tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7820485130017459619.post8307426990812375596..comments2023-10-24T01:46:47.151-07:00Comments on CynicusEconomicus: Round 2?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7820485130017459619.post-52370388626837505922011-08-20T22:01:32.487-07:002011-08-20T22:01:32.487-07:00"Global problems need global solutions. The E..."Global problems need global solutions. The EU problem is the sovereign state, they can't agree, we must have closer fiscal co-operation, we're all in this together."<br />The problem is the global perspective. The interdependency is what is causing the problems. The solution to complexity cannot be more complexity because it's not sustainable. The human mind's ability to navigate social complexity is limited, especially if it involves a lot of anonymous people ( people you don't know. In a large global system, there is more opportunity for people do be dishonest since there are more strangers interacting with another.<br />Since there's a greater level of competition occuring at a global scale, the chance of fraud occuring must be higher than a smaller scale of human organization. I'm going to give you a thumbs down on "global solutions." and suggest instead that we need "local solutions to global problems."A Real Black Personnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7820485130017459619.post-28792258290714474642011-08-08T16:51:38.163-07:002011-08-08T16:51:38.163-07:00"Perhaps they have some last measures that th..."Perhaps they have some last measures that they might yet deploy to 'save' the situation (but which will just create an even bigger problem in the future)? At this stage, I do not know, but we will see how events develop over the coming months."<br /><br />Hi CE<br /><br />It's funny, but a couple of years ago when you were suggesting that the dollar might collapse within weeks, my gut feeling was that it wouldn't just yet, and even the legendary 'Lehmans' Moment' didn't feel like the end of the world to me - not that I had any real knowledge to base those judgements on! But then, I always thought that the exact timing would be a minor detail in the scheme of things. <br /><br />This time, however, to my mind's woolly grasp of things it feels as though we really are reaching the end of the road. Every day brings some new scheme for bailing someone out, and it incrementally distances us from any semblance of the free market. I'm not convinced that free market capitalism ever was 'the answer' because I don't think that perpetual growth is what we should be pursuing - who decided it should be? - but I can see it has a ruthless (theoretical) logic to it, and the idea of feedback and self correction is a strong one. But now we have neither central control (which also has a logic to it), nor the discipline of the free market. As you say, it is hard to see where any future growth might come from, even if we somehow sorted out the immediate mess. <br /><br />So is there a free market capitalistic system that could work without growth? Or is the only answer some sort of central global government?Lemmingnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7820485130017459619.post-36943559526480490182011-08-08T14:28:56.265-07:002011-08-08T14:28:56.265-07:00There is no just way out of the present mess.There is no just way out of the present mess.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7820485130017459619.post-28984055682724210072011-08-08T02:34:06.851-07:002011-08-08T02:34:06.851-07:00This once excellent blog once described reality, n...This once excellent blog once described reality, now it pedals worthless ideology. <br /><br />Blaming communism for the global oversupply of labour is idiotic. Is India a communist country? <br /><br />Did communism force the West to take on delusional levels of debt? <br /><br />Is communism preventing global leaders, across the political spectrum from, grasping reality and acting intelligently? <br /><br />You might as well blame Islam or the Catholic Church. <br /><br />If the labour had been more smoothly integrated, the final result would have been the same, a huge oversupply of labour and the super-concentration of wealth.<br /><br />The right blames the left ... Zzzzz<br />The left blames the right ... Zzzzz<br />The Telegraph is wrong/right ... Zzzzz<br />The Guardian is wrong/right ... ZzzzzLordSidcupnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7820485130017459619.post-89672974560390743492011-08-06T14:04:35.661-07:002011-08-06T14:04:35.661-07:00There is no recovery because there was never meant...There is no recovery because there was never meant to be a recovery. Period. Green shoots couldn't be peddled any more, let's try fragile recovery, that might do it.<br /><br />Our civilisation is going back to the future, to a sustainable future, to a progressive redistributive future, to a communitarian (big society) future, to a global future.<br /><br />We're all in this together, shared values and all that.<br /><br />The media are in on it up to their necks, wheel on Hugh Pym, wheel on Stephanie Flanders, Robert Peston, uncle Tom Cobley and all. <br /><br />Their convoluted spin is never challenged and they get away with it every time. (LOL) Beam me up Scottie.<br /><br />Spin, good news/bad news, the numbers are up but the underlying trend is down. If you can make head or tail of anything they conclude, then please let me know how you do it.<br /><br />House prices are up, house prices are down. Economic bad news is eclipsed by polar bear.<br /><br />Unemployment is down but job seeker applications are up.<br /><br />Are there still riots on the streets of Greece? If there are, I don't see them on TV anymore.<br /><br />How can you get growth when austerity is the watchword (LOL)<br /><br />Europe's sovereign nations are being taken down along with America.<br /><br />America is heading off a cliff.<br /><br />Global problems need global solutions. The EU problem is the sovereign state, they can't agree, we must have closer fiscal co-operation, we're all in this together.<br /><br />Why can't they just keep printing money or adding noughts on the computer screen, like they already have.<br /><br />Did you mention inflation?<br /><br />Cynicus, what in your opinion is the endgame going to look like?<br /><br />What is your vision of the climax of this global economic crisis?<br /><br />Some say, New World Order. Order out of chaos. A totalitarian world where the surfs below are the slaves of the elite above.<br /><br />I'll be back.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7820485130017459619.post-70008059360689237362011-08-06T10:12:48.188-07:002011-08-06T10:12:48.188-07:00I feel it is worth stressing that money and wealth...I feel it is worth stressing that money and wealth are not the same thing. Wealth is the stuff that makes life comfortable - in the UK we are wealthy compared to Botwana because we have clean water, houses, food, heating, entertainment, means of travel, medicines and all the other things that make life more comfortable. Having more cash does not deliver more wealth unless it can be converted into more wealth. Merely adding more cash to the system has no real effect other than to dilute the value of the cash we have already, it does not, of itself, create greater comfort. <br /><br />It is for this reason, I believe, that the Krugmans and Toynbees are mistaken - underlying their analysis is the assumption that greater turnover means greater wealth, an assumption easily made these days when increased GDP is the Holy Grail. <br /><br />A job for every school leaver is something all right thinking people want to see but it cannot be an end in itself. We have to ask what they will do and whether it will increase or dilute wealth. If the latter, it will do more harm than good - the classic example is a team of thousands employed on an eight hour morning shift to find places to dig holes, a second team spending an eight hour afternoon shift digging them and an eight hour night shift team filling them in again. The day is filled with people being paid and being busy, but nothing substantive is achieved. Borrow the money to pay them and the whole economy faces a loss of wealth through having to forfeit the interest on the loan. GDP goes up but wealth goes down. <br /><br />For many years the UK has been enjoying a level of comfort significantly above what it an afford. Not surprisingly, politicians are too scared of the electoral consequences of policies designed to correct the problem.TheFatBigothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17255526385076528633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7820485130017459619.post-50445345396523593622011-08-06T02:25:31.459-07:002011-08-06T02:25:31.459-07:00As somenone who was born and lived for 30 years in...As somenone who was born and lived for 30 years in a former communist country in eastern europe I can say with certainty that there was no difference between communism and capitalism as for underlying economic principles.Both were market economy systems.What communists did overnight in a straight way, the capitalists took decades in a roundabout way.That is centralizing capital in few hands and exploiting the labour.This was the reason for the divide between the rich(ruling party) and the poor(classless society) in former communist bloc.And now we see it in the west(just different names) between the capital holders(ceos,politicians,bankers etc) and the labourers.Same divide is growing in the west regardless what socioeconomic system they have.<br />I agree principles of economics are simple, it is only interplay between 3 factors of production-people,earth,knowledge.While third world before integration lacked the third factor(knowledge),Russian and American blocs did not.Hence there was so much ideological competition between the two, both applying these 3 factors to their advantage.Both relatively isolated systems from each other and both having ample resources(earth) in relation to their labour(people) and both on relatively level playing field as for people/earth/knowledge.<br />With the onslaught of the global economy thanks to new technologies,the situation has changed in the way that there are unlimited labour resources and limited earth to service them.Ironically both Russian and American blocs rushed to the Third world to provide the massive labour with knowledge so they could enjoy the same standard of living not thinking of dangerous consequences for both blocs.Since the global economy means that earth resources flow where more people are or to use economic terms where huge markets are,more powerful become those parts of the world with the 'virtue' of bigger labour .Western knowledge which empowers them rides on the vehicle of free market economy system towards them.<br />Now with this global scenario how can one with no vested interests be in favor of freemarket economy system , when this is the system which created the hypercompetition.We can still in the West enjoy welfare economies and high living standards, the only way is to change the very economic system from free market system to utility economy system.We will not have to compete with the rest at all simply by guarding the earth resources and sealing the knowledge which is the only artery through which the blood of capital and earth resources escape from the West.The only obstacle is the stubborness of those who hate the brick wall of limited labour resource of the West.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com