Reading HN comments about the stock market is like listening to a bunch of MBAs talk about software engineering.
Readit Newsdtwest commented on I'm Too Risk-Averse for Index Investing paranoidvalueinvestor.sub... · Posted by u/joshuafkon
dtwest commented on US Federal Reserve raises interest rates for first time since 2018 theguardian.com/business/... · Posted by u/clove
Yeah, MMT basically asserts that the separation between fiscal and monetary policy is artificial, and that the only real constraint on “fiscal” policy (tax and spending) is monetary effects, not the metaphorical limited purse (“fisc”) that must be filled with revenue and borrowing to allow spending.
It is not “Congress can spend willy-nilly” but “Congress needs to stop thinking about fiscal balance and start thinking like the Fed.” (Or, perhaps, “Congress needs to define fiscal policy with movable levers which it gives control of to the Fed or a Fed-like body.”)
An issue with using fiscal policy this way is that many of the things that are worth spending money on aren't easily movable levers, they are long term projects.
If inflation is accelerating and we need to cut spending to fix things it may be difficult or inefficient to cut the budget of a 10 year infrastructure project. If we need to spend more one year, do we just flood the healthcare system or military with money temporarily?
Changing tax policy frequently creates uncertainty for people investing in long term projects, which increases risk and cost associated with funding them.
I like that there is an academic debate going on about MMT, but there are practical challenges in implementing it. While far from perfect, the current monetary policy approach is easier to implement and change, while outsourcing capital allocation decisions to the banking system.
dtwest commented on Just Say No to Central Bank Digital Currencies theupheaval.substack.com/... · Posted by u/mortenjorck
>programming the money so that it couldn’t be used for sweets
That's stretching the concept 'money' a bit, is it still money if it's non-fungible? What on earth happens if the money is paid to someone? Can you 'launder' the restriction away by swapping money with a friend? Does the restriction remain indefinitely, making it completely non-fungible?
These are good questions to be asking, and they are all theoretical possibilities. Some people see this as an opportunity for improvement, others find it deeply concerning. Central banks do not necessarily need to abide by the old definition of money.
> Does anyone know why Intel would want to build a "mega-site" in the city of Columbus Ohio?
My guess would be access to talent and costs. Columbus is more than 2x bigger than Cleveland. Building cars is also an international affair and we see those plants all over the place.
Columbus metro area is roughly the same size as Cleveland metro area so I don't think that is the reason.
However, it could still have a talent advantage. Having OSU nearby is helpful, and maybe it is easier to attract talent to move to a city with a big university.
I hate hearing this argument. Simply because I'm living proof of the opposite: I'm not a native Swede, I immigrated here, I integrated into society by looking at its values, identifying with most of them and sharing those forward. I became a Swede and it has nothing to do with being born Nordic or into a homogeneous culture.
This hand-waving argument on why America is exceptional is really misplaced. America has issues because it has a big population and manages everything in terms of money. Money is the religion of the USA, it's the ideology of the country and when the only metric you use to gauge anything is on how much will be spent and how much return it will give in monetary terms, you end up with a deeply fractured web of perverse incentives and misplaced cooperation to juggle one metric: money.
America was built in a culture of mistrust, it came from inception and it never fought it. Distrust from centralised government, distrust in others (hence having guns, you don't trust you'll be protected from others so you need to take matters into your hands), distrust in commercial relationships, in personal relationships. It makes society feels fake and shallow, like everyone is just playing a part. There is just a lack of communal sense in everything regarding American culture, it's all about individualism and the self.
Sweden may be seen as a communal society but it's really not that simple, I like to say that Sweden is the most communal individualistic country I've been to, people still value self-reliance and individualism, while also keeping in mind a holistic view of society.
I wish Americans could see past this exceptionalism and move towards building something based on trust, it'd be a force to be reckoned with. Right now it's just a huge waste of bickering and pettiness all around, every single issue in America is amplified by this huge egoistic mindset.
You make some fair points about money and mistrust but the parent's argument is not unfair. You mention that you "became a Swede" by adopting Sweden's values. America doesn't have one unified set of values due to being so big. Sweden is smaller than Ohio by population. Ohioans generally share some values, but they are quite different than people in Massachusetts or Mississippi. America is closer to the EU's scale, and the EU has plenty of idealogical differences between member states. Do the Greeks trust that the Germans are looking out for their best interests?
dtwest commented on US inflation jumps to 31-year high amid global supply chain crisis theguardian.com/business/... · Posted by u/cs702
Interest rates really should have went up a couple of years ago. Not just for the sake of stemming inflation, but what good is the tool of lower rates in bad times when they are already at bottom in good times?
If something goes wrong (or more wrong) we will have no effective economic tools available because they are constantly running as if we are in crisis already.
They were going up a couple of years ago.
dtwest commented on China declares cryptocurrency deals ‘illegal’ dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/... · Posted by u/sturza
This is interesting timing given what has been happening related to Evergrande. It is possible that the government is worried about money being moved out of the country, and cryptocurrency is one way of doing that.
dtwest commented on No One Wanted A&W's Third-Pound Burger (2016) mentalfloss.com/article/7... · Posted by u/ZeljkoS
A&W used two 3oz patties, and when McDonald's gave the "third pounder" a try they used one 6oz patty. Both of these are 3/8lb, which is 12% more than 1/3lb!
Important to note that that is the weight before cooking, a frozen patty will lose a lot of water weight in the cooking process, so what you end up getting is not a full 6oz.
Just as there are many MBAs who were or are veteran software developers, the HN community is large enough that there are many members who are professional investors.
I did not mean to imply that everyone is one-dimensional, I personally have professional experience in the finance and software industries and have respect for the people in them. But when some finance expert suddenly becomes an opinionated epidemiologist I call bullshit (a random example that has happened far too often the past few years).