News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by samatman on Sunday December 06, 2020 @12:53PM (#25325153)
Opinions differ substantially on this point.
Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by rubyn00bie on Sunday December 06, 2020 @04:02PM (#25326599)
No, they really don't. Uninformed opinions will argue this because they're just that... uninformed. I'm sorry but no one who has studied economics will believe this there's zero evidence to support the idea a low-level of inflation is bad. There's only crackpots and idiots who don't have economics degrees, or even enough math to understand the fucking equations (which aren't hard but also don't always provide intuitive results).

In general, without some form of inflation, you end up with a deflationary spiral because people stop spending and the economy seizes up. No one will spend money if just holding it makes it more valuable. It then becomes a race to horde as much as you can for as long as you can. It's also, quite uhhh... perplexing for me, to not increase the money supply when populations are increasing; because, they're increasing the value of the money by increasing demand for it.

Central banks are the result and answer to reckless unregulated financial markets crashing, being manipulated, and destroying lives... Oh shit, kind of sounds like bitcoin, doesn't it? Everyone does this "central bank boogeyman" and thinks it should go away but they all absolutely ignore why they exist in the first place.

There's a ton of quality stuff to be debated in regards to economics-- this is not one of them.

Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by cloudinshape on Sunday December 06, 2020 @05:30PM (#25327251)
Not true at all.

People, and state economists, have confused inflation and deflation so much for their propaganda that right now is almost imposible to have a discussion around it primarily because different people don't mean the same things when they use those words.

Is the inflation you talk about consumer price inflation? is it assets price inflation? or is it money supply inflation? is the deflation caused by increases in productivity or is it caused by decrease in demand? Is inflation a product of regulations? of corruption? or was it caused by central banks and politicians' stupidity?

Those are all very different situations that require very different approaches, but because the "inflation-good deflation-bad" mantra has been repeated for so long (without any actual proof!) idiots now can't see past it, and think it's fine because they call themselves economists.

Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by tromp on Sunday December 06, 2020 @05:55PM (#25327462)
I believe we're discussing supply inflation.
Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by codehalo on Monday December 07, 2020 @04:12AM (#25330548)
You made his point.
Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by tromp on Sunday December 06, 2020 @06:01PM (#25327501)
> no one who has studied economics will believe this there's zero evidence to support the idea a low-level of inflation is bad.

That's quite the number of negations you've got there. I assume you want to say that a mild inflation make economic sense, but I think you're actually saying the opposite due to the 3 negations (no one, zero evidence, bad).

Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by fwip on Sunday December 06, 2020 @06:34PM (#25327736)
I think it is two separate thoughts. > no one who has studied economics will believe this - there's zero evidence to support the idea a low-level of inflation is bad.
Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by taffer on Sunday December 06, 2020 @02:42PM (#25326054)
This is like saying: "Opinions differ substantially as to whether man-made climate change is real". Yes, opinions differ, but when all mainstream scientists agree that deflation is bad, saying that "opinions differ" is quite misleading.
Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by samatman on Sunday December 06, 2020 @03:43PM (#25326442)
Economists aren't scientists.
Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by disgruntledphd2 on Sunday December 06, 2020 @04:03PM (#25326616)
> Economists aren't scientists.

How do you define scientist, and who else isn't included?

Like, micro-economists do a lot of interesting experimental work that certainly seems like science.

Macro-economics is pretty much entrail-reading because we fundamentally don't understand how the modern economy functions, and is massively political and hijacked by a variety of interests, but that's a subfield that even economists agree is problematic.

Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by fastball on Sunday December 06, 2020 @06:36PM (#25327743)
Scientists should have falsifiable theories, for starters.

Actually to my mind that is all you need for science: observe, make a falsifiable hypothesis, try to falsify your own hypothesis.

That is... not most economics.

Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by disgruntledphd2 on Monday December 07, 2020 @05:57AM (#25331004)
Is geology a science?

They have most of the same issues as economics (modulo the political stuff), but everyone seems OK with it.

Also, Popper's falsification is a pretty unrealistic account of how science actually works, and it only really works as advertised where you can run effective experimental designs (which economics and geology, amongst other disciplines) have a problem with.

Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by fastball on Monday December 07, 2020 @02:08PM (#25335841)
Geology definitely has more experimental falsification attempts going on than economics.

If you have a theory that is impossible to falsify experimentally, we're no longer talking about science (at least if your idea of science is the pursuit of objective truth). Modern "science" running amok with people more concerned with attempting to prove themselves correct than find the truth doesn't change that.

> Popper's falsification is a pretty unrealistic account of how science actually works

That's the rub though. A pretty strong argument can be made that "science" is not working and that "scientists" have lost their way, if you look at things like the reproducibility crisis.

Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by taffer on Monday December 07, 2020 @02:23PM (#25336011)
There are many scientific fields that cannot conduct experiments, such as climate science. To say that this is not science is quite naive.
Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by fastball on Monday December 07, 2020 @07:01PM (#25339518)
First off I reject the premise that people investigating the climate cannot perform experiments.

Even assuming what you say is true, if not experiments and attempts at falsifying your ideas, how does one pursue the truth?

Re:Diem – A rebrand of Facebook’s Libra by disgruntledphd2 on Tuesday December 08, 2020 @07:49AM (#25344442)
You only have one planet, it's a little difficult to split it in two.

How would you suggest we run randomised experiments on the climate (or the macro-economy)?