 80s, I guess you can survive. I speak in facts not prejudice since if prejudice means anything it must mean an opinion not based in fact.
I speak in facts not prejudice since if prejudice means….
“Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood,”
You can post that over and over but I have always found that people that can explain things simply understand what they are talking about far better than people that regurgitate statements that just say it is complex.
I have always found that…
Maybe you shouldn’t begin so many blowhard and hackneyed pontifications with phrases that immediately cause you to lose credibility.
But I know…. It’s all about you.
I find… I believe…I always….I think…. I believe…..I…..I…..I……I……I…..
I find… I believe…I always….I think…. I believe…
I like to distinguish between fact and opinion, you cannot tell the difference. I base that on the fact that you are constantly trying to pass off left-wing opinion as fact.
in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king, since Brazil has an IQ in the 80s,
Hmm, geographic IQ arbitrage??
I think you are nit picking. Show me any study that shows that the IQ in sub-Saharan Africa is above 80 and believe even 80 is an outlier. What is more disturbing is the failure to close the gap in the U.S. While lead paint is an example of an environmental factor that can lower IQ , the elimination of lead did not close the racial gap in a meaningful way, food stamps did not close the gap, tripling education spending and other programs did not close the gap. However, as the Bell Curve points out, the differences in racial groups is minor compared to the differences in individuals. If we treat people like individuals it does not matter. Only when we require group equality instead of equal individual opportunity does it matter.
http://sq.4mg.com/NationIQ.htm
Look sometimes people’s opinions are not backed by facts. People use to like to make Polish jokes but as this link shows the average IQ in Poland is higher than it is in the U.S. But to ignore IQ is to ignore reality. India that has almost the population of China has 20% of the GDP. I have heard all kinds of tortured explanations of the disparity. However, just examine the differences in IQ and you will see the reason. In the link look at the difference between China and Taiwan. I think that can be explained by the fact that the people that flee communism tend to be higher IQ, the people that flee poverty I would argue tend to be lower IQ. Until the fall of communism this country benefitted from people fleeing communism, since the early 90s we have been swamped with people fleeing poverty.
for the disparity
for the disparity
The disparity between fact and agendized propaganda?
The Roots of the I.Q. Debate: Eugenics and Social Control
http://www.ferris.edu/isar/archives/roots-debate.htm
The revival of eugenics in North America has more to do with ideology and money than with science. A New York-based foundation called the Pioneer Fund, established in 1937 by textile heir Wickliffe Draper, has provided millions of dollars (more than $10 million from 1971-1992 alone) to behavioral scientists whose findings lend credence to racist ideas and eugenic solutions, as well as to anti-immigrant groups. Draper believed that genetics could be used to prove the inferiority of blacks and the superiority of the white Anglo-Saxon stock that first colonized the Eastern seaboard.
The Pioneer Fund’s original charter outlines a commitment to work for ‘racial betterment’ through studies in heredity and eugenics and to ‘improve the character of the American people’ by encouraging the procreation of descendants of the original white colonial stock.
Roots of the I.Q. Debate: Eugenics and Social Control…The revival of eugenics in North America has more to do with ideology and money than with science.
ADan,
Why do you always talk about Blacks being less intelligent? What’s the agenda? Here’s a little bit on one of the authors you’re always touting every chance you get: (The clown burned a cross)
Koch Brother Class Warfare - The Bell Curve, Charles F. Murray and the CIA -
http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2014/04/koch-brother-class-warfare-bell-curve-charles-f-murray-and-cia-0#sthash.MZnHQFk0.dpuf
Charles F. Murray (Losing Ground, The Bell Curve, and other elite class war epics) worked for AIR during Vietnam, after which he was recruited for the former CIA director Bill Casey’s Manhattan Institute, after which from 1990 to today, he worked for the Koch Brothers’ American Enterprise Institute ….
…..Charles Murray is one of the most influential right-wing ideological architects of the post-Reagan era. His career began in a secret Pentagon counterinsurgency operation in rural Thailand during the Vietnam War, a program whose stated purpose included applying counter-insurgency strategies learned in rural Thailand on America’s own restive inner cities and minority populations. By the late 1970s, Charles Murray was drawing up plans for the US Justice Department that called for massively increasing incarceration rates. In the 1980s, backed by an unprecedented marketing campaign, Murray suddenly emerged as the nation’s most powerful advocate for abolishing welfare programs for single mothers. Since then, Murray revived discredited racist eugenics theories “proving” that blacks and Latinos are genetically inferior to whites, and today argues that the lower classes are inferior to the upper classes due to breeding differences.
# In high school, at the height of the Civil Rights movement, Charles Murray burned a cross on a hill in his Iowa town, according to a New York Times profile of Murray.
By the late 1970s, (The Bell Curve co-author) Charles Murray was drawing up plans for the US Justice Department that called for massively increasing incarceration rates.
PsyOps/counterinsurgency tactics on Americans/Junk Science/R@cism/Division = The Horrible Chart Below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex#mediaviewer/File:US_incarceration_timeline.gif
I think it is a left wing tactic of personal destruction. Attack the data not the person, do you have any statistics that my statistics are inaccurate? BTW, the increased incarceration led to a dramatic reduction in crime so it is hardly a terrible development.
Your source is so unreliable I do not know if anything it says is true but I do find this contradiction in the post to be very interesting, so are we really to believe that the Washington Post, the New York Times and Newsweek all Real Journalists would support this man if the rest of the post was accurate?:
The Bell Curve received glowing reviews in the mainstream press. The New York Times swooned: “The government or society that persists in sweeping their subject matter under the rug will do so at its peril.” Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen rushed to Charles Murray’s defense: “Both Murray and Herrnstein have been called racists . . . Their findings, though, have been accepted by most others in their field, and it would be wrong—both intellectually and politically—to suppress them.” Newsweek told readers not to worry: “the science behind The Bell Curve is overwhelmingly mainstream.” Andrew Sullivan, as editor of The New Republic in 1994, published a 10,000 word article by Charles Murray and co-author Richard J. Herrnstein drawn from The Bell Curve.
Hopefully my main post about your propaganda will post soon.
I think it is a left wing tactic of personal destruction.
Not at all. Just facts. Just follow the money Mr. “Freie Märkte über alles” I’m just stating unsavory facts about those who you constantly tout. Don’t you like the facts? I think you might work for some very shady, rich and hateful people - and Un-American. Huge right-wing shady money promoted your “Bell Curve” and who’s junk science was heavily funded by the Pioneer fund.
You know, these people:
The 1937 incorporation documents of the Pioneer Fund list two purposes. The first, modeled on the Nazi Lebensborn breeding program,[14] was aimed at encouraging the propagation of those “descended predominantly from white persons who settled in the original thirteen states prior to the adoption of the Constitution of the United States and/or from related stocks, or to classes of children, the majority of whom are deemed to be so descended”. Its second purpose was to support academic research and the “dissemination of information, into the ‘problem of heredity and eugenics’” and “the problems of race betterment”.[13] The Pioneer Fund argues the “race betterment” has always referred to the “human race” referred to earlier in the sentence, and critics argue it referred to racial groups. The document was amended in 1985 and the phrase changed to “human race betterment.” wiki
And: As one of the Pioneer Fund’s first ‘accomplishments,’ it imported two copies of a Nazi propaganda film ‘Applied Eugenics in Present-Day Germany,’ adding English subtitles for American consumption. The film portrayed severely impaired people as freaks living in the splendor of a palatial sanitarium, while genetically-sound Aryan children lived in squalor.
The message was clear: too much money is wasted on ‘life unworthy of living.’ The Nazis produced more sophisticated versions as a means of preparing medical workers to commit mass murder in state-sanctioned euthanasia programs. During the Third Reich an estimated 200,000 mentally and physically disabled persons were murdered by lethal injection, deliberate starvation, and gas.
The Pioneer Fund has changed little since its inception. A December 11, 1977 New York Times article characterized it has having ’supported highly controversial research by a dozen scientists who believe that blacks are genetically less intelligent than whites.’ In the 1960s Nobel Laureate William Shockley (1910-1989), a physicist at Stanford University who advocated programs of voluntary sterilization of people with lower than the average American IQ score of 100, received an estimated $180,000 from the Pioneer Fund.
Ferris State University.
I happened to stumble upon this old article a few days ago. At the time that the Bell Curve came out it was criticized by a number of ditinguished academics includingthe very wll known Stephen Jay Gould of Harvard. This article’s writer’s position is pretty humble. Murray and Herrnstein marshalled some statistics. Other scholars found flaws in their book and it’s not very sensible for people who know little about the field to quickly choose one side or the other.
The following is quote from Richard Nisbett, a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan:
“By conventional academic standards, Herrnstein and Murray’s review of the evidence on the heritability of the IQ difference between blacks and whites is shockingly incomplete and biased.”
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2005/10/moral_courage.1.html
The Bell Curve received glowing reviews in the mainstream press. The New York Times swooned:
“The Bell Curve.” A columnist at the New York Times called it “a scabrous piece of racial pornography,” blasting the thesis that black people are genetically less intelligent than whites as “just a genteel way of calling somebody a n—-r.” Months after its publication, a FAIR report found that “nearly all of the research Murray and [his co-author Richard Herrnstein] relied on for their central claims about race and IQ was funded by The Pioneer Fund,” which has been described as a “neo-Nazi organization” by the Telegraph. The Fund’s founder, Wickliffe Draper, supported shipping blacks back to Africa, and its first president, Harry Laughlin, called for the forced sterilization of the “genetically unfit,” testifying in Congress that 83 percent of Jewish immigrants were “innately feeble-minded.”
dukechronicle dot com
Your own posts had article from Real Journalists supporting it. Just show actual data demonstrating that they got anything wrong not just rants by leftists trying to create guilt by association without showing any flaw in the data.
“In the 1960s Nobel Laureate William Shockley (1910-1989), a physicist at Stanford University who advocated programs of voluntary sterilization of people with lower than the average American IQ score of 100, received an estimated $180,000 from the Pioneer Fund.”
I see nothing wrong with this proposal if applied in a color blind manner. It would reduce crime, dependency and would make us more competitive as a country. Perhaps you can explain why this is wrong.
BTW, the origins of the Pioneer Fund and Planned Parenthood were very similar and they had the same ideology.
just rants by leftists
But here’s the scary part ADan. (Adan loves scary parts….but they scare him.)
I’m not even a “leftist”. I’m a Centrist or within the Centre left. Really. Look it up. The vast majority of my general opinions are shared by the majority of Americans. Examples: Affordable health-care for everyone, Less wealth inequality, progressive taxes, less influence for the rich, less corporatism, regulated capitalism etc etc.
You ADan are the outlier. You are the one who is outside the Centrist spectrum.
Scary huh?
Another excerpt from your link, I guess Bill Clinton the “first black president” is a racist too:
# In 1996, Charles Murray’s decade-plus campaign to end welfare for single mothers paid off when President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, essentially killing traditional welfare programs with a specific emphasis on cutting welfare for poor families with children. The bill was influenced in large part by Murray’s ideas and policy suggestions. Clinton praised Charles Murray: “He did the country a great service. I mean, he and I have often disagreed, but I think his analysis is essentially right. … There’s no question that it would work,” Clinton said in an interview with NBC News in 1993, referring to Murray’s argument that welfare payments to single mothers incentivizes out of wedlock births
I guess Bill Clinton the “first black president” is a racist too:
Did Bill Clinton burn crosses, get funded by entities promoting Nazi theories, work in PsyOps during Vietnam, be involved CIA shoulder rubbing institutes and work for Koch funded right-wing, anti-minority Koch funded think-tanks too? As did your favorite r@cist author?
do you have any statistics that my statistics are inaccurate?
What are your statistics ADan? Your intellectually biased “statistics” of white’s being smarter than people of color are junk statistics because they don’t take into account the following. (These are well-known in the scientific and SocialScientific community)
5 Potential environmental causes (Of cultural IQ “difference”)
5.1 Test bias
5.2 Stereotype threat
5.3 Socioeconomic environment
5.4 Gradual gap appearance
5.5 Health and nutrition
5.6 Education
5.7 Caste-like minorities
5.8 Lack of prior exposure to test related knowledge
5.9 The role of literacy
wiki
The harmonic mean is used to average rates (such as speeds) and inappropriate for this case. The simple arithmetic mean is fine to average average IQs, as long as there is appropriate weighting for sample size (and all other sampling issues have been thwarted). For good measure, the geometric mean is used to average compounded growth rates, such as stocks rising and falling each year. Finally, H<G<A, always. This concludes your lesson.
This concludes your lesson.
Thanks for the lesson. To be fair, it has been over 30yrs since my last stats class, and I do not make use of what I learned in my chosen profession. So it shouldn’t be too surprising that I am not entirely current in my understanding.
But I still know that you can’t just average averages; there was no data that I saw in the study about what the underlying sample sizes were, so it certainly looked as though they just averaged the three averages. Which is a fail.
more sheep :
https://www.youtube.com/embed/O0azojPPRhw?feature=player_embedded
Still more sheep …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uPcthZL2RE
Just as I have been saying, place a sheet of paper is front of a schmuck that has a dotted line at the bottom and he will sign it. If you can get the sheet of paper to commit the schmuck to pay you money for thirty-years or so then you get to sit back and relax while he hustles for the bucks.
Try this one on for size:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIvea_QWF4g
People will do this, people will sign these dotted lines because … because … because …
People are smart.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
The sheep must be the guy with the Bilderberg t-shirt.
At 2:50
“The Federal Reserve tells the government what to do and that’s a problem”
Video of the Day – “End the Fed” Rallies are Exploding Throughout Germany
Michael Krieger | Posted Thursday Jun 19, 2014 at 3:15 pm
This is a fascinating development and one that I had no idea was happening until today. It seems that rallies are spreading throughout Germany protesting the corrupt and dying global status quo. One of the key targets of these groups is the U.S. Federal Reserve system, which as I and many others have maintained, is the core cancer infecting the entire planet.
As I tweeted earlier today:
Michael Krieger @LibertyBlitz
As I have said many times before, future generations will look back at Central Banking as we look back at slavery.4:14 PM - 19 Jun 2014
According to the organizer of these rallies, they have now spread to up to 100 cities and have a combined attendee base of around 20,000. What is also interesting, is that the mainstream media in Germany is calling them Nazis. In Germany, if you don’t support Central Banking, this apparently means you are a Nazi. What a joke. Just more proof mainstream media everywhere is complete and total propaganda. It is also a good sign, since it shows the desperate lengths to which the power structure will go to keep their criminal ponzi alive.
Do these folks seem like Nazis to you?
libertyblitzkrieg.com/…/ - 52k -
Video of the Day – “End the Fed” Rallies are Exploding Throughout Germany
Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
June 20, 2014
http://www.prisonplanet.com/…ay-end-the-fed-rallies-are-exploding-throughout-germany.html - 65k -
¨Do these folks seem like Nazis to you?¨
To me they look like a more inclusive and thoughtful version of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Lets hope they meet with more success.
¨Do these folks seem like Nazis to you?¨
Not in the least.
It is fascinating that what appears to approximate a German version of OWS is being attacked with MSM propaganda (same as happened here).
It will be interesting to see how long it is before the riot police get called out against them in a centrally-coordinated manner (same as happened here), assuming that the movement builds rather than dissipates of its own accord.
I think the fact that theyŕe not trying to ¨occupy¨ anything is a wise move. The camps became a distraction and easy source of gotcha photos for the opponents of Occupy Wall Street. They got in the way of the message.
The camps became a distraction and easy source of gotcha photos for the opponents of Occupy Wall Street. They got in the way of the message.
Yeah, I totally agree. The seemingly useful thing about the “Occupy” component was that it added constant visibility in many cities; yet that same constant visibility (photos, refuse, etc) was a huge net negative to the real message, which got lost in the noise.
Let’s hope the German variant manages to stay on message.
What is also interesting, is that the mainstream media in Germany is calling them Nazis.
That’s probably false. People in Germany don’t throw that word around carelessly. It’s a serious issue to call someone a Nazi there.
More meth, more coke, more heroin, because it’s “for the children”
Washington Post - Wave of Central American migrants strains Border Patrol, reducing number of drug busts:
“With the Border Patrol distracted by a surge of Central American migrants crossing into South Texas, Mexican cartels have had an easier time smuggling illegal drugs across the border, according to agents and state officials here.
The arrival of large groups of women and children on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande is pulling agents away from their patrol stations elsewhere along the border, creating gaps in coverage that the traffickers can exploit”
I said this a week or two ago right here. Simple math. Finite number of cops or agents. Time to process criminals or aliens equals less time out on patrol.
LOLZ when the sons and daughters of the limousine libtards and chamber of commerce rethuglicans who are pimping the scamnesty start OD’ing on all that cheap Mexican dope.
And there will be DEAD BODIES! Heck I’m sure there are already. From people walking through the hot desert. Just a numbers game. But if it was Bush, there’d be digging for those facts. Nothing to see here though.
But if it was Bush, there’d be digging for those facts ??
Don’t need to did for facts on how many people Bush killed & Maimed….
What those kidz need are $500,000 starter homes!
“One in five people in their 20s and early 30s is currently living with his or her parents. And 60 percent of all young adults receive financial support from them … Those who graduated college as the housing market and financial system were imploding faced the highest debt burden of any graduating class in history … more than half of recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed … the negative impact of graduating into a recession never fully disappears. Even 20 years later, the people who graduated into the recession of the early ’80s were making substantially less money than people lucky enough to have graduated a few years afterward”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/magazine/its-official-the-boomerang-kids-wont-leave.html
the negative impact of graduating into a recession never fully disappears. Even 20 years later, the people who graduated into the recession of the early ’80s were making substantially less money than people lucky enough to have graduated a few years afterward
I was one of those graduating in the early 80s. The recession back then was bad. The older boomers - the very same ones who did the drugs and had all the sex - got the best house deals and jobs and investment opportunities. The smart ones did not do the “free love” because many of the older boomers got herpes or AIDS. The younger ones like me watched the Herpes epidemic in the early 80s and were like…”yep, hedonism is not so good is it?”
I finished graduate school in December 2008, just as the Bush/Obama recession was shedding 700,000 jobs a month.
By renting, and not being a debt donkey, I was able to endure un/underemployment, fluctuating income, and pay for a 1,500 mile move halfway across the country with no job waiting for me when I got there.
Loanowners can’t do this.
I was one of those graduating in the early 80s. The recession back then was bad ??
How the F*@! would you know it was bad Bill…You were just graduating…And, unless you were some kind of introvert, didn’t you get your share of booze & vagina in school or dosen’t either interest you ??
The older boomers got the best house deals and jobs and investment opportunities. The smart ones did not do the “free love” because many of the older boomers got herpes or AIDS. The younger ones like me watched the Herpes epidemic in the early 80s and were like…”yep, hedonism is not so good is it ??
There is so much Bu$hit in this statement I don’t even know where to start…
I like it! IntraBoomer warfare.
I think I hit a tender spot. Read the list of consequences I wrote. Maybe that’s why.
I think I hit a tender spot ??
No tender spot here Lonely Bill…Its just your BS that needed to be called out….
Bill speaks with logic and experience. We may not agree on everything but he has reasoned opinions and posts.
Bill owned another lying LIEBeral.
Thanks Dan. These posts between SCDave and me are very revealing of both of us, I’d say.
Adan: “Bill speaks with logic and experience.”
Lloyd Christmas endorsing Harry Dunne….
Rio and Scdave, Maxine Walters endorsing Nancy Pelosi. It actually might be them.
Or more likely low level interns for them.
Good grief Bill, The older boomers (and most mid boomers) were all settled down and coupled up before aids reared its ugly head.
“The older boomers - the very same ones who did the drugs and had all the sex - got the best house deals and jobs and investment opportunities.”
Older baby boomers caught all the breaks
By John Waggoner, USA TODAY
In a generation as sprawling as the baby boomers, you’re bound to notice some big differences. And the main difference is probably this: The older boomers, exemplified by the 62-year-olds who will start retiring this year, occupy a demographic sweet spot that most younger boomers can’t match.
The first of the baby boom generation — those 79 million people born from 1946 through 1964 — are just starting to reach the age when they can tap Social Security.
HOUSING: As baby boomers retire, home markets will hurt
DAY 1: Boomers’ eagerness to retire could cost them
DAY 2: Health insurance poses challenge for early retirees
DAY 4: Avoid pitfalls in managing your retirement fund
DAY 5: Reverse mortgages aren’t for everyone
And those older ones got all the good toys:
•Cheaper houses. A boomer born in 1946 who bought her home in 1976, at age 30, would have paid about $39,300, according to the Census Bureau. That’s equal to $145,200 now, adjusted for inflation. By contrast, a boomer born in 1964 who also bought his first house 30 years later would have paid $130,000, or $174,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars.
•Better retirement benefits. Early boomers are more likely to have a traditional “defined-benefit” pension from their employer than younger boomers are, notes Ron Gebhardtsbauer, senior pension fellow for the American Academy of Actuaries. Unlike 401(k) plans, traditional pensions require no contributions from the employee; all money comes from their employer. Older boomers qualified for “great pensions at a young age,” he says, in addition to 401(k) accounts, which arrived later.
About 39% of all private-sector employees were beneficiaries of traditional pension plans in 1980, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute; that figure fell to 18% by 2006, the last year for which figures are available.
Traditional pensions guarantee a payment for life, even though the value of that pension typically diminishes because of inflation. But younger boomers generally have only 401(k) retirement savings plans. And they’re likely to live longer than older boomers, thereby facing a higher risk of running out of money before they die.
•Superior investment returns. A boomer who started investing in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index 30 years ago would have received a 12.95% average annual return, according to Lipper. One who started investing 20 years ago would have earned an average 11.8% a year. The difference in return might not seem like much. But it’s huge over time. If you invested $100 a month in the S&P 500 starting 30 years ago, you’d have $329,000 now. If you started 20 years ago, you’d have $74,500. Sure, you’d have put in $12,000 less, but you’d need an average annual return of 14.4% for the next 10 years, or you’d need to put in a lot more than $100 a month, to catch up.
•Better jobs. By the time younger boomers joined the workforce, their numerous older brothers and sisters had already filled many of the jobs, which meant that younger boomers had to work harder to find jobs.
By contrast, when David Jones, 62, entered the workforce, he says, many of his co-workers were much older, and lots of entry-level positions were available.
“I came in young, and in some ways, I was able to work my way up the ladder a little faster,” says Jones, a part-time professor at South University in Savannah, Ga.
And, notes Susie Cooke (above, left), a 61-year-old retiree from Tampa, companies were more likely to provide their employees with good benefits when she first started working.
“By the time I retired, workers were just another piece of property,” Cooke says.
Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/retirement/2008-01-15-younger-older-boomers_N.htm
LOL. I’m watching CNN International and Sec of State Commie Kerry is bashing human trafficking/slave-labor and therefore the free-market itself. He wants to have some kind of regulations against the 150 billion dollar industry instead of the government just getting out of the way and letting the moral markets decide.
What a nanny.
So let me get this right. You think it’s OK to kidnap little girls, enslave them and force them to do sexual things that ruin their psyche for the rest of their lives???
If so, you’re a dirt bag.
Lola’s morality is not open to question. He is a self professed high net worth individual who lives like a king as an expat in a foreign country helping the poor favela boys achieve their dreams of rich Americano blandishments.
Either that or a paid Soros troll.
I’m watching CNN International and Sec of State Commie Kerry is bashing human trafficking/slave-labor and therefore the free-market itself.
Slave labor is the free market? Where do you even begin with someone as ideological as you.
If so, you’re a dirt bag.
If it were so, I would totally be.
Slave labor is the free market?
That is dullard’s Straw man. A more accurate and cerebral version would point out that unregulated free-markets can and does lead to slave labor.
Slavery: just a ‘regrettably inevitable’ aspect of business?
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/12/slavery-just-a-regrettably-inevitable-aspect-of-business/
…Many continue to believe the myth that slavery is a thing of the past. There seems to be an increased acceptance by many of slavery and child labour practices as some regrettably inevitable aspect of international business in a globalising economy.
Modern-day slavery isn’t distant to us, we are all implicated, whether we want to be or not. We all carry mobile phones which contain the element coltan. Coltan is only available from mines in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) rife with slavery and child labour. The clothes on our backs are similarly polluted. The cotton harvest in Uzbekistan, which feeds the production of many garment manufacturers is brought in each year by the forced labour of children. The mills that spin such cotton into thread in southern India are often run on the enslavement of girls and young women.
The situation is equally bad in the factories of Delhi in north India where children are routinely employed to do embroidery work. Police often raid such factories, not to resuce the children though, but rather to extract bribes from the owners.
The manslaughter, enslavement and torture of vulnerable workers in the global south, many of them children, to produce goods for the high streets of the global north is a result of business’ ceaseless search for cheap production, scarce commodities or both.
Companies do social auditing of supply chains, but this is often a dubious practice. It has not led to any noticeable improvements.
….The routine use of slavery in many of the supply chains that supply our high streets implicates us all in the crime of slavery. This will remain the case until leaders from business and politics refuse to tolerate this situation any further and regulate and legislate against it in the face of whatever opposition vested interests might pose.
Companies do social auditing of supply chains, but this is often a dubious practice. It has not led to any noticeable improvements.”
This will remain the case until leaders from business and politics refuse to tolerate this situation any further and regulate and legislate against it in the face of whatever opposition vested interests might pose.”
if auditing doesn’t work it must mean we need more “regulate and legislate ”
why do I think that won’t work out so well ?
Rio,
You finally have a post that makes a wee bit of sense. The only thing you are missing is that tariff’s should exist in “free markets” within a national economy’s international trade, as free markets define internal controls withing their national legal framework, and countries outside that national legal framework don’t conform to those controls and should therefore be subject to restrictions with respect to access to the internal market.
Yes, treaties should be put in place to lower these barriers to trade, but only if the international companies begin following an agreed upon version of national laws. Just like a “free country” doesn’t mean you are free to murder your neighbor, “free trade” doesn’t mean you should be free to bypass things like human rights just by outsourcing production to a country run by a dictatorship or a communist or socialist cabal.
So long story short, props for beginning to recognize that many US “free trade” agreements are not very “free” to those being exploited under them.
You finally have a post that makes a wee bit of sense.
Thanks for the comment! And coming from you, that gives me a wee bit of appreciation of it.
Shrimp is cheaper at Wal-Mart because the government “gets out of the way” and “lets the free market work”.
Revealed: Asian slave labour producing prawns for supermarkets in US, UK
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/10/supermarket-prawns-thailand-produced-slave-labour
Slaves forced to work for no pay for years at a time under threat of extreme violence are being used in Asia in the production of seafood sold by major US, British and other European retailers, the Guardian can reveal.
A six-month investigation has established that large numbers of men bought and sold like animals and held against their will on fishing boats off Thailand are integral to the production of prawns (commonly called shrimp in the US) sold in leading supermarkets around the world, including the top four global retailers: Walmart, Carrefour, Costco and Tesco.
The investigation found that the world’s largest prawn farmer, the Thailand-based Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods, buys fishmeal, which it feeds to its farmed prawns, from some suppliers that own, operate or buy from fishing boats manned with slaves.
Besides environmental concerns over the clearing of forests and jungles to grow biofuel crops, the Church’s Pastoral da Terra (CPT) commission highlighted slave labor as a blotch on the biofuel industry.
Nearly 7,000 people were freed from virtual slave labor in Brazil’s sugar cane fields from 2003 to 2008, the CPT said in a statement issued at the start of a five-day biofuel conference in Sao Paulo attended by 40 countries.
The CPT said reports of forced labor had “increased dramatically in Brazil’s sugar industry, “where the proportion of workers freed from conditions analogous to slavery went from 10 percent of the total workforce in 2003-2006 … to 51 percent in 2007 … and 52 percent so far in 2008.”
Brazil’s deputy Foreign Minister for energy and technology Andre Amado told reporters he was “outraged” that Brazil’s biofuel industry was the target of a “denigration” campaign.
But CPT fired back with a statement calling the Foreign Ministry’s dismissal of investigative work done by other government officials into forced labor in the country “scandalous.”
“You cannot dismiss the fact that sugar cane cutters are transported and housed worse than animals, forced to work round the clock to exhaustion and even to death, all … in the name of the frantic race for productivity,” CPT said.
“Without taking such (human) cost into account, you cannot promote the relative benefits of Brazil’s sugar and ethanol on the global market,” it added
the Church’s Pastoral da Terra (CPT) commission highlighted slave labor as a blotch on the biofuel industry.
Good logic:
Because there’s slave labor in Brazil,
slave labor is OK because it’s in a country where someone smarter than me lives.
Because there’s slave labor in Brazil,
slave labor is OK because it’s in a country where someone smarter than me lives.
That is your logic not mine. My logic is like most leftists you will look far to find something to blame on the free enterprise system but trip over examples of government causing misery without even noticing them.
you will look far to find something to blame on the free enterprise system but trip over examples of government causing misery
Absolutely not. I totally blame the US government for causing misery by allowing corporate America to make Americans broke a$$ed wage-slaves in the name of “free-markets”.
See? You’re wrong again.
Blame this on the free market or explain to why you believe these are not the actions of people with an IQ of 72, from IAfrica.com about striking miners:
Article by Gia Nicolaides
A crucial witness in the Farlam Commission of Inquiry has accused miners in the gallery of using muti against him, prompting the commission to postpone proceedings until next week.
The miner, who turned police witness and is only known as, ‘Mr X’, began his in-camera testimony at the commission on Thursday.
His testimony is expected to implicate several other miners who were present during the strike.
He told the commission he was not well because the miners in the public gallery were using muti against him.
The witness said although he was testifying from an undisclosed location through a video link, he could still feel the effects of the muti.
Earlier, he explained the rituals the miners undertook during the strike in 2012.
He said traditional healers told miners not to listen to officers on the koppie and assured them of protection through muti rituals.
‘Mr X’ said miners paid traditional healers to perform rituals so they could be strong and to ensure they were protected from the police’s bullets.
He said two live sheep were wrapped in sheets and put in a fire.
The liquid that emerged from the burning of the animals was used as muti for the men who were on strike.
He said the men cut their bodies with razor blades and were told not to listen to the police.
‘Mr X’ said the traditional healers told them this would help them in their fight for higher wages.
He has also testified that striking employees intended to kill and armed themselves with weapons.
He stated he was part of the group of protesters who intimidated, attacked and killed people in Marikana between 10 and 14 August 2012.
He explained the body parts of two Lonmin security guards who were killed were used to make muti which the miners believed would stop the police’s firearms from working.
President Jacob Zuma appointed the inquiry to investigate whether police were justified in using lethal force on the day 34 striking miners were gunned down in the North West mining town on 16 August 2012.
Police claim they opened fire on the group after coming under attack.
Ten people were also killed in the days leading to the shooting including a mineworker, strikers, two Lonmin security guards and two policemen.
Commission chair Ian Farlam ruled earlier this year that the identity of ‘Mr X’may not be revealed to the public, but only to relevant parties and their clients two weeks prior to his testimony.
Several people who were expected to testify at the commission have been killed since the hearings commenced in 2012.
Rio logic:
Because there is slave trafficking we must have a massive government that consumes 100%+ of GDP. Any cuts to government means you are pro-slave trafficking. And a racist.
And obamacare makes us more civilized…
Rio logic:
Dang 2banana. You actually responded to someone’s post. It must have been a good one and struck a nerve. (But your response was pretty banal.)
obamacare makes us more civilized…
You’re catching on. Did you look in the dictionary?
civilized
adjective
having laws and customs that are fair and morally acceptableNo civilized country should allow such terrible injustices.
Oxford Dictionary
The slave trading in Thailand existed prior to the U.S. companies buying shrimp, now that they are buying shrimp a light has been shined on the practice and there is a chance that slavery will be reduced but somehow the slavery is due to the free market? Why doesn’t Lola concentrate on the slaves harvesting sugar cane in Brazil? Wait could it be because it supports the governmental ethanol program?
http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/news/slave-labor-reality-of-sugar-cane-ethanol/1544770535
Dan,
The only need you should find to counter Rio’s post is to explain that this is not in fact a “free market”, nor the example we want a “free market” to operate under. We should all be in agreement that it is generally a bad thing that we have specific “free trade” agreements that allow these human rights abuses to occur. It’s not really “free trade” when the workers are enslaved. Your post equally highlights it, so you should rejoice that “lola” agrees with you on something.
Nero fiddling while on the border Rome burns.
Check your sarcasm meter.
I understand he is trying to be sarcastic but it is nonsensical. Free markets are antithetical to slavery. Even people that believe in limited government want strong laws against slavery. A libertarian might support a woman’s right to sell her body but he or she would never support being forced into prostitution.
Isn’t there a conundrum there for libertarians? Enforcing those laws requires tax to be levied. Taxes make the taxed slaves of government.
You can have taxes such as tariffs which require people to engage in an activity to be taxed and thus are much more voluntary. I think that most libertarians accept government as a necessary evil but believe that the more limited government can be, it should be.
Free markets are antithetical to slavery
That’s why WalMart does not buy any slave-labor shrimp.
That’s why the South freed the slaves right after the cotton gin made slavery in the South extremely profitable.
Because Free markets sans regulation are always antithetical to slavery
The South never embraced free markets, slavery existed long before Adam Smith. Of course, this nation in the end did not benefit from slavery since the Civil War expended more wealth and shed more blood than the benefits received from the slave labor. All the wars we have ever engaged in put together do not have the causalities of the Civil war. Slavery was morally wrong but the reparations for slavery have been paid many times over and blacks in this country are far better off than blacks in Africa, so it is time to move on.
The South never embraced free markets
That’s why the cotton gin making slavery in the South extremely profitable had nothing to do with the South perpetuating slavery.
slavery existed long before Adam Smith
So what? “Free-markets” existed long before Adam Smith.
“Economic trade for profit has existed since at least the second millennium BC” wiki
Slavery was morally wrong
That’s why the South freed the slaves. Because being morally wrong was more important than free-market profit.
…but the reparations for slavery have been paid..
I missed the part where that subject was linked to this subject in this thread. Is that linking tactic in your manual?
blacks in this country are far better off than blacks in Africa
So the very real American prejudice against Blacks is OK.
That’s why the cotton gin making slavery in the South extremely profitable had nothing to do with the South perpetuating slavery.
That has nothing to do with free markets. Prior to capitalism many economic systems made money. Capitalism is the free exchange of goods and labor. Slavery has no role in such a system. The North pursued this system, the South did not and the North won the Civil War since the capitalist system has spurred both economic growth and population growth in the North.
Capitalism is the free exchange of goods and labor. Slavery has no role in such a system.
Weak and Wrong. Slavery had a huge role in Southern Capitalism because Blacks were not considered white/human beings therefore there was a “free exchange” of goods and labor because Blacks were considered only “property”. Remember?
You can’t change history and facts by playing with your “free exchange and markets” words.
History and the reality of the times discussed are not a play-time word game for children.
Slavery was not and is not part of capitalism. The Soviet Union sold goods within its borders but the Soviet Union system was not capitalism. You want to call every system but socialism capitalism but they are not. The South was left behind by the capitalist system since it used a system of labor older than the pyramids but its system was not capitalism. Government made slavery in the South possible not capitalism. Without the hand of government large scale slavery is impossible.
Slavery was not and is not part of capitalism.
Slavery was part of Southern Capitalism. They even wrote books and stuff about it.
Straw-man much?
Even the strictest libertarians believe that there should be some laws to protect the weak. I’ve never heard a libertarian argue that human slavery would be perfect fine under their ideal form of government.
The LIbertarian ideal strikes me as being like the Communist ideal. Both look good on paper, but don’t work in the real world because people are people.
This country existed as a largely libertarian economy for over a hundred years successfully, communism was a disaster from the beginning and the system killed tens of millions.
Which hundred years were those?
1780s to 1880s although I think you can go as far as 1913.
This country existed as a largely libertarian economy for over a hundred years successfully,
Given free land to Railroads, homesteaders and farmers by the US government and protected by laws US Marshals and the US Army. Millions of acres bought with public money to fund the Louisiana Purchase and “Seward’s Folly.
“The “libertarians didn’t buy that”
And The Constitutional Convention was convened exactly to make USA less libertarian than the Articles of Confederation allowed.
History….it’s not your friend ADan.
Once again you do not have the ability to distinguish opinion from fact. The constitutional convention was about dividing the powers of government and about making it less libertarian. In fact, the Bill of Rights made the structure of government even more libertarian, history is very much my friend.
not about making it less libertarian. Now, I know sometime in the future you will quote the above post without this correction but that is what you do.
The building of the railroads in the US was a hugely crony capitalist/socialist endeavor, and it lasted most of the 19th century. Massive use of insider information, eminent domain, lobbying and bribery of public officials, government work for private profit, you name it.
The constitutional convention was about dividing the powers of government
Your knowledge of history and your logic are pathetic - an embarrassment to any educated American. And you like playing dumb wordgames.
Dividing powers of government was an offshoot of the main goal of making the USA government much stronger than under the Articles of Confederation.
“….Under the Articles of Confederation, states often argued amongst themselves. They also refused to financially support the national government. The national government was powerless to enforce any acts it did pass. Some states began making agreements with foreign governments. Most had their own military. Each state printed its own money. There was no stable economy.
…..In 1786, Shays’ Rebellion occurred in western Massachusetts as a protest to rising debt and economic chaos. However, the national government was unable to gather a combined military force amongst the states to help put down the rebellion.
…As the economic and military weaknesses became apparent, individuals began asking for changes to the Articles that would create a stronger national government. Initially, some states met to deal with their trade and economic problems. As more states became interested in meeting to change the Articles, a meeting was set in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787. This became the Constitutional Convention.”
http://americanhistory.about dot com/
Hardly means the majority of the economy was not libertarian.
As the economic and military weaknesses became apparent, individuals began asking for changes to the Articles that would create a stronger national government
If you had an IQ above room temperature you would see that this quote supports my view and not yours, people wanted a stronger national government but that addresses the division between the states and the Federal Government not that they wanted a less libertarian system. Find any support for the proposition they wanted a less libertarian government, they wanted government to impede their ability to conduct free market business activity.
people wanted a stronger national government but that addresses the division between the states and the Federal Government not that they wanted a less libertarian system.
Wrong. I’m dealing with reality, history and facts….not dumb wordgames.
1. Libertarians mostly advocate/advocated States Rights over the Federal Government.
individuals began asking for changes to the Articles that would create a stronger national government
2. A stronger Federal Government meant less power for the States.
3. In the context of libertarian’s preferences for states rights, The Constitutional Convention’s main goal of increasing the Federal Government’s power was to lesson the Articles of Confederation’s libertarian bent.
It’s not that complicated. Or is it?
But they have done such a nice job with the False Flags
Gallup: Public Confidence in TV News at All-Time Low
Michael W. Chapman
CNS News
June 20, 2014
Public confidence in television news is at an all-time low, according to a survey released today by Gallup.
Only 18 percent of the Americans surveyed expressed either a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in that news medium.
Gallup has been asking the following question annually since 1993: “Now I am going to read you a list of institutions in American society. Please tell me how much confidence you, yourself, have in each one–a great deal, quite a lot, some or very little?” (See Gallup Confidence Survey.pdf) One of the institutions listed is “television news.”
In the latest survey, conducted June 5-8, only 10 percent said they had “a great deal” of confidence in T.V. news, and 8 percent said they had “quite a lot” of confidence.
Full article here
Who the hell under age 60 actually watches television news?
CRATER
“The big housing rally wiped itself out because prices increased too quickly for buyers to keep up … The pool of eligible new buyers is collapsing … As prices climb, the ability of Americans with stagnant wages to buy homes wanes … Even though we’re technically in a recovery, household income is lower now than it was in the recession …
The economy, which contracted 1 percent in the first quarter, is mostly generating lower-paying jobs.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-20/housing-falters-as-forecasters-see-u-s-sales-dropping.html
Nice post….Just yesterday I read a very long article on this….And yes, a much larger percentage of the job creation has been in the very low paying jobs….Those jobs, are hand to mouth…Just getting by…Its not as bright of a picture as some would want you to believe…The employment rate therefore is IMO, very misleading…
33% unemployment is more like it.
Foil-like blankets and bad burritos on the left, free bus tickets on the right.
Immigrant children left sickened by food at U.S. border facility as …
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…er-facility-fears-grow-spread-disease-cramped-conditions.html - Similar pages
Jun 10, 2014 … They complained they had a burrito but had to throw it in the trash. …. in Guatemala is, ‘go to America with your child, you won’t be turned away.
“Hundreds of young boys and girls covered with aluminum foil-like blankets next to chain-link fences.”
Media Get Disappointing Look at TX and AZ Illegal Immigrant Detention Centers
by Sylvia Longmire
19 Jun 2014, 6:35 AM PDT
One journalist, however, was able to sneak in a few words with some teenagers out of sight of monitoring agents. Jon Justice from 104.1 KQTH in Tucson, AZ said via Twitter that many of the kids didn’t seem completely unhappy with being in the detention facility. When asked if it was because they were in a safe place and being fed better than they’re used to, he replied, “Actually its because they were headed to NY, New Jersey and Maine to meet family and knew they would be going soon, for free.” Justice added, “From the kids and what the agents were saying, most came for some type of ‘amnesty’ not because of conditions in Central [America].” 104.1 KQTH posted several photos—provided to them by one official photographer on site—on the station’s website.
http://www.breitbart.com/…ets-Disappointing-Look-at-TX-and-AZ-Immigrant-Detention-Centers - 62k -
“From the kids and what the agents were saying, most came for some type of ‘amnesty’ not because of conditions in Central [America]
The mere prospect of a shamnesty is reigniting the Mexodus. Maybe this is why the GOP is pretending to be for the Shamnesty. After a few million new cheap laborers arrive they’ll withdraw their support and it will be business as usual.
It is the GOP that is pretending to be for shamnesty?
Bigger and bigger government with more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes will lead America to prosperity…
The Naked Self-Interest Of The Bureaucratic Class
Townhall.com ^ | June 20, 2014 | Jonah Goldberg
In 1939, Bruno Rizzi, a largely forgotten communist intellectual, wrote a hugely controversial book, “The Bureaucratization of the World.” Rizzi argued that the Soviet Union wasn’t communist. Rather, it represented a new kind of system, what Rizzi called “bureaucratic collectivism.” What the Soviets had done was get rid of the capitalist and aristocratic ruling classes and replace them with a new, equally self-interested ruling class: bureaucrats.
Now I don’t believe we are becoming anything like 1930s Russia, never mind a real-life “1984.” But this idea that bureaucrats — very broadly defined — can become their own class bent on protecting their interests at the expense of the public seems not only plausible but obviously true.
The evidence is everywhere. Every day it seems there’s another story about teachers unions using their stranglehold on public schools to reward themselves at the expense of children. School choice programs and even public charter schools are under vicious attack, not because they are bad at educating children but because they’re good at it. Specifically, they are good at it because they don’t have to abide by rules aimed at protecting government workers at the expense of students.
The Veterans Affairs scandal can be boiled down to the fact that VA employees are the agency’s most important constituency. The Phoenix VA health-care system created secret waiting lists where patients languished and even died, while the administrator paid out almost $10 million in bonuses to VA employees over the last three years.
Working for the federal government simply isn’t like working for the private sector. Government employees are essentially un-fireable. In the private sector people lose their jobs for incompetence, redundancy or obsolescence all the time. In government, these concepts are virtually meaningless. From a 2011 USA Today article: “Death — rather than poor performance, misconduct or layoffs — is the primary threat to job security at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Management and Budget and a dozen other federal operations.”
The Democratic Party today is, quite simply, the party of government and the natural home of the managerial class. It is no accident, as the Marxists say, that the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents the IRS, gave 94 percent of its political donations during the 2012 election cycle to Democratic candidates openly at war with the tea party — the same group singled out by Lois Lerner. The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents the VA, gave 97 percent of its donations to Democrats at the national level and 100 percent to Democrats at the state level.
We constantly hear how the evil Koch brothers are motivated by a toxic mix of ideology and economic self-interest. Is it so impossible to imagine that a class of workers might be seduced by the same sorts of impulses? It’s true that the already super-rich Kochs would benefit from a freer country. It’s also true that the managerial class would benefit from the bureaucratization of America.
Cool story, bro.
As we correctly predicted, within a few decades the GOP will collapse under its own demographic irrelevance. Voters will then have the “choice” of voting for the Free Sh*t Party or the More Free Sh*t Party.
Maybe.
Just like the Irish.
Asians are already turning white
And so are hispanics…
Eventually, the FSA will cause a collapse the massive deficits are unsustainable. It always happens.
Asians are already turning white
Yeah, but I’ve read that those skin creams that they use can have nasty side effects.
Asian American are no longer on the receiving end of affirmative action.
In fact - they are “not accepted” due to their slot going to some other less qualified minority at a rate higher than whites.
Google: “How the Irish turned White”
Voters will then have the “choice” of voting for the Free Sh*t Party or the More Free Sh*t Party.
When the economy fails, there will be no more voting.
When the economy fails, there will be no more voting.
Because there will still be cable TV and the interne?
I don’t know why so many on the right are such fraidy-cats about the dollar, the economy “failing, the “debt” becoming “Zimbabwe” etc. etc. What are they so scared about all the time? Economies fail all the time and people pick up the pieces and life goes on.
Brazil’s economy and their currency “failed” 4-5 times in the past 30 years and most are enjoying the World Cup right now.
If you actually lived in Brazil you would know how long they were under a dictatorship because its economy failed and they emerged with help from the U.S. , when we go into a dictatorship no one will rescue us.
If you looked into it, you’d probably find that the U.S. supported at least one Brazilian dictator, as we have with dictators all over the world.
So as you are found of pointing out, your comment does not address the point. When economies fail dictatorships form and they seldom end without outside pressure and I do not see any other country that would both want to restore democracy to the U.S. and would have the resources to cause it to happen.
Yeah, I ignored your point and made a different point. Your theory is hard to refute or defend because there’s no standard definition of a failed economy. Many in people in Spain, for example, especially young people, probably fell that the economy has failed for them. Yet there is no dictator to be found. On the other hand, the standard of living there is likely much higher than it is in China, which impresses you so much.
On the other hand, the standard of living there is likely much higher than it is in China, which impresses you so much.
No, the absolute standard of living does not impress me but the rapid rise in the standard of living does impress me. The fact that ordinary workers have gone from 10 cents and hour to over $2 an hour within 30 years is impressive. Wages might not be as high as in Spain but is rapidly closing the difference. Spain has high unemployment rate but the economy has not collapsed and the government is still paying is bills albeit with EU help. Obama by accumulating as much debt as all the presidents and putting the debt to GDP ratio above 113% has placed us on the path to total collapse with no EU type organization to back-stop us.
When economies fail dictatorships form a
As I said, Brazil’s economy and currency “failed” 4 or 5 times in the past 30 years and life went on and “dictatorships did not form”.
In fact, The Brazilian military dictatorship ended before Brazil’s economy and currency “failed” 4 or 5 times in the past almost 30 years.
U.S. supported at least one Brazilian dictator
Yes. The USA supported Brazil’s military takeover in the early 60’s. They had fake votes for a couple decades but the military was the dictator. USA USA!
the standard of living (in Spain) is likely much higher than it is in China, which impresses you so much.
History and facts on the ground are not ADan’s strong points, but he’ll swear up-and-down to anyone who will listed to B.S. that the Chinese are smarter than the Spanish and especially Mexicans.
found=fond, auto-correct
Obama by accumulating as much debt as all the presidents and putting the debt to GDP ratio above 113% has placed us on the path to total collapse with no EU type organization to back-stop us.
There are people and institutions all over the world willing to lend the U.S. government money at extremely low interest rates. That’s a better backstop than the EU.
Now, they are we will see if that is true if we stay down the present path, I truly doubt that they will.
but he’ll swear up-and-down to anyone who will listed to B.S. that the Chinese are smarter than the Spanish and especially Mexicans.
From the link I posted earlier today, the average IQ of Spain is 99, for China it is 100 and for Mexico it is 87. So based on facts, not something I pull out of my azz like you, I would support that statement although the difference between Spain and China is insignificant.
BTW, Mike since we are essentially monetizing our debt and we have been doing it since we started QE, I do not think you can say that foreigners are eager to buy our debt, for the most part we are buying our own debt with “printed dollars’ hardly sustainable.
No, the absolute standard of living does not impress me but the rapid rise in the standard of living does impress me.
Liar and/or hypocrite. Or except when it comes to Brazil for your personal reasons against me ADan.
Brazil shrugged off Military dictatorship in 85, became a Democracy, almost doubled its per capita kids continuing in school the past 20 years, lifted 35% of its population out of poverty the past 15 years, mostly beat malnutrition, gave healthcare to it’s poor for the first time and you are not impressed by their rapid rise in their standard of living.
Your hypocrisy and blatant falsehoods are appalling.
he’ll swear the Chinese are smarter than the Spanish and especially Mexicans…
…I would support that statement….
LOL As I said…. Like a trained monkey on cue.
(I knew it because I’m very, very smart because I’m white and don’t like to go in the sun a lot.)
When it had a more business friendly government it advanced, since it has embraced more socialism it has stagnated but you leave that fact out.
BTW, need to get on the road, I will leave it to the other conservatives on the board to demolish your idiotic arguments.
Rio,
Being “not as bad off as before” isn’t the same as being well off. The objections you get are by claiming that this Brazilian system is better than the US system. It’s pretty evident that the median case shows the Us Citizen having a better standard of living, and life. A 2% income gain here is bigger than a 10% income gain there. You should use Finland as your example if you want to make a point, not Brazil.
The objections you get are by claiming that this Brazilian system is better than the US system.
I’ve never said the Brazilian system on the whole is better than America’s. No way. I’ve said parts of their system are better.
¨When economies fail dictatorships form and they seldom end without outside pressure ¨
Isn’t that the justification for the bailout of Wall Street and the rest of the financial system?
You’re backpedalling Lola.
You should use Finland as your example if you want to make a point, not Brazil.
I try to use other countries too as examples but Brazil is a good example for me to point certain things that certain governments do well.
1. Because I live here and see it.
2. Because if Brazil can do something good for its people, we can sure do it.
‘Free Sh*t Party or the More Free Sh*t Party.’
Isn’t that what we already have? Well, OK, maybe currently it’s the ‘Free $hit for groups A,B & C’ party and the ‘More Free $hit for groups X,Y & Z’ party. Kind of a distinction without a difference from what I can see.
The outsourcing and corner-cutting is catching up with the 1%ers.
RE: FAA Airworthiness Directive 2014-12-52
New word/phrase for the Euphemism dictionary: “Quality Escape”
To summarize: A bunch of Air Yachts (including some brand new ones) are immediately grounded. Because of “Quality Escapes” there are a bunch of (outsourced) bad turbine blades that ended up in engines. The QC/NDT that was supposed to be done prior to these components (by the supplier) was either not done, or all of the records are missing.
A single affected blade will require an engine teardown, unless someone craps some MIA NDT results.
So the scramble is on, to schedule teardowns with a limited number of trained guys who are already buried with work, using whatever servicible blades can be located, and/or by sending the blades to NDT, who are also understaffed. And, BTW, who need specialized tooling that nobody has on the shelf.
(Sung to the music of “Ballad of the Green Berets”)
Busted airplane on the ramp
My only tool, and inspection stamp……
Fifty planes are due out today
But only three will depart okay……
sending the blades to NDT, who are also understaffed. And, BTW, who need specialized tooling that nobody has on the shelf.”
Ultra sonic inspection of the turbine blades is needed ?
Eddy current only. Or X-ray. By a certified shop, Of which there are maybe a dozen worldwide, half of those in the Big PX.
And it isn’t as if these guy are twiddling their thumbs looking for work. The new business paradigm is to have barely enough people to cover the scheduled work. (Barely = requires O/T to cover the scheduled stuff)
On the bright side, the “I told you so” opportunity here must be deeply satisfying. Ah, schadenfreude.
You betcha.
We’ve been seeing this crap go on in aerospace since the early 90’s.
The aerospace industry is a house of cards, built on a foundation of still-soft crap.
I still remember going into my bosses office, circa 1994, and asking how they could schedule my crew for 12K man hours of work, when I only had 8K hours of labor available (assuming of course that everybody showed up for 40 hours).
Only recently did my former union steward explain to me why companies LOVE burning guys out on overtime. Because their benefits are paid/deducted out of their first 40 hours…….after that, the company gets to keep their contribution, while the employee is still paying his share.
Because their benefits are paid/deducted out of their first 40 hours…….after that, the company gets to keep their contribution, while the employee is still paying his share.
Interesting—but doesn’t the time-and-a-half labor rate roughly balance out the 40% or so spent on benies?
Fixer, you have the priviledge of working in an industry where people actually care about quality.
Lo-qual airplane breaks? People die, big news, regulation is OK.
Lo-qual dryer breaks? Clothes are wet. Big whoop.
Lo-qual T-shirt? Falls apart after one year instead of three. Big whoop.
Lo-qual customer service? Meh, not like the customer will jump ship to a competitor. Competitors have lo-qual customer service too.
The outsourcing and corner-cutting will continue until morale improves.
“people actually care”
Not the suits that make the decisions.
Typical example:
-Big Corp makes parts in house, with USA labor, and FAA regulations, then……
-Somebody comes up with the idea of outsourcing; lower costs, no need to worry about regs on that part anymore, because the outsource guy will worry about it.
-Supplier cuts corners, then file Chapter 11 if anything blows up.
There’s a saying…..”There’s no time/money to do it right, but there’s always money/time to do it over.”
Especially when the “do it over” is because of some kind of stupid management decision. US aerospace companies are not immune from this thinking. And when the “do it over” costs are transferred to the customer.
‘Gen Petraeus said: “We must be careful not to take sides if we offer military support. But the growing threat posed by Isis means that military action will be necessary. “We must realise that Isis poses a threat not only to Iraq but to the UK and other countries as well.’
“Isis poses two challenges, to the stability of Iraq, and also the emerging threat it poses beyond Iraq and Syria.”
‘He added that an “Isis sanctuary” in Iraq and Syria would be a potentially serious development for the West.’
Only the US can set up a group in Syria, fund them, arm them, and then act indignant when they start killing people they weren’t ordered to.
And BTW, this ISIS crap is baloney. There ain’t no way 9,000 guys can march across Iraq, with no air support, seizing cities (and holding them, that would take a few men) against an army of 350,000 that does have air support - and on their own turf.
And BTW, this ISIS crap is baloney. There ain’t no way 9,000 guys can march across Iraq, with no air support, seizing cities (and holding them, that would take a few men) against an army of 350,000 that does have air support - and on their own turf.
ISIS are sunni. Iraqi forces in the north are sunni. They are not going to kill/fight their “brothers” especially after being treated poorly/2nd class citizens from the central shia government.
Notice not one meter if land of the Kurds was taken my ISIS…
Why? The Kurd fight. The sunni are not their brothers…
They are not going to kill/fight their “brothers” especially after being treated poorly/2nd class citizens from the central shia government.
Dick Cheney predicted this in 1991 and explained it in 1994 - and then did it anyway. The dude is evil imo.
The Unraveling of Iraq is Playing Out Just as Dick Cheney Predicted
…In the first Bush Administration, Cheney was Secretary of Defense, and helped plan the first invasion of Iraq during the Persian Gulf War. In that war, he agreed with the decision not go all the way and overthrow the dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. This was extremely frustrating for the neocons, who were baying for Baghdad blood even then.
In a 1994 interview, Cheney was taken to task over this “missed opportunity” by the neocon American Enterprise Institute. Cheney defended the decision using the following predictions:
“Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein’s government, then what are you going to put in its place? That’s a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off: part of it, the Syrians would like to have to the west, part of it — eastern Iraq — the Iranians would like to claim, they fought over it for eight years. In the north you’ve got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey.”
…..what is clear is that the old “stupid or evil” question regarding our overlords in Washington is easy to answer in the case of Richard Bruce Cheney. What is particularly evil, is that he also had a keen sense of the high cost in American lives (not to mention Iraqi lives) that overthrowing Saddam would entail and the quagmire that would result from occupying Iraq.
The Kurds are also Sunni but they are Arab. However, you are right on your main point they are tough fighters.
But they are not Arab. (sorry)
The Kurds are not viewed as “real” muslims by either the sunni or shia.
Why do you think Saddam (sunni) gassed them??? 100,000’s of Kurd deaths? The muslim world yawned.
Why do you think the current administration (shia) in power in Iraq cut them out of all that oil?
Why do you think Saddam (sunni) gassed them??? 100,000’s of Kurd deaths? The muslim world yawned.
Because he was a pan-Arabists so he supported Arabs of all faith but he was against the Kurds since they are ethnically distinct from Arabs and that is why the Arab world yawned.
Why do you think the current administration (shia) in power in Iraq cut them out of all that oil?
Because they are Sunni and the government was Shia.
faiths. Ironically, the greatest military leader that the Muslims ever had was a Kurd and he wrestled the Holy land from the Christians.
‘Gen Petraeus said: “We must be careful not to take sides if we offer military support. But the growing threat posed by Isis means that military action will be necessary. “We must realise that Isis poses a threat not only to Iraq but to the UK and other countries as well.’
Bilderberg on Ukraine: military chiefs, arms bosses and billionaire speculators
Charlie Skelton, with photographs by Hannah Borno
theguardian.com, Saturday 31 May 2014 12.35 EDT
And make no mistake. Bilderberg is part of their job. This wasn’t a jolly. This was briefing papers, dress uniforms and military aides. Land Rovers packed with military bodyguards.
This is Nato business. US military business. Government business.
People who stand to make a killing out of knowing where and when the bombs are going to fall, how many and on whom.
People like David Petraeus, the former director of the CIA and now head of KKR’s Global Institute, the advisory wing of a multibillion dollar private equity company. Here’s the general, cracking the glass on an expensive lens with his thousand-yard stare.
The KKR Global Institute prides itself on “knowing how to respond to emerging geopolitical and macro-economic trends”, which enables “smart investing, portfolio management, and risk mitigation”, in other words getting the inside tip. And once you’re inside Bilderberg, you’re hearing “emerging geopolitical and macro-economic trends” right from the secretary general of Nato’s mouth. Very profitable, I’m sure.
The Bilderberg conference is a five-star car crash of the public and private sectors. It’s full of scenes like this: the head of MI6, Sir John Sawers having a cheery one-to-one with Carl-Henric Svanberg, the chairman of BP.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/31/bilderberg-ukraine-summit - 132k -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/10914567/Islamic-Army-of-Iraq-founder-Isis-and-Sunni-Islamists-will-march-on-Baghdad.html
It is not just ISIS or ISIL in this revolt.
Hydrogen getters Gold is so boring compared to other metals
Worthless, worthless housing. Worth less and less every single day…
Costa Rica wins……England out of Cup. Dang! Too bad. My choices to win (in order) were.
1. USA
2. Brazil
3. Netherlands(tie)
3. England (tie)
Back to their bubble in England I guess. Costa Rica/Chili/Columbia are the surprises of the Cup so far. Hey they all speak Spanish and start with a “C”.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/housing-falters-forecasters-see-u-040001237.html
Haven’t posted on here for years, but thought I’d share my own personal housing anecdote since at one point that’s what this blog was about.
Just sold my house in Phoenix for $450k. Bought for $310k in 2010. Was probably down to $250k at it’s low after I bought it. Was on the market for 5 weeks before going pending. Seemed like a good time to sell to me, but inventory has actually started dropping again in the last several weeks so will be interesting to see what the next year holds. Either way, the house no longer worked for me so was time to sell. Been renting a 950 sq ft condo for the last year and a half. I walk to work and absolutely love it. No interest in going back to owning a home or even renting one for the foreseeable future.
Just sold my house in Phoenix for $450k. Bought for $310k in 2010
That’s excellent timing. Congratulations
Got lucky on the timing. Seemed like a reasonable time to buy, but didn’t expect the big run up over the last year. Life changed so made sense to sell. Owning definitely makes you less flexible.
I think this is Bullshart. My friend just did the same in a good area with similar timing in PHX, no way was there a 140k increase without fraud. And i have a real hard time believing you went from a house owned to a tiny rental like that a year and a half ago, much less if the house just now sold.
You are a flipper speculator at best, i think.
Congrats!
The short commute cannot be overvalued. I went from spending about 1-1.5hours/day in the car to now spending 10. My stress level is way down and general happiness is up. The only downside is I don’t get to enjoy my new vehicle as much as I’d like!!
I wish I were close enough to walk…maybe on a really nice day, since it’s about 30 mins each way on foot.
I hope that is ten minutes.
Yeah, ten minutes. Oops
My house was about 30 minutes from my work so relatively short by Phoenix standards, but I was surprised how much more free time I feel like I have now that I have that extra hour back. Not to mention walking even a couple blocks to start the day beats going from bed, to a seat in a car, to a chair at work.
Extended my lease for another year and rent went up by less than 2% so hopefully that will continue. Looks like the big rent increases over the last few years may be behind us. At least in Phoenix. Both rent and house prices seem to be at unsustainable levels here based on income.
Of course it was.
I was surprised how much more free time I feel like I have now that I have that extra hour back
I initially thought I’d be able to be that much more productive - take the dog for a walk in the morning before work, etc…
It turns out I enjoy the luxury of easing into the morning. Having two cups of coffee while sitting on the couch and catching up on the world
Maybe in a month or two I’ll find the motivation to do something productive with the reclaimed time, but for now I’ll enjoy the relaxation
I was wondering when you’d roll this old username out fraudster.
As for your claim, prove it.
I’d like to see proof also because I don’t think the timing works for those increases. Things went down a lot still after 2010.
Just sold my house in Phoenix for $450k. Bought for $310k in 2010.
Unpossible.
“Seemed like a good time to sell to me…”
+1 Indeed. Free equity, courtesy of the fed, spends like the real stuff.
Sadly, that ‘equity’ is worth less courtesy of the same fed…
I fear I’m getting close to my breaking point. I’ve tried to take Combo’s approach and stay in cash as I’m not a fan of rigged markets and would prefer to gamble in Las Vegas. However, the net result is I feel like a chump as the value of my savings erodes.
buy a house today and your losses will be incalculable
Paso Robles, CA Housing Prices Crater 10% YoY; Sellers Turn Desperate As Inventory Explodes 288%
http://www.movoto.com/paso-robles-ca/market-trends/
Nobody with a fraction of a brain wants to buy any of that California garbage.
Precisely why demand is collapsing at a much more rapid rate in CA than anywhere else.
Rural Paso Robles is quickly running out of water due to corporate wine grower’s excessive pumping. Family farms can’t afford to drop their wells deep enough nor the increased energy costs of the additional head.
Feel like getting ripped off tonight?
Go talk to a REALTOR®
Realtors are liars
You’ll find one tottering on the edge of her seat at the local watering hole.
Are any of you feeling as sick as I am of REALTOR®
Funny how lying realtors come here to be abused everytime the market collapses.
Lying realtors. Lying lying realtors. They lie more and more with each passing day.