tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post2068311771343769407..comments2024-03-29T04:06:37.402-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: The End of Democracy?Stuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-39318051862036686222014-03-03T04:59:01.277-08:002014-03-03T04:59:01.277-08:00Those are good points, a welcome addition to my re...Those are good points, a welcome addition to my remarks. I do agree with you about the cultures in those countries. I don't know well enough how free some of the other countries. Japan has apparently been ruled by the same political party forever... and I have been led to believe that the real power resides in the bureaucracy.Stuart Schneidermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-47250773432665645062014-03-02T23:38:26.511-08:002014-03-02T23:38:26.511-08:00"Indian business moguls constantly complain t..."Indian business moguls constantly complain that India’s chaotic democracy produces rotten infrastructure while China’s authoritarian system produces highways, gleaming airports and high-speed trains."<br /><br />Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong built excellent infrastructure under democracies. So, I think be that East Asians are more orderly regardless of the system. <br />Hong Kong is very free while Singapore is autocratic, but both are functional societies. <br />But India might fail even with autocratism since the culture is so crazy. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-49441249559302648212014-03-02T06:52:04.153-08:002014-03-02T06:52:04.153-08:00As I remember several years ago all the "expe...As I remember several years ago all the "experts" were stating that disk size had reached the maximum it could grow. Now we have 1 Terabyte plus with smaller disk sizes. I agree with JP, whose analysis is spot on, here. One cannot have true capitalism if the government can control large segments of the economy and "print" money.<br />A large bit of the corruption is perpetuated by government action which creates winners and losers at the expense of the country and the economy. When politics trump the interest of the country one is bound to have the problems we deal with now. Dennishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962996070458991675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-69195655897788515162014-03-02T03:36:03.204-08:002014-03-02T03:36:03.204-08:00For the record... I'm with JP on this... as ar...For the record... I'm with JP on this... as are Jim Rogers and Jim Grant. I also agree that the much anticipated top has not yet arrived.Stuart Schneidermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-85713809493877904892014-03-01T17:10:33.203-08:002014-03-01T17:10:33.203-08:00Can either Judeo-Christian or Confucian values hel...Can either Judeo-Christian or Confucian values help to ground free-market capitalism within ethical limits? My guess is no, that power always corrupts.<br /><br />Perhaps Hinduism or Buddhism, with a more cyclic view of time might be the balancing act against the grandiosity of power?<br /><br />Iain McGilchrist's "Two brains" presentation, or book "The Master and his Emissary", offers another attempt for a narrative of our divided natures:<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI<br /><br />He described left-brain thinking as containing a "hall of mirrors" that closes us off from the real world of physical limits, and so falls into its own trap that prevents us from seeing information that doesn't fit our models of reality.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-8752480473983043242014-03-01T15:28:38.285-08:002014-03-01T15:28:38.285-08:00"We're now in a THIRD stock market peak, ..."We're now in a THIRD stock market peak, and everyone is talking about a "20% correction" as likely in first 2013 and now 2014 or whatever, and who wants to ride that DOWN?"<br /><br />I do.<br /><br />Markets go down faster than they go up. 2008 was a good year for me.<br /><br />My guess is a reasonable bear market with a 30% to 40% decline.<br /><br />"The Top" does not appear to be here yet.<br /><br />The pundits don't know what they are talking about. These are the same people who missed the massive credit bubble in 2006 and 2007. By 2006 I was already in 100% cash.<br /><br />Big Picture, the market is being drive by QE-ish liquidity. <br /><br />Poofing money into existence and then having that money pour into financial instruments makes markets go up.<br /><br />You will note that this requires two steps.<br /><br />First, the poofing. QE Infinite is slowing heading toward zero.<br /><br />Second, the money needs to be poured into financial instruments.<br /><br />However, the second step is pretty much automatic. As long as the market keeps going up, that is.<br /><br />And in order for the market to go up, you need lots of poofing ex-niliho.<br /><br />It took me awhile after 2009 to figure out what was going on, but it's *all* driven by the Fed poofing this go-round. <br />JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11126071014909954387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-57779858857532152982014-03-01T13:31:09.074-08:002014-03-01T13:31:09.074-08:00Big picture analyses are fun, but hard to know how...Big picture analyses are fun, but hard to know how much smoke is being blown up the ass in the process, and most of the time its all cherry-picking evidence for conclusions you set to prove.<br /><br />I like Adam Curtis's attempts, even if they are as flawed and manipulative as any, starting with Freud's discovery of the unconscious.<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self<br />http://vimeo.com/67977038<br /><br />I don't have any clarity about the future of China's embrace of capitalism, only time will tell. At least the pollution is a visible crisis, while hidden debt/credit bubble crises look great until the last possible moment.<br />http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/markets/item/17526-is-china-s-23-trillion-credit-bubble-ready-to-pop<br /><br />What's clear to me is that "growth" is the god we now worship (and a god inspired by capitalism) because it allows all problems to be kicked down the road. So "growth" is something real, but it also contains cancers, which we might call "speculation" - growth funded under the promise of growth where wealth is made not by the work ethic, but by borrowing lots of money and chasing speculative bubbles, and everyone believing they can exit before the crash.<br /><br />We're now in a THIRD stock market peak, and everyone is talking about a "20% correction" as likely in first 2013 and now 2014 or whatever, and who wants to ride that DOWN?<br />http://www.businessinsider.com/warning-stocks-likely-to-crater-2013-2<br /><br />I do love the idea that democracy and the "Protestant ethic" go together, but then again, the original Protestants probably would have scoffed at making money on money, like the indulgences that inspired Luther's rage.<br /><br />I don't know where that takes us. It seems like the ideal Protestant ethic is "moderation" which we've completely abandoned, so we need to accept we're still in the eye of a depressionary hurricane, and we all have a chance to make our bets, where we want to live, what we're willing to risk, and what skills will get is through the next 20 years.<br /><br />It would be nice if the Protestant work ethic was what allows a culture to pass through a 20 year depression. I tend to expect authoritarianism will ever increase in the coming crises to reduce destructive civil unrest, and then within those constraints, democracy will reassert itself locally as people organize over common interest with their neighbors.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.com