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phoenix1 wrote:QUOTE (phoenix1 @ Dec 3 2018, 06:23 PM) Also, I'm not going to touch "fiscally responsible" with a 10-foot pole because you strike me as the kind of person who considers the Mars probes a waste of money.

how to spend a government's money is up to the opinion of its citizens. "fiscal responsibility" here probably refers to governments not spending more than they can afford, which is a very valid opinion. although even that is a more nuanced term than most people realize, as sometimes it makes economic sense to borrow money - as in during periods of slow growth and low interest rates.

Terran wrote:QUOTE (Terran @ Dec 3 2018, 09:32 PM) how to spend a government's money is up to the opinion of its citizens. "fiscal responsibility" here probably refers to governments not spending more than they can afford, which is a very valid opinion. although even that is a more nuanced term than most people realize, as sometimes it makes economic sense to borrow money - as in during periods of slow growth and low interest rates.

The Laffer curve is irrelevant in practice in democracies. Voters tend to eject high-tax politicians long before taxes get high enough to have Laffer effects.


You might also be interested in Modern Monetary Theory - it's a newish way of looking at macro monetary policy - government can spend as much as it wants as long as inflation is kept in check, and inflation is countered either through taxes to soak up extra money, or less government spending. Government debt basically doesn't matter as long as the total interest paid is a low proportion of total expenses. This doesn't mean you can just spend whatever you want, but it does mean that relatively small deficits forever aren't too bad, assuming you leave room for countercyclical policy


Canada and the US (and some parts of Europe) could tax and spend a lot more than they currently do without those taxes having much negative impact on day to day life aside from perception and some nonessential consumption reduction. Not that they necessarily should, but they could.

It seems macron is suspending the tax. I guess civil unrest is more important than climate change at the moment.

I've heard that Marcon is a somewhat bad HoS whose saving grace is that he's in power at the same time as the all-time heavyweight champion of bad HoS.

LANS wrote:QUOTE (LANS @ Dec 3 2018, 10:18 PM) The Laffer curve is irrelevant in practice in democracies. Voters tend to eject high-tax politicians long before taxes get high enough to have Laffer effects.


You might also be interested in Modern Monetary Theory - it's a newish way of looking at macro monetary policy - government can spend as much as it wants as long as inflation is kept in check, and inflation is countered either through taxes to soak up extra money, or less government spending. Government debt basically doesn't matter as long as the total interest paid is a low proportion of total expenses. This doesn't mean you can just spend whatever you want, but it does mean that relatively small deficits forever aren't too bad, assuming you leave room for countercyclical policy


Canada and the US (and some parts of Europe) could tax and spend a lot more than they currently do without those taxes having much negative impact on day to day life aside from perception and some nonessential consumption reduction. Not that they necessarily should, but they could.

i'm very skeptical of learning macroeconomic policy from someone who fails to mention federal interest rates when trying to explain inflation.

government debt doesn't matter as long as servicing the debt is manageable? and could you also please confirm that water is wet? seriously how is this "Modern Monetary Theory" different from common sense?

Mueller flipped Flynn like a pancake.

cashto wrote:QUOTE (cashto @ Dec 4 2018, 10:52 PM) Mueller flipped Flynn like a pancake.

No idea what happened, can you provide a link?

Papsmear wrote:QUOTE (Papsmear @ Dec 5 2018, 09:22 AM) No idea what happened, can you provide a link?

Reddit Discussion

SCO Memo

Heavily Redacted Addendum

Thank you Ryujin

Stayed with my (not "liberal" or "progressive") Clinton-democrat uncle for a couple days while on vacation, At the same time that romaine was recalled for E. coli contamination nationwide, and we were complaining about all the spam calls/spoofed calls we've been getting lately - both of which he said were products of republican deregulation of the farming/telecommunications industry. other things of discussion were the central american caravan and how this was also caused by trump eliminating their jobs.

are these claims tied to anything tangible. I haven't really been following current events.

because I sometimes struggle to take seriously my uncle - 4.0 at Devry whose career involved high security clearance pushing a crew building satellites for the military and such - who honestly believes that everything the Clintons have ever done is great, no government conspiracies exist or have ever existed, everything the Democrats do is perfect, everything any republican has done is terrible, and it's actually a republican conspiracy that has caused people to be distrustful of the mainstream media, because mainstream media never lies. unless it's about the clintons. and neither does the government lie. or any democrat. ever. oh my god.