We need a summit summit.

War, what is it good for ? Absolutely nothing, except GDP.

Outsider wrote:

We need a summit summit.

We need a summit to determine when and where to have the summit summit.

Summit-time, summit-time, sum-sum-summit-time...

YouTube - The Jamies-Summertime Summertime

It's no wonder that European play such a high level of soccer. They have so much practice at kicking the .

The American War Racket

BRUSSELS — For most Europeans, almost nothing is more prized than their four to six weeks of guaranteed annual vacation leave. But it was not clear just how sacrosanct that time off was until Thursday, when Europe’s highest court ruled that workers who happened to get sick on vacation were legally entitled to take another vacation.
“The purpose of entitlement to paid annual leave is to enable the worker to rest and enjoy a period of relaxation and leisure,” the Court of Justice of the European Union, based in Luxembourg, ruled in a case involving department store workers in Spain. “The purpose of entitlement to sick leave is different, since it enables a worker to recover from an illness that has caused him to be unfit for work.”

It's no wonder that European play such a high level of soccer. They have so much practice at kicking the .

U.S. housing market sees signs of recovery - The Globe and Mail

"Home prices rose in nearly all major U.S. cities in April from March, further evidence that the housing market is slowly improving even while the job market slumps."

tg quoted:

Europe’s highest court ruled that workers who happened to get sick on vacation were legally entitled to take another vacation.

They're reaching terminal velocity with that one.

tg wrote:

workers who happened to get sick on vacation were legally entitled to take another vacation

While in the US if you use up your three days of allowed sick days, you can use your vacation days if you would like to be paid.

josap wrote:

While in the US if you use up your three days of allowed sick days, you can use your vacation days if you would like to be paid.

In Freedomland, a law partner wearing $500 pumps rails about the lazy associate who didn't come in on the weekend, even though the associate makes $45K, in New York, and can barely scratch together the extra train fare.

Outsider wrote:

YouTube - CAKE "Rock & Roll Lifestyle"
Yeah, yeah, no one likes Nickelback I know
YouTube - Nickelback - Rockstar

YouTube - Led Zeppelin/ Rock N' Roll

Whiskey wrote:

Any day now.
YouTube - Oasis - Rock 'N' Roll Star

YouTube - David Bowie - Rock n Roll Suicide 

sm_landlord wrote:

Ehhh, just an extremely sweet deal that happens to be unsustainable.

Are you sure about that? What if it represents a stable equilibrium of wealth equality, sustained productivity growth, and lower birth rates? Making people do the work of two people, feeding them crap, and not letting them raise families that maintain population levels seems less sustainable to me.

Well, if you're gonna be that way about it

YouTube - It's Only Rock And Roll-The Rolling Stones

josap wrote:

While in the US if you use up your three days of allowed sick days, you can use your vacation days if you would like to be paid.

. . . which is great for employees, but means nothing to the self-employed who have neither sick days nor vacation days.

Outsider wrote:

Well, if you're gonna be that way about it

I can only be me.

YouTube - Bob Seger - Old Time Rock and Roll

Let's drop the big one, and see what happens!!
YouTube - Randy Newman - Political Science

Ben, let's do it, drop a $5 trillion blow on them, November 11, 2012.

Shock and awe, monetary style.

Someday this war's gonna end...

YouTube - Chuck Berry - Rock And Roll Music

sm_landlord wrote:

Yup, Europe is looking real stable right about now.

The structural problems of the EU aren't caused by vacation time.

Citizen AllenM wrote:

Ben, let's do it, drop a $5 trillion blow on them, November 11, 2012.

I don't think the repubs will care one bit if Romney wins.

Whiskey wrote:

The structural problems of the EU aren't caused by vacation time.

No, they are caused by the socialized health care, Duh!

Outsider wrote:

YouTube - Chuck Berry - Rock And Roll Music

YouTube - KISS - Rock and Roll all Night

About half of Hong Kong’s population, or 700,000 households, live in government housing of some type. That includes 2.1 million people in public rental estates (about 30% of the population), and another 1.2 million (about 17%), who live in subsidized ownership apartments.

One individual told MarketWatch his family moved out some years ago but managed to keep the keys to the government apartment where he grew up, which they now use as a storage facility.

Another woman described how she’d spent her entire childhood in public housing while her parents retired early by living off the income from multiple properties which they owned and rented out at market rates.
Hong Kong housing projects host wealthy tenants - Asia Stocks to Watch - MarketWatch

YouTube - Billy Joel "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me"

Blackhalo wrote:

How much coke would that buy? Hey! I have a great idea for how the Fed can win the war on drugs and grow it's balance sheet profitably at the SAME TIME!

OK, so go long Peruvian coca fields? Is there a futures market for that?

Can you pick out the OCDers in the group?

YouTube - Manfred Mann's Earth Band- Blinded by the Light

TJ and The Bear wrote:

if he's going to blow a fiver on someone

Fiverr - Hire people to do things for $5

All this partying has tuckered me out.

Outsider wrote:

Can you pick out the OCDers in the group?

YouTube - Rock 'N' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution (High Quality)

More durability or more goods? [pick one]

YouTube - Motörhead - Rock 'N' Roll

aww I wanted more durable goods

YouTube - The Human League - Rock 'n' Roll

YouTube - The Go-Betweens - rock'n Roll Friend.wmv

Student Loan Deal Reached, Senate Leaders Say

1] including a change in how companies compute the money they must set aside to fund their pensions. The change would make their contributions more consistent year to year and in effect lower them

2] fees that companies pay to have their pensions insured by the quasi-government Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. would rise to reflect increases in inflation.

3] limit federal subsidies for Stafford loans for undergraduates to six years

all this so that a student can save 1000 over the lifetime of a loan?

Easy. And I'll pull another one from the same country, albeit another decade:

YouTube - The Easybeats - Gonna Have A Good Time

YouTube - Peter Paul and Mary, I Dig Rock and Roll Music

YouTube - JIMI HENDRIX - GOOD TIMES (RARE)

"Let the Good Times Roll" [Blues]

1 currency now -yogi wrote:

"Let the Good Times Roll" [Blues]

YouTube - The Cars- Let The Good Times Roll Lyrics

If you are not in the profession, it is academic to you.

It is personal to us. Careers have been altered, people are not employed, real harm has been done by people over these distinctions.

You talk about it like it is some version of "just politics", but in this case it is so much more.

Entire careers can be considered wasted by this depression.

A lot of years of research has been turned to rubble, and people are mad and angry.

Why don't I have a PhD? Because I publicly doubted some of the very tenets of freshwater economics, which is poison when they have to decide who stays or goes.

Now, I am done, I have to empty the dishwasher before I unload years of anger on you.

Someday this war's gonna end...

RATM wrote:

Bacon Self-Portrait Sells for $7 Million at Sotheby’s - Bloomberg

YouTube - Jim Gaffigan - Bacon - KING BABY - CD and DVD Available NOW!

Bubblisimo Gerkinov wrote:

1 currency now -yogi wrote:

"Let the Good Times Roll" [Blues]

YouTube - The Cars- Let The Good Times Roll Lyrics

I think we've hit Mornington Crescent with that..

Mornington Crescent (game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

.The apparent[1] aim is to be the first to announce "Mornington Crescent", a station on the Northern Line. Interspersed with the turns is humorous discussion amongst the panellists and host regarding the rules and legality of each move, as well as the strategy the panellists are using. Despite appearances, however, there are no rules to the game,[2] and both the naming of stations and the specification of "rules" are based on stream-of-consciousness association and improvisation.[3] Thus the game is intentionally incomprehensible.

Citizen AllenM wrote:

If you are not in the profession, it is academic to you.

It is personal to us. Careers have been altered, people are not employed, real harm has been done by people over these distinctions.

You talk about it like it is some version of "just politics", but in this case it is so much more.

Entire careers can be considered wasted by this depression.

A lot of years of research has been turned to rubble, and people are mad and angry.

Why don't I have a PhD? Because I publicly doubted some of the very tenets of freshwater economics, which is poison when they have to decide who stays or goes.

Now, I am done, I have to empty the dishwasher before I unload years of anger on you.

Whoah,. unload away ( not the dishwasher.. on me.. ) I'm listening.

I say Kartoffel, you say patata. Let's call the whole thing off.

In my drunken haze, I had a moment of clarity and realized that every conceivable recording outfit in the known universe had recorded a song with "Rock and Roll" in the name:

Rock and Roll - West 52nd Street Buddha Lounge Ensemble : Listen, Appearances, Song Review : AllMusic
Rock and Roll - F**Bomb : Listen, Appearances, Song Review : AllMusic
I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band) - The Moody Blues : Listen, Appearances, Song Review : AllMusic
So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star - The Byrds : Listen, Appearances, Song Review : AllMusic

Then the bitterness set in:

YouTube - Pet Shop Boys - How I Learned To Hate Rock'n Roll

Excellent link and article, skk. The phenomenon is active in other disciplines as well.

Central banks hold 30% of global GDP | Business | The Guardian

Mornington Crescent FTW!!!!11!!1!

tg wrote:

Central banks hold 30% of global GDP | Business | The Guardian

There's SO much wrong with that statement.

Blackhalo wrote:

That seems like an overly complex definition of Calvinball.

an insaner world: the unofficial official rules of calvinball

nice.. absolutely.

arthur_dent wrote:

The true billiance I've seen in life has been in stone cold sober people.

Captain Beefheart was apparently always sober. So I'll give you him. But an awful lot of dipsos made some great music and other art.

I wonder, Arthur. Even Callas died of an overdose.

To what point? The old guys who got their PhD's in the 60s at the feet of Uncle Milton are not going to change their ways, they have tenure, a cushy extra at the Cato, nice money from Koch washed through bogus "institutes"- and you think in your engineer way you can fight that much inertia?

Progress will come through funerals.

Look at the Nobel Prize winning &^() Edward Prescott- he gets the Nobel Prize for essentially asserting Ricardian equivalence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  in central bank setting policy. Edward C. Prescott - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He is a total Cato moron. Feted at ASU, where they allow him to warp yet another generation with fatuous crap.

Yet, hey, he won a Nobel Prize too!

This stuff just pisses me off. Hey, he loves austerity! He believes totally in his own mathematical models~ just don't really try and use them! He advises Federal Reserve high and mighties!

Meh, whatever, it just doesn't matter.

Keynes won, again. Now we bury the old fools who made careers arguing otherwise.

Someday this war's gonna end...

arthur_dent wrote:

The true billiance I've seen in life has been in stone cold sober people.

But that is the part of the effect that perplexes me. I only notice it as an after-effect while, at the time, stone, cold, sober. Drunk, I'm an idiot like anyone else, I suspect. After, I do freaking brilliant work. Illusion of perception, or functional side-effect? Side note: I do not consider myself an alcoholic as I have no cravings to use the substance outside of intermittent occasions. Plus beer (my preferred vice) tends to make me fat. Now tobacco, on the other hand, that. I am addicted to, and can recognize that for what it is.

Meh, the human condition. Such an ancient story, and it's vices too. I sure would like to see a less puritanical approach to it's study. Probably hard to get funding for that though.

It was pretty well known in the profession, and part of the reason why Alan Blinder - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia left the federal reserve board as vice chair.

Orthodoxy at the fed is strictly tied to a paycheck.

Someday this war's gonna end...

arthur_dent wrote:

more than likely any brilliance created by artists is done in spite of rather than the product of mind altering drugs, many who destroy themselves in the process.

I think it's fair to say that the entire Philip K. Dick oeuvre is the inspired product of mind altering substances. I became disoriented just reading Three Stigmata of Palmer Aldritch.

Progress will come through funerals.

I think that is why they party at funerals in New Orleans. More Kingfisher logic for your Allen.

YouTube - Def Leppard - Rock of Ages

YouTube - Sex Pistols - Problems

Is caffeine a mind altering substance? In many ways, it is the drug du jour for the modern, stressed-out America, and most office drones couldn't function without it.

YouTube - Fleetwood Mac - Tusk

Citizen AllenM wrote:

and part of the reason why Alan Blinder - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia left the federal reserve board as vice chair.

He of the "Cash for Clunkers" program ?! - so sez the wiki..

Blinder was an early advocate of a "Cash for Clunkers" program, in which the government buys some of the oldest, most-polluting vehicles and scraps them. In July 2008, he wrote an article in The New York Times advocating such a program,[13] which was implemented by the Obama administration during the summer of 2009.[14] Blinder asserted it could stimulate the economy, benefit the environment, and reduce income inequality.

I'd rather he'd advocated digging 4000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire, only to be filled up again..

YouTube - The Beatles A Day In The Life (2009 Stereo Remaster) 

Pick it up at 3:15.

Still why did he leave the FRB again ? cos they wdn't listen to him ?

*

The really funny part is how many people here think I am typical for the profession.

I am a total outlier, and now talk to very few people in the profession because I am soooo radical.

I let it all hang out here, because I feel free enough to really say what I want. At work, no way.

I do my job very professionally there, and just keep macro out of the way.

Publish or perish, I choose perish.

Now, we see once again, the folly in man, the fools in politics, and the suffering of the people.

Someday this war's gonna end...

The most prolific mathematician of all time was so because he popped speed like Tic Tacs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s

Read this: Priceless: How The Federal Reserve Bought The Economics Profession 

Then talk to me.

dryfly wrote:

Coincidence is not causation however.

The place was nuts long before then, when everyone was high on mead.

Rob Dawg wrote:

Economics is no more science than astrology is astronomy.

Woah there. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Econ, has just been co-opted by the well connected to further their interests just like every other field. That does not mean that empirical study and the scientific method have no place in finance.

Erdos, Cayley, and Euler produced more voluminous work. That's not to say their work was as important as Gauss'.

Stockton official: Mediation with creditors fails - SFGate

"Bankruptcy Only Choice Left" As Stockton Set To Become Largest US City Chapter 9 | ZeroHedge

Largest...so far.

Throw O. Henry into the mix as well.

Hey Allen M,
What do you think of anna Schwartz' work? She died this week, and was a neighbor and friendly acquaintance. I knew her to chat with occasionally, walking in and out of the building.

Anna Schwartz, Economist Who Worked With Friedman, Dies at 96 - NY Times

Citizen AllenM wrote:

I let it all hang out here, because I feel free enough to really say what I want. At work, no way.

Join the club mate !

Blackhalo wrote:

This is the one most lends credence to the concept of brain lube for me.

John Barrymore.

The place was nuts long before then, when everyone was high on mead.

You miss the point.

People can be crazy on mead - beat their wife and kids while living in mud huts. It takes caffeinated nuts to do it on a global scale for four or five centuries enslaving most of the rest of the world (either actually or culturally).

If that doesn't help you - replace the coffee at the office with mead tomorrow and observe. Could those people colonize the planet in shockingly short period of time?

fried wrote:

What do you think of anna Schwartz' work

the sex orgies she arranged? wunderbar!

Steinhardt says hysteria on Europe unwarranted
| Reuters

Steinhardt said he is "more long than short" in equity markets and is still betting against short-term Treasuries.

"I am still short two-year Treasuries," he said, adding: "It has not worked out."

Feckless Ness wrote:

Nora Ephron obituary: Writer of sharp-edged romances was 71 - latimes.com

hey... Feckless... see above comments... I posted some footage I shot of her 4 years ago talking about Comedy...
YouTube - Nora Ephron: Importance of Being Funny and Directing Comedy on Film

Whiskey wrote:

The most prolific mathematician of all time was so because he popped speed like Tic Tacs.

was this self diagnosed as cause and effect by Erdos, or a competent doctor, or is it urban legend. Amphetamines in people with normal body chemistry are addictive and requires ever larger amounts leading ultimately to major physical and psychological problems. With chronic use withdrawal symptoms are severe and can take months to end. In people with abnormal body chemistry it can actually act as a depressant rather than a stimulant.

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no money in Mudville—mighty Stockton has run out.

flaminia wrote:

weren't all that big on coffee.

They were big on coffee. The Bank of England was founded in a coffee house. But all the coffee plants died, so they started growing tea instead.
History of Coffee Part III - Colonisation of Coffee | Galla Coffee

The British did not seriously compete in the coffee race until 1796, when they took control of Sri Lanka from the Dutch. With the arrival of the British, even more land was cleared for coffee plantations. So much so, that the relatively small island of Sri Lanka briefly became the world's largest coffee producer in the 1860s. However, in 1869, a lethal fungus known as coffee rust arrived on the island. This fungus causes premature defoliation of a coffee plant, seriously weakening its structure and reducing its yield of berries. Since rust was not considered to be a serious disease, the British continued to clear more land for coffee plantations during the next decade. It was not until 1879 that they realised the seriousness of the situation. Unfortunately by then it was too late: the productivity of the plants had declined so greatly that they were no longer economically viable.

Luckily for the British, a successful marketing campaign led by the British East India Company for tea entitled "the cup that cheers", back in the early 18th Century, had laid the foundations for tea to become the British national drink. Between 1700 and 1757 the average annual tea imports into Britain more than quadrupled and consumption continued to grow steadily for the rest of the century. So when coffee rust devastated the coffee plantations of Sri Lanka, and later India, production simply switched and the coffee plants were uprooted and replanted with tea. Although Britain continued to cultivate coffee on a limited amount of colonial land, mostly in Jamaica, Uganda and Kenya, by the end of the 19th Century tea had surpassed coffee as the beverage of choice.

She was Milton Friedman's partner in crime.

Freshwater to the core. Can't even admit Fisher was right about debt deflation.

The real problem is they tied Keynes to the welfare state, and have beat him like a drum.

The really funny part was that they thought they had really won, and went too far in 2001. That was the beginning of the end. The economic response to 9/11 was appalling.

And now we all pay, in suffering and unemployment.

Now we sit here and debate austerity, making all the mistakes of the last century yet again.

Someday this war's gonna end...

dryfly wrote:

Could those people colonize the planet in shockingly short period of time?

The only thing those people can colonize is the break room, and half of them are on anti-depressants. Too many things happened in Europe circa 1400 for me to ascribe European imperialism to caffeine.

Thanks Rajesh. That was interesting.

Jackdawracy wrote:

A rare moment of Duke Point for me, i'm very closely related to Euler.

It's late, and I'm too tired to construct an Euler characteristic joke. Good night, everyone. See ya in rehab.

Citizen AllenM wrote:

Now we sit here and debate austerity, making all the mistakes of the last century yet again.

I'm pretty sure the Republican want to repeat the mistakes of the fourteenth century, instead.

Jackdawracy wrote:

A rare moment of for me, i'm very closely related to Euler.

We've struck oil, mates! (A little pronunciation joke. Very little.)

I think we're awfully hard on the gifted, especially when they're not yet grown or haven't been given the 'blessing' of recognition - had someone locally 'famous' guarantee their worth.

It's no mystery to me that a working class youth - particularly one possessed of a genuine gift - might crawl into a bottle or medicine cabinet.

Imagine if there were no more coffee. Life as we know it would stop.

edit: for a while anyways

Hey I posted 3 links on Stockton Bankruptcy i.e BBC, SF Chronicle and ZH bitchzes

America going cold turkey on anti depressants would be interesting to watch, if not a little frightening.

At least Poona Coffee House stuck with its principles ( and the archaic name - no Pune for them no siree - ( cue iambroke to correct me ) -

Many in Pune still remember Suresh Kalmadi as a young man in his early 30s sitting at the cash counter of Poona Coffee House — a meeting point for established as well as aspiring politicians.
...a meeting place for politicians who would discuss and strategise Maharashtra politics over coffee. The place was soon replaced by Poona Coffee House which became a central meeting point for established as well as aspiring politicians,” says a politician associated with Suresh Kalmadi since his early years and who describes him as an aggressive and ambitious young man during those days.

I remember it - sort of - during the Emergency times.

Bubblisimo Gerkinov wrote:

Can we discuss something less horrible

L-Theanine with Caffeine, underrated nootropic - Brain Health - LONGECITY

L-Theanine synergics effects with Caffeine.
The non-proteinic amino acid L-theanine and caffeine, a methylxanthine derivative, are naturally occurring ingredients in tea. The present study investigated the effect of a combination of 97 mg L-theanine and 40 mg caffeine as compared to placebo treatment on cognitive performance, alertness, blood pressure, and heart rate in a sample of young adults (n = 44). Cognitive performance, self-reported mood, blood pressure, and heart rate were measured before L-theanine and caffeine administration (i.e. at baseline) and 20 min and 70 min thereafter. The combination of moderate levels of L-theanine and caffeine significantly improved accuracy during task switching and self-reported alertness (both P < 0.01) and reduced self-reported tiredness (P < 0.05). There were no significant effects on other cognitive tasks, such as visual search, choice reaction times, or mental rotation. The present results suggest that 97 mg of L-theanine in combination with 40 mg of caffeine helps to focus attention during a demanding cognitive task. [4]

L-Theanine is an amino acid found naturally in tea. Despite the common consumption of L-theanine, predominantly in combination with caffeine in the form of tea, only one study to date has examined the cognitive effects of this substance alone, and none have examined its effects when combined with caffeine. The present randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, balanced crossover study investigated the acute cognitive and mood effects of L-theanine (250 mg), and caffeine (150 mg), in isolation and in combination. Salivary caffeine levels were co-monitored. L-Theanine increased 'headache' ratings and decreased correct serial seven subtractions. Caffeine led to faster digit vigilance reaction time, improved Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVIP) accuracy and attenuated increases in self-reported 'mental fatigue'. In addition to improving RVIP accuracy and 'mental fatigue' ratings, the combination also led to faster simple reaction time, faster numeric working memory reaction time and improved sentence verification accuracy. 'Headache' and 'tired' ratings were reduced and 'alert' ratings increased. There was also a significant positive caffeine x L-theanine interaction on delayed word recognition reaction time. These results suggest that beverages containing L-theanine and caffeine may have a different pharmacological profile to those containing caffeine alone. [5]

The aim of this study was to compare 50 mg caffeine, with and without 100 mg L-theanine, on cognition and mood in healthy volunteers. The effects of these treatments on word recognition, rapid visual information processing, critical flicker fusion threshold, attention switching and mood were compared to placebo in 27 participants. Performance was measured at baseline and again 60 min and 90 min after each treatment (separated by a 7-day washout). Caffeine improved subjective alertness at 60 min and accuracy on the attention-switching task at 90 min. The L-theanine and caffeine combination improved both speed and accuracy of performance of the attention-switching task at 60 min, and reduced susceptibility to distracting information in the memory task at both 60 min and 90 min. These results replicate previous evidence which suggests that L-theanine and caffeine in combination are beneficial for improving performance on cognitively demanding tasks. [6]

Is that the common element, then? We're all of us coffee hounds?

km4 wrote:

Taxpayers can't afford the present level of inefficiency, redundancy and bloat currently being served up by their local, unionized, government job banks, and are being bled dry.

Barfly bait. Whatever happened to that guy?

burnside wrote:

Is that the common element, then? We're all of us coffee hounds?

definitely. but oddly I'm an instant coffee man.. must be the ads.. ( note same ad as the US but Brit accents and brand name change to Tasters Choice)..

YouTube - Classic advertising from the past - Nescafe Gold Blend (New York Flight episode)

adr
Vote up!
7
Vote down!
-1
48% of the recently passed levy in my town goes to pay for government retiree benefits. Five years from now 65% of the money will go to pay for pensions. Hmmmm.

Still, people voted to pass it. I voted against it, but now an extra $40 a month goes out of my paycheck to the city. The backers of the levy claimed it needed to pass to keep firefighters and police. We have 28 squad cars and the tallest building is 8 stories, that is a section 8 building not even owned by my city, let that burn. Our school system can't hire new teachers until a pensioner dies, thanks to the average pension package worth $90k.

Four cops, one fire engine, is all we need. My neighbors would rather take care of the local burglar ourselves, the cops haven't done shit. If it's some punk 16 yr old kid, I'll have no problem blowing his guts allover the sidewalk. His friends probably won't think it's cool anymore. If it's trash from the ghetto, bring the war, we're ready.

km4 wrote:

If it's some punk 16 yr old kid, I'll have no problem blowing his guts allover the sidewalk. His friends probably won't think it's cool anymore. If it's trash from the ghetto, bring the war, we're ready.

drinking is cool

The only thing those people can colonize is the break room, and half of them are on anti-depressants. Too many things happened in Europe circa 1400 for me to ascribe European imperialism to caffeine.

I am not saying it was all of it. I think it is a part. Caffiene is a very powerful pyschotropic drug. One of the very best stimulants because it doesn't have a lot of serious psychotic side effects (like speed) yet really powers the mind and body beyond what it wants to do. And it didn't just do it to Europeans - Arabs had a pretty nice run 7th century on to recent times. They didn't always have coffee available to them - some time around 6th 7th century.

Cocaine had similar effects and also powered a civilization (Inca) - they didn't purify it so didn't have all the nasty side effects you see with modern coke abuse.

Stimulants seems to be coupled with civilization pretty tightly. Again correlation is no proof of causation.

km4 wrote:

I'll have no problem blowing his guts allover the sidewalk

YouTube - The Kinks - Have a Cuppa Tea, 1972

HomeGnome wrote:

YouTube - Heart - Barracuda (1977)

I'd bet my last dollar these guys did their best work, stoned.

"Heart's first Mushroom Records single How Deep it Goes b/w Here Song (M-7008) received little attention when released in Canada in 1975. But the second single Magic Man..."

And the lyrics to the song don't matter a whit in comparison to the brilliance of it's rhythm guitar hook. Duh duh d-duh, duh d-duh duh, duh d-duh duh [silent pause] [insert any remotely cool four syllable word here you want, for a colossal hit record, but Barracuda is pretty good] bonus points for a remotely hot vocalist.

"a reporter suggested, backstage after a live appearance, that the sisters were sex partners, the infuriated Ann returned to her hotel room and began writing the lyrics to "Barracuda" to relieve her frustration."

"In 1995 Nancy decided to take a break from music to concentrate on raising a family with husband Cameron Crowe."

Wait what? Mr Almost Famous? That is mega meta.

F'n Penny Lane is right up there on the list with Roller Girl...

dr munch wrote:

A few need to get shot in the head to discourage that behavior.

That's nice

Charming thought.

Yikes

hmmm... the L-Theanine study is interesting, especially for an overwhelmed and understudied bar examinee.

Lesson - alternate coffee and tea - why take chances.

dr munch wrote:

you'd rather get assaulted by 20 youths for walking home after work?

is it mad max where you live?

dr munch wrote:

you'd rather get assaulted by 20 youths for walking home after work?

false dichotomies anyone ?

A List Of Fallacious Arguments 

Gosh I haven't linked to that for bloody ages.. HCN must have improved..

Northwestern Hospital Warns Workers About Recent Mob Attacks « CBS Chicago

Rickkk wrote:

"Home prices rose in nearly all major U.S. cities in April from March, further evidence that the housing market is slowly improving even while the job market slumps."

bull

Do we consider higher energy prices an "improving" market?

System is rotten to the core.

Comrade Troyski wrote:

We have a distribution problem not a productivity problem.

Evenly redistribute and you'll soon have a productivity problem.

Comrade Troyski wrote:

How much per-capita GDP does an economy require to be "sustainable"?

There's no such thing as sustainability ... only growth.

Comrade Troyski wrote:

Do we consider higher energy prices an "improving" market?

Trying to make sense of it will only land you in a psych ward on heavy meds.

km4 wrote:

But we can still salvage the natural world

Maybe not...

Guy McPherson: We’re Done

Hmmmm.....

burnside wrote:

Have any theorists shown a model which takes into account a complete lack of fiscal/monetary discipline?

To do that, they'd have to throw out every risk:reward theory.

About Keynes. The comment which inevitably follows any abbreviated exposition on JMK is that building reserves in times of plenty is a political non-starter. As if he should have found some alternative rather than proposing what was wanted.
Have any theorists shown a model which takes into account a complete lack of fiscal/monetary discipline?

Can't speak on the fiscal monetary discipline theory study but can say this - the alternative [austerity] is every bit the political nonstarter Keynsian 'discipline' is - as we see in Europe. People will not stave in the streets waiting for banker's finances to improve. They will eat the rich if nothing else is available.

dr munch wrote:

Nope, a good area of Chicago.

Intentionally obtuse snark or just a bit dim? Looking at your other posts leaves me unsure. Gonna have to go with Occam on this one.

I think that there are many possible equilibria. In South America the elites have a long history of prospering while the people starve.

Risible.

We cut taxes, and got less gross- cf 2001 until now data.

We are on the bottom of the Laffer curve, and nobody wants to admit that one.

Especially the taxes on capital.

But hey, everyone should be enjoying the liquidation of the rentier.

I sure am, and as things get worse, they all should go and read the guy trying to keep capitalists in kibble: PIMCO | Investment Outlook - The Great Escape:Delivering in a Delevering World 

Good luck and good nite, because anyone who thinks fiddling at the edges is going to solve these problems should just take a job at the Cato Institute and get paid to be risible.

Someday this war's gonna end...

FRED Graph - FRED - St. Louis Fed

blue is real GDP per capita

red is systemic debt / nominal GDP

1955-1980 is an interesting course for the debt leverage, as is the 1990s.

1960-1980 and 1990-2000 were the "organic" growth periods, accomplished without increasing debt leverage.

I do wonder if leverage curve is going to staircase upwards again. It wouldn't surprise me, but it's going to cause some TPer (rightfully so, LOL)

Hell, combine firearms, Calvinism and caffeine and you've really got something.

Please - don't forget our ally - smallpox.

Winston wrote:

In South America the elites have a long history of prospering while the people starve.

The people there haven't known much else, as opposed to (the middle class) here...

dryfly wrote:

Stimulants seems to be coupled with civilization pretty tightly. Again correlation is no proof of causation.

Rome?
Greece?

Am I missing something obvious?

burnside wrote:

Exactly. So we deep-six Keynes. Small wonder it's a tender subject to dryfly and Allen.

All hail Marx Mises .. - but until its acknowledged and Marx does so IMO - that's its all a SOCIAL thang - not a "natural" thing - that its POLITICAL economy - which puts in the realm of astrology or human interactions.. I won't touch anything that calls itself a theory.

Winston wrote:

Hell, combine firearms, Calvinism and caffeine and you've really got something.

Hey! What happened to the coke, black-jack and hookers? And I am flexible on the coke and black-jack...

Feckless Ness wrote:

It's happened over and over. Someone must have modeled it.

Probably a touchy subject for the few. Good luck funding a study. Perhaps Sweeden will step in? Or not, after that last peace prize...

Winston wrote:

Yes, taxes are far below optimal. That seems to be around 90% for a top rate.

I would be pretty pleased with 50% and no deductions. I wonder if Buffet would stand for that?

Rome?
Greece?
Am I missing something obvious?

No you missed nothing. They didn't have a lot of stimulants.

But ancient India and China did. Tea, caffiene again. The correlation isn't perfect but it seems to be there.

Winston wrote:

a good weekend than a recipe for world conquest.

to-may-to, to-mah-to...

Feckless Ness wrote:

Now that you mention it, this isn't the first time the majority has been fleeced for the benefit of the few. It's happened over and over. Someone must have modeled it.

Old solution was disruptive technology - of an invading army looting the emperor's treasury: cf Alexander in Persia, Augustus in Egypt and Cortez in South America.

Comrade Troyski wrote:

blue is real GDP per capita

You know what? I kinda knew you had a damn good point, and THIS chart is GOLD JERRY!

We look mostly at the effects of housing on life planning here, but I'd say favoring capital and exclusions in estate taxation have drawn many in middle America into an unexamined alliance with the rentier mentality.

Except for the 'unexamined' part, I include myself.

TJ and The Bear wrote:

steinly wrote:

Ah, so you want the Wal*n family to have ALL the money and everyone else to be in abject poverty.

Sheesh, you must be a world-class contortionist to have come up with that.

Thanks, but nah, not really, you left the straight line out there for me.

It is, as you also note a few comments later, a quantitative problem - you can't have a completely flat income distribution and you can't have an extreme wealth concentration.
By first theorem of calculus there therefore exists at least one local optimum in income distribution, as measured, for example, by the gini coefficient, for some suitable measure of goodness of income distribution.

The Romans knew of and used Ephedra.

. . . but you've turned the fallacy on your own comment, steinly. Well done!

darn there is literature on maximizing social goodness as a function of gini coefficients and optimal transfer payments through progressive taxation - optimizing function is a pseudo-entropy

goes back decades

ex-Duke of Con Dao wrote:

sorry...
the washed up celeb sighting tonite was of JJ Walker from Good Times!
DYN-NO-MITE! ...
guess he has a new book cause he was doing a reading at Barnes and Noble on the Upper Westside...
man has nostrils the size of a horse... Duke Point

Fuck you

steinly wrote:

on maximizing social goodness as a function of gini coefficients

It is obvious, and always true.

steinly wrote:

By first theorem of calculus there therefore exists at least one local optimum in income distribution,

Oh dear lord thank goodness there is someone else that can grasp the dual concept that the Laffer curve is not invalid, but that we are on the "raise taxes now" side of it.

adornosghost wrote:

Adorno, give me a call if you want to head to guerneville tomorrow.

I will call in the early AM.
The chaos gods are still visiting me.

Any time after 6 is fine. And bring them with you, we'll feed them a latte' at hardcore.

burnside wrote:

Exactly. So we deep-six Keynes. Small wonder it's a tender subject to dryfly and Allen.

It's not a tender subject to me. I always find it funny when people talk about risk reward then go to their 9-5 paycheck job everyday. They act like they are taking risk and deserve reward basd on that criteria. Under those rules almost none of you deserve even minimum wage.

Risk reward are not the only criteria we use to allocate resources - if we did what risks should our children be expected to perform for the reward of a place to sleep or food to eat.

Most people have reward because they were born into it. No other reason. The wealth they inherited OR the social benefits they inherited. They have risked nothing but reap wonderful rewards. And of those who have to take risks to get by? Most don't make it - they come up total losers. But hey it's their fault they weren't born into a rich family and were sent to Ivy.

Sweet Jesus I want to scream some days.

dryfly wrote:

They have risked nothing but reap wonderful rewards.

You could say that about just being born first-world vs. third-world, let alone being part of the "elite".

dryfly wrote:

Sweet Jesus I want to scream some days.

yup

TJ and The Bear wrote:

You could say that about just being born first-world vs. third-world, let alone being part of the "elite".

that's a good point