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-   -   The Current Events, News, and Politics Thread (https://www.miataturbo.net/current-events-news-politics-77/current-events-news-politics-thread-60908/)

Braineack 08-05-2013 12:09 PM

my hometown got a shout out this weekend:

OFA Attracts One Person for ObamaCare Event


The Centreville event’s lone attendee, Lynn Duvall of Fairfax, Va., told POLITICO that it was her family’s own medical burdens that fueled her passion for Obamacare. Duvall’s son Logan has Crohn’s disease and under the law’s provisions can stay on her health plan until he turns 26, next January. Then he’ll be able to get coverage in the health exchange, despite his pre-existing condition.

cordycord 08-05-2013 12:46 PM


Originally Posted by Scrappy Jack (Post 1040196)
"The Most Efficient Office in the World"

Slate article about a very well-run and efficient government office that is customer-facing: New York's Hudson Street Passport Office.
A few months ago, we had lunch with a friend who is a management consultant. He arrived at the restaurant raving about the fantastic experience he’d just had at the passport office on Hudson Street in lower Manhattan, where he’d gone for a need-it-by-tomorrow expedited passport. Having booked an appointment by phone, he arrived to have his application materials checked by a greeter (lest his papers be out of order, which might hold up others later in the process), who then handed him a number and sent him to a waiting room. Five minutes later, his number was called, and he was asked to hand in his paperwork. Then he was on his way; he had his new passport the next day. There was nothing that McKinsey, Accenture, or any other workflow consultant could have done to improve his experience.
They point out some reasons for the success of this branch, compared to LA for example, and talk about the importance of management - including but not limited to promoting excellent employees and firing bad ones ("Yes, while it isn’t easy, it is in fact possible to fire federal employees.").


Was this to balance out the story that said veterans wait an average of 273 days for their initial disability rating?

Scrappy Jack 08-05-2013 06:09 PM

For my turbro, Braineack:

Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates - WSJ.com
Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates
The unprecedented expansion of the money supply could make the '70s look benign.
Arthur Laffer

[...]But as bad as the fiscal picture is, panic-driven monetary policies portend to have even more dire consequences. We can expect rapidly rising prices and much, much higher interest rates over the next four or five years, and a concomitant deleterious impact on output and employment not unlike the late 1970s.
[...]
When reserve constraints on banks are removed, it does take the banks time to make new loans. But given sufficient time, they will make enough new loans until they are once again reserve constrained. The expansion of money, given an increase in the monetary base, is inevitable, and will ultimately result in higher inflation and interest rates. In shorter time frames, the expansion of money can also result in higher stock prices, a weaker currency, and increases in commodity prices such as oil and gold.
[...]
It's difficult to estimate the magnitude of the inflationary and interest-rate consequences of the Fed's actions because, frankly, we haven't ever seen anything like this in the U.S. To date what's happened is potentially far more inflationary than were the monetary policies of the 1970s, when the prime interest rate peaked at 21.5% and inflation peaked in the low double digits.

Braineack 08-06-2013 10:31 AM

http://danieljmitchell.files.wordpre...pg?w=500&h=551

Braineack 08-06-2013 10:33 AM

me:

http://danieljmitchell.files.wordpre...pg?w=500&h=340

Braineack 08-06-2013 10:33 AM

America, Fuck yeah!

http://danieljmitchell.files.wordpre...pg?w=500&h=348

http://danieljmitchell.files.wordpre...pg?w=500&h=790

Braineack 08-06-2013 10:41 AM

LAUSD Teacher Suspended After Sending Letter to Parents of Kid Who Called Him '------'


This senseless apathy is a malignant sore, a cancer on the energy and morale of the whole class. This is dismal, pathetic, self-absorbed and destructive. You and your kid are part of a family and you are partly responsible you’re your kid’s behavior. In terms of rule breaking or disturbing behavior in schools your kid does it it because they want to. Its not impulsivity, its not bad home situations, its not a broken family, its not bad economics or poverty, its not anything else except their decision to do it because they like to indulge themselves....Please do not respond to this letter by staging a conference to come dribble and whine like many do about you or your kid’s personal difficulties or your hard life.

cordycord 08-07-2013 12:51 AM


Originally Posted by Braineack (Post 1040553)

I can identify too. How about feeling absolute disdain for both Democrats and Republicans, and Washington in general?

Braineack 08-07-2013 07:09 AM

Lars says its because i like when gov't does things that i like, and he just doesn't like anything gov't does regardless.

z31maniac 08-07-2013 08:35 AM


Originally Posted by cordycord (Post 1040926)
I can identify too. How about feeling absolute disdain for both Democrats and Republicans, and Washington in general?

Same here. It's amazing that Congress has such a low approval rating but the frittata masses won't kick them out.

olderguy 08-07-2013 08:37 AM


Originally Posted by z31maniac (Post 1040989)
Same here. It's amazing that Congress has such a low approval rating but the frittata masses won't kick them out.

Everyone likes "their guy" who has "brung" home the bacon.

z31maniac 08-07-2013 08:50 AM


Originally Posted by olderguy (Post 1040990)
Everyone likes "their guy" who has "brung" home the bacon.

Yep, it's always the "other guy" who is the problem.

*sigh* Apathy is so much easier.

Scrappy Jack 08-08-2013 10:00 AM

1 Attachment(s)
In case you see it around, there is a commonly repeated but inaccurate (or straight-up false) factoid that says Reagan's administration and the associated Congress created "a million" jobs in one month.

In reality, about 700k union workers went on strike the month before and then returned to work the next month.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1375970407

Ryan_G 08-08-2013 10:03 AM

Sounds about as legit as our current unemployment numbers that don't take into account the underemployed, dual employed, and workers that have "left" the workforce.

Scrappy Jack 08-08-2013 11:01 AM

2 Attachment(s)

Originally Posted by Ryan_G (Post 1041505)
Sounds about as legit as our current unemployment numbers that don't take into account the underemployed, dual employed, and workers that have "left" the workforce.

Unemployment numbers do accomodate all of that.

You just have to know what numbers to look at. When someone says "the unemployment rate" it's like talking about "the tax rate." Which tax rate? Marginal? Effective? Capital gains? Etc.

For unemployment, you have the "headline" number which is the U-3 number. That's the one most commonly reported. The most broad measure of un- and under-employment is the U-6 measure.

Bureau of Labor Statistics most recent data.

Alternatively, you can look at other measure like the employment-population ratio:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1375974116

Or the labor force participation rate:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1375974116


I like to look at them all. :)

Ryan_G 08-08-2013 11:05 AM

I'm well aware these numbers exist Scrappy. It was just a sarcastic comment because the number used by the media and politicians is the U-3 number and its complete shit if used as the only KPI for unemployment. Too bad the general population is too retarded to understand this.

EDIT: I find it ironic that you posted the graphs of the other two numbers that I have seen you analytically destroy for their context issues involving cherry picking a specific time frame in order to fit a particular agenda. I know you were just using them as an illustration but it still made me chuckle.

Scrappy Jack 08-08-2013 12:02 PM


Originally Posted by Ryan_G (Post 1041531)
EDIT: I find it ironic that you posted the graphs of the other two numbers that I have seen you analytically destroy for their context issues involving cherry picking a specific time frame in order to fit a particular agenda. I know you were just using them as an illustration but it still made me chuckle.

I think you might have me confused for Joe Perez, who destroyed arguments about those numbers (LFP rate and empl/pop ratio). That is, people were critical that the recent numbers were so poor relative to their positions prior to the Global Financial Crisis.

That's why I included a longer time-frame; in this case a somewhat arbitrary 30 years.

Ryan_G 08-08-2013 12:06 PM


Originally Posted by Scrappy Jack (Post 1041571)
I think you might have me confused for Joe Perez, who destroyed arguments about those numbers (LFP rate and empl/pop ratio). That is, people were critical that the recent numbers were so poor relative to their positions prior to the Global Financial Crisis.

That's why I included a longer time-frame; in this case a somewhat arbitrary 30 years.

You're right I was thinking of Joe Perez. I know you always trace data back to the source when you can so I had assumed it was you because of your financial background. I also wasn't paying very close attention to the graphs because I now notice that they do show the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's as a possible bubble they just don't go back as far as the ones Joe used, which I believe went all the way to the 50's or earlier and illustrated the point he was making much better.

Braineack 08-08-2013 12:55 PM

3 Attachment(s)
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1375980914

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1375980914

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1375980914

Braineack 08-08-2013 01:08 PM

1 Attachment(s)
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1375981732


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