Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

It's really stunning that my agreement with the settled science that we are beyond the point of no return when it comes to climate chanage would reduce someone to obfuscation, intentional misrepresentation, whining like a girl about name-calling, a laughable self-justification and, finally, outright dishonesty.

Fortunately, it's all there for everyone to see.

A good day.

[Da Geezer]

hack:

... I'm not in your head and can't know for sure, but it looks to me like you lack the balls to discuss something here unless you're absolutely certain you can bully your way to a definite conclusion...

Hack, you sell your writing to major American magazines. You have a platform. Arguably you shape opinion. Now you wine and need a safe spot to go to get away from the bully. Why not just use some facts when you debate? I had to look up Easterbrook because I didn't even remember who he was. Sorry. I'd like an example of me calling you a name. How about an example?

The article you should have reacted to was the one by the English fellow who was using the Podesta emails to show what the American Ruling Class really thinks and how it acts. I think you aspire to that class. You want to put yourself out as a consultant, but how can you be trusted if you don't know basic things (eg. US Government bonds are used when analyzing rates because that eliminates risk as a factor)(eg. your claim that Bernie Sanders and Ronald Reagan had basically the same economic programs).

Like this:
- Krugman said that the stock market would "never" recoup its losses on 11-9-16. fact.
- The stock market closed at a new all-time closing high of around 18,800 today. Fact.
- Krugman is an idiot, opinion. But he has the platform (NYT) and the credentials (Nobel Prize) to affect public opinion.

- Algore said the world would be beyond the point of no return by 2016. Fact
- Algore used the finest of modeling and scientific thought when he made this prediction. Fact
- Prediction is one of two tests in the "scientific method", Replication being the other. Fact.
- Algore was wrong. Fact
- It is prudent to be skeptical of other predictions that Algore and his disciples make. opinion. It is stupid to reshuffle the entire global economy to accommodate this belief system. opinion.
- We don't know what will happen in the future. Fact We do know things will change in the future. Fact.

[hack]

And now you are admitting you said it. You're chickenshit. Look -- you got fooled by a shit article and I called you on it because I just so happened to be familiar with the writer and his flaws. It's been months now. Get over it please. We all get fooled sometimes and it doesn't mean we're stupid or have to go preening about to mask that for months on end.

[WingsFan]

[CGVT]

Good God, we are a fucked.

[AlabamAlum]

Gentlemen:

Do not allow vainglorious bickering to forcibly remove the warm cloak of comity in our discourse.

[hack]

Look -- if talent had the balls I think he lacks, he'd be doing exactly what you are now. Challenging me. He isn't. Probably it's because he doesn't.

I don't shape opinion. I write very nichey things about the global economy, and, to be honest, because I write about policies and not people, hardly anyone reads them. I have my own reasons for writing that sort of thing, but I'm certainly not going for eyeballs or influence. If I was, I certainly wouldn't be writing about taxation.

I don't think you've been a namecaller. If I accused you of that consider it a mistake that's immediately retracted. You probably have a time or tow, but you've also responded fairly and honestly enough most of the time and I really appreciate that. I do not, however, appreciate the career advice. I'll ask if I want any, but you're aware of what a rise in bond yields mean just as I am. If you really and truly think I'm wrong in challenging you on that, then explain. It won't be the first time you've taught me something. Use an outside link.

Speaking of outside links, that's what I mean when I say lets deal in facts. ``Algore was wrong'' is not a fact. It's an assertion with the word fact typed after it. What I mean, if you want an example, is the issue of German youth unemployment. Rather than just telling you it's low, I linked to an official data source. So you don't have to trust my assertion. That's what I mean by having a discussion in which we provide evidence. Just typing the word fact after something doesn't make it one.

[entropy]

hack.. talent.. take a time out.

[hack]

I'm done with talent for today, yes.

[Da Geezer]

Entropy:

The unbearable smugness of the press..

Heh. unbearable indeed. Trump should have come out and told his followers to say they were voting for Clinton. Pretty simple fix, really

I noticed no one answered your question about average rate of tax on a corporation. I doubt if there is an answer because the tax regime for a given corporation is a function of so many things. There is probably a number somewhere, but there are too many variables, including the type of corporation

I did hear on FBS today that Kohl's had an effective marginal rate of 37%. This was in the context of "if the corporate rate is reduced to 15%, what corporations benefit the most".

[Da Geezer]

I was writing when you posted, Entropy. Good we all take a break.

Hack, you are correct that interest rates reflect risk. That is how a market economy allocates capital. US bonds are considered risk-free, but I'm being redundant.

[WM Wolverine]

Thoughts on the electoral college?

People who don't live in one of the 7-10 battleground states don't believe they are a part of the election process and the presidential candidates only deal with issues that effect these battleground states. These battleground/swing states haven't changed a whole lot over the past twenty-five years and the people in the other forty states feel like their states and votes aren't as important as those in the swing/battleground states.

[iam416]

Holy fuck did I own hack. That's surprising, even to me. Even I didn't anticipate he'd resort to such total dishonesty.

Anyway, no matter how much hack gets into personal insults -- oh my god, I'm gonna cry! -- the facts remain as I stated them and which remain uncontested:

It's really stunning that my agreement with the settled science that we are beyond the point of no return when it comes to climate chanage would reduce someone to obfuscation, intentional misrepresentation, whining like a girl about name-calling, a laughable self-justification and, finally, outright dishonesty.

Fortunately, it's all there for everyone to see.

A good day.

[iam416]

I honestly had no idea what the Easterbook shit hack was referencing was, so I actually searched it. Really nice, civil discussion that clearly ended awfully:

Hack:

I appreciate your thoughts on Easterbook. I realize this is his baby and he writes on it at every turn, but it doesn't make it wrong.

I also realize that my perspective makes me more likely to agree with his position while yours makes you less. No problem.

He has written on it for the past decade, but I haven't seen it discussed here. I think it an interesting topic to discuss. I firmly believe that to be the generic American in 2016 means you're as well-situated as any generic person in history. I'm astounded by advances that bring remarkable technology to the masses, provide increasingly amazing healthcare solutions, feed billions more people than was previously thought possible and generally provide for a quality of life that dwarfs previous generations.

I get that this generation likely faces an uncertainty in the job market that is higher than in previous generations. Jobs for life may be harder to come by -- IMO, that seems to be the case, but empirically, no clue. There are costs that scare the shit out of people, namely college (and to a lesser extent, healthcare). I think it's fine -- responsible -- to acknowledge the problems. I'm just no where near throwing the baby out of with the bathwater.

And...

I'd like to see Easterbrook stop banging his head against the wall and apply his hyperlogical approach to himself. He's a good thinker and writer in his own rigid way, and if it occurred to him to really dig into it a little deeper, and not just stop at pat conclusions, then maybe he'd have a more interesting take on this. Then again, he gets paid by the word just like I do, and can do this one in his sleep. Freelancers have to have stuff they can just reel off without donating too much brainpower in order to make a living. Ideally that's for a non-published client and not the New York Times though.

I do think it's an interesting topic to discuss, most certainly. There's no doubt that the numbers point to one thing and the viewpoints of people another. Or, then again, maybe it's just always this way. People are always ready to indulge in fear, and adjusting to change is hard. I lived in Turkey when it really began to take off, and as it went from sleepy to growing people became busier and busier and the space of a few years Istanbul was noticeably more stressed and less polite and genteel than what people were used to. Just a little hint of progress is all it took for people to notice the tradeoffs and start complaining about them. But people are still happier there than here. IMO people are happier when they are a far way from the top but making progress than when they are at the top and focused on preserving what they have. Just a sense.

Another viewpoint is the Unabomber's manifesto. The guy was a crazy whacko who did awful things but the intellectual exercise that got him there has some very valid insights about ego and happiness.

That was a good discussion.

[hack]

I was writing when you posted, Entropy. Good we all take a break.

Hack, you are correct that interest rates reflect risk. That is how a market economy allocates capital. US bonds are considered risk-free, but I'm being redundant.

Right. So if yield goes up that means an increase in perceived risk.