There was talk about renaming the Krugman thread for this purpose, but that seems to be going nowhere. Besides which, I feel the Krugman thread should be left to discuss Krugman while this thread can be used for more general economic discussion.
Discuss:
- The merits of competing theories.
- The role of the government in managing the economy.
- The causes of and solutions to our current economic woes.
- Comparisons between the economic systems of different countries.
- Theoretical and existing alternatives to our current market system.
edited 17th Dec '12 10:58:52 AM by Topazan
a collection of small trees
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I read the Atlantic article. The new face of prostitution? ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
Looks like a legal way to get around what's technically illegal. Seeing sexism in both forms really makes me wonder what it would be like if I were a woman. Sexual harassment exists, and so does stuff like this.
There are a growing number of sugar mommas taking care of younger men. I wonder how many of these "sugar" relationships are also in the homosexual community as well. It would be interesting to just see across demographics how these numbers compare as the economy fluctuates.
Another thing is just trying to see are these numbers growing or are people just being more honest about it. I know in Japan, it's common for high school girls to date older men in return for presents.
"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
Compensated Dating was already a thing (and acknowledged social problem) in Japan a while ago, so it's nothing new to a low-functioning first-world economy.
Rockefellers to switch investments to 'clean energy'
.
Exactly how big a deal is this?
Direct all enquiries to Jamie B Good
They made their fortune in the oil business, so it's kinda like the Kennedy family supporting rehab programs for drunks. It's pretty influential.
Not only are they in an economic and structural position to make a serious mark in the industry, they have social currency and are politically influential. So this is a good move for everyone.
"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
V
Tesco suspends execs as inquiry launched into profit overstatement
Lost in Space
"Breaking accounting rules to exaggerate profits is a cardinal sin as far as investors are concerned and Tesco has been punished severely with shares falling more than 10% at one stage today."
Yeah, I'd say that's fairly bad. Still, it points right back at the core problem in today's business world of profits being the most important thing.
edited 22nd Sep '14 11:28:45 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
Because investors put them under constant pressure to drive profits up up up. Eventually there's nothing they can do but cook the books.
Kind of reminds me of the problems of the Soviet economy, just in slow-motion.
V
That is just a number of problems that have hit Tesco in the last few months. They're in trouble — and they're one of the top three supermarkets chains in the world.
And that's not the only problem Tesco has had today.
edited 22nd Sep '14 11:53:45 AM by Greenmantle
Keep Rolling On
a collection of small trees
Investors, I think, are a huge part of the problem. Companies would have more freedom to do things their own way and even run a fine balance between moral behavior and profits if it weren't for greedy investors. If not making as much money as humanly possible didn't get you punished severely by having your stock sold off, then sticking to one's principles, or actually having principles, would be easier to do.
I'm up for joining Discord servers! PM me if you know any good ones!
Lost in Space
A financial transaction tax would go a long way toward slowing down the role of investors in determining a company's priorities.
edited 22nd Sep '14 12:28:59 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
V
It's not really morality — better quality products and taking better care of staff would be enough.
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I don't mean just pay — indeed an obsession with pay is part of the problem — I mean better working conditions.
edited 22nd Sep '14 12:51:27 PM by Greenmantle
Keep Rolling On
Lost in Space
Better products = higher cost to produce something that won't necessarily sell for more. Ergo, you lose profits. Paying staff more may or may not improve productivity, but has measurably higher costs; again, it reduces profits. At least, that's what they think.
Now, some businesses manage to be very profitable using a high-quality, high-compensation model, but they seem fairly rare, and there are pernicious and perverse incentives to abandon that high ground.
edited 22nd Sep '14 12:48:17 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
HGW XX/7
I can't do much more than laugh at Tesco: they are absolutely toxic. Awful for high streets and small businesses, and, worse, they do this really scummy thing of buying land they have no intention of developing in order to deny it to potential rivals.
edited 22nd Sep '14 12:54:23 PM by Achaemenid
Schild und Schwert der Partei
Lost in Space
Which means it should come as no surprise that they were caught cooking the books as well. I suppose that evil, unchecked, is its own worst enemy given enough time.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
V
Also, I think one of Tesco's subsidiaries is a property developer.
Is Waitrose better?
edited 22nd Sep '14 1:31:55 PM by Greenmantle
Keep Rolling On
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
That whole land-sitting thing is just standard practice for large grocery chains, at least around here. I know the dominant regional chain of this part of the country does it.
China's Economy: Stimulated But Not Aroused. I'll quote the whole article:
The type of jolt the economy needs may be associated with policies to enhance the service or high-tech manufacturing sectors, as laid out in the report from the March National People’s Congress, projecting reforms for 2014. Potential reforms in these sectors that may steer the economy toward higher growth levels include: promoting trade in services; opening up banking, education, culture, and medical services to foreign investment; promoting nongovernmental services in health care; promoting delivery services; improving public services; establishing trial zones for service-based businesses; increasing R&D in industry; and enhancing modern logistics, financial leasing, energy conservation services, and inspection services. Lest the fact be missed, however, these reforms were slated for this year, and none has been implemented in any meaningful way.
While some of these reforms have been addressed, none has been fully pursued. For example, the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, which was to provide a test site for financial deregulation, among other things, has failed to attract foreign enterprises due to its failure to yield substantive benefits. The promise of nongovernmental health care has resulted only in the encouragement of nonprofit healthcare organizations at the village level and in the creation of a Medical Travel Zone to attract overseas medical services in Hainan. Although the Ministry of Health announced that 20 percent of all hospital beds would be funded by private investment by 2015, this has not happened – private investment in hospital beds is little more than halfway there.
If China’s economy is to be restarted, it will need more substantive reforms. Labor-intensive manufacturing companies are facing rising costs, including increasing wages, and are moving abroad or diversifying to Malaysia and Vietnam. Chinese workers are becoming more sophisticated and consumption-oriented, seeking higher wages and better opportunities. The leadership is in favor of improving the services and high-tech manufacturing sectors, but appears to be stalled in lifting constraints to growth in these areas.
These constraints abound. In the logistics sector, state-owned enterprises dominate port, rail and air delivery services. The state-owned logistics sectors spans the nation and enjoys an advantage in more regulated logistics areas, such as rail cargo transportation. Similarly, China’s telecommunications industry is dominated by three state-owned enterprises. Although these state-owned enterprises have recently allowed private enterprises to lease networks, cooperation with private businesses fails to break up the monopoly enjoyed by these large state telecommunications companies. Finally, barriers to growth in creation and manufacturing of innovative high-tech products include a lack of protection for intellectual property rights. Lack of enforcement of intellectual property rights ensures that innovation by private firms may be easily usurped by imitators who produce the same products.
To combat its own malaise, China needs real reforms in targeted industries. In general, the state sector remains too pervasive, and challenges to the growth of private sector enterprises are difficult to surmount. In contrast to what other analysts have asserted, the reform process does not have to be stalled in order to combat slowing growth. Slowing growth can only be addressed in a meaningful way by changing policies to promote employment and the expansion of particular sectors. Economic resuscitation and long-term growth need not, and should not, be mutually exclusive.
edited 22nd Sep '14 2:27:13 PM by Quag15
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
Why are they acting like health privatization is a good thing?
Lost in Space
Somewhat tragically, they seem to be seeking to emulate the West in that regard. China, of course, represents the downside of a fully planned economy. One wishes to meet somewhere in the middle, not go entirely free or entirely planned.
edited 22nd Sep '14 2:34:34 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
...without deliberately taking the worst of both worlds.
The Potato's Choice
Lost in Space
Yeah, the "challenge" being that no rational central bank would end easy money policies under these conditions, and indeed should be pushing for real interest rates to be as negative as possible.
edited 24th Sep '14 12:53:31 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
The Potato's Choice
Rational requires having a legislature not filled with howler monkeys.
Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. - Douglas Adams
And next it will Pride and Prejudice all over again, if the current economic situation continues.