dtwest

You are correct, some know what they are talking about. But there are also many people who think that being a smart person in one field makes them a smart person in every field. It is disrespectful, it implies that they think their field is easier than yours and it must not be that hard to figure out. It is also very easy to spot.

I did not mean to imply that everyone is one-dimensional, I personally have professional experience in the finance and software industries and have respect for the people in them. But when some finance expert suddenly becomes an opinionated epidemiologist I call bullshit (a random example that has happened far too often the past few years).

Reading HN comments about the stock market is like listening to a bunch of MBAs talk about software engineering.

An issue with using fiscal policy this way is that many of the things that are worth spending money on aren't easily movable levers, they are long term projects.

If inflation is accelerating and we need to cut spending to fix things it may be difficult or inefficient to cut the budget of a 10 year infrastructure project. If we need to spend more one year, do we just flood the healthcare system or military with money temporarily?

Changing tax policy frequently creates uncertainty for people investing in long term projects, which increases risk and cost associated with funding them.

I like that there is an academic debate going on about MMT, but there are practical challenges in implementing it. While far from perfect, the current monetary policy approach is easier to implement and change, while outsourcing capital allocation decisions to the banking system.

These are good questions to be asking, and they are all theoretical possibilities. Some people see this as an opportunity for improvement, others find it deeply concerning. Central banks do not necessarily need to abide by the old definition of money.

Columbus metro area is roughly the same size as Cleveland metro area so I don't think that is the reason.

However, it could still have a talent advantage. Having OSU nearby is helpful, and maybe it is easier to attract talent to move to a city with a big university.

You make some fair points about money and mistrust but the parent's argument is not unfair. You mention that you "became a Swede" by adopting Sweden's values. America doesn't have one unified set of values due to being so big. Sweden is smaller than Ohio by population. Ohioans generally share some values, but they are quite different than people in Massachusetts or Mississippi. America is closer to the EU's scale, and the EU has plenty of idealogical differences between member states. Do the Greeks trust that the Germans are looking out for their best interests?

They were going up a couple of years ago.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FEDFUNDS

This is interesting timing given what has been happening related to Evergrande. It is possible that the government is worried about money being moved out of the country, and cryptocurrency is one way of doing that.

Important to note that that is the weight before cooking, a frozen patty will lose a lot of water weight in the cooking process, so what you end up getting is not a full 6oz.

Afghanistan and Korea are vastly different scenarios, perhaps the main difference is the situation the US put themselves in rather than a change of core values.

Could you elaborate on how the US data is manipulated or why it is lower quality than Israel's?

Maybe they should. But I can't help but comment that you're abusing statistics here. Smaller population countries like Canada and Australia pollute more per capita than the US. Also, the carbon tariff should ideally be applied on an activity-specific basis, not at the national level.

That may be true, but your quote is from 1947.

Being stuck working at Google or Facebook is a bit different than being stuck in a concentration camp from the perspective of consent don't you think?

I'm not belittling the discussion that our society must have about what can or can't be mandated by an employer. However, I doubt the above quote was created in the context of high paying tech jobs, they were focused on the forced experimentation that occurred in WW2.

Not trying to take away from your main point but isn't Arduino Italian?

It is important to point out that the Americans concerned about Russian hacking are often not the same Americans concerned with protecting free speech.

Long simply means taking a position that would benefit if the stock/currency/commodity/bond/etc goes up in value. Similarly, being short generally means the opposite (although in specific situations it can mean selling something you do not own, like a stock, with the intention of buying it back later for a lower price). The terminology isn't limited to stocks, investors talk about being long currencies all the time.

Hope this clears up some of the confusion.

How is that in validation of MMT?

We ran a huge deficit this year supporting the economy during covid. We are also seeing a spike in short term inflation and a weaker dollar. Treasury bond yields remain low but there is increasing speculation that decades of low rates could soon reverse.

Also are you attributing all value generated by Bezos's or Musk's companies to only them? What about all of the great people they employ?

When battleships and tanks are the weapon, manufacturing capacity powers the war machine. Perhaps drones usher in a new dynamic in that regard too. Maybe it's not how many drones you produce but how well programmed they are, what sensor or communication technology they use, etc.

We don't treat them the same, and we shouldn't treat them the same.

Having a multi layered tax policy is complicated and has proved difficult to enforce. Multinational corporations have shown time after time that they are able to get around the first layer of taxation (corporate tax), so why not just eliminate it and put more of the burden on the second layer (income, capital gains, sales tax, etc).

The general idea is not to raise or lower net taxes, in this particular instance we could keep net taxes the same while allowing for less corporate avoidance and more targeted tax collection.

Companies like Amazon historically have minimized their profit to grow revenue, assets and shareholder value. They barely pay corporate tax while profitable small businesses will pay corporate tax plus the second layer.

"It’s a shame that Biden had to back down from the initial 28% because of domestic opposition."

You are misrepresenting the situation. A 28% global minimum was never on the table. 28% was Biden's proposed domestic rate (which to your point, he is backing down from). But these are two separate rates so we should be clear what we are discussing here.

According to the Federal Reserve, China's money supply is larger than the US. GDP levels don't directly map into money supply.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WM2NS https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MYAGM2CNM189N

The more interesting theoretical question here is whether BTC should be compared to M1 or M2 (or another metric entirely).

No it works both ways. When someone says there is a labor shortage it doesn't mean it's labor's fault, it just means that labor has the power to set prices. If companies want to hire they need to raise wages. If a company can't afford to raise wages, they will need to operate with less workers or shut down operations.

There are winners and losers from this dynamic so I'm sure different sides will have a narrative. But the labor shortage isn't a spin on reality, it's an observation that it is difficult to hire in current conditions.

This is a very surprising number given the expectations. There are many companies hiring in the service sector that cannot find enough workers. As such, average hours worked is skyrocketing as well:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/AWHAELAH

It seems likely that unemployment benefits are contributing to this labor shortage.

Overall GDP isn't a measure of richness. Luxembourg is richer than India, it doesn't matter that India's overall GDP is higher.

The issue is that success and quality of life are subjective. While it would be great to measure them the same way we measure GDP, I do not think it is possible to do so without using many different metrics.

You are correct that GDP is being misused if people suggest it is a measure of success or quality of life. GDP is what it is, a measure of economic activity (any economic activity, more than just conversion of natural resources into monetary capital). That makes it only one piece of a very complicated puzzle. Many practitioners who use GDP understand it for what it is, but some don't and that is dangerous.

I'd be interested to hear if you or anyone else has suggestions of what we could use instead. It is a very difficult problem to solve, but one that has the potential for improving the world significantly.

Creating semiconductor fabs takes billions of dollars in investment and can only be achieved by a few very large companies, most likely with government support and coordination in any country that builds them. While it is true that China has a private sector with its own set of interests, the Chinese government is already working very closely with relevant parties in this particular circumstance.

China already knows this, and has known this for a long time, they didn't need recent US actions to remind them.

But I agree with your sentiment on the first point, what a huge strategic mistake.