Paul Krugman: "The austerity agenda looks a lot like a simple expression of upper-class preferences, wrapped in a facade of academic rigor. What the top 1% wants becomes what economic science says we must do." Ken Langone responds: Runaway deficits are the older generation "stealing" from the young, and Paul Krugman has never met a payroll and doesn't have to worry about profit margins. [View news story]
And that is the nutshell that should scare us all:
"The advent of "valueless" money is a rather new development."
In other words, we are betting the house on an untried, unproven, macro-economic experiment of unparalleled proportions.
Gee, I feel better now. Every time we're told it will be "different this time", it always is(n't).
Paul Krugman: "The austerity agenda looks a lot like a simple expression of upper-class preferences, wrapped in a facade of academic rigor. What the top 1% wants becomes what economic science says we must do." Ken Langone responds: Runaway deficits are the older generation "stealing" from the young, and Paul Krugman has never met a payroll and doesn't have to worry about profit margins. [View news story]
The reality is that Keynesian economics - if it indeed implies austerity during surplus years - is simply not compatible with democracy. You cannot have both. Politicians don't get elected by promising to store up reserves for a future rainy day.
If Keynesian economics is instead just another flavour of socialism, then it is fatally flawed.
There exists a very real tipping point at which the debt and deficit simply out-weigh the nations' ability to ever catch up without massive expansion of currency or significant reduction of expenses which make the current talk of "austerity" child's play by comparison.
I don't think the Krugmans' of this world have even the tiniest bit of control of this massive macro-economic experiment the world is currently engaged in. Perhaps we've invented a new system where the traditional rules of debt and currency no longer apply and we can all live happily every after. Perhaps... but the alternative is probably worse than anyone can fully contemplate.
Paul Krugman: "The austerity agenda looks a lot like a simple expression of upper-class preferences, wrapped in a facade of academic rigor. What the top 1% wants becomes what economic science says we must do." Ken Langone responds: Runaway deficits are the older generation "stealing" from the young, and Paul Krugman has never met a payroll and doesn't have to worry about profit margins. [View news story]
That's all well and fine, but what is the calculation for risk to massive hyper-inflation, and at what point does the massive debt and deficits simply over-power any hope of sustainable GDP growth recovery?
In other words, if "printing money" was the simple solution to recessionary times, wouldn't civilization already have figured that out by now? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to come up with the idea of storing up in the good times and spending it in the bad times.
You have no idea what Tim's innovation will look like - the current pipeline is still all Steve's. Tim Cook is a brilliant logistics manager - and yet the biggest failure last quarter was delivery of key products in time. Imagine where the company would be without him.
The scale of Apple is almost impossible to comprehend. Certainly is for all the armchair quarterbacks that comment here. I cannot understand for a moment why everyone believes that shareholders are Apple's customer. Focus on the true customers that produce the profit, and forget the fickle investors who don't make you a dime anyway.
Wall Street didn't like Apple under Jobs either, save a few short months here and there. AAPL has always been undervalued compared to it's peers and it has out performed in every important metric there is - save the share price.
Apple doesn't play according to Wall Street's rules and the stock price gets punished for it. In the meantime, Apple goes from almost bankrupt to the largest, most profitable company in the world and in history in just over 10 years. While I agree past performance is no indication of the future, there simply isn't significant evidence yet to suggest Apple management doesn't still know better than the rest of us armchair quarterbacks.
Maybe people fail to understand Apple is a wintel clone because is ridiculously not true! If Apple gave up and joined anything it was Unix.
People don't buy Macs because they are better looking windows machines - otherwise Sony would be dominating. People buy Macs because OS X is a superior experience - whether you agree with that or not, one thing is certain - OS X is not Windows!
You are confusing the "Intel" part of "Wintel" with the "W" part - you can have one without the other. Windows runs on various other chip platforms as well.
The conventional wisdom says risk markets rally Monday in Pavlovian response to the latest bailout, but the news may be baked in: Spain (EWP) was 10% higher last week, the S&P 500 +4%. Is the rescue even good news? "Spain is the Rubicon that should have never been crossed," says Nicholas Spiro. "A limited bailout for Spain (will) fail to restore confidence in the markets, (and) could fuel fears that more aid will be needed at a later stage (with Italy waiting in the wings)." [View news story]
So you don't believe that Federal debt matters then? Or do you have the secret mathematical formula that makes it all work out?
There will be a day of reckoning - postponing the banks' demise by saddling it on the tax-payers only makes it worse. We think we've re-engineered capitalism and outsmarted the laws of nature. I hope I am wrong but I suspect nature will win in the long run.
After a barrage of criticism following yesterday's remarks that Greeks need to stop complaining and pay their taxes, IMF chief Lagarde clarifies, saying her comments were directed at the "most privileged." Nice. When in a hole, best to stop digging. Comment stream on Lagarde's Facebook page. [View news story]
The Greek people don't have to listen to what Lagarde says. They can simply stop taking EU and IMF money.
The next head of the ECB, Mario Draghi warns Italy to get moving with fiscal reforms designed to cut government spending 5% by 2014 without hurting economic growth (a nice trick). Italy's budget deficit of 4% of GDP is actually below the EU average of 4.75%. [View news story]
Why? Greece proves that bailouts trump threats. Do whatever you feel is best - Spend, spend, spend.
Sure, there's a "good chance" of more than $1T in budget cuts over the coming decade, Tim Geithner says at the Politico Q&A, citing a "fair amount of pragmatism" from all sides. He added he didn't think markets would pay attention to a House test vote next week on the debt ceiling, and ultimately Congress will raise it: “The United States will never default on its obligations." [View news story]
We'll never default - we'll print as much money as necessary to pay it all. That's not defaulting is it?
Brazil, whose 10 year notes hit 22% in 2002, shows fiscal reform, not default, can provide a way out for heavily indebted countries, writes Richard Barley. Being a resource-rich country in the midst of one of history's great commodity booms helps as well. [View news story]
And what does New Zealand prove? The reality is every situation has to be looked at in context and there are no simple solutions. The worst thing anyone can do is just refuse to look at the mathematical reality that we are saddling on our grandchildren.
Austerity “doesn’t work," Joseph Stiglitz says, a view Jonathan Berr sees as common sense: "People don’t get more with less. Businesses have to spend money to make money. They can’t cost cut their way to prosperity, and neither can governments [but] try telling that to the Republicans in Congress or leaders in Europe" suffering from "deficit fetishism." [View news story]
If that is true, then whichever country prints $1,000,000 to hand out to each man, women and child in their country first, will be the winner!
Buffett: "Having a debt ceiling to start with is a mistake... If Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling, it would be Congress's 'most asinine act' ever... The U.S. is not going to have a debt crisis of any kind as long as we keep issuing our notes in our own currency." (Reuters) [View news story]
This, to me, is the simple way to boil down the nuts and bolts of things. If it were really that simple to print money and prosper, don't you think someone would have already figured it out by now?
Paul Krugman: "The austerity agenda looks a lot like a simple expression of upper-class preferences, wrapped in a facade of academic rigor. What the top 1% wants becomes what economic science says we must do." Ken Langone responds: Runaway deficits are the older generation "stealing" from the young, and Paul Krugman has never met a payroll and doesn't have to worry about profit margins. [View news story]
"The advent of "valueless" money is a rather new development."
In other words, we are betting the house on an untried, unproven, macro-economic experiment of unparalleled proportions.
Gee, I feel better now. Every time we're told it will be "different this time", it always is(n't).
Paul Krugman: "The austerity agenda looks a lot like a simple expression of upper-class preferences, wrapped in a facade of academic rigor. What the top 1% wants becomes what economic science says we must do." Ken Langone responds: Runaway deficits are the older generation "stealing" from the young, and Paul Krugman has never met a payroll and doesn't have to worry about profit margins. [View news story]
If Keynesian economics is instead just another flavour of socialism, then it is fatally flawed.
There exists a very real tipping point at which the debt and deficit simply out-weigh the nations' ability to ever catch up without massive expansion of currency or significant reduction of expenses which make the current talk of "austerity" child's play by comparison.
I don't think the Krugmans' of this world have even the tiniest bit of control of this massive macro-economic experiment the world is currently engaged in. Perhaps we've invented a new system where the traditional rules of debt and currency no longer apply and we can all live happily every after. Perhaps... but the alternative is probably worse than anyone can fully contemplate.
Paul Krugman: "The austerity agenda looks a lot like a simple expression of upper-class preferences, wrapped in a facade of academic rigor. What the top 1% wants becomes what economic science says we must do." Ken Langone responds: Runaway deficits are the older generation "stealing" from the young, and Paul Krugman has never met a payroll and doesn't have to worry about profit margins. [View news story]
In other words, if "printing money" was the simple solution to recessionary times, wouldn't civilization already have figured that out by now? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to come up with the idea of storing up in the good times and spending it in the bad times.
Apple: Time For Shock And Awe [View article]
If Tim Cook isn't the man for the job, who is?
Apple: Time For Shock And Awe [View article]
The scale of Apple is almost impossible to comprehend. Certainly is for all the armchair quarterbacks that comment here. I cannot understand for a moment why everyone believes that shareholders are Apple's customer. Focus on the true customers that produce the profit, and forget the fickle investors who don't make you a dime anyway.
For Apple, No News Is Bad News [View article]
Apple doesn't play according to Wall Street's rules and the stock price gets punished for it. In the meantime, Apple goes from almost bankrupt to the largest, most profitable company in the world and in history in just over 10 years. While I agree past performance is no indication of the future, there simply isn't significant evidence yet to suggest Apple management doesn't still know better than the rest of us armchair quarterbacks.
The Nokia Tragedy Continues [View article]
People don't buy Macs because they are better looking windows machines - otherwise Sony would be dominating. People buy Macs because OS X is a superior experience - whether you agree with that or not, one thing is certain - OS X is not Windows!
You are confusing the "Intel" part of "Wintel" with the "W" part - you can have one without the other. Windows runs on various other chip platforms as well.
The conventional wisdom says risk markets rally Monday in Pavlovian response to the latest bailout, but the news may be baked in: Spain (EWP) was 10% higher last week, the S&P 500 +4%. Is the rescue even good news? "Spain is the Rubicon that should have never been crossed," says Nicholas Spiro. "A limited bailout for Spain (will) fail to restore confidence in the markets, (and) could fuel fears that more aid will be needed at a later stage (with Italy waiting in the wings)." [View news story]
There will be a day of reckoning - postponing the banks' demise by saddling it on the tax-payers only makes it worse. We think we've re-engineered capitalism and outsmarted the laws of nature. I hope I am wrong but I suspect nature will win in the long run.
Windows 8 Is The Next Battleground For Apple And Microsoft [View article]
People use Apple everywhere else because they want to.
Which company has a stronger future?
After a barrage of criticism following yesterday's remarks that Greeks need to stop complaining and pay their taxes, IMF chief Lagarde clarifies, saying her comments were directed at the "most privileged." Nice. When in a hole, best to stop digging. Comment stream on Lagarde's Facebook page. [View news story]
Rip the bandage already.
The next head of the ECB, Mario Draghi warns Italy to get moving with fiscal reforms designed to cut government spending 5% by 2014 without hurting economic growth (a nice trick). Italy's budget deficit of 4% of GDP is actually below the EU average of 4.75%. [View news story]
Sure, there's a "good chance" of more than $1T in budget cuts over the coming decade, Tim Geithner says at the Politico Q&A, citing a "fair amount of pragmatism" from all sides. He added he didn't think markets would pay attention to a House test vote next week on the debt ceiling, and ultimately Congress will raise it: “The United States will never default on its obligations." [View news story]
Brazil, whose 10 year notes hit 22% in 2002, shows fiscal reform, not default, can provide a way out for heavily indebted countries, writes Richard Barley. Being a resource-rich country in the midst of one of history's great commodity booms helps as well. [View news story]
Austerity “doesn’t work," Joseph Stiglitz says, a view Jonathan Berr sees as common sense: "People don’t get more with less. Businesses have to spend money to make money. They can’t cost cut their way to prosperity, and neither can governments [but] try telling that to the Republicans in Congress or leaders in Europe" suffering from "deficit fetishism." [View news story]
Buffett: "Having a debt ceiling to start with is a mistake... If Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling, it would be Congress's 'most asinine act' ever... The U.S. is not going to have a debt crisis of any kind as long as we keep issuing our notes in our own currency." (Reuters) [View news story]
Or maybe we're just way smarter today...