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I thought that WTF happened in 1971[0] is what continues to wipe out America's pay raises. Whilst the base of most arguments is the collapse of the Bretton-Woo

• imtringued 5y ago
  Everyone who wants the best for the world knew that the bretton woods system was flawed the day it was created. The idea that it shouldn't have collapsed is completely alien to me. I had to chuckle at this: >“Austrian economics is really just trying to dispel the logical fallacies inherent in Keynesian logic, starting at first principles and then building you way up from there,” says Prentice Keynesian economics is about maintaining the current money system, a system of logical fallacies. Any logical fallacies inherent in Keynesian logic only exist to make a logically incoherent system work. So yeah Austrian economists get to feel smart for criticizing the Keynesians that try to keep the leaky plumbing working. Meanwhile the Austrians argue for their own brand of leaky plumbing but this time with smaller pipes and tell you that if the pipes burst or the pipes leak half their water that is perfectly fine. If one truly were against Keynesian intervention then you would try to find pipes that aren't leaky. It would obsolete the need for both ideologies.
• rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
  I wouldn't take the page too seriously: it's more of a silly meme than anything. It's kind of a hyperventilating, pseudo-schizophrenic conspiracy theory rant about how the government is printing too much money how should go back to the gold standard, but it does show that a ton of stuff changed in big ways in the 70s that may have contributed to The Great Decoupling [1] (wages decoupling from productivity gains). While this page emphasizes the big macroeconomic changes and the changes to global banking, a greater contributor was probably the massive socio-political changes of the early 70s: - Unions saw their power begin to erode (leading to less bargaining power for workers) - Women entered the workforce en masse (households with dual incomes may be willing to put up with lower individual salaries if they still come out ahead) - The USSR began sputtering out (leading to a political backlash against many forms of collectivism) - Globalization started ramping up (a new glut of cheap labor) - Software started taking hold (automation of jobs, etc) Unfortunately there's not one simple, easy-to-explain reason that we can point to, but it is a strange phenomenon that we should work hard to correct if we want to live in a stable, peaceful society. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoupling_of_wages_from_productivity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoupling_of_wages_from_produ...
  • BLKNSLVR 5y ago
    It was initiated as a justification for Bitcoin, I believe, so there's a certain silly meme-ness to it, definitely. But it doesn't change the fact it provides valuable information about the changing economic landscape. I'm not wanting to point at Bretton-woods singularly, or even necessarily as a major reason, hence my saying 'economics is complex beast'. Reaganomics[0] is another factor in the overall fabric. I'm primarily trying to point out that this little 'blip' of inflation right here right now is a mere extension of the last 40-odd years, and anyone saying that "this dip in real wages is also transitory" exists firmly on the 'investment returns' rather than 'labor provision' side of the economics equation. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics