Over the last hundred years or so, Argentina as swung violently, and with increasing frequency, between policies of on the one hand constitutionalism, rule of law, and the free market, and on the other hand populism, bureaucratic decree, and national socialism. It has also swung violently between being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and being a typical third world poverty stricken hellhole. After the last crisis, it swung violently towards national socialism, populism, and bureaucratic decree – …
Category: economics
Losing in Afghanistan 3
Pashtuns need to be defeated, not morally uplifted.
American debt
Thus the excess “private” debt is not private. The normal level of public and “private†debt is about twice GDP, say twenty six trillion, so we are about thirty trillion or so in the hole and getting deeper fast – well past the danger level of twice GDP.
US turning french
It is getting steadily harder and harder for someone to find a new job – and having found a new job, harder and harder to afford a house – presumably because of the very great and rapidly increasing regulatory burden on building houses and hiring people. This renders employees powerless before their employers, which tends to result in class war and social violence as in France, and tends to result in greater regulator burdens.
“There is no axis of evilâ€
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/08/28/uae-seizes-ship-bound-for-irancarrying-north-korean-weapons/trackback/
The cause of the crisis 4
I have issued a bunch of posts, each titled the “the cause of the crisis”, and each giving a different cause – but each of these causes was itself caused by, or caused, all of the other causes. This post addresses ratings for debt.
Prospects of hyperinflation
Incumbents that engage in hyperinflation usually gain political benefit in the short run, and the short run is all they care about. The Weimar government was not punished at the polls.
Goldfellas
This is a spoof of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein memo warning employees to avoid making big-ticket, high-profile purchases
Moral progress
I suggest we are not more virtuous. Consider the crimes of the twentieth century. Rather, we have strong states that reserve criminal conduct for themselves. When those states weaken, we see private crime on a scale typical of earlier of history, when they are strong, we see enormous crimes by states.
Social decay
Whatsoever the government sponsors, tends to turn bad. Since government funds are ill defended, grantsmanship based government funded memetic diseases will always outcompete truth based science, and similarly grantsmanship funded memetic diseases will always outcompete art based on beauty. Government funded art will rapidly become ugly and stupid. Government funded science will rapidly become untruthful and stupid, string theory as much as global warming theory.