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| The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to qole For This Useful Post: | ||
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2008-11-07
, 07:51
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Posts: 72 |
Thanked: 9 times |
Joined on Sep 2007
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#52
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The center cannot hold.
Take a corporate policy that costs $X million, but without which the company would go bankrupt in 5 years. Sooner or later, someone will realize they can 'save the company money' by eliminating that policy and obfuscating or rationalizing the long-term risk. By the time the company goes under, that person is two higher-paying jobs away.
In other words, capitalism has no mechanism to deal with long-term strategy. Once a market matures, to keep a profit, companies have to either: use governmental pressure or market dominance to maintain a monopoly or oligopoly ('anti-net neutrality'), expand iinto other markets, or start cutting. The first ends the free market; the second rarely works and only prolongs the problem; the third results in rewarding short-term expedients at high long-term costs.
Meanwhile, the whole world economic system is built on similar principles, so we're at the mercy of speculation on stock prices. And Greenspan should know we've had boom-bust cycles for centuries. You don't need a Nobel to figure this out.
And Bush is still president.
Sorry about your Job, Tex. I hope it works out for you.
Take a corporate policy that costs $X million, but without which the company would go bankrupt in 5 years. Sooner or later, someone will realize they can 'save the company money' by eliminating that policy and obfuscating or rationalizing the long-term risk. By the time the company goes under, that person is two higher-paying jobs away.
In other words, capitalism has no mechanism to deal with long-term strategy. Once a market matures, to keep a profit, companies have to either: use governmental pressure or market dominance to maintain a monopoly or oligopoly ('anti-net neutrality'), expand iinto other markets, or start cutting. The first ends the free market; the second rarely works and only prolongs the problem; the third results in rewarding short-term expedients at high long-term costs.
Meanwhile, the whole world economic system is built on similar principles, so we're at the mercy of speculation on stock prices. And Greenspan should know we've had boom-bust cycles for centuries. You don't need a Nobel to figure this out.
And Bush is still president.
Sorry about your Job, Tex. I hope it works out for you.
| The Following User Says Thank You to DingerX For This Useful Post: | ||
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2008-11-07
, 08:22
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Moderator |
Posts: 7,109 |
Thanked: 8,820 times |
Joined on Oct 2007
@ Vancouver, BC, Canada
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#53
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Originally Posted by DingerX
Yeah, even Canada's "healthy" economy was based on a full-tilt strip-mining of our natural resources. If the American crash didn't get us, the pine beetles, global warming, and exhaustion of our mines would have anyway....
Meanwhile, the whole world economic system is built on similar principles...
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Please don't send me a private message, post to the appropriate thread.
Thank you all for your donations!
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2008-11-07
, 10:36
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Posts: 3,220 |
Thanked: 326 times |
Joined on Oct 2005
@ "Almost there!" (Monte Christo, Count of)
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#54
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Originally Posted by danramos
I must have missed the announcement that owning a home has been declared a Universal Human Right. Or even that people are being deprived of it. Nice spin, though...
What's to say you're not BOTH right? People being deprived of an opportunity to own a home were forcing bankers politically to be more open to giving loans.. and then there's the overly greedy bankers who decided to use this as a great opportunity to do some creative vulture lending practices and screw a little of everyone in every type of way. It's not like all the banks did this.. but a lot of the most greediest certainly appeared quite happy to get involved in the practice of predatory lending and then turned around to blame the people they lended to, whether they were guilty of being irresponsible or not.
The short of it, as I see it: a lot of bankers and investors were greedy and a lot of lenders and borrowers were irresponsible.
__________________
Watch out Nokia, Pandora's box has opened (sorta)...
I do love explaining cryptic sigs, but for the impatient: http://www.openpandora.org/
Watch out Nokia, Pandora's box has opened (sorta)...
I do love explaining cryptic sigs, but for the impatient: http://www.openpandora.org/
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2008-11-07
, 12:44
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Posts: 5,795 |
Thanked: 3,151 times |
Joined on Feb 2007
@ Agoura Hills Calif
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#55
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Did you miss Bush's talking about the Ownership Society?
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2008-11-07
, 14:28
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Posts: 3,397 |
Thanked: 1,212 times |
Joined on Jul 2008
@ Netherlands
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#56
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Originally Posted by qole
Good points, but how does this take into account that banks all over the world are allowed to create money out of nothing only having to back up 8% of all the money they have written out on bank accounts? And that we, the people, have to pay for this indirectly (inflation) or directly (government debt)?
I would call those "bait-and-switch-scam-mortgages". Those were the classic sub-prime mortgages that brought the whole house of cards down. I don't think they're even allowed to sell those up here in Canada. That was a uniquely American form of self-destruction. "Don't worry, you'll sell the house for a 10% profit long before you have to pay that high rate of interest..."
[...]
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Goosfraba! All text written by allnameswereout is public domain unless stated otherwise. Thank you for sharing your output!
Goosfraba! All text written by allnameswereout is public domain unless stated otherwise. Thank you for sharing your output!
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2008-11-07
, 17:56
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Posts: 2,427 |
Thanked: 2,986 times |
Joined on Dec 2007
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#57
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Originally Posted by allnameswereout
Yes, we get it, it's a grand pyramid scheme. You can try beating it by sending your debt to zero and acting locally. Or you can join it by leveraging yourself beyond the hilt. Everything else is a rat race. But there is no doubt that all forces (time, biology and the haves) are trying to blead you dry 24/7. Who's working for you 24/7? Nobody. Then you die.
Good points, but how does this take into account that banks all over the world are allowed to create money out of nothing only having to back up 8% of all the money they have written out on bank accounts? And that we, the people, have to pay for this indirectly (inflation) or directly (government debt)?
| The Following User Says Thank You to daperl For This Useful Post: | ||
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2008-11-07
, 18:57
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Posts: 11,700 |
Thanked: 10,045 times |
Joined on Jun 2006
@ North Texas, USA
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#58
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It's like a Un1b0mb3r m@n1f3st0 in the making. 
__________________
Nokia Developer Champion
Different <> Wrong | Listen - Judgment = Progress | People + Trust = Success
My personal site: http://texrat.net
Nokia Developer Champion
Different <> Wrong | Listen - Judgment = Progress | People + Trust = Success
My personal site: http://texrat.net
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2008-11-07
, 19:16
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Posts: 4,783 |
Thanked: 1,253 times |
Joined on Aug 2007
@ norway
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#59
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i give the itt server 24 hours until it gets raided by FBI or equivalent.
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2008-11-07
, 20:40
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Posts: 2,427 |
Thanked: 2,986 times |
Joined on Dec 2007
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#60
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{ Ya think I should warn the neighbor that I'm stealing wifi from? Maybe not, he's probably guilty of something.
[bang, bang, bang, bang]
Who could that be at this hour?
} ELSE {
I should be safe for now; my last name's Tuttle.
}
Last edited by daperl; 2008-11-07 at 20:57.
[bang, bang, bang, bang]
Who could that be at this hour?
} ELSE {
I should be safe for now; my last name's Tuttle.
}
Last edited by daperl; 2008-11-07 at 20:57.
The All-American make-money-now-and-screw-the-future attitude has made even healthy economies like the one up here sag and buckle under the weight of American foolishness. America is like that guy that quietly gambles and drinks all his money away, then, before anyone realizes he's broke, starts borrowing heavily from all of his friends, feeding them stories to keep the cash coming. The stories are so believable that his friends borrow money from their friends, so they can give him more money. Then one day, someone catches him at the roulette table with the money they just lent him, and word gets around... all of his friends start demanding their money back, and when he can't pay, everyone suffers.
Another interesting analogy is the the one Cringley uses about forest fires. Bubble after bubble has made the US economy dangerously ready for a giant conflagration.
Since I mentioned Cringely, he actually has something to say about the original topic of this thread, too.
qole.org --- twitter --- Easy Debian wiki page
Please don't send me a private message, post to the appropriate thread.
Thank you all for your donations!
Last edited by qole; 2008-11-07 at 06:56.