finance
Money talks; reviewing the global economy, government spending, taxes, and economic policy that affect our social and political future.
Working as a Financial Adviser
I was so to speak in the belly of the beast. A place where the neo-liberal constitution was on full display every single day; an investment firm. There, during my training and short tenure as a financial adviser I was exposed to a culture of individualism, a reverence of property rights, a mindset of profit maximization, and a tendency to cut costs. To summarize my entire life was to be oriented around a market logic.
By Arjuna Fournier4 years ago in The Swamp
A Possible Reversal from Edge of Recession
Do you believe that the economy is in such overblown form that a bubble is going to burst? Investors estimate that the economy will enter a recession with a 50% likelihood based on the economy’s previous exponential expansion and contraction tendencies. It appears to have taken a long time to complete, but has recently been accelerated by high inflation and extremely high rising oil prices as a result of the Russian War, both of which have sped up the process.
By Estalontech4 years ago in The Swamp
The Housing Crisis Today
When the Fed raised interest rates, they apparently forgot that every time they have done so in the past inflation only increased. So, this time they really added salt to our already critically wounded economy. The dire conditions millions face remain unabated whenever the Fed acts. We have to remember that the Great Depression made millionaires in a time of the greatest financial and economic calamity of the 20th century. Today, the justification for interest rate hikes is basically the same. The profiteering of many individuals and corporations have unleashed a cataclysm of financial hardships that has expanded to almost 4/5 of the US population. Essentially what is happening is nothing more than price gouging. Yet state and federal governments have proved ineffective to address what is already becoming one of the worst housing crises since the Great Depression.
By Dr. Williams4 years ago in The Swamp
What Happens If There Is A Financial Storm?
Many people throughout the world have had to increase their debt-to-income ratios, but Americans may not have had to. Joe is happy to pay people to remain home and encourage the “ Great Job Improvement ”phenomenon,this is actually an outcry as the Dem are renaming it to supersede the massive resignation phenomenon that was derived as record numbers of people are leaving their jobs after the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the job market and has been named one of the reasons for the current recession in the United States.
By Estalontech4 years ago in The Swamp
5 Economic Benefits When Workers Telecommute. Top Story - January 2022.
When Covid-19 hit the scene in 2020, it forced employers into a corner. Either they became flexible with their work arrangements, or they allowed their production to flat line. We can argue on either side of the fence the pros and cons of this hostage situation, but at the end of the day, there inarguably were both pros and cons.
By Jade Cinders4 years ago in The Swamp
Potential US Dollar Depreciation and Protect Yourself from Hyperinflation
Hyperinflation isn’t as scary as it sounds. It’s really just a fancy way of saying inflation, and inflation isn’t necessarily bad. However, when inflation gets really high, it becomes problematic.
By Estalontech4 years ago in The Swamp
Social Dividend History
There are many forms of basic income that you can talk about for hours on vocal about, but the version I am talking about actually has its roots in socialist thought. There is a form of basic income that can be referred to as a social dividend that is based on publicly owned enterprises. According to Wikipedia, a social dividend is "the return on the capital assets and natural resources owned by society in a socialist economy. ". How a social dividend differs from traditional basic income is that social dividend directly implies and relates to social ownership of productive assets. It also implies these socially owned assets are to be the source of the income while other forms of basic income may get funding from other sources. This idea of a social dividend is considered by many to be in line with Karl Marx's critique of capitalism. One of the biggest problems Karl Marx had with capitalism is that the surplus value earned by society is usually only distributed among a small elite - usually a small number of capitalists and private shareholders that get all of the benefit from the extra money in society. According to Marx, surplus generated by social means of production should be appropriated by all members of society. As described by James Yunker in 1977 in the journal Annals of Public and Cooperate Economics: "It is abundantly clear from the writings of the founder of scientific socialism, Karl Marx, that he viewed the distribution of property income under capitalism as morally reprehensible. To Marx, property return must be identified with 'surplus labor value', namely the excess of total labor value over the total wage bill under conditions of a subsistence individual wage. This surplus value is distributed over a small minority of owning capitalists. Although the value is created by labor and is therefore the legitimate property of labor, the capitalists are able to extort it from the proletariat by virtue of their ownership of the capital instruments of production...Nevertheless, while Marx employed the surplus labor value theory to undermine the moral foundations of capitalism, it was, in his view, neither to be the instrumentality of capitalist collapse, nor was it the primary reason for the desirability of the abrogation of capitalism...Surplus value was seen as providing the fuel for the cyclical engine and therefore as the fundamental cause of the impending dissolution of capitalism."
By Tyler McFadden4 years ago in The Swamp
What Grew Faster than the National Debt?
The MAGA catchphrase demands we look back to a time when America was great. There was a time when America had a thriving middle class. It was a time before we suffered from stifling inequality, a time when the national debt grew modestly. It was a time as a nation we sent a man to the moon. As a nation, we defeated Nazi Germany and Imperialist Japan. We made great strides in science and technology that laid the foundation for the digital age.
By Gary Janosz4 years ago in The Swamp
