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Author Topic: Trump III - the daily log  (Read 37217 times)

Alan Goldhammer

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Re: Trump III - the daily log
« Reply #380 on: July 28, 2018, 12:03:48 pm »

Conservative columnist George Will has a great column in the Washington Post.  For those who have exhausted their free articles here are some of the quotes,

A more apt connection of current events to actual socialism was made by Sen. Ron Johnson, the Wisconsin Republican, when President Trump decided to validate the conservative axiom that government often is the disease for which it pretends to be the cure. When the president decided to give farmers a $12 billion bandage for the wound he inflicted on them with his splendid little (so far) trade war, and when other injured interests joined the clamor for comparable compensations, Johnson said, “This is becoming more and more like a Soviet type of economy here: Commissars deciding who’s going to be granted waivers, commissars in the administration figuring out how they’re going to sprinkle around benefits.”

Concerning Johnson’s observation, the Hoover Institution’s John H. Cochrane, who blogs as the Grumpy Economist, says actually, it’s worse than that: “It’s a darker system, which leads to crony capitalism.” Cochrane is just slightly wrong: Protectionism, and the promiscuous and capricious government interventions that inevitably accompany it, is , always and everywhere, crony capitalism. But he is spot on about the incompatibility of America’s new darker system and the rule of law:

“Everyone depends on the whim of the administration. Who gets tariff protection? On whim. But then you can apply for a waiver. Who gets those, on what basis? Now you can get subsidies. Who gets the subsidies? There is no law, no rule, no basis for any of this. If you think you deserve a waiver, on what basis do you sue to get one? Well, it sure can’t hurt not to be an outspoken critic of the administration when the tariffs, waivers and subsidies are being handed out on whim. This is a bipartisan danger. I was critical of the ACA (Obamacare) since so many businesses were asking for and getting waivers. I was critical of the Dodd-Frank Act since so much regulation and enforcement is discretionary. Keep your mouth shut and support the administration is good advice in both cases.”

Now do you see what Friedrich Hayek meant when he said that socialism puts a society on the road to serfdom? Protectionism — government coercion supplanting the voluntary transactions of markets in the allocation of wealth and opportunity — is socialism for the well connected. But, then, all socialism favors those adept at manipulating the state. As government expands its lawless power to reward and punish, the sphere of freedom contracts. People become wary and reticent lest they annoy those who wield the administrative state as a blunt instrument.
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Rob C

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Re: Trump III - the daily log
« Reply #381 on: July 28, 2018, 12:22:19 pm »


Now do you see what Friedrich Hayek meant when he said that socialism puts a society on the road to serfdom? [/i]


Any relation to the lovely young Salma?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rii7C2Fa9so

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Trump III - the daily log
« Reply #382 on: July 28, 2018, 12:24:08 pm »

... Last year you admitted to .... baiting the trail troll[?]....

Can you be more specific?

Quote
... You have received abusive PM'S which you complained to the moderators about. I obviously don't know the content but I can guess why they were sent? ...

I rarely complain to the moderators. I did for the following one. The abusive PM message, related to a gun debate, was: "How many women and children you murdered, you jerk?"

Can you help me understand why such a message was sent and how it is justified by my posts?

I do not bait. I express my opinions. That might come in a form that might be thought provoking (which I hope you understand is different than "baiting"). I might challenge a stance with a counter position. I try to provide a different perspective. I try to support it whenever I can with facts or sources. You may not like my opinions or style, but that is not trolling.


stamper

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Re: Trump III - the daily log
« Reply #383 on: July 28, 2018, 12:31:34 pm »

Can you be more specific?

I rarely complain to the moderators. I did for the following one. The abusive PM message, related to a gun debate, was: "How many women and children you murdered, you jerk?"

Can you help me understand why such a message was sent and how it is justified by my posts?

I do not bait. I express my opinions. That might come in a form that might be thought provoking (which I hope you understand is different than "baiting"). I might challenge a stance with a counter position. I try to provide a different perspective. I try to support it whenever I can with facts or sources. You may not like my opinions or style, but that is not trolling.




Bait the trail was a quote from you and don't ask me to go back and find it. You berate other members for running to mommy. You should reflect about what myself and others are responding to.












KLaban

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Re: Trump III - the daily log
« Reply #384 on: July 28, 2018, 12:46:32 pm »

I'm happy to say nobody takes me seriously enough to send me abusive personal messages*.

Come on guys, get over yourselves.

*waiting with bated breath.

stamper

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Re: Trump III - the daily log
« Reply #385 on: July 28, 2018, 12:50:35 pm »

I'm happy to say nobody takes me seriously enough to send me abusive personal messages*.

Come on guys, get over yourselves.

*waiting with bated breath.

I have yet to get one. I will need to try harder. ;)

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Trump III - the daily log
« Reply #386 on: July 28, 2018, 12:59:32 pm »

But it's only up until it goes down again.  That it continued to rally and improve is key and underscores the point that it wasn't simply a matter of there being no other possible outcome.  It could have easily crashed again or the growth could have been far more subdued.

There is no logical basis for your premise.

They don't have to rebound and a bottom can be a temporary stop....

I would have thought that an average-IQ person, and I presume you are probably higher than that, would easily understand a simple truism, i.e., something that is self evident: "Once it reaches bottom, the only way is up."

It is a truism, because if it doesn't go up, it hasn't reached the bottom. It is a truism, thus making perfect sense, not "nonsense."

Your rebuttals are nothing but non sequiturs and straw men.

I did not claim that it will continue to grow next hundred years. I did not claim that it can not go into another recession (double-dip). Economies go in cycles, and recessions happen from time to time. So, obviously, "the only way is up" is true until the next recession. But until it happens (next recession) the only way is up.

I do not dispute that it might have gone, theoretically, all the way to zero. But it did not happen, and the history of the US GDP is an upward trajectory, with recessions being a temporary bump in the road. The trend has been historically upward, and, over time, new highs are reached. Therefore, after a recession, the next phase is up, until the next recession, and even then, the level reached might be higher than the penultimate recession.

I did not go into whom to credit or blame for growth or fall. In a different thread I argued that it is a risky business assigning credit or blame to sitting presidents.

We were not discussing hypotheticals, we were discussing history, and the history, after the 2008-2009 recession, was only up, no double-dip.

The only reason the phrase "the only way was up" was used was to indicate why growth rates post-recession bottom are always more impressive that those that start with a higher base. That is a simple percentage math.

stamper

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Re: Trump III - the daily log
« Reply #387 on: July 28, 2018, 01:11:09 pm »

It is rather ironic that the US has been described as the richest in the world but it has the highest debt/deficit in the world.

Rob C

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Re: Trump III - the daily log
« Reply #388 on: July 28, 2018, 01:14:21 pm »

It is rather ironic that the US has been described as the richest in the world but it has the highest debt/deficit in the world.


Easy: fake news!

Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Trump III - the daily log
« Reply #389 on: July 28, 2018, 01:15:14 pm »

Too much ad hominem. End.

And there will be no version IV.

Jeremy
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