>> ^blankfist:

@NetRunner, what's stimulus money got to do with money supply? Are you serious? You must be trolling. For the benefit of others, I'll answer that question:
The Treasury Department borrows the money from the Federal Reserve. This money is printed new and is NOT already in circulation. So, once those trillions get circulated into the economy, what happens? It inflates the money supply. Presto!

Are you serious? You must be trolling. For the benefit of others, I'll correct you.

The Treasury Department borrows the money by selling Treasury bonds on the open market. Domestic investors and banks buy most of it, a big chunk of it is bought by other governments. Some might be purchased by the Fed using freshly printed money, but that's entirely based on what the Fed wants to do with the money supply, and has nothing to do with whether we did stimulus or not.

Not to mention, even if the Fed prints money and buys a treasury, there's no guarantee the buyer won't just hold the dollars as a reserve of some sort, and keep it out of circulation.

>> ^blankfist:
And you asked what happens to wages during inflation? Well, I don't know

An honest answer. Too bad you kept writing...

>> ^blankfist:
[L]et's look at history, shall we? There are plenty of examples in history (Rome, Germany, Yugoslavia), but let's look at Zimbabwe in the 2000s because it's really easy to google. According to wikipedia, Zimbabwe's "annual inflation was estimated at 6.5 quindecillion novemdecillion percent (6.5 x 10108%, the equivalent of 6 quinquatrigintillion 500 quattuortrigintillion percent, or 65 followed by 107 zeros – 650 million googol percent)."

Yes, inflation can happen. But looking at nominal price levels alone doesn't answer why inflation is bad.

>> ^blankfist:
But that's fine, right? Because they just increased the wages and everyone went back to happy Krugman land and ate marshmallows and played with bunnies. Oh no, that didn't happen at all, did it? No. In the end the Zimbabwean Dollar was destroyed, and the people were forced to adopt foreign currencies.

Well here's the thing, have you actually looked at what's happened to the wage level in Zimbabwe? Is the problem that wages never increased at all, and that inflation meant no one had any purchasing power at all?

Or was it something a little more esoteric like a collapse of market confidence that really buggered them?

>> ^blankfist:
It's not as easy to fix as "putting upward pressure on wages". In fact, the people who are first impacted are the people on the bottom, because ALL (and I mean absolutely ALL) inflation enriches the government first, the big businesses with government contracts second, the rich third, and ultimately it's the poor and retired who suffer through the adjustment phase.

Again, you're hamstrung by not actually understanding the underlying economic principles. If the main issue with inflation was really this confiscatory debasement you're talking about, then that would in large part be fixed by greater wage flexibility.

>> ^blankfist:
And what of the people with savings? Are you so willing to write them off with a big dildo shoved up their asses, because they're not currently "earning" a wage? What of those people who saved and saved because that's what society told them was prudent for their retirement? What does your precious Krugman messiah say of the grandmothers and grandfathers who see their savings diminish while their social security payments play catch up with the current cost of living changes?

The answer there is that inflation screws people with large amounts of liquid money (the rich), and helps people with debt (the not-so-rich), while making holding assets look more promising than holding cash in any form. People who saved for retirement by stuffing $100 bills into their mattress get screwed. People who put their money in a savings account may get screwed if the bank doesn't offer them competitive interest rates. People who invested in a mix of stocks and bonds will see those stocks go up in nominal value, while the bonds will likely become worthless (depends on the exact terms though).

People who rely on Social Security will be fine, so long as a) wages as a whole go up with inflation, and b) conservative morons don't come in and cut the COLA below inflation for no reason. It's part of why anyone who wants to privatize Social Security is pretty much a fuckwad.

In the end, the negative effects of stable but high (~10% or so) inflation wouldn't be so bad. There's basically no downside to inflation around 2-4%. And by the way, we're sitting somewhere around 1% right now, with not even the remotest hint of hyperinflation.

The only way for us to really trigger hyperinflation right now is if conservatives follow through on threats to make the US go into default on its debt. But that won't be hyperinflation because of the Fed printing money, it'll be because conservatives will have trashed our nation's credit rating because they're stupid.

While you can't improve your odds of winning a typical number-draw lottery, you can improve the chances of getting a higher prize _if_ you win. UK National Lottery has given me 2 wins with 4 numbers, on one occasion netting a rather low £24 and on the other occasion £140. It comes down to how many people the prize fund is shared amongst (keeping it simple here, there's also the given number of participants for any draw), since many people use birthdays you can surmise that numbers 1 to 12 are popular picks, and 13 to 31 are also commonly selected. Pick higher numbers if you're a greedy bugger, paid off for my second win

Well done the catholic church, do the Ugandans not wonder that the people who spread the catholic religion to them are the people have committed a massive amount of crime against children, homosexual priests buggering children for centuries. The irony is insane.

@Hive13 says it... it's NOT THEIR FRICKEN HOLIDAY. This bullshit of 'Christmas is because of the birth of Christ' is utter, utter rubbish. The bible makes NO MENTION AT ALL as to the date of the birth of Jesus, it's a Pagan festival, f*ck off Christians with your f*cking holier than though attitude, and the 'meaning of Christmas'. F*ck you whole fricken heartedly.

I LOVE Christmas, it is my favourite time of year. The decorations, the music, the food, the gatherings with family. The magic of Santa with the kids... It is a truly wonderful time. And anyone should be more than free to attach whatever importance they want to the period. And Christians can bugger off with this 'It's our holiday, and if you're celebrating it, then you are celebrating the birth of Jesus'. No we're not, we're celebrating the MUCH more important things of Family, Friends, Joy, Peace, and all round good will.

THAT is what christmas should be about, Peace on Earth and Good Will to All Men. No religion, no preaching, just happiness and magic.

*isdupe bugger. oh well!

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

Just add LCD and you have days of excitement.


CRT is my drug of choice.

Also wow, the intensity really picked up towards the end. Sounded exactly like the first evolution you have in the game Space Invaders Infinity Gene for the iPhone. They probably used one of these buggers for that sound effect.

*isdupe bugger. oh well!

>> ^NicoleBee:
Bumblebee is made out of paper, apparently
Now they have to make an incompetent autobot K-9 truck tertiary character to ruin everything in the movie!


Did sweet bugger all to the Suburban.

piss shit fuck bugger shittytitfuck!

*isdupe

>> ^quantumushroom:

Catholics are an easy PC-approved target for these folks and the left in general. Boys were being buggered by criminally mental defectives, not "in the name of the Catholic Church."
Remember the hypocrisy: a "small" group of jihadists <snip...>
Don't miss the forest for the trees.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Catholics are an easy PC-approved target for these folks and the left in general. Boys were being buggered by criminally mental defectives, not "in the name of the Catholic Church."
Remember the hypocrisy: a "small" group of jihadists continue their worldwide assaults and we're told they are not a part of islam while a small group of criminal priests = blanket condemnation of the world's one billion Catholics.
Meanwhile... Revealed: UK’s first official sharia courts


I think the concern here is more the orchestrated coverup extending to the highest levels of the catholic hierarchy. I don't think anyone has a problem with practitioners of catholicism. Further, Islam has by no means escaped atheists' censure.

Catholics are an easy PC-approved target for these folks and the left in general. Boys were being buggered by criminally mental defectives, not "in the name of the Catholic Church."

Remember the hypocrisy: a "small" group of jihadists continue their worldwide assaults and we're told they are not a part of islam while a small group of criminal priests = blanket condemnation of the world's one billion Catholics.

Meanwhile... Revealed: UK’s first official sharia courts

It's not my task to convince you that God does or does not exist.

There are likely millions of people on this planet that would deny the existence of God even if God appeared before them.

But the militant atheist, who denies that ANY good has come from religion is, IMO, intellectually dishonest, ignorant of history, or both.

In this age, subversives have made it fashionable to bash the world's one billion Catholics while giving the world's 1.5 billion muslims a free pass.


>> ^honkeytonk73:

What has God done to eradicate homelessness, disease, suffering, starvation? He could snap his magical fingers and poof it is gone! But.. the more logical answer is.. he has done nothing because he doesn't exist. Or one could say. "He created homelessness, disease, suffering, and starvation." Probably to make some sort of illogical point that we can't quite articulate, because of his "Mysterious ways" or some such bunk. The "mysterious ways" argument essentially translates into "I don't know, nor do I care to find out why because I lack any capacity to reason. Any instinct to question as a result been subdued out of a fear of ending up in some sort of subterranean firey underworld for an eternity... hosted by rather unfriendly horned red-skinned demons that bugger the local denizens. Very much like Catholic priests in a dark sauna with choir boys.

What has God done to eradicate homelessness, disease, suffering, starvation? He could snap his magical fingers and *poof* it is gone! But.. the more logical answer is.. he has done nothing because he doesn't exist. Or one could say. "He created homelessness, disease, suffering, and starvation." Probably to make some sort of illogical point that we can't quite articulate, because of his "Mysterious ways" or some such bunk. The "mysterious ways" argument essentially translates into "I don't know, nor do I care to find out why because I lack any capacity to reason. Any instinct to question as a result been subdued out of a fear of ending up in some sort of subterranean firey underworld for an eternity... hosted by rather unfriendly horned red-skinned demons that bugger the local denizens. Very much like Catholic priests in a dark sauna with choir boys.

>> ^quantumushroom:

I spent half the day at a tent camp for homeless folks, numbering in the 100s.
Monies to support them came all the way from the Vatican. What has the 'atheist charity society' done lately?
>> ^honkeytonk73:
>> ^kymbos:
Man, what is it with America and book burning?

Its a long established religious tradition.. inspired from the likes of the Roman Catholic Church during the Inquisition and the Dark Ages. Of course, no religion is excluded to participate! Enjoy the burning!

I'm willing to bet this was a dancer getting some type of head shots or promo shots done. If they had a permit, they could tell the guy to bugger off, but it looks like they were doing it pseudo guerilla style. Let this be a lesson to all photographers, find out the photo laws where you're shooting, and get permits, so you can boot dicks like that out!

No permits = the guy is a creepy goober, but has as much legal right to be there than you do.