Korean Job Discussion Forums

[NohopeSeriously]

Oh, well. This doesn't look good.

[Hugo85]

Someone who intends to run for president makes a bunch of hyperboles about the current administration? Yeah.. that interview doesn't look too good.

[chellovek]

Interesting if it weren't laced with so much piffle and misguided comparisons.

Big changes on the way for sure, but in the case of the US from what to what? The Soviet economy was almost wholly directed by Gosplan. The complexity of completely Red Central Planning is immense, the formulae they were using to direct the economy of a sixth of the Earth's landmass was mind-bending if you care to read the manuals they published. The Fed is nowhere near that sort of thing. The change after the collapse of the USSR was seemingly obvious- privatise the whole damn thing (ignoring the idea that you actually need to set up any regulatory institutions beforehand to establish a reasonably honest environment for a market economy). Unemployment was pretty much unknown in the USSR (the problem they had with economic growth was the limits of 'extensive economic growth' pursued by building more productive capacity and enrolling greater numbers in the labour force, as opposed to 'intensive economic groth' in the form of increased productivity, they had big problems encouraging the latter- see 'ratchet effect' as it was known in the context of Central Planning) and inflation manifested itself in 'repressed inflation' measured by the length of queues outside the shops since the state had been frightened to increase food costs. They tried it in Communist Poland in the early 80s which ended up in martial law- "there was nothing in the shops anyway, and when they increased the price of nothing that drove people over the edge."

Comparing the Fed to the Central Planning of Gosplan is symptomatic of the Cold War-era rhetoric that seems to be infecting all debate on the current on-going crisis. These 25 year old analogies don't equip people mentally to handle this crisis in my view. This ain't the collapse of 'Socialism' in the US, it's a collapse of corporate-crony-capitalism. The political, social, and economic mechanisms in play at the demise of the USSR and us in the here and now are too different to allow useful comparison, in my view.

Aye there's further trouble on the way, but political debate on this has descended into utter infantilism. Yer average right-wing loon- "It's all the fault of Socialism and Central Planning, Obama's a Commie/Muslim/white-hater"

It's stuff along these lines that make me give my eye-balls a good old roll in their sockets when I listen to Libertarians. Rooted in the blasted past. New ideas are needed, God knows if I can discern what these ideas might be though.

[chellovek]

Although the comparison isn't direct in all ways, I think Paul is engaging in "dog-whistle" politics. Yanks in particular are conditioned to react with horror to anything connected to Socialism, Central Planning, and the USSR.

Shame.

[Space Bar]

[comm]

[chellovek]

[comm]

[Fat_Elvis]

It's true that the USA has to tackle 'non-discretionary' spending to reduce it's deficit, but getting companies to actually pay tax would probably help too.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/12/news/economy/corporate_taxes/

[987psh]

not as bad... as ussr, diff story

[recessiontime]

no welfare state & policing the world?

Salivating.

[mises]

The US economy is very centralized in the Fed, military industrial complex, medical industry, big ag, etc. A catastrophic failure in the dollar - and I have absolutely no idea how likely that is - would bring an end to the centralized system very rapidly.

Is it potentially similar to the Soviet problem? Sure, but only in the sense that it would be a failure in the central authority. The scope and outcome is impossible to theorize.

[Menino80]

[Fox]

Ron Paul mocks fiscal conservatives who talk about the need to cut NPR for budgetary reasons but won't get out of Afghanistan.