Economic Shenanigans / Market Crisis

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Honestly it should. As an European, and a European who lived in other countries too and has seen almost 30 of them, some things for me related to America are absolutely baffling and incomprehensible.

I genuinely think it's high time that systemic changes are done otherwise it will only spiral worse.

Most of those comparisons in your head are unified states. As in, one national government that wields the large bulk of political power. That does not obtain in the USA (at least yet) despite the efforts of Hamilton, Lincoln, Roosevelt, FDR, and others to shift us away from dispersed (what we label "federalized" power) to that of a stronger Central government. Our national government is our biggest power bloc, but often cannot do X, Y, or Z over the opposition of various state governments.

[Montmorency]

Funny saw about real-life events:
The world is on the cusp of an economic depression.
International relations are an increasingly-violent maelstrom of great-power posturing.
A US Republican lawmaker named Hawley takes the Capitol floor to declaim against free trade and the reds...
What is the year?

Most of those comparisons in your head are unified states. As in, one national government that wields the large bulk of political power. That does not obtain in the USA (at least yet) despite the efforts of Hamilton, Lincoln, Roosevelt, FDR, and others to shift us away from dispersed (what we label "federalized" power) to that of a stronger Central government. Our national government is our biggest power bloc, but often cannot do X, Y, or Z over the opposition of various state governments.

Heretofore the United States was as close to unitary union as any federal state has come. Congress could preempt vast bodies of state law if it chose to (as it often has in the past, e.g. regulatory matters). The states have been desperate for the federal government to take the lead in this crisis. That it hasn't this time, choosing instead to undermine the states, is not an element of our federalism but of our descent toward failed state status a la early-90s Russia or Somalia - pick your poison.

Anyway, on the subject of the thread the bottom line remains that neglecting to borrow trillions at zero interest rates in order to provide relief, sustain government services, prime the economy, or even refinance outstanding debt, during one of the worst downturns
- in the context of an increasingly-brittle world system - of all time is a world-historical level of fiscal irresponsibility, of Hetty-Greenism, that will reverberate for the remainder of recorded time. One more casual theft from future generations.

This has been your correspondent from the Regional Advisory Council.

[CrossLOPER]

Excuse my departure from my usual aloofness but what in the f*** are you doing over there?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Excuse my departure from my usual aloofness but what in the f*** are you doing over there?

Enacting Patrick Henry's vision for governance.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Excuse my departure from my usual aloofness but what in the f*** are you doing over there?

Pull up a map of states alignment during the ACW. Look familiar? Not much has changed in 160 years....

[CrossLOPER]

Enacting Patrick Henry's vision for governance.

Looks about a coherent as a map of the HRE during the later years.

Pull up a map of states alignment during the ACW. Look familiar? Not much has changed in 160 years....

It's the northern protesters with the Confederate flags that I find amusing.

[Montmorency]

Looks about a coherent as a map of the HRE during the later years.

Just so.

Pull up a map of states alignment during the ACW. Look familiar? Not much has changed in 160 years....

That's part of it, but the truth is it's so much messier. At least there were just two polities in the ACW-era. Remember, first time as tragedy, second time as farce.


EDIT: By the way, the answer to the joke in my previous post is 1930/2020. I hope I don't have to explain it.

[ReluctantSamurai]

It's the northern protesters with the Confederate flags that I find amusing.

It's about rural and non-rural areas. Numbers wise, the urban areas probably sport more guns per capita than the non-urban areas. But it's the intent. In the cities guns are closely related to violent crimes that are primarily race or drug related. In rural areas, it's more like a badge of honor...the proverbial "Don't Tread On Me" mentality. The Michigan Freedom Fund (the group carrying out the protests) is financed primarily through the DeVos family based in Grand Rapids, MI, and the family has very close ties with Trump (Betsy DeVos is Trump's education secretary).

At least there were just two polities in the ACW-era.

And there are just two polities now, as I see it

Conservative, mostly white, Republicans---and liberal Democrats. Oversimplification, I know, but most conflict can be drawn along those lines. Just look at your chart for those who wear masks in public, and those that don't. Pretty much aligned along party lines