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
V
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
No, the Hospital was fully staffed — it just had no patients.
Travel chaos as Channel Tunnel shuts and French ferry services are cancelled
A wildcat strike by French ferry workers had already caused the cancellation of cross-channel ferry services, leaving the south of England without its two transport routes to northern France.
Eurotunnel said its services had been halted after protesters gained access to its terminal in France. The firm said the decision to suspend crossings to Britain was taken for safety reasons after French port workers trespassed on to its tracks.
I can't imagine this will be good for the economy, either that of the UK or the Eurozone.
Keep Rolling On
Kind of quiet
TPA has received cloture in a 60-37 vote. It is likely to pass a vote tomorrow.
This isn't looking good, guys.
edited 23rd Jun '15 11:02:50 AM by MysteryMan23
Likely busy writing something.
It still has to make it past the House, where there's a lot more NOBAMA being spewed at random and Democrats are calling bullshit.
edited 23rd Jun '15 10:22:07 AM by Ramidel
Kind of quiet
@Ramidel: TPA already passed in the House. If it passes in the Senate, it's going to Obama's desk.
Likely busy writing something.
Not in it's original form, though.
Yeah. The House and the Senate have two different bills that they haven't reconciled, and both sides only support their own bills by very thin margins. And this time it's the Democrats playing games to block the whole thing.
(Not likely - the Senate Republicans won't support a Democratic palace coup against someone who's supporting business interests.)
Hilarious scenario though.
Lost in Space
What would be the justification for an impeachment proceeding? That's just ... even more insane than the Fox News Republicans' ideas.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Finland: New Government Commits to a Basic Income Experiment.
The main party of government, the Centre Party and the new Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, are known to be supportive of Basic Income, but his new government partners, the populist Finns Party and conservative NCP have not spoken publicly on the issue. The scant reference to Basic Income raises some doubts about the government’s commitment to the policy.
Nonetheless, this marks the first commitment from a European country to implement a Basic Income experiment and will be the first experiment in a developed nation since the 1970s. Other experiments have been performed more recently in India, Namibia and Brazil. Every experiment so far has reported very positive results with improved economic performance, health, housing and other outcomes. It also reflects the increasing interest in Basic Income worldwide with prominent European parties like Podemos in Spain and D66 in the Netherlands adopting it as a policy.
The government has not released a timescale nor any further details about the experiment.
Lost in Space
Hmm, that's fantastic if they stick to it.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
@Fighteer: Who needs a justification? I'm sure the Republicans could come up with some fig leaf if they cared to bother. But nobody has any authority to review an impeachment. They can literally impeach Obama for being black.
Presidential impeachment isn't really a judicial proceeding any more than an Athenian jury. Out of three attempts at impeachment, two were purely politically motivated and decided along party lines (Johnson and Clinton). So there's a clear precedent for impeachment attempts as a simple power play. The House already has a lot of idiots yelling "impeach Obama," and the reason they don't is because Boehner and company know that such a proposal would not go through and they remember what happened when they went on Clinton.
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
Dicking around with impeachment looks bad, though. The Republicans paid for it in the '98 midterms (and second midterm is traditionally bad for the president's party), which is why they've been so hesitant to do more than grumble about impeaching Obama.
Lost in Space
I was referring to Democrats offering to impeach Obama over TPP, as was suggested earlier, unless I badly misread the post. It would be a suicide pact for the party.
edited 23rd Jun '15 4:50:37 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
True, but it was also just a joke. No Democrat has even implied anything of the sort.
How would it? If the impeachment were a joint Republican and Democratic agreement, how would it damage the Democrats?
You can't vote against Congress.
Also, that. Still curious about the above, though.
edited 23rd Jun '15 5:47:30 PM by Ramidel
The law in the night
Greece's international lenders demanded on Wednesday that it improve proposed tax and reform measures in a last-minute race to clinch a deal to unlock aid and avert a debt default next week.
Sources close to the negotiations said the creditors had presented counter-proposals to Athens to overcome differences, with euro zone finance ministers due to convene at 1 p.m. EDT to try to approve an agreement.
Other issues still in dispute included the restoration of collective bargaining rights, opening up closed professions, investment and public sector wages, according to a source close to the talks.
Officials said the IMF was most concerned about the balance of the package, which was too heavily skewed toward tax increases that could further weaken the Greek economy and prove hard to collect, rather than structural reforms.
Also still in dispute were Greek demands for debt relief, which euro zone governments do not want to address at this stage, and IMF-led pressure for more steps to reform Greece's costly pension system.
If Greece misses that payment and is declared in default to the IMF, it could trigger a bank run, capital controls and an eventual Greek exit from the euro zone, undermining the foundations of the currency.
Austerity vs reforms vs fiscal responsibility
edited 24th Jun '15 7:11:46 AM by AngelusNox
Inter arma enim silent leges
Lost in Space
Okay, this is too funny not to post here. Bloomberg: Krugman Battles Austerians It's animated!
Somebody had a lot of fun. ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
The law in the night
Very amusing and informative.
"The Limits of reforming the U.S. Private Sector retire system"
Basically a note that the current private savings system for the U.S. is pretty much a joke, and that tax incentives to save are inefficient.
John H. Friedman (an economist from Brown) suggests some new concepts:
- A savings plan that can be transported across jobs and encourage investments in low-cost index funds.
- An employer-side tax credit for every employee enrolled into the above program.
However, it notes even if the system was improved, the average poor to mid level American just isn't capable of saving the way most expect them to, because of their pay check to pay check existence, so the government has to be involved somehow.
Lost in Space
Yeah, it's far better to establish a national minimum income than to poke and prod people to save, especially as saving can be counterproductive by reducing present consumption, which can act as a drag on the economy.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
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Presumably, you'd also say the same applies to Pensions?
It's probably best to be somewhat generous with Pensions. Old folks need to live too.
Yes Minister was entirely about excessive government spending, and our hero, such as he is, faces extreme difficulties in curbing the bureaucratic insanity that his predecessors left him, and which the corrupt and privileged civil service does its level, devious best to protect and preserve.
The hospital with no MD's was a particularly egregious example.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.