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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Socialism isn't inherently incompatible with market systems, and pretty much all serious modern conceptions of a socialist system are market based for that reason. Moreover, we already live in a mixed-economy, and ongoing technological developments seem likely to force that economy much closer to the "socialist" side of the sliding scale than it currently is.
Ironically, Hitler rode to power on the back of deflation. All anyone remembers is the Weimar hyperinflation, but that's not what brought things to a head. More devolutions to autocracy have come from deflationary cycles than inflationary ones, but the historians don't seem to grasp this basic point.
edited 23rd Jun '16 12:12:19 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Yep. Deflationary cycles make debt repayment impossible, leading to cascading business and personal bankruptcies and sapping demand, since everyone is desperately trying to save money at the same time. Hyperinflation is fundamentally a supply crisis — manufacture enough stuff to satisfy people and you fix it. Deflation is a demand crisis, requiring fiscal solutions, and conservatives hate, hate, hate the idea of the government giving people money.
Greece, Portugal, Spain... their current crises are not ones of excessive profligacy but of capital flows: large influxes of lending drove up inflation, then when the money stopped, their banks couldn't devalue the currency to compensate because they were chained to the euro. Ergo, their demand fell while their debt loads remained unchanged, forcing a crisis.
This is textbook macro. The reasons we've escaped the worst of it in the U.S. are that the Federal Reserve was allowed to engage in full deflation-fighting policy, and that Obama managed to get a small but important stimulus package passed.
edited 23rd Jun '16 12:18:06 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Not just conservatives, but also those of post-Cold War "Third Way" left.
edited 23rd Jun '16 12:24:30 PM by Greenmantle
Keep Rolling OnThe Fed is currently too fixated on the magic 2% headline inflation target, which is way too low for sustained growth; it should be 4%. Inflation paranoia lives even here.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"![]()
Well, first, that's kind of oxymoronic, since wage growth is a significant component of inflation, and the lack of it is one of the things that's kept our headline number so low. Part of the reason why smart people in the economy are so concerned about the Fed's professed desire to raise interest rates at the earliest opportunity is that wage pressure is still virtually nonexistent.
That said, stimulatory measures such as infrastructure spending, direct transfers ("helicopter money", welfare, minimum basic income), public health insurance, tax breaks/credits on lower-income earners, debt forgiveness, and so on, add to wage pressure as they (a) increase demand, driving job creation, (b) increase the labor market resilience of workers. By the latter, I mean that they let workers be pickier about what jobs they take and what wages they ask for.
edited 23rd Jun '16 3:14:37 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
- "Tenant" is the occupant in a lease; "Tennant" is a British actor.
- Many leases contain morality clauses allowing the owner to terminate if the tenant does anything illegal, and hate speech could be classified as illegal.
edited 23rd Jun '16 1:54:15 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"@Fighteer: This is the US, so I very much doubt if hate speech is illegal under any but the most tortured interpretations of the law. note
Technically, the only thing the business park owner has done so far is say please, and agree that they won't penalize the church for breaking the lease agreement if they move. If the church refuses, then they can take it to court and probably lose.
edited 23rd Jun '16 2:36:02 PM by Ramidel
On the church situation, the landlord isn't kicking them out immediately, he's simply stating that he will not renew the lease with them and that when it expires they will have to find somewhere else.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

You need Democracy and Capitalism both. With Democracy missing you inevitably end up with greater croneyism and inefficiency, but without capitalism you lack a mechanism for clearing out market inefficiencies.
Ordoliberalism is pretty close to a political ideal, aside from its dogged insistence on austerity economics, the idea that the government should be a strong actor enforcing fair play and fostering inclusion to paths to prosperity, countering free market forces where they create barriers, but ultimately making the markets work better.