The Biden Presidency

[Stavros]

Most likely, though we may also be seeing a waning of the China effect which has been pushing prices down over a long period. As this article suggests, we've developed a supply system that prioritises cost-minimisation but at the expense of resilience when something abnormal happens. I suspect the system will adjust eventually and some of this will be temporary, but who knows how long that will take.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/co...braith-2021-11

Thanks for the link to an interesting view on global supply chains. But your note about cost-minimisation suggests that the repatriation of jobs from Asia, for example, to the US would solve one element of the supply chain conundrum by relieving domestic demand from a dependence on foreign production and distribution. Similar arguments have been made in the UK in relation both to Brexit and the supply chain problems exposed by the Pandemic.

But it begs the question -can any repatriation of job from Asia to domestic inudstry in the US and the UK to take these two cases, succeed if the capital costs and wages so reduce the rate of return on capital as to not make it worthwhile -that the moneymen might decide to sit out the Pandemic in the hope that a 'return to normal' re-establishes the supply chains that choked, but with lessons learned? It is an even more potent issue here than in the US because of the 'Levelling Up' 'policy' of the current Government which claims that wages need to rise in order for the Levelling Up process to work. Whether or not this means an increase in the standard of living is the unanswered question, but not a surprising omission as much of what this government does is related to Headlines about stuff, rather than the stuff itself. Too much detail for Boris to worry about.

A revival of interest in Ricardo has thus led people to ponder his argument that attempts to raise the income of workers is doomed because wages will never rise far enough to liberate them from actual or relative subsistence, or poverty. It may be true that managers are having to increase wages at the moment to hire people -around the town where I live almost every retail establishment has signs in the window that say 'Staff Wanted' -I think it is the same in the US. So how this evolves over the next two to three years will lead us to some sort of conclusion.

As a naturally gloomy person, I think Ricardo probably got it right, because I wonder if, after all that has happened since Ricardo's effective war on unproductive landlords, from the various depressions through the 2008 crash, anything has fundamentally changed. The Biden Administration knows where it's money is coming from, hence the auction of drilling licences the other day, and it needs that money to pay for its interventionary policies -but doesn't this also mean that, as with Labour in the UK, there is in the US a bleak denial that Taxation must rise, across the board, and a tax in Assets as well as, if not more important than income- after all, Trump, de Vos, the Koch brother, Buffet, all sit on billions on assets most of which they could give back to the American people and not notice a difference in their life-style.

Is it going to happen? Probably not, hence the gloom...

[filghy2]

Did you not get the email Flighty? I've got you on my superfan mailing list. Look for it, "More Of The Same But Now It's Spanky Time" is the subject line, talks all about Season 3.

I find it a little hard to swallow that you are seriously going to pose a counterargument to the media being biased. But here's a graphic for you, probably simple enough for you to understand. I found it by searching "media bias graphic." It doesn't disagree much at all with my evaluation. You might try a similar search sometime, Flighty. It's just...possible...that your sources are...compromised.

Attachment 1354050

I've seen that site before and it seems reasonable, but your characterisation is up to your usual standards of accuracy. Of the 14 sources you nominated as ''far left", 3 are rated as "centre" and 5 as "leaning left". Only 6 are rated as clearly "left', which is not necessarily the same as "far left".

[filghy2]

Before you start, no, the George Floyd homicide doesn't count as racist. Floyd was a criminal, Derek Chauvin was a cop. Could have been a white man on the receiving end of Chauvin's police brutality that day, we'll never know if it was a racist incident, or simple cop-on-robber brutality.

But you told us before that Derek Chauvin did nothing wrong, he was following official procedures, and it was really George Floyd's fault that he died. You really need to keep better track of your various rationalisations.
http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/sho...-s-responsible

[Nick Danger]

But you told us before that Derek Chauvin did nothing wrong, he was following official procedures, and it was really George Floyd's fault that he died. You really need to keep better track of your various rationalisations.
http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/sho...-s-responsible

I respect the court system, Flighty. When I expressed that opinion it was before Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder by a jury of his peers. So now it's a homicide and police brutality, and Chauvin was NOT acting within policy. Doesn't mean it's racism.

[Nick Danger]

I've seen that site before and it seems reasonable, but your characterisation is up to your usual standards of accuracy. Of the 14 sources you nominated as ''far left", 3 are rated as "centre" and 5 as "leaning left". Only 6 are rated as clearly "left', which is not necessarily the same as "far left".

Eh, I think my opinion is more valid than that graphic. That graphic is constituted from the opinions of online news consumers in 2019. A lot of shit has gone down since 2019. And as you so eloquently put it in another thread just a few short hours ago, "We know how this works. The more extreme the party you support becomes, the more you have to double down to try to convince yourself that the problems are really on the other side." No surprise that some of these outlets have moved even further to the left now that the left controls the nation's destiny.

[filghy2]

Or you can actually check the latest version and see what's changed since 2019. FFS!
https://www.allsides.com/blog/new-al...art-version-42

[Nick Danger]

Or you can actually check the latest version and see what's changed since 2019. FFS!
https://www.allsides.com/blog/new-al...art-version-42

I don't base my opinions on other people's opinions, Flighty, or at least I don't to the extent that's possible. You're the one who requested a cheat sheet. I don't disagree much with what your up-to-date graphic says there. NPR, though, is definitely far left - they're just much, much better at it than most of these other hacks. And seeing Newsweek in the center caused me to do a re-evaluation, and it looks like Newsweek is definitely moving in a rightward direction now. Probably saw a vacuum to fill for conservative weeklies and is moving to fill it. Doesn't matter, they're not big players anymore. The only ones who really matter now are the ones who are shoving disinfo down everyone's throats 24/7 - Fox News, New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post - these are the primary sources dividing the country right now, the rest are just jockeying for a piece of the clickbait pie.

[Stavros]

But you told us before that Derek Chauvin did nothing wrong, he was following official procedures, and it was really George Floyd's fault that he died.

One wonders if Chauvin was following department orders - 'If someone in custody is in need of medical attention, do not give it, call for it, or hope for it'.

[filghy2]

I don't base my opinions on other people's opinions, Flighty, or at least I don't to the extent that's possible.

You've never heard of the wisdom of crowds? The average opinion of a large group of people is generally likely to be more accurate than the view of one individual.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Cro wds

[filghy2]

I'm not going to keep defending my ideas to you, Flighty, it's hilarious that you act as if I'm the one who has some explaining to do. How about if YOU explain why we voted in a Democratic President, a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate, and the country is almost immediately at its most-totally-fucked level of the last 50 years. God-mode: Don't blame the previous administration.

Really. Can you give us a list of measures which suddenly deterioriated to their worst levels in 50 years?

According to the latest data annual GDP growth was 4.9% and the unemployment rate was 3.9%, so that can't be it.
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/indicators

Murders have risen, but that started in 2020 and they are still well below levels of 30 years ago, so that can't be it.

Covid deaths are still lower than under Trump, and anyway you don't care about them, so that can't be it.

The only measure that might qualify seems to be the inflation rate, but that was higher in the 1980s.

The truly fucked-up thing is that two-thirds of Republicans refuse to accept the election result and want to purge anyone who disagrees, but that is something we can blame the ex-President for.

Are you going to put up, or just dodge and deflect in your usual chicken-shit way? Here's the rule: no question you put will be answered unless you provide the evidence for your assertion.

[I moved this from the covid thread because it's obviously off-topic.]