Bay 12 Games Forum

How long is a netbook going to last without breaking? Won't be ordering a new powersupply for a couple millennia.

A bear reaching for our sun?

Yeah, sounds good. Something mighty like this deserves a fresh heraldry design. Green field, party per pale, sun silver, rearing bear gold. It could look like the rearing bear is trying to grab the sun on the other side. The things we used for inspiration back then pale in comparison to what was probably near-death.

We apparently have its aggro, so yeah, let's try this. It's going to try to lock us with a bite. Anyone is free to suggest a better course.

High guard! Like an Ochs guard, or something that protects the face. They bite the face first. As a woodsman, we'd know this.

Realize we are a disgusting blob. Do some press-ups. Try to get in shape.

Yeah, it kinda is.

I'm all about calculated bravery that advances our goals, but this is just an accidental mistake.

Gervassen, as it has been pointed out, the Federal Reserve among other is currently "printing money", only in a way that increase overall debts levels since it's only lending, notably to the government. Doing the same, but giving that money to an investment fund rather than using it to pay government debt would result in the same rate of inflation, with lower debts levels. We are already avoiding what the Zimbabwean did, I don't see why we wouldn't if that money was free.

All paper money is free. I suppose the paper and ink costs a little, but it's all more-or-less free. You're treating money as synonymous with wealth, and wealth is the result of production. For a time, you can convince people that you have a certain reasonable ratio of "free money" to earned wealth, and convince them to exchange the one for the other at that rate, but these things are prone to cascading out-of-control at the darnedest moments.

For one thing, you apparently think money supply is directly related to inflation, but money velocity also matters. If we're making more money, and it's sitting unused under a mattress, then it appears to be not creating inflation because people are not circulating it and are not aware of exactly how much is actually out there.

QE as it pertains to the USA is not the buying of government debt. Currently, the Fed is buying mortgage-backed securities from banks, not financing the government debt directly. The banks are relieved of mostly junk private debt, and in gratitude, they invest indirectly in government bonds and the stock market, where the money sits largely unused and without really circulating much. But you've put that liquidity into the market and any market disturbance could shake that money out of the places where its quietly invested; people rush to spend it on physical things of real worth and value, rather than watching fake numbers go up in the markets, and that's when the cold reality of how much money supply you've actually got gets splashed in your face.

You assume that just because this hasn't gotten out of hand yet, there's no danger at all.

So there is no way to actually cut the deficit without someone else taking up debts and/or the economy receding.

Government spending is only weakly correlated to economic growth. It hasn't done wonders for Japan during its two lost decades. You've assumed a priori that an economy depends on government spending, and then you conclude that running government deficits until you sink under interest payments is an unavoidable necessity.