Debt Rattle January 20 2018
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Vincent van Gogh Lane near Arles 1888 • US Government Shutdown Begins As Spending Bill Fails In Senate (R.) • Trump To Tout US Economy, Urge Fa
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 20 2018]Vincent van Gogh; Lane near Arles 1888; another stunning piece by van Gogh.
Has anybody seen Akira Kurosawa’s movie Dreams?
It’s eight vignettes, one of which features van Gogh, played by Martin Scorsese; quite good and the art/sets are georgeous.
Another vignette is, The Peach Orchard; in this is a room I long for; empty except for a vase with a branch from a Peach tree in full bloom; zot!Re: • US Government Shutdown Begins As Spending Bill Fails In Senate (R.)
Perhaps the quickest way to resolve the stalemate is not to pay Senators??
They’re not really essential, are they??:)))
Kunstler strikes again, to the heart, and I would add, that the Harlequin, known as Trump, is in fine fettle. Blustering his way through his incompetent presidency to the detriment of the planet’s sentient life. The MIC has never had it so good, and; If we survive this period, it will be thanks to the grace of the god’s who be.
The most immediate, sobering event, is the flu; more deadly than I recall in my lifetime. A very worrying event indeed.VisionHawk
Perhaps the quickest way to resolve the stalemate is not to pay Senators??
They’re not really essential, are they??I had to laugh at that; no, they have proven themselves as not really essential.
Not to pay; LOL; I’d love to see that……not to pay Senators? …
The Gov. is shut down. Everyone is on temp leave of absence with no pay except essential serviceHave senators been declared essential?
… is the flu; more deadly…
The flue is not in every country, head south if you think you are in danger.
Trump talking about fair trade perked up my ears.
We often hear about the concept of free trade. It is touted as some kind of utopian moral. But there is no basis for free trade whatsoever. There is no basis to cheat someone out of their wealth in a trade. This is true between trading individuals within country borders and across borders.
When an individual or company sells their product at a cheaper price across a country border, they are undercutting the industies in the importing country who are making the same product. Yes, that exporting entity may have found a way to make it cheaper through some kind of efficiency or reduction of waste, but we know that’s often not the reason. Often times they have cheapened somebody or something to reduce the price. There is a saying that you cannot cheapen your way to prosperity. Another saying professes that cheap goods make cheap men.
Tariffs have been used by countries to protect their industries from this form of cheating, or cheapening. It protects the country’s price structure and economic balance such that the producers have the income to produce, and the workers, or consumers, have the income to consume their own production for their daily needs. Ultimately, tariffs are not a trade measure at all, as most people perceive. They are ultimately a monetary measure to protect the value of a country’s currency. If enough cheapened goods from an exporting country invade the importing country, the industries of the importing country must cheapen their product to match it. That cheapening undermines the consumers in the importing country, undermining their purchasing power, and ultimately their standard of living, especially if the cheapening is achieved through concessions of compensation. In other words, their income needed to consume is reduced. This could be thought of as that race to the bottom we hear about so much.
However (and this is a big however, because here is the kicker), if consumers can borrow, they can use that borrowed money to maintain their standard of living. If the country issues that debt through fractional reserve banking, the currency supply can be inflated through that debt to maintain consumption. Thus (and I will gladly take critiques for saying this) is the reason a country’s tariff is a means to protect the value of its currency.
The United States Constitution has a provision for the government to protect the value of its money. It is in the same section that spells out how that same governent has the authority to prevent cheating through the establishment of weights and measures. That’s no accident. The currency could be thought of as a yardstick, measuring the value of the items being traded. Is it right for a country to keep their “yardstick” the same size as much as possible? Doesn’t that promote stability and peace?
So, when Trump talks about fair trade, we must rightfully ask ourselves what he really means. Is “America First” really about protecting the country’s currency, protecting it’s standard of living? Is it about protecting our price structure and balance, such that producers have adequate income to produce, and workers have adequate income to consume without resorting to debt? Is it about bringing up the price structure of other countries around the world to our level, such that their citizens have the same means to improve their lot, and not live in sh**holes??
If that’s what Trump is talking about when he talks about fair trade, I can get on board with that. If that’s what he is really about, they’ll have to start manufacturing “Making the World Great” hats, replacing the “Making America Great Again” hats. It’s time to think big. Time to think about peace and prosperity for all.
The founders of the United States and the writers of the Constitution were no fools. They knew the dirty economic tricks of the crown and the rest of the old country. Enough of them had enough of that, and decided they’d fight to the death to liberate themselves from that kind of tyrrany, that kind of sin.
@V.Arnold re: Kurosowa’s ‘Dreams’, yes, it’s a masterpiece. If you like that kind of thing, I’d also recommend ‘The Mill and The Cross’ about the Bruegel painting of that name. Both films made me fell as if there is still some hope.
“The richest 10% spent more on wine per week (£9.40) than the poorest 10% spent on water..”
A ridiculous comparison. Water is not just for drinking. As for wine, it damages you if you drink too much of it – even with the most expensive wines. 🙂
“head south”
Actually, we had a bad dose of it in Australia six months ago. I was out for 2 weeks, but my wife (GP) assured me it was “nothing” compared to the real thing.
“Australia is absolutely not responsible for the flu,” she said.
“What happens every year is that the flu tends to mutate and change and Australia tends to experience the newest strain first.”
A rather contradictory statement IMHO.
Today’s weather report from Central Adelaide, Australia. Estimated top temperature from the Bureau of Meteorology – 36deg. Actual top (2.20pm) – 39 deg. Wimps. They’ll have to stop reading Nassim’s posts, I reckon.
thomasjkenney
Indeed, I do like that sort of thing.
Never heard of ‘The Mill and The Cross’; thanks.Chris M
I would offer that free trade is and always has been a myth; a mis-leading catch phrase. Trump isn’t stupid; but he is dangerously ignorant. Very likely historically ignorant for a sitting president.
Manufacturing will never “come back” to the U.S.. Manufacturing as it has been known in the past is dead, gone, kaput. Almost 40 years of my working life was spent in manufacturing, all aspects; from the floor to CAD design and engineering.
3-D printing is the future; labor, meaningful labor, is all but finished in the U.S.. Space-X is 3D printing its rocket engines. Things that could never be machined or cast can be made with 3-D printing.
Trump’s got a big mouth and spouts so many words; like the monkey at the type writer, he’ll occasionally get something right. But not this time, IMO.“Things that could never be machined or cast can be made with 3-D printing.”
I’d love to know how one would print a pair of shoes. 🙂
Seriously, the chatter about 3D printing has stopped – because people worked out that it only makes sense for very expensive bespoke items (bones, dental work etc.). No good for mass-produced parts.
The funniest thing I saw today was a proposal for an electric commuter jet – with an engine to generate the electricity.
“Boeing-backed electric commuter plane to hit market in 2022, made by Zunum Aero”
This is total and absolute nonsense that makes a mockery of the laws of thermodynamics.
Vlad,
I checked Weatherzone and it went up to only 42C on Thursday and Friday.
According the the Wikipedia, it went up to 46.1 °C (115.0 °F) on 12 January 1939
Of course, in those days they measured temperature irregularly – and not on a second by second basis. With today’s gear, the temperature of 1939 would have probably gone to around 47C so consider yourself lucky. 🙂
Spoken like a true pedant; here, 3-D printed shoes (and they’re not the only ones);
For EOS, Focus in 3D Printing for Production is All About the Applications
Seriously, the chatter about 3D printing has stopped – because people worked out that it only makes sense for very expensive bespoke items (bones, dental work etc.). No good for mass-produced parts.
The chatter has stopped because everyone is busy with not time for chatter.
You believe as you wish: 3-D printing is the future, with or without you.
You remind me of the guy who said at the end of the 19th century; everything has been invented, no need for more research (or words to that effect).I found that quote;
Charles H. Duell was the Commissioner of US patent office in 1899. Mr. Deull’s most famous attributed utterance is that “everything that can be invented has been invented.” Most patent attorneys have also heard that the quote is apocryphal.
And here we are in 2018; still infants, all in all; so much to learn, so little time…Absolutely right about 1939, Nassim – it was also the day of the most extensive bushfire in the state’s history. Not a record I want to see exceeded anytime soon. That record temperature has had a close shave in more recent times, though. 2009, and 2014 when I think it reached 45.6 in central Adelaide. I remember that day well, because for some stupid reason I travelled up to the northern suburbs to see a friend, the latter part of the trip being in a non-air conditioned bus. I believe it was over 47 up there that day, and I nearly didn’t make it to his front door. By the way, we’ve got a few more days coming later this week forecast to get into the low forties, so if you want to fire off some more “freezing Melbourne” stories I may have a few headlines to counter with.
Anyway, to broaden it out a bit, I’m sure you already know that nine of the ten hottest years on record in Adelaide have come since 2002. Coincidentally, that was the year I headed up to the Adelaide Hills in an attempt to escape the worst of the summer heat (weather is fine for the rest of the year). Perhaps then, instead of giving us a photo of frozen eyebrows in Kazakhstan (cute, but as useful an indicator of climate trends as my currently comatose cat), you could dig out some data showing nine out of the ten coldest years in Kazakhstan have occurred since 2002, then I’ll get interested. Actually, anywhere would do…
here, 3-D printed shoes
V. Arnold, those are 3-D printed midsoles. I suppose if you are wearing crocs it would be hard for me to explain the difference 🙂
A friend of mine was considering using a 3-D printer for drone parts. Shit that the mass-market printers are spewing out is too brittle and rough. Specialty printers are prohibitively expensive. In the end he built a CNC machine for cutting custom frames and he buys the props because injection molding is not something you can do in a basement. And I’m yet to hear about a 3-D printed electric motor.
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