Author Topic: Monetary Wealth  (Read 5179 times)

guest5

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #30 on: April 16, 2021, 02:26:18 am »
Why The U.S. Can’t Go Broke
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The U.S. national debt is now bigger than its economy. That might sound scary, but we’ll explain how the United States can never go broke and can actually pay all of its debts whenever it wants to.
To help us, we spoke to economics professor Stephanie Kelton, author of The Deficit Myth, former chief economist on the U.S. Senate Budge Committee  and a former economic advisor to Bernie Sanders.


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Aamir Zaman
1 day ago
More money has been printed in the last year, than the last 100 years combined, but dont worry guys, all is good.
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Mark Yablonski
1 day ago
For real people act like hyperinflation can’t happen lmao. We lost tons of jobs and tax dollars from COVID and doubled the debt at the same time. people involved in crypto and the stock market see it coming within the next few years or sooner
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coolmodelguy
1 day ago
Yes, the United States printed (or key stroked into existence) $11 trillion in 2020. With a $9.8 trillion gain in financial assets and the Federal Reserve accepting corporate bonds as loan collateral, most of that money went into the stock market (massive inflation in the stock market last year). So if we just do some straight across math (not entirely accurate but close enough), only $1.2 trillion actually made it into the real economy and of that, most was paid as contracts to giant corporations (Pfizer, Moderna, 3M). The American people got squat out of all that spending, lost millions of jobs and now housing costs are going into the stratoshere.
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Rank Amateur
1 day ago
The ONLY reason we need to worry about other nations is due to the trade deficit. This results in dollars pooling in foreign banks. A significant amount of that money is used to purchase Treasury Bonds. The money used to purchase that debt does not go to the Federal government, it goes back into the infinite coffers of the FED. (essentially, it is drained from the economy)

The problem with this is that without mechanisms to replace this lost liquidity, the entire supply would be smaller at the end of every cycle. Shrinking the economy constantly. the real problem there is that, so long as we're operating a deficit, and selling large numbers of bonds as a result, deficit spending isn't optional. It keeps the system from collapsing.

How might you be correct?

Obviously, as foreign banks possess more and more Treasury Bonds. Confidence in the dollar will eventually decline. There is definitely an upper limit, and nobody knows what it is.
Looking at China, and there current push for de-dollarization, this process has already started. It will not happen quickly, and it will only change the global trade dynamics. The low cost products we have grown to rely on will slowly rise in price, as China see's the dollar as worth less to them over time.

It often feels like most people are never quite 100% sure about anything when it comes to economics, some are just a little more confident in their beliefs about money and economics than others....

One thing remains certain, as Adam Smith once stated, "All money is a belief!". The only reason money has value is because enough people believe it does.

guest5

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #31 on: April 29, 2021, 11:01:34 pm »
Fugger - Banker Who Made the Habsburgs Hegemon of Europe
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Kings and Generals' historical animated documentary series on economic history, continues with a video on Jakob Fugger - the German banker and businessman who became one of the richest people of the late medieval period by introducing a number of new business practices and tying his fortune to the rising Habsburgs, financing them in becoming the hegemon power in Europe. His loans were crucial for the Habsburg victory at the battle of Pavia in 1525
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Nmtm7XnvU&list=TLPQMzAwNDIwMjForMhhExz1Kw&index=1

See also: https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/the-origins-of-the-habsburgs-explained/

guest5

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #32 on: May 30, 2021, 11:08:54 pm »
Are Swiss banks in trouble? | CNBC Explains
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A global clampdown on tax evasion, led by U.S. law authorities, has transformed the banking industry in Switzerland. Without its famed reputation for secrecy, wealthy foreigners no longer see it as a haven to hide their money. So how have Swiss banks adapted? CNBC’s Tom Chitty is joined by Geoff Cutmore to explain.


Chitty and Cutmore explain, this should be fun!  :)

guest5

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #33 on: June 10, 2021, 10:30:20 pm »
New Warning Of Errors On Consumers’ Credit Reports
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Consumer Reports asked its members to check for mistakes on their credit report. Of those who replied, a third found errors from incorrect addresses to false debt amounts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KCK20o9JsI&list=TLPQMTEwNjIwMjHMBL4da7YTyA&index=10

Inflation Rising At Fastest Pace In Nearly 13 Years
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Inflation rose 5 percent since last year as the economy recovers. NBC News’ Stephanie Ruhle has details on what consumers can expect, with increases on items like bread, coffee, clothing and more.

guest5

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #34 on: June 10, 2021, 11:20:11 pm »
That’s Rich: How U.S. Billionaires Avoided Paying Any Income Taxes
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A ProPublica report revealed how some of America’s wealthiest people paid zero, zilch, nada, some year, in federal income taxes. Author Anand Giridharadas and economist Arthur Laffer have a fiery debate on how much the nation’s top earners should be taxed.

The Mehdi Hasan Show: Insightful reporting and probing interviews that examine the day's events and provide a deeper level of context for the politics of our interconnected society.


In a sane and just world they would be stripped of their citizenship and made stateless, forced to live out their lives in a stateless zone.

Killthebank

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #35 on: June 11, 2021, 02:18:33 pm »
Racist origins of North American tipping culture

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/07/17/william-barber-tipping-racist-past-227361

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You might not think of tipping as a legacy of slavery, but it has a far more racialized history than most Americans realize. Tipping originated in feudal Europe and was imported back to the United States by American travelers eager to seem sophisticated. The practice spread throughout the country after the Civil War as U.S. employers, largely in the hospitality sector, looked for ways to avoid paying formerly enslaved workers.

One of the most notorious examples comes from the Pullman Company, which hired newly freed African American men as porters. Rather than paying them a real wage, Pullman provided the black porters with just a meager pittance, forcing them to rely on tips from their white clientele for most of their pay.

Everytime I express displeasure with the tipping culture, I am called a cheapskate or someone that doesn't empathize with service workers. Nevermind the fact that a lot of service jobs are not tipped.

guest55

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #36 on: July 17, 2021, 03:14:27 pm »
Better than Crypto? Why central banks are racing to launch digital currencies
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The rise of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin caused central banks around the world to sit up and take notice. Concerned about what widespread adoption could mean for their ability to implement economic policy, they are now racing to create their own forms of digital money. With China charging ahead, how will the new era of central bank digital currencies disrupt existing power dynamics in the financial system? And what will all of this mean for consumers?


Which digital currency will have more value, the one backed by a state's central bank or one that isn't backed by anything?

guest55

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Re: South West Africa
« Reply #37 on: July 17, 2021, 03:27:14 pm »
South Africa: More than 100 dead in worst unrest since apartheid
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South Africa is facing its worst unrest since apartheid. What originally started as protests over the arrest and jailing of former President Jacob Zuma shifted to violence and anger over the country's dire social and economic issues.
Now a clean-up operation is underway after days of looting of shopping centers and businesses that disrupted supply chains and transport links. The government has deployed security forces to contain tensions in several provinces. More than 100 people have been killed and over 2,000 arrested. A week after protests started, president Cyril Ramaphosa visited the affected sites and says the economy has been hit hard.
Now, there are fears of food and fuel shortages. DW's Christine Mhundwa has more on the residents stocking up on basic supplies.

guest55

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #38 on: July 30, 2021, 11:14:06 pm »
Corrupt Politics - Why Isn’t This ILLEGAL?!!
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I react to a recent article by Glenn Greenwald about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who "has become far richer through investment manoeuvres in Big Tech, as she privately chats with their CEOs."
#NancyPelosi #InsiderTrading #corruption #politics #BigTech


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Jody Yates
6 hours ago
Let’s call “donations “ what they are, BRIBES
Now let’s make it illegal......
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Cole Roberts
3 hours ago (edited)
Ugh, it used to be regulated. It went from limitations on donating money, specifically from corporations, in Buckley v. Valeo, to Citizens United v. FEC, which held corporations were persons who could support political candidates as much as much as individuals do so long as they aren't coordinating directly with that particular candidate. Then in McCutcheon v. FEC, the Supreme Court struck down aggregate limits on contributions. All under the First Amendment. The U.S. & it's Freedoms were sold in 2014. See the results?

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Paul Revere
6 hours ago
“A society that separates it’s scholars from it’s warriors will have it’s  thinking done by cowards and it’s fighting done by fools.” Thuycydides

guest55

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #39 on: August 15, 2021, 01:47:50 pm »
Chris Hedges | How Bankers ROBBED and ENSLAVED America

guest55

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #40 on: August 20, 2021, 11:45:54 am »
If You’re so Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? Turns out It’s Just Chance.
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The most successful people are not the most talented, just the luckiest, a new computer model of wealth creation confirms. Taking that into account can maximize return on many kinds of investment.
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The distribution of wealth follows a well-known pattern sometimes called an 80:20 rule: 80 percent of the wealth is owned by 20 percent of the people. Indeed, a report last year concluded that just eight men had a total wealth equivalent to that of the world’s poorest 3.8 billion people.

This seems to occur in all societies at all scales. It is a well-studied pattern called a power law that crops up in a wide range of social phenomena. But the distribution of wealth is among the most controversial because of the issues it raises about fairness and merit. Why should so few people have so much wealth?

The conventional answer is that we live in a meritocracy in which people are rewarded for their talent, intelligence, effort, and so on. Over time, many people think, this translates into the wealth distribution that we observe, although a healthy dose of luck can play a role.

But there is a problem with this idea: while wealth distribution follows a power law, the distribution of human skills generally follows a normal distribution that is symmetric about an average value. For example, intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, follows this pattern. Average IQ is 100, but nobody has an IQ of 1,000 or 10,000.

The same is true of effort, as measured by hours worked. Some people work more hours than average and some work less, but nobody works a billion times more hours than anybody else.

And yet when it comes to the rewards for this work, some people do have billions of times more wealth than other people. What’s more, numerous studies have shown that the wealthiest people are generally not the most talented by other measures.

What factors, then, determine how individuals become wealthy? Could it be that chance plays a bigger role than anybody expected? And how can these factors, whatever they are, be exploited to make the world a better and fairer place?

We finally get an answer thanks to the work of Alessandro Pluchino at the University of Catania in Italy and a couple of colleagues. These guys have created a computer model of human talent and the way people use it to exploit opportunities in life. The model allows the team to study the role of chance in this process.

The results are something of an eye-opener. Their simulations accurately reproduce the wealth distribution in the real world. But the wealthiest individuals are not the most talented (although they must have a certain level of talent). They are the luckiest. And this has significant implications for the way societies can optimize the returns they get for investments in everything from business to science.

Pluchino and co’s model is straightforward. It consists of N people, each with a certain level of talent (skill, intelligence, ability, and so on). This talent is distributed normally around some average level, with some standard deviation. So some people are more talented than average and some are less so, but nobody is orders of magnitude more talented than anybody else.

This is the same kind of distribution seen for various human skills, or even characteristics like height or weight. Some people are taller or smaller than average, but nobody is the size of an ant or a skyscraper. Indeed, we are all quite similar.

The computer model charts each individual through a working life of 40 years. During this time, the individuals experience lucky events that they can exploit to increase their wealth if they are talented enough.

However, they also experience unlucky events that reduce their wealth. These events occur at random.

At the end of the 40 years, Pluchino and co rank the individuals by wealth and study the characteristics of the most successful. They also calculate the wealth distribution. They then repeat the simulation many times to check the robustness of the outcome.

When the team rank individuals by wealth, the distribution is exactly like that seen in real-world societies. “The ‘80-20’ rule is respected, since 80 percent of the population owns only 20 percent of the total capital, while the remaining 20 percent owns 80 percent of the same capital,” report Pluchino and co.

That may not be surprising or unfair if the wealthiest 20 percent turn out to be the most talented. But that isn’t what happens. The wealthiest individuals are typically not the most talented or anywhere near it. “The maximum success never coincides with the maximum talent, and vice-versa,” say the researchers.

So if not talent, what other factor causes this skewed wealth distribution? “Our simulation clearly shows that such a factor is just pure luck,” say Pluchino and co.

The team shows this by ranking individuals according to the number of lucky and unlucky events they experience throughout their 40-year careers. “It is evident that the most successful individuals are also the luckiest ones,” they say. “And the less successful individuals are also the unluckiest ones.”

That has significant implications for society. What is the most effective strategy for exploiting the role luck plays in success?

Pluchino and co study this from the point of view of science research funding, an issue clearly close to their hearts. Funding agencies the world over are interested in maximizing their return on investment in the scientific world. Indeed, the European Research Council recently invested $1.7 million in a program to study serendipity—the role of luck in scientific discovery—and how it can be exploited to improve funding outcomes.

It turns out that Pluchino and co are well set to answer this question. They use their model to explore different kinds of funding models to see which produce the best returns when luck is taken into account.

The team studied three models, in which research funding is distributed equally to all scientists; distributed randomly to a subset of scientists; or given preferentially to those who have been most successful in the past. Which of these is the best strategy?

The strategy that delivers the best returns, it turns out, is to divide the funding equally among all researchers. And the second- and third-best strategies involve distributing it at random to 10 or 20 percent of scientists.

In these cases, the researchers are best able to take advantage of the serendipitous discoveries they make from time to time. In hindsight, it is obvious that the fact a scientist has made an important chance discovery in the past does not mean he or she is more likely to make one in the future.

A similar approach could also be applied to investment in other kinds of enterprises, such as small or large businesses, tech startups, education that increases talent, or even the creation of random lucky events.
Clearly, more work is needed here. What are we waiting for?
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/if-you-re-so-smart-why-aren-t-you-rich-turns-out-it-s-just-chance?utm_source=pocket-newtab

One word: Trump. A moronic billionaire born into money. Trump is definitely not the only moronic talent-less wealthy person on the planet either....

guest55

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #41 on: August 23, 2021, 01:31:43 pm »
The Racist History of Austerity Politics In America
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Hi. Here is an episode about history, racism, America, and how socialist programs that benefit everyone are good actually.

guest55

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #42 on: September 10, 2021, 08:55:17 pm »
The Myth Of The "Self-Made" Billionaire
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It’s no secret that Americans love to hear about billionaires. You’ll find them everywhere. They’re on the news [Bezos space launch], have their own TV shows, movies, and even make their way to elected office. Specifically, we consistently give massive audiences to “self-made” billionaires, the people who, unlike the aristocrats and monarchs of yore, didn’t simply inherit their wealth. In this episode, we’re talking about the obsession with so-called “self-made” billionaires, how misleading that term can be, and everything wrong with the myth of the “self-made person.”

guest55

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #43 on: September 21, 2021, 07:01:40 pm »
Is this the end of China's experiment with capitalism? | Counting the Cost
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Since President Xi Jinping became head of the Communist Party in 2012, he has launched an anti-corruption purge, interned millions of Uighurs and crushed the hopes of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

Now, Xi has got his eye on a huge segment of the economy that has powered economic growth in recent years: billionaires, celebrities, property, gaming and technology companies. He argues the side-effect of growth has been inequality and that it is time for “common prosperity”. Iris Pang, the chief economist for greater China at ING Bank, sheds further light on this.

Plus - why collectors are snapping up second-hand watches during lockdowns, according to the Founder and CEO of A Collected Man Silas Walton.

guest55

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Re: Monetary Wealth
« Reply #44 on: September 23, 2021, 01:15:37 pm »
TikTokers Use Congress's BRAZEN Corruption To Beat Stock Market
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A couple of TikTokers have found a new way to try to beat the stock market: copy the corrupt purchasing habits of people like Speaker Nancy Pelosi.