Re: US Presidential Race

by BarrileteCosmico Thu Dec 22, 2016 6:15 pm

footyfan01 wrote:No you are wrong. It doesn't contribute to specializing in other things. For that you have to go into the macro-economic theory of comparative advantage which will take significant time to explain.

I have not studied Argentina but tariffs have almost nothing to do with it. As for your price levels, it depends on many things - Availability of raw material, Availability of skilled manpower, Education Level of the country, Size of Market, Local industries & most importantly economies of scale & Technology.

In the car industry, the biggest driver is Economies of Scale - As you produce for a large market, cost of goods fall reducing fixed cost to virtually 0 & giving huge bargaining power. That is key for automobile. Similarly a local supplier system is key. Educated, skilled manpower & technology is also vital in automobile. So prices can be determined by a range of factors.

On one aspect where you need more Free Trade & globalization which is hugely net positive is technology, people, cultural exchange, education, healthcare & so on as in these areas almost all the time all countries grow significantly when there is free trade.

This is a macro discussion. I'm quite familiar with comparative advantage and it's perfectly consistent with my comments: with free trade everyone specializes in what they're best suited for. Without it, market inefficiencies surface.

by footyfan01 Thu Dec 22, 2016 10:34 pm

BarrileteCosmico wrote:
footyfan01 wrote:No you are wrong. It doesn't contribute to specializing in other things. For that you have to go into the macro-economic theory of comparative advantage which will take significant time to explain.

I have not studied Argentina but tariffs have almost nothing to do with it. As for your price levels, it depends on many things - Availability of raw material, Availability of skilled manpower, Education Level of the country, Size of Market, Local industries & most importantly economies of scale & Technology.

In the car industry, the biggest driver is Economies of Scale - As you produce for a large market, cost of goods fall reducing fixed cost to virtually 0 & giving huge bargaining power. That is key for automobile. Similarly a local supplier system is key. Educated, skilled manpower & technology is also vital in automobile. So prices can be determined by a range of factors.

On one aspect where you need more Free Trade & globalization which is hugely net positive is technology, people, cultural exchange, education, healthcare & so on as in these areas almost all the time all countries grow significantly when there is free trade.

This is a macro discussion. I'm quite familiar with comparative advantage and it's perfectly consistent with my comments: with free trade everyone specializes in what they're best suited for. Without it, market inefficiencies surface.

Not really. That has nothing to do without it. With free trade people only specialize in comparative advantages. It almost never is what you are best at.

And market by definition is an inefficient system primarily caused by 2 major macro phenomenon which is difficult to account for - Information Asymmetry & most importantly externality.

But then markets in general can also be very inefficient with their equilibrium as the great depression proved!

by RealGunner Fri Dec 23, 2016 10:55 pm

A tense new battle over nuclear arms erupts between Donald Trump and his staff

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/23/a-tense-new-battle-over-nuclear-arms-erupts-between-donald-trump-and-his-staff/?utm_term=.dc919dd2329e&tid=sm_tw&tid=sm_tw

------

This lunatic is 100% going to star a nuclear war with North Korea before 2020.

by McLewis Sat Dec 24, 2016 12:49 am

The scariest thing is how his staff have struggled, and largely failed, to spin this positively.

I'm not a nuke expert nor a policy wonk, but from what I gather of the Nuclear Proliferation agreement calls for us to reduce our nuke stash, not expand it or even upgrade it. What Trump said directly contradicts that.

Now just like all deals of this nature, good faith is the basis on which this is established as there has to be a sensible belief that Russia has been doing exactly what we've been doing over the last 40 years, which they've been doing.

This is provocative at best, extremely dangerous at worst.

by Unique Sat Dec 24, 2016 2:49 am

The USA has enough nukes to destroy the earth as it is. Making a few more won't make any difference.

by FennecFox7 Sun Dec 25, 2016 1:25 am

Yes, making more nuclear weapons is in no way viewed threateningly and it's just trivial stuff because it's us Americans doing it.

by McLewis Mon Dec 26, 2016 5:33 am

Unique wrote:The USA has enough nukes to destroy the earth as it is. Making a few more won't make any difference.

Making a "few more" directly contradicts a 30+ year agreement we have with the Russians. We're not supposed to be making more, we're not supposed to be making any at all. That's why what he said was so dangerous.

by BarrileteCosmico Mon Dec 26, 2016 5:43 am

footyfan01 wrote:
Spoiler:

Not really. That has nothing to do without it. With free trade people only specialize in comparative advantages. It almost never is what you are best at.

And market by definition is an inefficient system primarily caused by 2 major macro phenomenon which is difficult to account for - Information Asymmetry & most importantly externality.

But then markets in general can also be very inefficient with their equilibrium as the great depression proved!

I misspoke - you are quite correct that it's not with market inefficiencies. I meant that countries would specialize in industries where they are not efficient. For instance, SE Asia has a comparative advantage relative to the US in fabrics but tariffs could cause the US to switch production over to the US, a net loss for American families' purchasing power.

In the end though, I'm convinced that the main effect of tariffs will be to increase the speed of automation. As of right now I don't see any planning by the US govt to deal with this incoming problem - it's quite possible that manufacturing and low skill jobs like tellers, drivers, and waiters are going the way of the farm worker within the next 2 decades.

by BarrileteCosmico Fri Feb 03, 2017 2:41 am

https://www.buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/with-an-eye-to-2020-third-parties-score-a-rare-win-in-their?utm_term=.ygM3OpPDDb#.esypXO3mmw

Actual decision: http://ballot-access.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Memorandum-and-Opinion-2.1.17.pdf

Judge rules that the Commission on Presidential Debates was acting in a partisan manner when it excluded 3rd parties from debates. Maybe in the future America will be able to escape having only 2 terrible choices.

by RealGunner Sat May 13, 2017 5:38 pm

Not really relevant but...

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson might run for president

http://www.fox4news.com/politics/254065329-story?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

by BarrileteCosmico Sat Oct 14, 2017 7:16 pm

Anthony Bourdain rips into Hillary Clinton for tepid response to Weinstein scandal

I always thought feminists could find a better example to gather behind than someone who in the past blamed her husband's victims and now took forever to come out with a no substance statement, wouldn't want to put those 800k in donations at risk...

by Guest Sat Oct 14, 2017 9:29 pm

Thats weak sauce right there by Bourdain.

He laid up in bed with a woman raped by Weinstein for years, and now he wants to call out a woman for not speaking out loud enough? Why didnt he use his own huge platform on The Travel Channel, and later CNN, to speak out?

by RealGunner Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:12 am

I have nothing to add pic.twitter.com/wuca6ezRqs
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) October 13, 2017

by Freeza Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:31 am

RealGunner wrote:
I have nothing to add pic.twitter.com/wuca6ezRqs
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) October 13, 2017

God this is great. His humble comment is still my favourite though.

by RealGunner Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:39 am

The day he steps down as the president. I am 10000% sure he will come out to say that it was all a joke and he did it for a laugh

Guy is more entertaining than half the stand up comedians ffs

by Freeza Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:41 am

RealGunner wrote:The day he steps down as the president. I am 10000% sure he will come out to say that it was all a joke and he did it for a laugh

Guy is more entertaining than half the stand up comedians ffs

Would be funnier if he had less power.

It’s like watching a satire where the main character is trying to kill everyone

by BarrileteCosmico Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:56 am

Betty La Fea wrote:Thats weak sauce right there by Bourdain.

He laid up in bed with a woman raped by Weinstein for years, and now he wants to call out a woman for not speaking out loud enough? Why didnt he use his own huge platform on The Travel Channel, and later CNN, to speak out?

It's not his role to speak out, it's his to support the rape victim. The one that should decide whether to be outed or not is the victim, he's not in a position to make that choice for her.

by CBarca Sun Oct 15, 2017 4:20 pm

I mean there are tons of theories that he didn't want to win, it was a publicity stunt the whole time where he would lose and then launch Trump tv spewing conservative alt right propaganda like Fox and get great ratings.

I honestly believe it.

by The Demon of Carthage Fri Sep 13, 2019 11:23 am

I apologize in advance for writing this here because, and while it still revolves around politics and elections, it's not really about the US elections. Not entirely at least.

I just finished watching the US democratic debate and I couldn't help but feel proud about how far we have come. And by "we" I mean the Tunisian people.

We're currently in the process of electing another president, and while we still have countless problems to deal with (mainly financially), the taste of democracy and freedom that we have gained after our revolution is worthy every life we lost and every penny we're killing ourselves to make every day. It's simply priceless.

1. Now we hold debates, actual debates between the candidates streamed on live tv, to help the people choose whoever they deem best for them.

2. Now we have free, democratic presidential elections. And we don't actually know in advance who's going to be elected.

3. Before the revolution, we had a president who stayed for 23 years in power. Since 2011, we have already gone through 4 or 5 (counting interim presidents as well).

4. You can now criticize the presidents and anybody, ANYBODY, in government without any repercussions. The criticism is even more brutal than in the US whose democracy is one of the strongest in the world.

5. In the entire Arab world, Tunisia is the only nation that is the closest to a Western democracy, the only nation that is actually free from dictatorship and tyranny.

We still have a long way to go and the democracy we have built is still very young, but damn it feels so good to live in a country where you can actually pick your own leader and hold them accountable if they fail, and also you already know they will only last 8 years in office at the very most, and not stay in power for life.

You can't really put a price on that.

P.S: if there's an election thread that talks about elections in general and not one that is related to a specific country, please feel free to move my post where you think it should be. And again, I apologize for going a bit off topic (couldn't really contain my excitement Laughing

)

by Myesyats Fri Sep 13, 2019 1:25 pm

So happy for you DoC. Thats great to hear. Been to Tunisia on vacation, lovely weather

Really sad that still in this day and age you have to fight for democracy.

by futbol Fri Sep 13, 2019 1:35 pm

I was waiting for that punchline how Tunisia is a better democracy now than the US clown show. But I'll allow this one regardless.

by VivaStPauli Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:04 pm

I hope it stays that way, DoC, a lot of Tunisians are studying here in Heidelberg, a few of my mates are Tunisian, and I love 'em all, but you guys really have a mindset quite different from most other Arab nations. Way more progressive. Then again, I've met the ones who came to Europe, so maybe not the most representative sample size. But I think everybody's rooting for Tunisia to have peace and liberty.
Except probably for the Saudis and Russians, but they're weirdos.

by The Demon of Carthage Fri Sep 13, 2019 6:33 pm

Thank you guys, you're too kind Smile

by Hapless_Hans Fri Sep 13, 2019 8:40 pm

Really great to read this, and I'm so very happy for you guys, DoC.

Similar to Viva's experience, a friend of mine (or rather a friend of a friend) is from Tunis, and she's a really cool girl, supersmart, superhip artist type, really.
So likewise, my personal connotation of Tunisia is also of a progressive, mediterranean place, even if of course I have no real clue about it.
Think her granddad was in exile for many years as a Tunisian communist party leader or some such stuff though. Laughing

by FennecFox7 Fri Sep 13, 2019 9:47 pm

Hopefully Algeria follows the same path as Tunisia.. Protests for months and the regime appointed by France still doesn't want to step down.

by McLewis Fri Sep 13, 2019 10:38 pm

DoC's post certainly puts things in context for how things are going here. It's a reminder of how much gets taken for granted in this country and just how dangerous an aspiring autocrat like Trump really is. He has mentioned more than once about feeling like he should run beyond the customary 2nd term (if he even wins one). That is dangerous language in this country and the precedent for it is very flimsy.

Very happy for you, DoC. Everyone deserves to decide who should lead and govern their country democratically. I think there are things we Americans can learn from Tunisia in that regard as we have very much lost our way democratically.

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