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Agree 100%. It’s frowned upon to talk about this as a generational thing, but it very much is. Debt is the instrument to have now and pay later, and the debt

by poof131 11y ago

Agree 100%. It’s frowned upon to talk about this as a generational thing, but it very much is. Debt is the instrument to have now and pay later, and the debt burden is rampant everywhere. Modern economics has essentially disregarded the role of debt in the economy.[1] All our government institutions seem hell bent on maintaining asset prices at any cost.[2] There’s no sensible plan to even remotely reign in government debt. The world’s stuck at zero percent interest rates, handing out money to the politically connected, and growth is still anemic. Even at low rates people can hardly afford to buy anything since asset prices are so inflated. I would like to believe we can deal with this in a reasonable fashion, but am skeptical. As can already be seen by the U.S. elections and elsewhere, populism is rearing it’s head on both the left and the right. It feels like a storm is on the horizon and I only hope it doesn’t devolve into war. [1] http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/ignoring-the-role-of-private-debt-in-an-economy-is-like-driving-without-accounting-for-your-blind-spot/ http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/ignoring-the-role-o... [2] http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/ignoring-the-role-of-private-debt-in-an-economy-is-like-driving-without-accounting-for-your-blind-spot/ http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/ignoring-the-role-o...

spangry 11y ago
Pretty much spot on, on every point. I've been starting to worry about the whole 'war' possibility as well. We might find out about the latter in a couple of weeks when the Saudis and about 10 other allies conduct massive 'training exercises' on the Syrian border. On the bright-side, even the most conventional institutional macro-economists are finally acknowledging these problems: http://www.bis.org/speeches/sp160210_slides.pdf http://www.bis.org/speeches/sp160210_slides.pdf FYI the Bank of International Settlements is 'the Central Bankers' Bank', and the slides are from a speech given by its 'Head of Monetary and Economic Department'. The last dot point on the 'summary' slide (#2) really jumps out: "Need to abandon debt-fuelled growth model"

by poof131 11y ago

spangry 11y ago

Pretty much spot on, on every point. I've been starting to worry about the whole 'war' possibility as well. We might find out about the latter in a couple of weeks when the Saudis and about 10 other allies conduct massive 'training exercises' on the Syrian border. On the bright-side, even the most conventional institutional macro-economists are finally acknowledging these problems: http://www.bis.org/speeches/sp160210_slides.pdf http://www.bis.org/speeches/sp160210_slides.pdf FYI the Bank of International Settlements is 'the Central Bankers' Bank', and the slides are from a speech given by its 'Head of Monetary and Economic Department'. The last dot point on the 'summary' slide (#2) really jumps out: "Need to abandon debt-fuelled growth model"