Man, so many weird arguments in this thread. I'm just going to pick and choose a few of the worst
Mad Max RW said:
If Romney had won we would still see hyper inflation. One way or another it's happening.
No it's not. The dollar is about the most stable coin in the world right now, and investors are begging you to print more money. Being scared of hyperinflation is insane - there's not a single piece of evidence that suggests hyperinflation is likely. In fact, inflation has remained modest throughout the recession (and deflation occurred early in the recession). This pathological fear of inflation is completely irrational.
By the way, one of the effects of inflation would be to discount private debt, which would be kind of useful in an economy where private debt is a massive issue. It would also incentivize capital to actually start investing - you know, a good thing. And that's the whole point of QE3: to signal that they're not just pumping money into the economy now, but will continue to do so. Signalling to investors that now is the time to start investing, and that they won't get screwed by a sudden change in policy once the recession is over.
But to expect hyperinflation? Dogmatic Austrian economists have been arguing that hyperinflation is JUST AROUND THE CORNER for about four years on end now (and in general for much longer). Instead, inflation has remained very modest. That theory has been disproven repeatedly by actual world events. Yet the completely irrational fear persists.
Want another example of the benefits of inflation? Greece and Spain would benefit highly from being able to manage their own currency separately from the Euro, and are actually hurting specifically because they cannot let their currency inflate. But hey, the real danger is inflation, right?
Not to mention that tying all of this to Obama's administration is faulty when basically economic policy has to go through Congress, where Republicans have successfully and consistently opposed most of Obama's economic policies. The exception? Early-recession policies, which have almost universally been successful (the bank and auto-bailout, most notably, have both been great successes).
Similarly, this pathological fear of debt is entirely irrational. The US can borrow almost at a profit right now, because it's the most stable coin in the world. Borrowing money would be very useful: stimulating the economy to get it out of a recession more quickly (like the American Jobs Act would have done - oh whoops, killed by Republicans). Sovereign debt is not a huge issue for countries. Yes, Greece is having issues with its debt - but Greece has many, many more issues than just sovereign debt which created the crisis. Spain's main issue is private, not sovereign debt. And both the Spanish and Greek economy were and are much, much worse off than the American economy.
Seriously, all of this stuff is (macro)Econ 101, yet I see people repeat nonsense like "hyperinflation" over and over again. Austrian economics have been debunked over and over again, guys. Let go of that crack pipe.
TheWesDude said:
3) raised taxes on the lower and middle class ( obama care ) for those who cannot afford private health insurance and do not get it from their company
You mean "made insurance affordable for those who could not afford it before".
Ilosar said:
The thing is, austerity is incredibly unpopular and doesn't really work all the time.
Or ever, for that matter. It didn't work in the 1930s and it hasn't worked the past five years, but hey, keep tolling that austerity bell, UK!
Mad Max RW said:
This is exactly the root of the problem. The day after we went off the gold standard in the 1970s we set ourselves up for a huge fall decades later. Look what China is doing today. They are buying up all the world's precious metals because they know what is coming. Similarly, Governor Rick Perry of Texas is calling in all of his state's gold supply held in New York and is stockpiling it in their own bank. Last year they bought more than $1 billion in gold bars.
Ahahahahahahahahahahahhahhahaha no.
You do realize that gold is just another currency, right? It has no practical value, and its value stems solely from the fact that people have agreed among each other that it should be valuable. It is, effectively, money -- and a gold standard is hence nothing more than an arbitrary pegging of money to money.
What exactly do you think the effect of having a gold standard in place would be now? Would the housing crisis have been avoided? Would banks not have been able to create complicated derivatives and create massive bets to destabilize the system? Would the massive debts people have accumulated be somehow better because they're fixed in gold?
Of course not! The gold standard does nothing except limit the flexibility of central economic policy. That is a bad thing. In fact, we've seen massively high inflation rates in the past despite the existence of gold standards. Nixon eliminating the last vestiges of the gold standard was a RESPONSE to high inflation, because he couldn't combat it while on the gold standard. But sure, the lack of a gold standard is the cause of the problem and will totally lead to more inflation.
Mad Max RW said:
Did you ever wonder *why* it costs so much here? It's a combination of sky rocketing school tuition and hospitals settling bogus lawsuits. Then you have to look up why tuition is so high and why so many hospitals are being sued constantly.
The main reason health insurance is so costly is very, very simple: adverse selection.
In addition, healthcare costs rise because of a lack of insurance. It causes people to go in and out of care with temporary measures, rather than seeing the root cause fixed early, hence avoiding long-term costs. There's also the fact that hospitals have to negotiate with insurers on an individual basis, which adds a gigantic amount of overhead for hospitals while also removing any leverage advantages of scale they would have. This is neatly demonstrated by the Affordable Care Act, which produced large savings by negotiating with insurers directly.
Lawsuits are an issue, sure. The solution to that issue, however, is NOT tort reform, which is incredibly damaging to the system. Tort reform would curb damages - but it also curbs punitive damages. When your company can only be fined $250,000 for violations that bring them a massive profit, well, guess what? They're not going to stop doing shit. And that has huge implications beyond the health care industry.
The Affordable Care Act won't fix all of that, but it's a damn sight better than what was in place before.
. whether it be consumer debt, or heady consumables.
