A picture worth a thousand words
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So I got in a little bit of a tiff earlier today with some joker parroting the banksters’ and conservatives’ line that all government spending has to be backed up by either tax revenues or borrowing. So I pointed out that it’s probably better to have new money created, by having the government of the United States simply crediting, out of thin air, the bank accounts of construction companies building new bridges and rail transit systems, rather than having JP Morgan Chase or Goldman Sachs create a few billion in "new money" as margin on credit default swaps, or oil futures contracts.
And I provided a number of links on studies of reforming or even replacing the international financial system. Some of those I had not read, including one from the Levy Economics Institute that reviews seven recent studies from the perspective of Hyman Minsky, the economist who studied financial crisis and developed the idea that periods of financial stability inevitably lead to a “letting down of your guard” which creates the basis for financial crisis.
So, I go back and read the introduction of the report, A Critical Assessment of Seven Reports on Financial Reform: A Minskyan Perspective, Part I: Key Concepts and Main Points by Éric Tymoigne (warning: PDF file)
And I am delighted and excited at having found another economist who seems to “get it.” So I google Tymoigne to see what else he has written, and if this particular report has been blogged. On the site http://wallstreetpit.com I find that Tymoigne wrote a critique of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s reappointment. Well, me thinks, this is a website I should bookmark and look at once in a while. I wonder what’s on the home page now?
Look at the headline. Then look at the story at the bottom left.
“China Unveils the World’s Fastest Super High-Speed Train” versus “America’s Top Ten Performing Banks.” If people can’t figure out, from this one picture, what’s wrong with this country, and where we’re headed on our present course, I really don’t think there’s anything I or anyone else could write that would enlighten them.
- Tony Wikrent's blog
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Comments
yes
china makes things, the US makes paper.
The US makes bubbles
Out of Paper.
Don't Lionize the Chinese
Most of their stimulus money has ended up lining the pockets of well connected fat cats and bureaucrats, who are pumping it into the ridiculous-mad Hong Kong housing bubble.
The fares on these super fast trains--a round trip express fare between Guangzhou and Wuhan is about 2/3 of the average factory worker's monthly wage-- ensures that they'll remain the exclusive province of China's privileged class.
I'm not saying that investing in infrastructure is a bad thing. But the Chinese could have gotten a lot more bang for their buck--and kept it affordable--by improving and upgrading the existing lines. They chose, instead, to build for the elite.
In China, the banksters and politicians and corporate interests are all one and the same. Beijing is a Super-sized Versailles.
Just on an anecdotal note, last week I took a short flight from Hong Kong to Xiamen, a provinicial Chinese city of about 600,000 people that's not particularly an economic powerhouse. Nevertheless, on the flight there were a half dozen men and women, each with about four or five big shopping bags dangling from their arms: Gucci, Prada, LV. I could practically hear the sucking sound of the government cash in the pockets of these small town fat cats.
245 mph? We can beat that.
I bet we can build a 300 mph rail line, one that goes across a longer route and serves more people more economically.
We should be competing with China, trying to outdo them in infrastructure upgrades and public works. The mighty American engine begs to be spooled up once more.
Vancouver, BC to San Diego
I dream of the day there is a high-speed rail line that runs down the west coast from Vancouver, BC to San Diego. That is basically the I-5 corridor. Huge population, lots of commerce and lots of nature(for vacationeers) all more or less coexisting. Lots of traffic up and down I-5, lots of congestion. I have been in stop and go traffic on I-5 when driving between LA and the Bay Area. Serious stop and go. For hours. For the entire drive. The Portland-Seattle corridor is also insanely busy. High-speed rail would almost make that a commute.
Actually, I'd love to see high-speed rail criss-cross the country. Currently, travel time via Amtrak from Portland to Chicago is 3 days/2 nights. Even just cutting that travel time in half would get more people off planes and onto trains.
It's a dream, I know, but. . . a girl's gotta dream.
i [heart] trains
and a train trip down the west coast sounds divine.
sadly, i can see the tsa-ification of rail too were it to become a viable mode of travel any time soon. maybe it's a good thing that we don't a lot of train travel right now. maybe we'll have a chance to rid ourselves of some of the insane security theater while the trains languish.
Trains seem to be inherently less of a security risk
than planes, because you can always stop a train.
Not a lot of train hijacking movies!
I love trains too. If Amtrak had WiFi, I'd consider just buying passes (instead of the Winnebago ;-)
they're easy to blow up though
but that would make a very short movie.
planes falling out of the sky
planes falling out of the sky are awfully dramatic, blown-up trains are a bit less so. still, coming soon to a theater near you...
Hubby is a railroad conductor
and alot of damage could be done with stuff that is transported the trains freight system. They carry some pretty noxious stuff and brakes or not if a train derails it could harm alot of people.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005...
China's also spending around the same amount of $$
on new highways this year as it is on the trains.
That's in addition to the gazillions of RMB they have already spent to create China's interstate highway system in the last decade.
The highway system has gotten the lion's share of China's infrastructure money since 2000.
Sure, it's great to see China balancing that by also building up the rail network (although, as I mentioned above, it's clear that this fast rail is priced for the elite classes), but it doesn't mean the Chinese are interested in building up a green transport network (as compared to, say, Japan, which really is a rail-centered nation).
The Chinese are about car culture, big time. The new cities are sprawling like mini Houstons.