WASHINGTON -- U.S. consumer confidence plunged in January to its lowest level in more than a year, reflecting higher Social Security taxes that left Americans with less take-home pay.
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index dropped to 58.6 in January. That's down from a reading of 66.7 in December and the lowest since November 2011.
Conference Board economist Lynn Franco said the tax increase was a key reason confidence tumbled and made Americans less optimistic about the next six months.
Congress and the White House reached a deal on Jan. 1 to prevent income taxes from rising on most Americans. But they allowed a temporary cut in Social Security taxes to expire. For a worker earning $50,000 a year, take-home pay will shrink this year by about $1,000.
The survey was conducted through Jan. 17, at which point most people began to realize their paychecks were lighter.
Taxes are rising at a time when wages and salaries are barely growing. The combination is expected to hurt consumer spending and slow economic growth.
Many economists predict economic growth slowed in the October-December quarter to an annual rate of around 1 percent. That would be much weaker that the 3.1 percent rate in the July-September quarter. Most economists don't expect growth to pick up much in the first quarter of 2013.
The decline in confidence comes as the economy is signaling improvement elsewhere.
The recovery in housing market is looking more sustainable and is expected to strength this year.
Auto sales reached a five-year high of 14.5 million in 2012. Analysts expect sales will climb even higher this year, to 15.5 million.
Stocks are also near their all-time highs. The Standard and Poor's 500 has more than doubled from its low in 2009 and is just 4 percent shy of its record high set in 2007.
Still, the job market remains sluggish. Employers have added an average of about 150,000 jobs a month for the past two years. That's enough for a gradual decline in the unemployment rate, which remains high at 7.8 percent.
I didn't realize taxes raised, as I haven't gotten a paycheck yet... I think pretty soon I'm going to just stop looking at the deposit slips because of how depressing it is
We are on the 5th uptrend wave of the Elliot Wave Theory. It would come as no surprise to me to see this economy contract and declining consumer confidence is the perfect catalyst for a correction.
The stock market and housing prices are both going up because of multiple rounds of quantitative easing. The stock market always reacts positively when the Federal Reserve prints money, and the rise in housing prices is because the Fed is buying and printing $45 billion worth of MBSes indefinitely. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that when you print money, prices go up because the money supply expands and causes inflation.
This economy is nothing but an mirage, just like the "illusion economies" we had during the dot-com and housing bubbles. The government and the Fed keep doing the wrong thing by printing money, keeping interest rates at 0%, and creating bigger government. All of that needs to be reversed immediately or we are going to experience a true economic catastrophe.
I read that within the next five years we are going to be making a ton of money from oil due to previously unknown areas that are safe for drilling, allowing us to match production with many OPEC countries. I hate making money off fossil fuels, but it may help push us into a place to do better. Time is cyclical in nature. We had a great economic surplus in the 90's and I remember my family doing much better in that decade. I am pretty sure we'll see that again when the 90's return in 2020.
As long as housing recovers the US will be ok in the long term
Western economies went overboard because of abuse of credit; if the value of everyday properties recover and people pay their debts down everything will be fine
I don't know how much payroll taxes increased but I can't believe it's that much. I'd have a hard time taking someone who says "I am now paying an extra 1000 dollars in taxes a year and having issues making ends meet" seriously and I am not particularly good with money myself
Most people can deal with a $10 a week hit to their paycheck. They just noticed the number went down (and likely their healthcare and other insurance went up as well) and they blamed it on the tax hike.
The fact that even liberals are against this retroactively shows they either don't have the foggiest clue what goes on in Washington, or they truely are all about "get mine and screw everyone else".
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
However, it is how social security is funded. So reducing payroll taxes (like the Obama administration has been doing for political popularity) is only going to result in Social Security deficits later on.
Then again, the government takes Social Security surpluses and spends them on Medicare and Defense. The idea of combining Social Security surplusses with war debts to make a balanced budget started with President Johnson in Vietnam, and has been a longstanding American tradition since.
I read that within the next five years we are going to be making a ton of money from oil due to previously unknown areas that are safe for drilling, allowing us to match production with many OPEC countries. I hate making money off fossil fuels, but it may help push us into a place to do better. Time is cyclical in nature. We had a great economic surplus in the 90's and I remember my family doing much better in that decade. I am pretty sure we'll see that again when the 90's return in 2020.
It's not that things are cyclical, but it's the fact that our economy is fundamentally unsound. We no longer produce anything, but rather consume foreign products to no end as we run up trade deficits and give dollars to foreigners to finance our consumption binge. We have experimented for over 40 years with fiat currency and we are finally starting to experience the true problems of using money that is backed by nothing. It's going to take a massive correction and a lot of pain to fix our current mess. Drilling and exporting more oil isn't going to solve the real source of our problems.
Most people can deal with a $10 a week hit to their paycheck. They just noticed the number went down (and likely their healthcare and other insurance went up as well) and they blamed it on the tax hike.
The fact that even liberals are against this retroactively shows they either don't have the foggiest clue what goes on in Washington, or they truely are all about "get mine and screw everyone else".
The problem is that it's not just a tax increase people have to deal with. There is also inflation, which is a lot higher than what the government reports it as due to a different metric to calculate the CPI. The Fed is cranking out $85 billion each month for who knows how long, and I wouldn't be surprised if we get QE5. When interest rates inevitably go up, the Fed is going to print even more money to keep interest rates down and in turn devalue the dollar even more.
That is why inflation is so devastating. Taxes only take what you earn directly, but inflation robs the purchasing power of every single dollar in existence. A $100 bill under your bed is safe from taxes, but it isn't safe from inflation. Pretty much everyone can understand the concept of taxation, but because inflation is a subtle mechanism, people don't get as pissed off about higher inflation as they do higher taxes.
It's not that things are cyclical, but it's the fact that our economy is fundamentally unsound. We no longer produce anything, but rather consume foreign products to no end as we run up trade deficits and give dollars to foreigners to finance our consumption binge.
1. America’s manufacturing output, measured in constant 2005 dollars, has continued to increase in almost every year since 1970, except recently for recession-related decreases in 2001 and 2008-2009. In every year since 2004, manufacturing output in the United States has exceeded $2 trillion, and that’s twice the output produced in America’s factories back in the early 1970s. If the U.S. manufacturing sector were a separate country, its enormous size would rank today as the sixth-largest economy in the world, just behind France, and ahead of the U.K., Italy, and Brazil. And while manufacturing growth has been relatively flat in recent years for Japan and the European countries (Germany, U.K., France, and Italy), America’s manufacturing continues to grow at its long-term trend of 2 percent per year, on average.
2. Despite recent gains in China’s manufacturing output—it surpassed Germany in 2001 and Japan in 2007 to become the world’s second-largest manufacturer—U.S. manufacturing output in 2009 was almost 46 percent higher than China’s ($2.15 trillion vs. $1.48 trillion). And even with recent gains in manufacturing output in places like China, Korea, and Brazil, the United States still produced more than 20 percent of global manufacturing output in 2009, which is just slightly less than America’s 21 percent share in 1990, and not too much lower than America’s 25 percent share of world factory output in the early 1970s.
3. In 2009, the United States produced manufacturing output equivalent to the output of Japan (#3), Germany (#4), U.K. (#5), and Italy (#6) combined, and output equivalent to the next 11 countries ranked from #7 to #17 combined: Korea, France, Canada, Mexico, India, Russia, Brazil, Spain, Australia, Turkey, and Indonesia.
We have experimented for over 40 years with fiat currency and we are finally starting to experience the true problems of using money that is backed by nothing. It's going to take a massive correction and a lot of pain to fix our current mess. Drilling and exporting more oil isn't going to solve the real source of our problems.
Fiat currency is backed by trust, which is much preferred than backing it by gold or any other metal, which, incidentally, is also only valuable because we trust it to hold value tomorrow.
Every single first world nation on the planet uses fiat currency. I'll trust they know what they are doing
That is why inflation is so devastating. Taxes only take what you earn directly, but inflation robs the purchasing power of every single dollar in existence. A $100 bill under your bed is safe from taxes, but it isn't safe from inflation. Pretty much everyone can understand the concept of taxation, but because inflation is a subtle mechanism, people don't get as pissed off about higher inflation as they do higher taxes.
Inflation is tied to interest rates, which are controlled. According to http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/CurrentInflation.asp, inflations have been right around 2.5%-3% fr the last 12 years. During the housing boom, the housing crash, TARP, and all the aciton the Fed has taken including multiple rounds of QE, the boogeyman of runaway inflation has been proven not to exist.
Inflation is tied to interest rates, which are controlled. According to http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/CurrentInflation.asp, inflations have been right around 2.5%-3% fr the last 12 years. During the housing boom, the housing crash, TARP, and all the aciton the Fed has taken including multiple rounds of QE, the boogeyman of runaway inflation has been proven not to exist.
Mainly because it's being tied up in paper products and being held up in corporate accounts. Eventually I see the tax code going to follow profits into the financial sector, such as exchange taxes. There's been talk of it for a while, but if the IMF is forced to step in we'll see that tax commeth.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
Individualities may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.
Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.
doesn't running you own business and declaring you pay no pay roll as the business manager, circumvent the tax altogether?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Collaborative Pub: Ice Cold Thoughts Always On Tap Twitter- RogueSource.
Decks: "Name one! I probably got it built In one of these boxes."
--------------------------------------------------- Vintage will rise again!Buy a Mox today!
---------------------------------------------------
[I]Some call it dig through time, when really your digging through CRAP!
Merfolk! showing magic players what a shower is since Lorwyn!
doesn't running you own business and declaring you pay no pay roll as the business manager, circumvent the tax altogether?
You don't have to play unemployment comp since you can't collect it, but if you're self employed you pay basically double (Your portion and the employer's portion). While there are many advantages to owning a business tax wise, this is one area small business owners get bent over by the tax code.
Now if you make no profit, that's another story, but lets keep in mind. you made no profit.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Mainly because it's being tied up in paper products and being held up in corporate accounts. Eventually I see the tax code going to follow profits into the financial sector, such as exchange taxes. There's been talk of it for a while, but if the IMF is forced to step in we'll see that tax commeth.
Inflation rates have nothing to do with corporate taxes. I think you are getting some terms mixed up
doesn't running you own business and declaring you pay no pay roll as the business manager, circumvent the tax altogether?
If you are self employed, you pay a self employment tax, as well as double the SS tax (employer and employee side).
You can try to reduce your taxable income to 0 through tax write offs and deductions, or you can pay yourself under the table, but then you the risk of spending a long time wearing an orange jumpsuit and learning how to make license plates.
I should point out that this plays well for the Republicans, because Obama said he wouldn't raise taxes on the lower 98%.
Also, "I opened six Trestle Trolls in RTR Sealed. Thanks, Obama." (Meaning, people are going to blame X on Y even if there's no rational way the two can be connected.)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Funny you say this, because as I type this post, I see pretty much everything in my general vicinity made overseas:
Recliner: China
Laptop: China
iPod: China
T-shirt: Mexico
Coat: Mexico
Jeans: China
Socks: China
My car outside: Japan
Answer me this Valarin: if our manufacturing industry was still strong, why are we running up enormous trade deficits? We are essentially borrowing money to consume products made overseas instead of borrowing money to increase our productive capacity like we used to a long time ago. We used to have a very strong manufacturing industry, but increased regulation and laws such as NAFTA have done a lot to undermine our manufacturing capabilities.
Every single first world nation on the planet uses fiat currency. I'll trust they know what they are doing
The last thing I want to trust is the government. I would rather trust gold and silver, money that has been used for thousands of years, over paper that governments coerce the public to use.
Inflation is tied to interest rates, which are controlled. According to http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/CurrentInflation.asp, inflations have been right around 2.5%-3% fr the last 12 years. During the housing boom, the housing crash, TARP, and all the aciton the Fed has taken including multiple rounds of QE, the boogeyman of runaway inflation has been proven not to exist.
Again, you should not trust neither the government nor the Fed to report the correct rate of inflation. Peter Schiff did a really good video not too long ago exposing the false inflation rate that is currently reported.
According to Austrians, inflation is tied to the expansion of the money supply rather than interest rates. In fact, if you look up the dictionary definition of inflation, it too defines inflation as the expansion of the money supply. If the same metrics used to calculate the CPI back in the 70's when we had massive inflation were used today, we would easily have double digit inflation rates. If you've actually been paying attention when going to the store over the past few years, you'll realize that prices have been going up quite a bit.
As for runaway inflation, it is coming eventually. All fiat currency eventually reaches the point where it suffers hyperinflation. One day when foreigners eventually realize that it is physically impossible to pay our debts, they will stop buying dollars from us. They'll use dollars to buy anything of actual value, dumping the dollars back on us. As all the dollars come back to roost in the US, all the money printing will come back to haunt us as we experience a catastrophic shockwave of inflation that will take the dollar down with it.
Funny you say this, because as I type this post, I see pretty much everything in my general vicinity made overseas:
Recliner: China
Laptop: China
iPod: China
T-shirt: Mexico
Coat: Mexico
Jeans: China
Socks: China
My car outside: Japan
Answer me this Valarin: if our manufacturing industry was still strong, why are we running up enormous trade deficits? We are essentially borrowing money to consume products made overseas instead of borrowing money to increase our productive capacity like we used to a long time ago. We used to have a very strong manufacturing industry, but increased regulation and laws such as NAFTA have done a lot to undermine our manufacturing capabilities.
So one one hand, we have an opinion backed by data, on the other you have where you bought stuff in your living room. I know which one I trust.
And trade deficits have nothing to do with manufacturing. Our trade deficit is primarily made up of consumer goods. There are a lot more things manufactured than consumer goods.
You are making a lot of claims, where is your data? Where is your evidence? I'm sorry, but claiming "things should be like they used to because that's when the country was great!!" is not a convincing argument.
The last thing I want to trust is the government. I would rather trust gold and silver, money that has been used for thousands of years, over paper that governments coerce the public to use.
Why do you thing gold will be worth anything tomorrow? Or the day after that? Or that it will hold any value if the government collapses. You do because you trust it will be roughly worth it is today. Just like fiat currency.
Again, you should not trust neither the government nor the Fed to report the correct rate of inflation. Peter Schiff did a really good video not too long ago exposing the false inflation rate that is currently reported.
Why should I not trust the government reporting data? I gave facts to back up my opinion, your defense is "Don't trust the government". Sorry, I need more than that.
As for runaway inflation, it is coming eventually. All fiat currency eventually reaches the point where it suffers hyperinflation. One day when foreigners eventually realize that it is physically impossible to pay our debts, they will stop buying dollars from us. They'll use dollars to buy anything of actual value, dumping the dollars back on us. As all the dollars come back to roost in the US, all the money printing will come back to haunt us as we experience a catastrophic shockwave of inflation that will take the dollar down with it.
That's a pretty big claim. Source?
According to Austrians
And that's where I stop paying attention. Sorry, but calling silly, unfounded ideas "Austrian" does not lend them credibility. Austrian "economics" has been throughly debunked and rejected as incorrect.
And that's where I stop paying attention. Sorry, but calling silly, unfounded ideas "Austrian" does not lend them credibility. Austrian "economics" has been throughly debunked and rejected as incorrect.
Austro-economics does have some good contributions, one in particular have been the concept of creative destruction and Germany was influenced by free marketers such as Roepke and Erhard. However, Roepke and Erhard are more like Friedman and the Chicago school in certain respects than they were similar to Mises and fairly much off kilter from Rothbard.
Their historiography was often also based on unlimited printing of money. The first successful use were the Mongols in China that were able to reboot an economy rather easily, but printed too much and made for a "Weimar problem." Thus far, the inclusion of higher end mathematics have since made Weimar while not a thing of the past but most certainly more recently advancement by men such as Friedman have made Weimar inflation less likely.
The other point about fiat money has to be in the "context of everything else," the classical work on this is Fiat Money Inflation in France:
One of the main points has been simply; war. War and fiat money bring disaster, rather than just fiat money itself. Gold was far more limited, did not have the massive inflation problem and the need to reboot currencies. However gold has deflationary problems and hoarding that incurs very different set of circumstances especially whenever a nation runs a trade deficit.
The one aspect of currency for which I am most interest in current is this:
Why do you thing gold will be worth anything tomorrow? Or the day after that? Or that it will hold any value if the government collapses. You do because you trust it will be roughly worth it is today. Just like fiat currency.
Huh?
1. Because there is a near universal desire for gold across countries, cultures and time, which is not true of paper currency.
2. Because gold has some degree of scarcity, whereas paper currency can be mass produced at will.
1. Because there is a near universal desire for gold across countries, cultures and time, which is not true of paper currency.
2. Because gold has some degree of scarcity, whereas paper currency can be mass produced at will.
The demand for gold is due to the value people place on it. Just like paper money. There is a universal demand for wealth, but there's no inherent reason gold = wealth. It's only worth what it is because people trust it will have value tomorrow. It's the same as paper money, except it's made of metal.
I also dislike the concept of a countries growth being limited to how much metal it can dig out of the ground. You think wars over oil are bad, move everyone to the gold standard and watch the missiles fly.
Austro-economics does have some good contributions
Maybe I was a little too harsh in my previous post, the problem I have with Austrian economics is that on the internet, many times the term is used to try and grant some sort of legitimacy to whatever neo anarchism/financial nihilism/general tom foolery the person is espousing. I place it in the same intellectual realm as Ayn Rand.
Is there nothing of value in the topic? Maybe not nothing, but I see the topic more often get twisted and misrepresented to support an agenda rather than be a valid academic topic.
Mixed signals on the economy. What do you think?
This economy is nothing but an mirage, just like the "illusion economies" we had during the dot-com and housing bubbles. The government and the Fed keep doing the wrong thing by printing money, keeping interest rates at 0%, and creating bigger government. All of that needs to be reversed immediately or we are going to experience a true economic catastrophe.
[Clan Flamingo]
Western economies went overboard because of abuse of credit; if the value of everyday properties recover and people pay their debts down everything will be fine
I don't know how much payroll taxes increased but I can't believe it's that much. I'd have a hard time taking someone who says "I am now paying an extra 1000 dollars in taxes a year and having issues making ends meet" seriously and I am not particularly good with money myself
The fact that even liberals are against this retroactively shows they either don't have the foggiest clue what goes on in Washington, or they truely are all about "get mine and screw everyone else".
However, it is how social security is funded. So reducing payroll taxes (like the Obama administration has been doing for political popularity) is only going to result in Social Security deficits later on.
Then again, the government takes Social Security surpluses and spends them on Medicare and Defense. The idea of combining Social Security surplusses with war debts to make a balanced budget started with President Johnson in Vietnam, and has been a longstanding American tradition since.
It's not that things are cyclical, but it's the fact that our economy is fundamentally unsound. We no longer produce anything, but rather consume foreign products to no end as we run up trade deficits and give dollars to foreigners to finance our consumption binge. We have experimented for over 40 years with fiat currency and we are finally starting to experience the true problems of using money that is backed by nothing. It's going to take a massive correction and a lot of pain to fix our current mess. Drilling and exporting more oil isn't going to solve the real source of our problems.
The problem is that it's not just a tax increase people have to deal with. There is also inflation, which is a lot higher than what the government reports it as due to a different metric to calculate the CPI. The Fed is cranking out $85 billion each month for who knows how long, and I wouldn't be surprised if we get QE5. When interest rates inevitably go up, the Fed is going to print even more money to keep interest rates down and in turn devalue the dollar even more.
That is why inflation is so devastating. Taxes only take what you earn directly, but inflation robs the purchasing power of every single dollar in existence. A $100 bill under your bed is safe from taxes, but it isn't safe from inflation. Pretty much everyone can understand the concept of taxation, but because inflation is a subtle mechanism, people don't get as pissed off about higher inflation as they do higher taxes.
This is a false trope. The US still has a massive manufacturing industry. We make plenty. From http://www.aei-ideas.org/2011/01/the-demise-of-america%E2%80%99s-manufacturing-sector-has-been-greatly-exaggerated/
Fiat currency is backed by trust, which is much preferred than backing it by gold or any other metal, which, incidentally, is also only valuable because we trust it to hold value tomorrow.
Every single first world nation on the planet uses fiat currency. I'll trust they know what they are doing
Inflation is tied to interest rates, which are controlled. According to http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/CurrentInflation.asp, inflations have been right around 2.5%-3% fr the last 12 years. During the housing boom, the housing crash, TARP, and all the aciton the Fed has taken including multiple rounds of QE, the boogeyman of runaway inflation has been proven not to exist.
Mainly because it's being tied up in paper products and being held up in corporate accounts. Eventually I see the tax code going to follow profits into the financial sector, such as exchange taxes. There's been talk of it for a while, but if the IMF is forced to step in we'll see that tax commeth.
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
Individualities may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.
Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.
Twitter- RogueSource.
Decks: "Name one! I probably got it built In one of these boxes."
---------------------------------------------------
Vintage will rise again! Buy a Mox today!
---------------------------------------------------
[I]Some call it dig through time, when really your digging through CRAP!
Merfolk! showing magic players what a shower is since Lorwyn!
You don't have to play unemployment comp since you can't collect it, but if you're self employed you pay basically double (Your portion and the employer's portion). While there are many advantages to owning a business tax wise, this is one area small business owners get bent over by the tax code.
Now if you make no profit, that's another story, but lets keep in mind. you made no profit.
Inflation rates have nothing to do with corporate taxes. I think you are getting some terms mixed up
If you are self employed, you pay a self employment tax, as well as double the SS tax (employer and employee side).
You can try to reduce your taxable income to 0 through tax write offs and deductions, or you can pay yourself under the table, but then you the risk of spending a long time wearing an orange jumpsuit and learning how to make license plates.
Also, "I opened six Trestle Trolls in RTR Sealed. Thanks, Obama." (Meaning, people are going to blame X on Y even if there's no rational way the two can be connected.)
On phasing:
Funny you say this, because as I type this post, I see pretty much everything in my general vicinity made overseas:
Recliner: China
Laptop: China
iPod: China
T-shirt: Mexico
Coat: Mexico
Jeans: China
Socks: China
My car outside: Japan
Answer me this Valarin: if our manufacturing industry was still strong, why are we running up enormous trade deficits? We are essentially borrowing money to consume products made overseas instead of borrowing money to increase our productive capacity like we used to a long time ago. We used to have a very strong manufacturing industry, but increased regulation and laws such as NAFTA have done a lot to undermine our manufacturing capabilities.
The last thing I want to trust is the government. I would rather trust gold and silver, money that has been used for thousands of years, over paper that governments coerce the public to use.
Again, you should not trust neither the government nor the Fed to report the correct rate of inflation. Peter Schiff did a really good video not too long ago exposing the false inflation rate that is currently reported.
According to Austrians, inflation is tied to the expansion of the money supply rather than interest rates. In fact, if you look up the dictionary definition of inflation, it too defines inflation as the expansion of the money supply. If the same metrics used to calculate the CPI back in the 70's when we had massive inflation were used today, we would easily have double digit inflation rates. If you've actually been paying attention when going to the store over the past few years, you'll realize that prices have been going up quite a bit.
As for runaway inflation, it is coming eventually. All fiat currency eventually reaches the point where it suffers hyperinflation. One day when foreigners eventually realize that it is physically impossible to pay our debts, they will stop buying dollars from us. They'll use dollars to buy anything of actual value, dumping the dollars back on us. As all the dollars come back to roost in the US, all the money printing will come back to haunt us as we experience a catastrophic shockwave of inflation that will take the dollar down with it.
So one one hand, we have an opinion backed by data, on the other you have where you bought stuff in your living room. I know which one I trust.
And trade deficits have nothing to do with manufacturing. Our trade deficit is primarily made up of consumer goods. There are a lot more things manufactured than consumer goods.
You are making a lot of claims, where is your data? Where is your evidence? I'm sorry, but claiming "things should be like they used to because that's when the country was great!!" is not a convincing argument.
Why do you thing gold will be worth anything tomorrow? Or the day after that? Or that it will hold any value if the government collapses. You do because you trust it will be roughly worth it is today. Just like fiat currency.
Why should I not trust the government reporting data? I gave facts to back up my opinion, your defense is "Don't trust the government". Sorry, I need more than that.
That's a pretty big claim. Source?
And that's where I stop paying attention. Sorry, but calling silly, unfounded ideas "Austrian" does not lend them credibility. Austrian "economics" has been throughly debunked and rejected as incorrect.
Austro-economics does have some good contributions, one in particular have been the concept of creative destruction and Germany was influenced by free marketers such as Roepke and Erhard. However, Roepke and Erhard are more like Friedman and the Chicago school in certain respects than they were similar to Mises and fairly much off kilter from Rothbard.
Their historiography was often also based on unlimited printing of money. The first successful use were the Mongols in China that were able to reboot an economy rather easily, but printed too much and made for a "Weimar problem." Thus far, the inclusion of higher end mathematics have since made Weimar while not a thing of the past but most certainly more recently advancement by men such as Friedman have made Weimar inflation less likely.
The other point about fiat money has to be in the "context of everything else," the classical work on this is Fiat Money Inflation in France:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6949/6949-h/6949-h.htm
One of the main points has been simply; war. War and fiat money bring disaster, rather than just fiat money itself. Gold was far more limited, did not have the massive inflation problem and the need to reboot currencies. However gold has deflationary problems and hoarding that incurs very different set of circumstances especially whenever a nation runs a trade deficit.
The one aspect of currency for which I am most interest in current is this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triffin_dilemma
That and the inherent problem with the fractional reserve system, which is the cornerstone of all money alchemy.
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
Individualities may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.
Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.
Huh?
1. Because there is a near universal desire for gold across countries, cultures and time, which is not true of paper currency.
2. Because gold has some degree of scarcity, whereas paper currency can be mass produced at will.
The demand for gold is due to the value people place on it. Just like paper money. There is a universal demand for wealth, but there's no inherent reason gold = wealth. It's only worth what it is because people trust it will have value tomorrow. It's the same as paper money, except it's made of metal.
I also dislike the concept of a countries growth being limited to how much metal it can dig out of the ground. You think wars over oil are bad, move everyone to the gold standard and watch the missiles fly.
Maybe I was a little too harsh in my previous post, the problem I have with Austrian economics is that on the internet, many times the term is used to try and grant some sort of legitimacy to whatever neo anarchism/financial nihilism/general tom foolery the person is espousing. I place it in the same intellectual realm as Ayn Rand.
Is there nothing of value in the topic? Maybe not nothing, but I see the topic more often get twisted and misrepresented to support an agenda rather than be a valid academic topic.
it was a stupid idea of a tax cut.
we need a total tax overhaul. our tax code is 100 years old. it contains over 4 m words and costs billions of dollars to enforce.
Thanks to Epic Graphics the best around.
Thanks to Nex3 for the avatar visit ye old sig and avatar forum