The authors themselves state that there is a direct link between the Great Depression and deflation. They then go on to say that besides that unfortunate link, there is only a small connection between the two.

Anyways, like I said, not necessarily titans of the field. They have a few grants, most university PhD's get those now and then.

Also, I wouldn't go around saying that the linked article is a report from the Fed. As best I can tell it was a research paper with one of the authors being employed by the Fed at the time, not an officially accepted Fed position.

Thinking outside the box is fine, just as long as it's not just for the sake of thinking outside the box.

>> ^JiggaJonson:

quality Hitchens
When Sartre died, the French people said "We have lost our compass." I worry that when Hitchens dies I will feel the same sense of loss. So often am I in awe of the clarity of his thinking, that I become invigorated and excited about even topics I feel I already know a great deal about. Often times though, sometimes for no other reason, I like watching those on the bad side of logic get hit with the whips of a quality argument and I know Hitchens will deliver.
Christopher Hitchens, if you're out there reading this, you've been a compass to me and I will miss you terribly.


Way to go with that positive thinking...
He's not dead yet!

>> ^Sigh:

look another MMO to fail against WoW!


Well there's some positive thinking... =)

One would hope they are just trying to make a fun game as opposed to competing with wow (think DDOU which doesn't really borrow from wow much at all and has become relatively successful).

Let's talk about "miracles" and "prayer" a second...

You know Lourdes? That place in France where people go on a pilgramige to be healed? Did you know that statistically you have LESS of a chance to be healed "miraculously" if you go to Lourdes than if you don't?

The reality is that people DO go into remission naturally without the aid of prayed or god or faith or anything. The illogical assumption here is that treatment is necessary for someone to get better from something serious. The second illogical assumption is that if someone gets better, it must be because of god.

The reason miracles SEEM "miraculous" is because they are EXTREMELY RARE.

Now you tell me, which is more likely: that a person got better out of a rare case where their body was able to fight off something usually fatal and this hardly ever happens, or that a magical guy in the shy (and again, we have to take into account WHICH magical guy in the sky is "right") used unseen, unknown, and unprovable/unmeasurable forces to cure someone?

And before anyone goes down the path of "prayer helps because of the psychological effects of positive thinking..." GUESS AGAIN. Statistics have shown that positive thinking and such have no effect on getting better. You are just as likely to die if you think positive than if you don't.

http://www.livescience.com/health/080829-happy-thoughts.html

Here's a nice snippit:

"However, when Coyne and other researchers tried to intercede and treat depression among heart attack patients, they found the patient's moods improved, but the rates of second heart attack didn't. Ironically, Coyne said, the most evidence for emotion affecting health actually favors negative emotions, not positive ones. For instance, he said, we know anger and depression are correlated with having a second heart attack, however, what's unproven is whether being positive can reduce the risk."

Stress can make you get ill, but happy happy Jesus isn't going to do shit for you.

>> ^burdturgler:
This definition of homeopathy is part of the problem. Who made that definition? I hope it wasn't the people who approved Fen-Phen et al. I truly wish for you that you never have a family member go to a cancer treatment center because the first thing they start prescribing is "positive thinking" and other "homeopathic" treatments. Many of which have profound effect on the outcome of their patients. Yes, get chemo, of course! Do whatever you have to do .. but don't count out the power of your own mind and body to fight disease. Homeopathy is a lot more than watered down drugs.


Wow, a new level in stupidity. Instead of just looking it up you continue to argue what you know nothing about. Who made that definition you ask? Well, it was the inventor of homeopathy, Samuel Hahneman. HE INVENTED HOMEOPATHY! It is defined as: A system for treating disease based on the administration of minute doses of a drug that in massive amounts produces symptoms in healthy individuals similar to those of the disease itself.

There is no alternative definition.

Positive thinking and placebo do have an effect on the body, that is undisputed. THAT IS NOT HOMEOPATHY and that has nothing to do with homeopathy. Homeopathy is a very specific practice, it is NOT a catch-all word for "positive thinking" or any "new age" treatments.

Do your research. Stop being stupid.

>> ^Skeeve:
The people here who are defending homeopathy obviously do not understand what homeopathy is. A solution prepared under homeopathic guidelines has one part of the "curative" substance to 10^20th water or more. I say again: the active ingredient is one in 10 to the 20th power OR MORE. 1:1000000000000000000000. The chance that there is a single molecule of the "curative" substance in the "medicine" is absolutely astronomical. Homeopathy is a scam and has no effects whatsoever.


This definition of homeopathy is part of the problem. Who made that definition? I hope it wasn't the people who approved Fen-Phen et al. I truly wish for you that you never have a family member go to a cancer treatment center because the first thing they start prescribing is "positive thinking" and other "homeopathic" treatments. Many of which have profound effect on the outcome of their patients. Yes, get chemo, of course! Do whatever you have to do .. but don't count out the power of your own mind and body to fight disease. Homeopathy is a lot more than watered down drugs.

Personality and positive thinking will only get you so far. After that... you will need a really big dong.

Not even putting forth the effort to capitalize words at the beginning of your sentences makes you look as dumb as you sound.
Maybe there's a "placedo" for that.

>> ^imstellar28:
the placedo effect is great, when you aren't terminally ill. try giving someone with a gangrene leg infection a sugar pill, and report back in 2 weeks.
yeah. obama sounds good, feels good, maybe even looks good. but your leg is still infected and positive thinking ain't gonna help. you can chant "yes we can" till your blue in the face and your leg falls off.

the placebo effect is great, when you aren't terminally ill. try giving someone with a gangrene leg infection a sugar pill, and report back in 2 weeks.

yeah. obama sounds good, feels good, maybe even looks good. but your leg is still infected and positive thinking ain't gonna help. you can chant "yes we can" till your blue in the face and your leg falls off.

yah people who say that dont know what scince is. scince is not a belife in something. science is a methodology that allows us to discover what is the most likely resin for the way things behave in reality. if it turned out that thinking posative actualy helped in fire working then by applying a scientific methodology to it u could work out why positive thinking helps. in this instance positive thinking dose not make anny difference whats so ever in terms of if your feet burn or not because its down to conductivity.

what this clip dose show is that people love to be ignorant retards at times.

you could still not bullshit with mystic stuff and have the same exsorsize work as a confidence boulder.

I simply detest this woman, her video and her goddamn book.

Nothing what she says is a secret, it's common sense that has existed for eons. If it was called "Positive Thinking For the Win" no one would have bought the book, but it's called the Secret and sold off as being some ancient texts and rubbish like that becuase it's the same rehashed story you can find in Self-Help texts dating back to the 19th century.

It's just so vapidly stupid... Her entire case is that if you think about it hard enough it will happen? Oh yeah? Tell that to the people in Darfur or Iraq am sure they can just wish all the death and violence away.

Oh I found something that does a much better job...

Karin Klein, editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times, called The Secret "just a new spin on the very old (and decidedly not secret) The Power of Positive Thinking [book by Norman Vincent Peale (1952)] wedded to 'ask and you shall receive'." The editorial, in one of its strongest criticisms, asserted Rhonda Byrne "took the well-worn ideas of some self-help gurus, customized them for the profoundly lazy, [and] gave them a veneer of mysticism..."

Journalist Jeffrey Ressner, reporting in Time, writes that some critics are concerned with the film’s attitude toward "using ancient wisdom to acquire material goods." In one example in the film, "a kid who wants a red BMX bicycle cuts out a picture in a catalog, concentrates real hard, and is rewarded with the spiffy two-wheeler."

Jerry Adler of Newsweek notes that despite the film's allusions to conspiratorially suppressed ancient wisdom, the notions presented by the motivational speakers who make up the film's cast have been commonplace for decades. Adler notes that the film is ethically "deplorable," fixating on "a narrow range of middle-class concerns — houses, cars, vacations, followed by health and relationships, with the rest of humanity a very distant sixth." Noting that the scientific foundations of the movie are clearly dubious, the Newsweek article quotes psychologist John Norcross, characterizing it as "pseudoscientific, psychospiritual babble."

Tony Riazzi, columnist for the Dayton Daily News, also questions the merits of The Secret, calling Byrne's background as a reality TV producer a "red flag." He also said that "The Secret's" ideas are nothing more than "common sense. Take out the buzzwords and pseudo religious nonsense about what you 'manifest' for yourself, ignore the vague prose and you get the message that thinking positively serves you better than thinking negatively."

Ok...I wouldn't count on The Secret for curing my cancer (if I had it), but positive thinking definitely works wonders. There's a book out and people are jumping on the bandwagon. This type of thought process can be beneficial...My parents taught me this theory a long time ago. Professionally I've taught classes on Emotional Intelligence, alot of this stuff really holds true: You are only as good as you think you are, create positive energy, avoid the negative. Visualize success to make it happen...

I see many upvotes.