Stephen Joseph

Indeed. Welcome.

you mean...im becoming LIBERAL COMMIE ELITIST SCUM~! nooooooooooooooOOOOO!!!! <--the above was a satire. Present liberal commie elitists are excluded. cept for inxs

Vegas was last month dood. Remember peeps, I will be flying back from ye olde parent's house on the 26th, so posting stuff either that night, or if jetlagged, the 27th. =)

"box" company? I think its a metaphor

okay... T and I are agreeing point by point in this thread (aside from communicational differences) wow. Maybe you're not so bad after all you commie!

in stock terms yet not flow terms, over time our debts are increasingly foreign

So we have this deficit right? Well, we're obviously getting the money somewhere, and its from foreigners that cover it. They're buying bonds/assets here. Anyways, we kinda need them to keep this up. They're buying our assets using their dollar reserves (or converting their own currency to dollars). Problem is, this can only go so much. A weak dollar does make investment cheaper and therefore more attractive, but only to the point that the risk doesn't tip it over. Kinda like this: Suppose you've got two receivers. One's good for 5-10 yards, and won't likely drop the ball or be intercepted. You've got your other guy who can get you a touchdown in one catch (call him Neon Deon) but there's also alot more of a chance he'll drop or the ball will be intercepted. So far, Neon's had a great game. Who do you throw too? Depends on how you feel about the risk. If you can afford it, throw it deep. If you can't keep your ball a little closer to home. So its a catch-22 really. A weak dollar is allowing for countries to finance our debt more cheaply (and thus make debt more attractive to us, supposedly) but debt carries its own risk, and if countries get jittery as we slide to 8% of gdp=debt, they may just prefer something a bit more closer to themselves. I hope that answers it, in a way. Currency values clear financial markets, that's why they're important for deficit financing.

It was the IMF policies of "braking" tight monetary/tight fiscal that hurt several of the asian countries by pulling their exchange rates back up. I'm not saying a weak dollar is desirable, apologies if that's how it came out. I'm just saying that a weak dollar isn't the problem. Our weak dollar problem is coming vis a vis pressure from foreign countries who are supported us by supporting our debt (China/Japan) etc. Countries who have their debt to GDP ratio over 8% typically face severe problems (at least in the past). I think we're something like 5.5% right now and that's why the IMF is saying something about it (to whit the US seems to be ignoring, but Greenspan's saying something similar) I guess what I'm trying to say is that a weak dollar is a sympton of something else we should be a little more focused on. The disease is the debt.

which again relates to the debt issue.

Wow. So you cited the Economist. Thanks, reading the whole articles proves the point Tyler first made and I re-voiced...It's the debt, not the falling dollar, at issue here.

not me baby, cushy government job!

Oh yeah, I know the joke. But, what you learn from economics is that there are always trade-offs, which is why we appear so one-handed sometimes. Hey, better to be a optimist than not ya dig?

We didn't get a whole lot of votes last year, that was part of the problem. In particular, the MOTY that was voted for was not the MOTY some people thought it should be, and that little problem messed things up. And oh, since these are awards, how about keeping them relatively happy ?

and oh, about the weak dollar. If the Euro gains strength against the dollar, American goods are relatively cheaper now in Europe vs. European goods (relative here, not absolute) and European goods are now more expensive relatively in the United States. What this means: Europe imports more from the US, thus stimulating our economy, while pulling theirs down. Having a strong currency does not mean a strong economy, it just means your stuff is more expensive than other peoples stuff. Bottom line: Currency valuations are a flow, not a stock variable. And like any flow, there are times when it is high, and times when it is low. Currency valuation is a market mechanism for CLEARING MARKETS, and has very very very little to do with the strength of a nation's economy But then again, I'm just a dirty American government economist.

Economics, the answer to most everything. Quickie comparision and constrast as per requested, courtesy of the CIA World Factbook. Check it out yo. France Purchasing Power Parity - 1.661 trillion GDP real growth rate .5% GDP per capitda $27,600 Unemployment 9.7% Inflation 2.1% United States Purchasing Power Parity - 10.99 trillion GDP real growth rate 3.1% GDP per capitda $37,800 Unemployment 6.0% Inflation 2.3% Wow. France is sooo much better

What Tyler said about the debt (not the deflating dollar, which actually helps us) is right. That's what threatens us the most. As for quarterly fluctuations in the numbers...hooo hum. Still trending upward people. I'll be back later on for more. Right now, I've been ReKKKruited to bash some French guy in another folder

If his name is John Locke, that just opens up a whole number of possibilities for his character. myself, I'd like them to find a Dunne. Now that, would work perfect

Any change to the tax code would hurt some and help others. So really, the bolded stuff from the article just seems like Cpt. Obvious or something. Yay. Woohoo. We all know this isn't happening.

2 offices down from mine is an economist who belongs to the UCC (in fact, he's in seminary. The UCC wasn't really trying to hardnose other churches, it seems in what I've gathered talking with him. They're just trying to protect/project their own image =)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~! I'll be travelling that day. No, I don't think we'll post it that day, We'll say its live on the 26th, but likely posted 27th or 28th

No worries, I'll just save the blog. Note: I AM JOKING~!

Hi. I'm currently searching for someone who needs a feud...Anyone? I've got to get SJ back up and running, and I'm finally done with this freaking Master's degree. First come, first served!

i know the blog with Marney, I'm supposed to get my ass in gear and write for it too lol hey pp, when are we going to start our column?

Wrong...Wrong... The economy was in shambles throughout Roose's first term. His new deal policies did nothing economically of any worth. What Roose contributed was his charisma, he convinced the public they would work, and expectations matter, which allowed things to be not as bad as they were. The ramping up of the war engine was the only thing that pulled the US out of it. Central planning (aka the queue system) never is an efficient or good solution to any problem.

Yeah, you are. Excellent effort you guys