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Listed below are comments made by true-liberal between Monday, 23rd March 2009 and Sunday, 26th July 2009.

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The shrinking economy 6:12pm on 26 Jul 2009 "117. At 3:59pm on 26 Jul 2009, LibertarianKurt wrote:

Don't encourage JJ: Once she gets going, she just clutters up the blog with her maniacal empiricism which, of course, has very little to do with the subject at hand, i.e. economics. "

1. JJ's language usage patterns are male.
2. Behavioural (including economics) science... Isn't. Hence all the hand waving.

On to the GDP problem. Just how big would you like the GDP to be? Well, print the money and you can make it as big as you like. Give it to your favourite needy causes, drop it from helicopters. But crucially, *remove the control from the bankers*. It'd be great to be able to remove monetary control from the politicians as well, but human history demonstrates that is infeasible.
A QE surprise 1:08pm on 08 May 2009 So... First the government give billions to the bankers.

Then they borrow billions into existence, causing inflation, making the salaries and savings of your ordinary joe worth just that bit less every year. A stealth tax on everyone.

Then they say that your ordinary joe has to work another 5 years to pay for it all.

Nice...
Reversion to the extreme 12:11pm on 25 Apr 2009 22. At 4:13pm on 24 Apr 2009, TransitionPaul wrote:

That will drive a 30 or 40 year spiral of decline across the world, which may only stop when our energy consumption is forcibly reduced to some 25% of current energy consumption - a level capable of being supplied from renewables.

This would require a similar reduction in population, and is a "doomer" position. I don't agree. Energy is energy, we currently waste 60+% of energy produced, and oil is certainly not the final form of energy. Nuclear is probably going to have to take up the slack, though perhaps with newer generations of plant than are currently being planned. France gets around 80% of their energy from Nuclear and that is without specifically designed breeder reactors.
Reversion to the extreme 11:43am on 25 Apr 2009 "our debt level was fairly low, and stable, and tax revenues were pouring in."

This is bull.

The state debt level was relatively low. Personal and commercial debt levels were soaring in an uncontrolled fashion.
The short and long game 10:31am on 19 Apr 2009 Oh my god, I can't believe you are still arguing with JadedJean. He presents correlations as fact and as science. Claims that causation is not central to science. Let me present another correlation as fact and as science. Here is handy little chart which demonstrates aptly.

http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/Lemongraph.jpg

Clearly we must import far more lemons from Mexico; thousands will be saved.

Science requires testability and testability requires causation. If you have neither causation nor testability you do not have science, you have pseudo science which should be treated with the same level of credibility as any astrologer.

JadedJean clearly has a political agenda (don't we all) but his requires that you believe that science is purely empiricism, presumably so that he can present his agenda as scientific and therefore suitable for governmental policy, it is not. Empiricism is simply one tool of science.

If you are happy to accept JadedJean's agenda as scientific, I'll have to persuade ROSPA to start campaigning for more lemons. Let me hear you shout "More lemons! Fresh lemons for everyone!".
Beneficiary of the global crisis award 5:12pm on 01 Apr 2009 All part of the plan. One bank, one government.

However, even with a single central bank, the monetary system is still not stable.
The economic leadership award 4:56pm on 30 Mar 2009 We already had a global currency...

It was called gold. Yellow shiny stuff. Can't simply print as much as you like to solve your friends bankruptcy problems though.
Recession? What recession? 5:35pm on 28 Mar 2009
"24. At 7:32pm on 27 Mar 2009, LibertarianKurt wrote:

If 'Crash Gordon' had any sense at all (very doubtful!) and recognised the fact that fiat monies are always doomed to failure, he would recommend a return to a true gold standard that would underpin all of the world's currencies."

Simply not going to happen. To do so would mean giving up the only government control which actually matters. Monetary control.

Of course you can take yourself off of the fiat system fairly easily by getting rid of all your money, switching to a digital gold currency.You just have to be careful of "capital gains" (isn't that a laugh) when the inflation subsequently makes the fiat currency worthless. The money I have in one of these digital currencies is now apparently worth twice what it was in 2007. The truth? Everyone else just took a 50% loss.

The other point about a gold or gold backed currency. It doesn't prevent fractional reserve lending.You still get credit based inflationary booms followed by credit crunch busts.
Governor's pointed remarks 7:53pm on 24 Mar 2009
5. At 6:23pm on 24 Mar 2009, HurstVanrooj wrote:

Well yes, if you have spent the last 10 years buying anything you fancy on a bunch of credit cards, a 125% mortgage, nothing in the Bank and you lose your job- then yes, debt levels will rise.

Eh? No they won't. What will happen is that you will declare bankruptcy or equivalent when it is clear you can't pay, and all or much of the debt will be written off.

The debt levels would decrease.

In fact, since the government and everyone are so afraid of printing money, bankruptcy is the ONLY way to decrease debt levels. You can't do it through "growth" because "growth" requires credit expansion, and credit expansion also expands debt.
We are the monolines now 11:03am on 23 Mar 2009 So, what you're saying is that not only are the insurance companies incompetent because they simply don't understand risk (Doh!), but also the bankers because they didn't bother to do any due diligence on whether the insurance companies could handle the losses.

And these guys consider themselves talented? Talented at what? My question is why do they still have jobs at all? Why haven't they been sued to homelessness?

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