Point of views on the new president of the United States.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I think I was kicked off my own topic. I don't know what the hell is going on any more!

Welcome aboard.   

Leave your sense of proportion at the door.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

He is black.

She.  She is Black.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Lastly, when your student thing is done, you may find that apocalypse is waiting for you behind the bleachers on graduation day.

Having a recently obtained (as opposed to long-standing) degree will actually decrease your chances of finding work.  For a number of reasons which will no doubt sound like bitter ranting, but are actually correct.

Also, entering the work force during or in the aftermath of a recession can actually have a lifelong effect on your earnings.

Yep.  Start out low, stay low.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

what you seem to be missing is that he didn't START the stimulus or the bailout.

He's pushing it like nobody's business, though.

Who cares who started it?

[Soul Sojourner]

I voted for Obama, I like him, but I don't trust him of course. I do feel he is better than McCain however, and so he was the logical choice.

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

Well, he has the potential to do a lot of good, even in terms of massive stimulus plans. Let's say that as a group, the right-wingers who are complaining about the size of the plan and its level of effectiveness are right. Even in that case, the money going into paying people to build up utilities and public works is actually going to be used (for the most part) for generally useful stuff. This isn't making and filling in ditches. This is fixing buildings and roads and bridges, adding to libraries, upgrading the utilities.

At least, that's my understanding of it.

If that's the case, then whether or not it actually manages to bring about an end to the recession, at the very least I approve of it. Plus, even if it's being 'borrowed from future generations', if we don't have decent education and roads, chances are the future generations won't be able to pay for it anyway.

[zutalors]

Seems like a nice-ish guy.  Guess I'll adopt a wait-and-see attitude.  I don't have any official opinion until he's had a year to fuck or unfuck the country.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Even in that case, the money going into paying people to build up utilities and public works is actually going to be used (for the most part) for generally useful stuff. This isn't making and filling in ditches. This is fixing buildings and roads and bridges, adding to libraries, upgrading the utilities.

At least, that's my understanding of it.

They're so cute, right before you crush their dreams.



Listen up...that money isn't being sent to particular projects when it comes to roads and bridges, etc.  It's going into a fund for roads and bridges that already exists.  Now, guess what happens to that fund every year?  Oh, yeah.  It gets used for other shit, mostly being pork, mostly doled out to whomever the Speaker last received an oral bunghole cleansing from. 

On the other hand, the several million set aside for country clubs and that yacht club (I shit you not) will find its way to their respective projects with no problem.  Of this I can assure you.

[Cain]

John Robb said it best.  Emphasis mine:

The global Depression scenario is now dominant.  Here are some of the drivers:

* An utterly complete cognitive regulatory capture of the US government (the advent of the Obama administration has done nothing to change this).  Regulatory capture is when monied interests take control, via cultural and mindset transfer, of the government institutions that are supposed to regulate/control them.  In OODA terms, this is a loss of control over the critical orientation phase of decision making loops.  As a result, a vast looting of the government's coffers is now in process. 

* The D-process (de-leveraging and deflation) feedback loop is now entrenched.  This is a neat term developed by Ray Dalio of Bridewater Associates (Barron's interview).   The D-process is what happens (rarely) when too much debt is accumulated.  Excess debt must be eliminated before growth can return.  In the US case alone, excess debt load is $20-25 Trillion.  Since global governments are unwilling and/or unable to wipe out the world's creditors (they've been captured), the process will drag on and on.  Stimulus and bailout packages, constructed in a way to protect the wealth of the world's creditors/rentiers (looting), won't work.   It will only prolong and deepen the failure as the D-process feedback loop intensifies.
   
* A large number of countries from Japan to Spain to Latvia are already in depressions.  These failures will serve as a drag on the entire global system, catalyzing the feedback loops of the D-process. 

A global depression, in and of itself, isn't the end of the world.  However, it can set in motion unexpected events (black swans) -- as in how the last depression catalyzed WW2.  The revisionist effort to this economic collapse isn't likely to be a surge in ideology or nationalism.  Instead, we can expect an organic realignment as small groups of people form new primary loyalties (either to violent manufactured tribes or resilient communities), slot themselves into open source movements, and challenge a wheezing group of incumbent nation-states.  This is a global guerrilla century.

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2009/02/journal-the-depression-scenario.html

[The Good Reverend Roger]

John Robb said it best.  Emphasis mine:

The global Depression scenario is now dominant.  Here are some of the drivers:

* An utterly complete cognitive regulatory capture of the US government (the advent of the Obama administration has done nothing to change this).  Regulatory capture is when monied interests take control, via cultural and mindset transfer, of the government institutions that are supposed to regulate/control them.  In OODA terms, this is a loss of control over the critical orientation phase of decision making loops.  As a result, a vast looting of the government's coffers is now in process. 

* The D-process (de-leveraging and deflation) feedback loop is now entrenched.  This is a neat term developed by Ray Dalio of Bridewater Associates (Barron's interview).   The D-process is what happens (rarely) when too much debt is accumulated.  Excess debt must be eliminated before growth can return.  In the US case alone, excess debt load is $20-25 Trillion.  Since global governments are unwilling and/or unable to wipe out the world's creditors (they've been captured), the process will drag on and on.  Stimulus and bailout packages, constructed in a way to protect the wealth of the world's creditors/rentiers (looting), won't work.   It will only prolong and deepen the failure as the D-process feedback loop intensifies.
   
* A large number of countries from Japan to Spain to Latvia are already in depressions.  These failures will serve as a drag on the entire global system, catalyzing the feedback loops of the D-process. 

A global depression, in and of itself, isn't the end of the world.  However, it can set in motion unexpected events (black swans) -- as in how the last depression catalyzed WW2.  The revisionist effort to this economic collapse isn't likely to be a surge in ideology or nationalism.  Instead, we can expect an organic realignment as small groups of people form new primary loyalties (either to violent manufactured tribes or resilient communities), slot themselves into open source movements, and challenge a wheezing group of incumbent nation-states.  This is a global guerrilla century.

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2009/02/journal-the-depression-scenario.html

Nice.

[Cain]

This is why I refuse to waste time hunting jobs, beyond the necessary to secure continuing jobseeker's allowance.  The United Kingdom = no longer fit for purpose.  I have exactly three (3) shots at success, and they, and their flawed system, won't help me obtain any of them.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

This is why I refuse to waste time hunting jobs, beyond the necessary to secure continuing jobseeker's allowance.  The United Kingdom = no longer fit for purpose.  I have exactly three (3) shots at success, and they, and their flawed system, won't help me obtain any of them.

Can't you go take your expertise to some third world shithole and be the advisor to his excellency?

[Cain]

That is one of the options.  I mean, if you consider Australia a third world shithole.  Having been to Darwin before, I certainly do.

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

Even in that case, the money going into paying people to build up utilities and public works is actually going to be used (for the most part) for generally useful stuff. This isn't making and filling in ditches. This is fixing buildings and roads and bridges, adding to libraries, upgrading the utilities.

At least, that's my understanding of it.

They're so cute, right before you crush their dreams.



Listen up...that money isn't being sent to particular projects when it comes to roads and bridges, etc.  It's going into a fund for roads and bridges that already exists.  Now, guess what happens to that fund every year?  Oh, yeah.  It gets used for other shit, mostly being pork, mostly doled out to whomever the Speaker last received an oral bunghole cleansing from. 

On the other hand, the several million set aside for country clubs and that yacht club (I shit you not) will find its way to their respective projects with no problem.  Of this I can assure you.

Oh, I totally recognize that that's what typically happens. However, the proposed fund is MASSIVE. Even professional politicians probably couldn't mine all that without feeling a twinge of guilt. It's my hope that a certain amount of that actually goes into building shit that people use. Even if it doesn't, I'd prefer more of my (hypothetical) tax dollars to go into writeoffs for the west wing harem than into blowing people up. I don't find it fun to blow people up, especially when I'm just paying for it and not doing it myself.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Oh, I totally recognize that that's what typically happens. However, the proposed fund is MASSIVE. Even professional politicians probably couldn't mine all that without feeling a twinge of guilt..

$750,000,000,000.00 bank bailout.  Nobody knows where the fuck it went.

You were saying?