My God, you are an idiot. - Page 234

Tyrone Slothrop · 09-16-2011, 12:13 PM

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Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Tensions between northern and southern Europe get a little worse.

Can't believe this didn't get a reaction from anyone.

Gattigap · 09-16-2011, 12:16 PM

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Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Can't believe this didn't get a reaction from anyone.

Sure, but Penske's been away for a while now.

Greedy,Greedy,Greedy · 09-16-2011, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Can't believe this didn't get a reaction from anyone.

Yeh, well, it's not like they included the Italian for "unfuckable lard-ass". Learning to swear in many languages is fun!

Tyrone Slothrop · 09-16-2011, 01:17 PM

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...an imagined scenario from a 2008 paper by Harvard University‘s Benjamin M. Friedman.

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“The overflow crowd packed into the Senate’s largest hearing room – not the usual home of the Financial Services Committee – fell into a hush as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board made his entrance and took the centre seat at the witness table, accompanied by all six of his fellow Board Members. The crowd had a sullen look. The Senators seated around the dais’s three tiers appeared angry.

The US economy had been spiralling downward for ten months in the wake of the mortgage market collapse and the steep decline in home prices. Two sizeable commercial banks and seven investment banks had failed, and many of the rest had had to raise capital on highly unfavourable terms. Investors in many uninsured financial instruments still could not get their money back. Not just home mortgage defaults and foreclosures but corporate bankruptcies too were running at record rates since the 1930s. Industrial production had declined 23% from the previous peak. With 26 million Americans now out of work, unemployment had reached 17% of the labour force. The committee’s chairman called the hearing to order, welcomed the witnesses, and sombrely invited the Federal Reserve chairman to present his opening remarks.

‘Thank you, Mr. Chairman,’ he began. ‘I am pleased to report that during the past year US monetary policy has been outstandingly successful. Overall inflation has again been exactly 1.5%. Prices other than for food and energy have risen by just 1.3%. My colleagues and I are here to accept this committee’s congratulations and those of the American people’.”

“Such a situation is, of course, unthinkable,” Mr. Friedman writes.

WSJ

LessinSF · 09-16-2011, 01:26 PM

Fucking goddamn Rebublicans have now figured out a way to make our plastic refuse a good thing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOl4v...ature=youtu.be

Adder · 09-19-2011, 12:02 PM

Right?

This one from Yglesias for Sebby and his structural theories:

Another one (via Karl Smith) for anyone who is concerned about the size of government (aka, Hank's drinking problem):

Click on the link to Smith, but he's worth quoting so I will:

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Preliminarily I might say that up until 1975 the US was running a de facto Nordic Model, where declines in middle class manufacturing jobs were made up for by increases in middle class government jobs.

That stopped around 1975 and since then there has big a large divergence.

Tyrone Slothrop · 09-19-2011, 01:33 PM

Turns out Sebby and Krugman have been saying the same thing.

Adder · 09-19-2011, 02:03 PM

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Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Turns out Sebby and Krugman have been saying the same thing.

It does not take much autobahn driving to be reminded of the woeful state of our interstate highway system, or the cost in terms of efficiency that having crappy highways imposes.

Greedy,Greedy,Greedy · 09-19-2011, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adder

It does not take much autobahn driving to be reminded of the woeful state of our interstate highway system, or the cost in terms of efficiency that having crappy highways imposes.

Get a jeep and speed up for the bumps. Don't stick Sebby and I with a big bill because you want to drive those pussy European cars.

Adder · 09-19-2011, 02:40 PM

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Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Get a jeep and speed up for the bumps. Don't stick Sebby and I with a big bill because you want to drive those pussy European cars.

Call me crazy, but I'd say cruising along at 100 mph+, even if it's in a "sportwagon" as often seemed to be the case, is less "pussy" than bumping along at 55 mph in a ridiculously over-sized behemoth.

Greedy,Greedy,Greedy · 09-19-2011, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adder

Call me crazy, but I'd say cruising along at 100 mph+, even if it's in a "sportwagon" as often seemed to be the case, is less "pussy" than bumping along at 55 mph in a ridiculously over-sized behemoth.

Then move to Germany, wittle putty tat.

Adder · 09-19-2011, 02:47 PM

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Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Then move to Germany, wittle putty tat.

Clearly that would be better for america than fixing our highways.

Greedy,Greedy,Greedy · 09-19-2011, 02:49 PM

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Originally Posted by Adder

Clearly that would be better for america than fixing our highways.

If we keep at it, we can be the ultimate off-road destination in the world. Take that, Kenya (aka, Obama's home town)! Morocco, we've got you in our sights!

Hank Chinaski · 09-19-2011, 04:21 PM

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Originally Posted by Adder

It does not take much autobahn driving to be reminded of the woeful state of our interstate highway system, or the cost in terms of efficiency that having crappy highways imposes.

what other of Hitler's achievements make you hard?

Here it seems like every interstate is under construction from the stimuli money. They aren't getting fixed where you are?

Adder · 09-19-2011, 04:41 PM

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Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

what other of Hitler's achievements make you hard?

Hitler is responsible for the current maintenance of the autobahn? Huh.

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Here it seems like every interstate is under construction from the stimuli money. They aren't getting fixed where you are?

There is the usual road maintenance, but to my sense not more than usual. Last summer I saw a lot of rest stops getting overhauled with ARRA money though.

One of the things that's impressive about the autobahn is its consistency. Unlike here, there don't seem to be stretches that are past due for resurfacing, much less decades past like much of our interstate system.

On a related note, I don't know whether it has anything to do with government stimulus spending, but it was amazing how much of Munich was under construction, in particular the overhaul of public buildings and public spaces. I saw plenty of that in Berlin too, but not to the same degree as Munich.