3 ms·

> What’s the proposed regulation that would help here? Price controls? They don’t work. The proposed regulation would be that if a single company/industry buyi

by Matl 3mo ago

> What’s the proposed regulation that would help here? Price controls? They don’t work. The proposed regulation would be that if a single company/industry buying up supply to the point it starts driving significant inflation for such and such goods, they would be severely restricted from doing so going forward.

Aurornis 3mo ago
It’s a global phenomenon. The latency concerns for data centers are minimal, so they could be built anywhere. If your country restricted a company from buying too much of a product they need, 10 other competitor companies in other countries would be formed the very next day offering to do the work in their country for a minimal fee. This is a global market. Supply and demand isn’t going to be cancelled out by politicians in one country trying to squeeze the market. If you did restrict companies from buying things they need, you would see all future companies in that space incorporated in other countries.
- testing22321 3mo ago
  The old race to the bottom.
  - Aurornis 3mo ago
    It’s the old supply and demand in a global market. It’s weird to read all of the calls for regulation to fix this when the DRAM and chip production is happening in other countries.
    - Danox 3mo ago
      On third of the Memory Stooges is in the United States...
- JumpCrisscross 3mo ago
  Yeah, imagine doing that for oil. American and EU companies that “hoard” oil get punished. The net effect would be everyone else gets to buy more and prices remain exactly the same.
win311fwg 3mo ago
So, in practice, if, say, the agriculture industry buys up the supply of seeds (they already effectively do) and we see it start driving significant inflation for food (a common concern), the agriculture industry would be restricted from buying seeds?
- Matl 3mo ago
  Yes, because we can't apply specific regulation for specific industries where it makes sense, we have to write them as if we were LLMs so they can be proven to 'not work'.
  - win311fwg 3mo ago
    We can, but that isn't how the proposed regulation is written.
m4rtink 3mo ago
Not saying this is the solution, but strategic reserves of important commodities exist. Maybe we need the same now for computer parts, that are now so important for everything in our modern digital society ? So that feverish investor speculation and shady circular financing deals don't cause sudden 30+% inflation on any technological device.
- alex43578 3mo ago
  Good news, you get the DDR2 that has been languishing in a salt cave for the last 20 years. Reality check: a strategic reserve of modern technology components in volumes needed to impact consumer prices is completely infeasible and illogical. I’d be fine with the idea of the government maintaining supplies of defense industrial inputs, critical minerals, etc; but as we see with our efforts for rare earths (and even petroleum) you can never stockpile consumer supply levels.
- sib 3mo ago
  A strategic reserve of a commodity that (historically) depreciates at ~50% per year is a terrible trade for occasionally avoiding demand-driven price spikes.

by Matl 3mo ago

Aurornis 3mo ago

It’s a global phenomenon. The latency concerns for data centers are minimal, so they could be built anywhere. If your country restricted a company from buying too much of a product they need, 10 other competitor companies in other countries would be formed the very next day offering to do the work in their country for a minimal fee. This is a global market. Supply and demand isn’t going to be cancelled out by politicians in one country trying to squeeze the market. If you did restrict companies from buying things they need, you would see all future companies in that space incorporated in other countries.

testing22321 3mo ago
The old race to the bottom.
- Aurornis 3mo ago
  It’s the old supply and demand in a global market. It’s weird to read all of the calls for regulation to fix this when the DRAM and chip production is happening in other countries.
  - Danox 3mo ago
    On third of the Memory Stooges is in the United States...
JumpCrisscross 3mo ago
Yeah, imagine doing that for oil. American and EU companies that “hoard” oil get punished. The net effect would be everyone else gets to buy more and prices remain exactly the same.

win311fwg 3mo ago

So, in practice, if, say, the agriculture industry buys up the supply of seeds (they already effectively do) and we see it start driving significant inflation for food (a common concern), the agriculture industry would be restricted from buying seeds?

Matl 3mo ago
Yes, because we can't apply specific regulation for specific industries where it makes sense, we have to write them as if we were LLMs so they can be proven to 'not work'.
- win311fwg 3mo ago
  We can, but that isn't how the proposed regulation is written.

m4rtink 3mo ago

Not saying this is the solution, but strategic reserves of important commodities exist. Maybe we need the same now for computer parts, that are now so important for everything in our modern digital society ? So that feverish investor speculation and shady circular financing deals don't cause sudden 30+% inflation on any technological device.

alex43578 3mo ago
Good news, you get the DDR2 that has been languishing in a salt cave for the last 20 years. Reality check: a strategic reserve of modern technology components in volumes needed to impact consumer prices is completely infeasible and illogical. I’d be fine with the idea of the government maintaining supplies of defense industrial inputs, critical minerals, etc; but as we see with our efforts for rare earths (and even petroleum) you can never stockpile consumer supply levels.
sib 3mo ago
A strategic reserve of a commodity that (historically) depreciates at ~50% per year is a terrible trade for occasionally avoiding demand-driven price spikes.