4 ms·

Get the government to finance public projects?

by thepangolino 7y ago

turbinerneiter 7y ago
Heresy.
polotics 7y ago
Roads bridges and tunnels to nowhere? Ghost cities Chinese style? There's no room for that in Switzerland!
sschueller 7y ago
The Swiss government is already financing a lot of public projects.
- tonyedgecombe 7y ago
  By developed country standards Swiss taxation and government spending is quite low. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_to_GDP_ratio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_reven...
lrem 7y ago
I'm having a hard time thinking of any more projects that are not funded yet and still make sense.
- RobertoG 7y ago
  At least that all the citizens live in a perfect paradise, that shows a really lack of imagination. Even, if ideologically you are against spending the citizens money in the citizens, there are always things like basic research programs. The world could do with a few Manhattan Projects for batteries or cultured meat to help with the CO2 emissions, another spacial program or many other things.
  - lrem 7y ago
    Not perfect, but everything seems to be already on the verge of diminishing returns. The only underprovisioned aspect is daycare, but that's a societal, not budgetary problem. To the main point, yes, I didn't think of research. It definitely makes sense to pour all surplus resources into it and it won't collapse the order. Now I'm curious why is it not being done.
    - cinquemb 7y ago
      >Not perfect, but everything seems to be already on the verge of diminishing returns. Very true, for example there are about ~2060 (2026 are trading above par by about %11 on avg, as of 22-08-2019) IG bonds tracked by LQD ETF with the avg maturity date of 2023-05-04, that effectively (subtracting/adding avg % of each bond trading above/below par value from its interest rate when written) yields %0.12, negative if you subtract off "risk free" rate of a UST with a 3-5 year maturity. > Now I'm curious why is it not being done. My take: Plenty of government money already goes into research, the problem is that the process of allocation today follows the opaque prestige grant funding hamster wheel process with cronyistic characteristics, and not say "cash drop" to anyone who can post sub 5 page action plan for x funds on what outcomes/targets/objectives could happen from research to a public repo that tracks said research/ fund allocation through the life-cycle (where "[future] rights" on said repos could be bought and sold by various actors with contract conditionality such that %x of transactions are used to fund y initiatives).
fauigerzigerk 7y ago
Large public works projects are great if you have mass unemployment and generally a lot of slack in the economy. The Swiss unemployment rate is 2.3%. I doubt there are many qualified electricians, plumbers, civil engineers or brick layers among them.
- petre 7y ago
  They could import temporary workers EU with 5y work visas.
  - fauigerzigerk 7y ago
    EU nationals have a right to work in Switzerland anyway, but there simply isn't a huge pool of unemployed, well educated and ready to move engineers and craftsmen anywhere in Europe. Even if these workers were available, I doubt that bringing them in would have much effect on exchange rates. Changing money supply proportional to the size of the population shouldn't do much, but correct me if I'm wrong. Migration certainly has a lot of benefits, but I don't think it's the right tool to manage exchange rates. Peoples' lives are less flexible than short term market gyrations.

Get the government to finance public projects?

turbinerneiter 7y ago

Heresy.

polotics 7y ago

Roads bridges and tunnels to nowhere? Ghost cities Chinese style? There's no room for that in Switzerland!

sschueller 7y ago

The Swiss government is already financing a lot of public projects.

tonyedgecombe 7y ago
By developed country standards Swiss taxation and government spending is quite low. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_to_GDP_ratio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_reven...

lrem 7y ago

I'm having a hard time thinking of any more projects that are not funded yet and still make sense.

RobertoG 7y ago
At least that all the citizens live in a perfect paradise, that shows a really lack of imagination. Even, if ideologically you are against spending the citizens money in the citizens, there are always things like basic research programs. The world could do with a few Manhattan Projects for batteries or cultured meat to help with the CO2 emissions, another spacial program or many other things.
- lrem 7y ago
  Not perfect, but everything seems to be already on the verge of diminishing returns. The only underprovisioned aspect is daycare, but that's a societal, not budgetary problem. To the main point, yes, I didn't think of research. It definitely makes sense to pour all surplus resources into it and it won't collapse the order. Now I'm curious why is it not being done.
  - cinquemb 7y ago
    >Not perfect, but everything seems to be already on the verge of diminishing returns. Very true, for example there are about ~2060 (2026 are trading above par by about %11 on avg, as of 22-08-2019) IG bonds tracked by LQD ETF with the avg maturity date of 2023-05-04, that effectively (subtracting/adding avg % of each bond trading above/below par value from its interest rate when written) yields %0.12, negative if you subtract off "risk free" rate of a UST with a 3-5 year maturity. > Now I'm curious why is it not being done. My take: Plenty of government money already goes into research, the problem is that the process of allocation today follows the opaque prestige grant funding hamster wheel process with cronyistic characteristics, and not say "cash drop" to anyone who can post sub 5 page action plan for x funds on what outcomes/targets/objectives could happen from research to a public repo that tracks said research/ fund allocation through the life-cycle (where "[future] rights" on said repos could be bought and sold by various actors with contract conditionality such that %x of transactions are used to fund y initiatives).

fauigerzigerk 7y ago

Large public works projects are great if you have mass unemployment and generally a lot of slack in the economy. The Swiss unemployment rate is 2.3%. I doubt there are many qualified electricians, plumbers, civil engineers or brick layers among them.

petre 7y ago
They could import temporary workers EU with 5y work visas.
- fauigerzigerk 7y ago
  EU nationals have a right to work in Switzerland anyway, but there simply isn't a huge pool of unemployed, well educated and ready to move engineers and craftsmen anywhere in Europe. Even if these workers were available, I doubt that bringing them in would have much effect on exchange rates. Changing money supply proportional to the size of the population shouldn't do much, but correct me if I'm wrong. Migration certainly has a lot of benefits, but I don't think it's the right tool to manage exchange rates. Peoples' lives are less flexible than short term market gyrations.