DOOM: My melancholy baby

ADP reports that the economy added 110,000 jobs in October. Nothing to be overjoyed about, but it could be a lot worse. (EDIT: However, the ADP number does show the continuing erosion in America's manufacturing employment. I don't think this means we're making less stuff; it just means that we need fewer people to do it.)

How American civilization can avoid collapse.

Are the Greeks preparing for a coup or trying to prevent one? Either way, this isn’t good news.

Greece is finding out that when things go to s**t...they go to s**t fast. (Italy and Spain nod and say, “How true! How true!”)

Greece may discover that revenge tastes great, but is less filling. A note about this Greek “referendum”: it doesn’t matter whether it takes place or not. The damage is already done, the demons already set loose. The Greeks have already voted “no”, whether they know it or not.

Next up on the DOOM parade: Italy.

Peter Wallison gives a pretty good technical summary of the Eurozone's crisis. (The confusion over what banks are, what they do, what they're for, and how they're regulated is mind-boggling. I'm trying to find time to do an "Econ 101 at AoSHQ" post about it, because I think a lot of people really, really, really don't understand much about banking, especially modern fractional-reserve banking.)

B-b-b-but...didn’t Teh Bernank tell us that inflation was nowhere to be seen? Wha’ happen?

Two economists explain the NBA lockout.

Jon Corzine may be looking at a long vacation in the greybar hotel. Maybe he can bunk with Bernie Madoff. (Hey -- maybe there’s a sitcom in this! DIBS!) It also turns out that Jon Corzine is quite the fabulist. Who knew? This is another cautionary tale about how many financiers view “acceptable risk”. Which is to say, they totally ignore the downside and take the upside as a given. Which is great when the bet pays off -- you look like a genius. But when Dame Fortune frowns upon you...well, like I said, things can go to s**t with terrifying speed. A prudent man hopes for the best but prepares for the worst.

When is 50% really 22.5%? It's math like this that got the nations of the world into the fix they're in right now.

Katrina vanden Hooberjooberglooberdoober wants you to know that she doesn’t like Republican obstructionism. Not one little bit. It reflects badly on her boyfriend Barack, and this makes her stamp her tiny little foot in rage.

Your bailout/tax dollars, hard at work: bankrupt (and bailed-out) firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac paying out more than $12 million in bonuses to 10 executives. I wonder when the “occupy” idiots will set up camp out on Fannie’s front lawn....

Where Keynes went wrong.

Keynes assumed that the initial deficient level of aggregate demand would remain unchanged until the stimulative (“pump-priming”) effect of additional government spending kicked in. In other words, increased government spending, or its anticipation, would not further diminish pre-existing levels of consumer demand and investment demand. However, Keynes’s failure to consider the possibility of an adverse effect from government spending​—​that it might lead to still further decay in the prior levels of consumption and investment​—​was a fundamental flaw in the theory.

UPDATE 1: Mister Corzine chose...poorly. And since this is the NYT, they prescribe the same medicine that has thus far totally failed to work: more regulation.

UPDATE 2: Via Insty, many of the "occupy" retards are pretty well-heeled retards. It stands to reason, I guess: most genuinely poor people can't afford to just stand around all day chanting nonsense. The rent's gonna come due whether you're outraged or not.

posted by Monty at 08:43 AM

| Access Comments