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Post by lcjjdnh on Jul 25, 2019 7:12:05 GMT
I foreshadowed I might start this thread a few weeks ago but finally getting around to it. Many of these stories also have political dimensions, but haven't made their way into the general politics thread. (So perhaps that's a sign there's no demand to discuss these stories, but let's see how it goes...) Some stories that have caught my eye of late:
(1) House finally manages to do something bipartisan, but unfortunately it is repealing a sound (but very, very politically unpopular) part of Obamacare: the Cadillac tax.
(b) DOJ to investigate Big Tech.
(iii) Facebook to settle massive FTC case--yet no one on right or left is happy, and for some reason Congress is just yelling at FTC rather than enacting legislation?(Δ) Netflix loses subscribers.(E) Elizabeth Warren plans to (in effect) end private equity with (very subtle...) "Stop Wall Street Looting Act"
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Post by doctorquant on Jul 25, 2019 18:31:05 GMT
I like this thread but my thoughts re: these (especially the last one) are pretty predictable. Every time the distinguished senator of color from Massachusetts opens her mouth re: matters economic, I find myself shaking my head at the fact that a not-trivial proportion of the electorate actually think she has a clue. She's literally as big an idiot as Trump.
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Post by lcjjdnh on Jul 25, 2019 18:48:58 GMT
I like this thread but my thoughts re: these (especially the last one) are pretty predictable. Every time the distinguished senator of color from Massachusetts opens her mouth re: matters economic, I find myself shaking my head at the fact that a not-trivial proportion of the electorate actually think she has a clue. She's literally as big an idiot as Trump. I spared you from her plan to save the planet by....requiring companies to make complex and convoluted disclosures in their securities filings about the risk of climate change? That said, and though I haven’t read it, I do think some of the analysis in the Two-Income Trap is interesting (based on summaries), though isn’t what she seems to focus on now.
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Post by doctorquant on Jul 25, 2019 19:15:02 GMT
Cadillac Tax was never going to be implemented, so might as well get rid of the charade. Much like the Medicare doc fix ...
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Post by lcjjdnh on Jul 31, 2019 2:49:11 GMT
I assume this is just a negotiating ploy, but this has long been a looming threat hanging over these leagues/team: the deals they have with these regional sports networks seem unsustainable, given the cord-cutting trend. Aside from ESPN, they're some of the most expensive channels in a cable package. Will revenue from national deals (either with ESPNs/FOX/etc. or Amazon/Facebook/etc.) and/or over-the-top services (MLB.tv, NBA League Pass, etc.) be able to replace it?
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Post by doctorquant on Jul 31, 2019 2:50:13 GMT
Haven't those regional networks been sold?
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Post by lcjjdnh on Jul 31, 2019 2:56:50 GMT
Haven't those regional networks been sold? Yes--Disney selling all to Sinclair, except for YES Network.
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Post by lcjjdnh on Aug 2, 2019 13:16:28 GMT
Interesting article and also a good example of how WSJ does this type of story better than Times—doesn’t set out to demonize anyone, reflecting that it’s a complicated story with lots of different factors.
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Post by Dr Boom 70 on Aug 2, 2019 14:02:06 GMT
The middle class is taking a page from the federal government finance model.
It all comes crashing down when the Chinese stop buying our t bills
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2019 18:32:30 GMT
I think there are some compounding factors involved. Housing prices have increased disproportionately because the debt is more easily available. That cause people to buy more house than previous generations. You also have increasing regulations placed on developers, which drives up their cost and is passed on to the consumer. The same is true of healthcare and tuition. The driving factors are vast increases in regulation and availability of money.
I think I've told this anecdote before, but I'll repeat: I was at a city council meeting last year. Not a huge city in CA, about 160k people. During an informational item early in the meeting, they spent 90 minutes discussing affordable housing. Rising cost of housing in their city. What they'd have to spend in order to access various state and federal finding to create local subsidies. Long, long discussion of an informational item. Not an action item.
Around 11 p.m., with no discussion, they passed a raft of increased developer and builder fees.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2019 18:51:28 GMT
Do the impact fees make economic sense based on building new infrastructure? In some cases, not in all. But in this case this was not annual city strategy of increasing all fees based on CPI. This was a suite of increases for developers and builders. I am sure much of its driven by increased costs to the city. I do not doubt the veracity of that. I also suspect they city juiced the increases a bit because they are always in need of more revenue and in my experience there's always a bit more tacked on. But the connect of lamenting the cost of housing as you play your part in driving up housing costs is really the funny part to me. The housing 'crisis' in California is largely caused by the state of California.
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Post by lcjjdnh on Aug 2, 2019 18:59:45 GMT
Don’t forget exclusionary zoning policies, and people bidding for the limited “supply” of homes in those towns (and, very importantly, school districts).
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Post by Liberal White Women on Aug 2, 2019 19:25:49 GMT
I was at a city council meeting last year. Not a huge city in CA, about 160k people. For those of us who live/have lived in the boondocks, this made me smile.
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Post by Dr Boom 70 on Aug 7, 2019 16:58:02 GMT
In past couple of weeks my travels have taken me to the heartlands of Iowa and Nebraska. What I've noticed in both states is that the economy is booming. What I've also noticed is that there are job opening signs all over the place. In talking to folks in area they say that jobs opening remained unfilled for months. Perhaps anecdotal but many places I stopped at seemed way understaffed for the time of day / # of customers. Frustrating long wait at fast food joints due to only 1 cashier. A friend of mine told me that in his town there is a 2 to 3 week wait just to get an oil change for his car because there is not enough technicians.
What are you seeing in your area of the world?
At some point lack of labor pool will start slowing down growth
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Post by rustinjice on Aug 7, 2019 17:00:10 GMT
At some point lack of labor pool will start slowing down growth Deporting all the illegals should help.
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