tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post1154348887318432119..comments2024-03-28T20:28:01.733-04:00Comments on Mike Norman Economics: telesur — Venezuelan Private Sector Siphoned Off $259B in Public Fundsmike normanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03296006882513340747noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-68817799592821434112016-06-22T13:11:22.987-04:002016-06-22T13:11:22.987-04:00I don't have antipathy, I've apathy toward...I don't have antipathy, I've apathy towards the Old Testament, in any case the point stand still... All those regulatory suggestions are antithetical to capitalism, they have to be imposed through the dominant political system (not qualifying them as bad or good, as that's besides the point).<br /><br />Anyway, policies have to make sense on their own, without any appeal to authority, even less so religious authority. I'm also apathetic towards religious books as sources of policy tbh, I would prefer to have actual historical records tbh.<br /><br />Is hard enough to come with non-distorted "recent" data (K&R lol).Ignaciohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16082008115484199316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-38982980779872984702016-06-22T12:43:39.600-04:002016-06-22T12:43:39.600-04:00Yeah its to be read as an example of what doesnt w...Yeah its to be read as an example of what doesnt work...<br /><br />Read Galatians...Matt Frankohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11978352335097260145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-49500159985606926282016-06-22T12:20:22.347-04:002016-06-22T12:20:22.347-04:00No for the people who would have to do the reformi...<i>No for the people who would have to do the reforming...</i> Ignacio<br /><br />Once the population is aware it could be done without increasing total purchasing power then who'll dare oppose it? On what grounds? That they love injustice and misery?Andrew Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296407661618321637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-51679060471205931072016-06-22T12:12:14.971-04:002016-06-22T12:12:14.971-04:00That Old testament thing is antithetical with capi...<i>That Old testament thing is antithetical with capitalism too</i> Ignacio<br /><br />Franko may have led you to believe the Old Testament is passé but it is STILL part of ALL Scripture and is to be read and respected by all Christians - a very sizeable and politically powerful group in the US.<br /><br />Btw, your antipathy toward the OT is largely uncalled for, ie. the God of the OT is SLOW to wrath and longs to be GRACIOUS instead.<br /><br /> Andrew Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296407661618321637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-66968999508999567752016-06-22T12:04:40.241-04:002016-06-22T12:04:40.241-04:00... and claim TINA. Tom Hickey
Largely true as f...<i>... and claim TINA. </i> Tom Hickey<br /><br />Largely true as far as ethical solutions are concerned.Andrew Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296407661618321637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-79108170064350001142016-06-22T12:02:57.483-04:002016-06-22T12:02:57.483-04:00Andrew That Old testament thing is antithetical wi...Andrew That Old testament thing is antithetical with capitalism too, and wouldn't be impossible to pass without political action either in a democracy or an autocracy. Not that i think that we should be following the Old Testament for anything really... But just adds to the point.<br /><br />Kind of why we have a 'mixed' system nowadays...<br /><br /><i>That's not incentive?!</i><br /><br />No for the people who would have to do the reforming...Ignaciohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16082008115484199316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-53399364993156815572016-06-22T11:51:27.282-04:002016-06-22T11:51:27.282-04:00Neoliberalism would be much better than whatever y...<i>Neoliberalism would be much better than whatever you want to term what they have down there now...</i><br /><br />That's the neoliberal plan. Scuttle anything else and claim TINA.Tom Hickeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08454222098667643650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-10369090188443650932016-06-22T11:08:36.940-04:002016-06-22T11:08:36.940-04:00Left: Hey I cant play guitar like Eric Clapton an...Left: Hey I cant play guitar like Eric Clapton and I would like to so I say ban all Eric Clapton concerts....Matt Frankohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11978352335097260145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-3914497802388433832016-06-22T11:07:11.984-04:002016-06-22T11:07:11.984-04:00What if one Hebrew family had 12 children and anot...What if one Hebrew family had 12 children and another had only 4?<br /><br />Kill the 8 additional in the other family?Matt Frankohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11978352335097260145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-90765303801249726322016-06-22T10:51:03.696-04:002016-06-22T10:51:03.696-04:00Capitalism is about ownership, who owns what, Ig...<i>Capitalism is about ownership, who owns what, </i> Ignacio<br /><br />Interestingly, the Old Testament puts restrictions on run-away wealth accumulation via a ban on usury from fellow Hebrews, debt forgiveness ever 7 years, and family farms that could not be lost for more than 50 years.<br /><br />And yes, creating new fiat for someone just because he has collateral is unjust and is a cause of unjust wealth inequality.Andrew Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296407661618321637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-73314513422567151132016-06-22T10:40:43.531-04:002016-06-22T10:40:43.531-04:00I'm ready to witness the Venezuelan government...I'm ready to witness the Venezuelan government's epitaph. Venezuelans are too.Peter Panhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09473311771939167712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-49982876449600785142016-06-22T10:40:37.694-04:002016-06-22T10:40:37.694-04:00You can't reform when the wrong incentives are...<i>You can't reform when the wrong incentives are in place </i> Ignacio<br /><br />Just the proper abolition of government-provided deposit insurance might easily require more than $20,000 be given to every US citizen to finance the xfer of deposits from currently insured accounts at banks to inherently risk-free individual citizen, business, etc. accounts at the Federal Reserve.<br /><br />That's not incentive?!<br /><br />So where's the MMT crowd wrt to this? Pretending they can't hear?Andrew Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296407661618321637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-48933953114350991362016-06-22T10:37:32.862-04:002016-06-22T10:37:32.862-04:00Capitalism is not about fairness or ethics, capita...Capitalism is not about fairness or ethics, capitalism ain't even about trade.<br /><br />Capitalism is about ownership, who owns what, and in capitalism property rights trump everything else. That is the only thing capitalism is about, it says nothing about how capital is created and distributed.<br /><br />Is a feature, not a bug.Ignaciohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16082008115484199316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-71162846017535576832016-06-22T10:31:36.280-04:002016-06-22T10:31:36.280-04:00(the conundrum of capitalism of being antithetical...<i>(the conundrum of capitalism of being antithetical of democracy as Tom would say).</i> Ignacio<br /><br />What capitalism? What we have is a system of government subsidized private credit creation whereby the least so-called credit-worthy, the poor, are looted by the banks for the benefit of the rich, the most so-called credit-worthy.Andrew Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296407661618321637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-57880293611902500812016-06-22T10:21:25.083-04:002016-06-22T10:21:25.083-04:00Of course there is - reform the money and credit s...<i>Of course there is - reform the money and credit system to make it ethical.</i><br /><br />You can't reform when the wrong incentives are in place because we have a situation with induced material scarcity which promotes social darwinism and everyone for himself. The system promoted 'unethical' behaviour, and you can't go from 'unethical' to 'ethical' without some sort of benevolent dictator with absolute powers, it just doesn't work.<br /><br />As I just posted, unfortunately it's a bit of an egg's and chicken situation where we have a self-fulfilling/reinforcing feedback loop between the financial and the real material conditions.Ignaciohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16082008115484199316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-50415382602167106302016-06-22T10:18:09.927-04:002016-06-22T10:18:09.927-04:00Matt then if the left wants to change behaviour of...Matt then if the left wants to change behaviour of people and motivations other than "money" and "capitalism/free markets!" then they will need to find a different way to anchor people who can get the job done at the places they need to be at. I'm not talking about Venezuela but also on western democracies where a lot of people is on the 'left' spectrum (even those who thing are on the 'right') on economic policy (social policy is a bit more tricky).<br /><br />The 'left' has been winning the cultural wars over the last half century in many ways and educationally, but this is not quite well translating to material conditions and motivations. IMO this is because induced material scarcity changes people's goals towards a more cutthroat behaviour ("everyone for himself").<br /><br />If we cannot provide the people with sufficient material needs a far reaching behavioural change won't be possible and the "left" will continue to fail making material and structural changes and continue to be bitter at "capitalism/free markets!".<br /><br />Unfortunately is a bit of an egg and chicken situation, but I think we need to setup the infrastructure to at least provide people with material needs so they are able to get charge of their own lives then we would be able to push further structural changes on how we organise our society (the conundrum of capitalism of being antithetical of democracy as Tom would say).<br /><br />In other words: until we do not have the proper conditions so the bargaining power of labour over capital is stronger we cannot push further 'structural' 'left-leaning' changes (ie. we need decently designed and in-place JG/BIG or mixed solutions in place and probably worldwide to avoid massive migrations that would be more disruptive even and trigger reactionary behaviour).<br /><br />Don't have much hope right now...Ignaciohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16082008115484199316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-76162014400261034892016-06-22T10:11:51.101-04:002016-06-22T10:11:51.101-04:00The left needs to understand that there is no easy...<i>The left needs to understand that there is no easy 'monetary' fix to change social and material conditions,</i> Ignacio<br /><br />Of course there is - reform the money and credit system to make it ethical. But the Left is most often interested in replacing thievery by the Right with thievery by the Left, as if who does the stealing matters to the victims. But for the record, it appears the victims prefer being victimized by the Right since the Left tends to be very meddlesome besides thieving.<br /><br /><i>you need to actually do real work for that.</i> Ignacio<br /><br />Of course real work is needed, so the thieving needs to stop.Andrew Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296407661618321637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-76013636086625920312016-06-22T10:03:25.424-04:002016-06-22T10:03:25.424-04:00ZIRP isn't necessarily the problem; it's h...ZIRP isn't necessarily the problem; it's how it is achieved that's the problem. The ethical way to achieve ZIR is equal fiat distributions to all citizens - not asset purchases or lending by the central bank from or to the rich.<br /><br />One would think ethics would be the FOREMOST consideration wrt fiat creation but it ISN'T unless in a reverse/perverse way.Andrew Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14296407661618321637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-21378444391923892932016-06-22T09:52:35.149-04:002016-06-22T09:52:35.149-04:00this is similar to how we see the left MMTers advo...this is similar to how we see the left MMTers advocate against interest on savings with their ZIRP... its a bad policy as it pisses off the savers and creates a whole host of problems...Matt Frankohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11978352335097260145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-67290998750372758972016-06-22T09:49:02.267-04:002016-06-22T09:49:02.267-04:00Ignacio,
My assumption is that all of the really ...Ignacio,<br /><br />My assumption is that all of the really qualified people to do those things end up leaving due to the corruption/nepotism....<br /><br />"The left needs to understand that there is no easy 'monetary' fix to change social and material conditions"<br /><br />Not arguing but we can say the same thing about the right/neoliberalism.... no free lunches out there... but what looks like happens is that neoliberal policy helps retain the qualified people... those people that are qualified in material systems have a basic material orientation so they end up having to save/invest/build wealth etc... so as the left goes to war against those types of behaviors with their "inequality!", etc..., then the materially qualified people just leave the country and the material conditions of course degrade....Matt Frankohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11978352335097260145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-36809773192492291432016-06-22T09:38:34.506-04:002016-06-22T09:38:34.506-04:00Ha good one Six...Ha good one Six...Matt Frankohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11978352335097260145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-54089606645244665762016-06-22T09:29:32.116-04:002016-06-22T09:29:32.116-04:00They have to stop trying to control prices all ove...They have to stop trying to control prices all over the place.<br /><br />The problem is not 'monetary'... they are creating the opportunities for arbitrage and absurd situations like exporting goods in the markets because it's better than producing and consuming them.<br /><br />They have to take the hit for their Dutch disease no matter what and start working onto improving the REAL economy instead of all this fringe financialism/monetarism and stupidity.<br /><br />Do you want to change the underlying economic and social structures? Then change the REAL production economy instead of playing with prices and currency.<br /><br />Why people does get the causality backwards!? Attributing magical properties to money which doesn't have... The left needs to understand that there is no easy 'monetary' fix to change social and material conditions, you need to actually do real work for that.<br /><br />And for the government, any regulation of prices has to be as a price setter though consumption (which means the only effective tool is the government can set price floors, to set price roofs it has to act through the real channel on the supply side). This is not the problem Venezuela has right now... but much of their problem is of their own doing because stupidity.Ignaciohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16082008115484199316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-30633927895089835622016-06-22T09:20:28.061-04:002016-06-22T09:20:28.061-04:00Movies can't be watched because they are a ser...Movies can't be watched because they are a series of discrete photographs.... ;pSixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10756430577510633914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-16777589200547464722016-06-22T08:48:20.764-04:002016-06-22T08:48:20.764-04:00"Venezuelan private sector": this has t..."Venezuelan private sector": this has to be a joke right?Matt Frankohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11978352335097260145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-8851989704757053632016-06-22T08:45:06.028-04:002016-06-22T08:45:06.028-04:00AA,
The USDs go to the state owned oil companies ...AA,<br /><br />The USDs go to the state owned oil companies then the state CB changes them out at some rate...<br /><br />The telsSur people are in some sort of a leftist mental infinite regress.... eventually they will be looking at the alleged political affiliations of the atoms and molecules....Matt Frankohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11978352335097260145noreply@blogger.com