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Wonderbra Obamanomics: Keynesianism Explained Using Victoria's Secret Models
With the topic of Keynesian stimulus now so prevalent, that for some reason everyone, even economic Ph.D.'s feel entitled to chime in with their useless opinions on whether or not it is appropriate for your overleveraged economy, we would like to present this very educational anecdote about the Obamanomic version of Keynesianism as it pertains to jobs, explained by Daniel Mitchell of the Cato Institute. The kicker - Victoria's Secret models. If after this one still doesn't understand the wonderbra approach to pushing up our economy, one is hopeless.
From Cato@Liberty:
The White House is claiming that the so-called stimulus created between 2.5 million and 3.6 million jobs even though total employment has dropped by more than 2.3 million since Obama took office. The Administration justifies this legerdemain by asserting that the economy actually would have lost about 5 million jobs without the new government spending.
I’ve decided to adopt this clever strategy to spice up my social life. Next time I see my buddies, I’m going to claim that I enjoyed a week of debauchery with the Victoria’s Secret models. And if any of them are rude enough to point out that I’m lying, I’ll simply explain that I started with an assumption of spending -7 nights with the supermodels. And since I actually spent zero nights with them, that means a net of +7. Some of you may be wondering whether it makes sense to begin with an assumption of “-7 nights,” but I figure that’s okay since Keynesians begin with the assumption that you can increase your prosperity by transferring money from your left pocket to your right pocket.
And since any reference to Victoria's Secret would be a major tease without at least a clip from several recent Fashion Shows, here they are to prevent any confusion as to what this other Mark-To-Wonderbra concept is all about.
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Gold down 1.5%
Platinum in an upward trend since the shakedown
Russ bent over at -4%
Giselle says, "Thank very much, Lennon ;)"
Two things that will get the comment-level up: Girls and Gold.
If you could work Israel and Iran in there, that's a grand slam...
Like, Israeli V.S. model caught smuggling gold into Iran.
How about Galbraith dissing Obama (and not only),
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/galbraith160710.html
Nah. I guess the girls have my full attention.
Lots of pretty girls in Iran. Don't know much about Israel. Can't say Jewish girls are pretty.
mmmmmmmm......
"Mrs. Hendrix"
Or at least introduce me to one of her Aussie friends....
The accent kills me!
Mute the Usher, listen to this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoAXW30mMAg
Mr Lennon Hendrix
Dude the Kiwi accent may be more melodic.
Then again we have been burning through Outrageous Fortune by three or four episodes a night.
How many GS call options do I need to exercise to get one of those?
Q: What's the difference between Victoria Secret Models and the Economy?
A: We get screwed by the Economy.
Keynesians, what a bunch of douchebags.
(no not really. Jung said something like that though)
VS's new campaign - "Eat more meat"..
Lack of posts here indicates some heavy whacking going on.
...or the fact that its Friday and everyone is at the beach cause its too hot to sit at home and the market is inches from closing.
Tar balling?
LMAO...(with one hand)
LMDO....(like milk through nose)
Then everyone will be all sleepy, so this day is over. No wonder we haven't gotten the afternoon ramp up. Way to go Tyler!
THAT is stimulus I can...um...get behind!
all they need is the stock ticker running at the bottom and millions of investors will hit the buy button, booyah
It takes a lifetime of preparation for a momentary blow-off.
Did you mean monetary blow-off? ;)
freudian
As I was saying, the best position to have in the whole phantasm is probably providing the brazillian wax jobs. A mildly sado-masochistic occupation in which you can develop the most focussed zen and intimate encounters.
I'm sure Mr.(Ms.) Frank feels somewhat slighted by your metaphor. Please use Calvin Klein men's underwear models next time to include legislatve tastes. Thank you.
I read, I raged, then I saw tits and GTFO...
[ot]I see the PPT just got back from their afternoon dumb[/ot]
So, tyler that stay at the monastery worker out well for you?
Several punches in the ear were sufficient to recall Dick Bove's Buy rating of Lehman on September 9. All good now.
Exactly, the brainwashing & false sense of security oozing from the vested interests does result in a mix of lethargy & complacency. I could use a slap bitchez...after all it is Friday.
FIANLLY! Some chartology I can truly identify with!
Thank you Tyler!
Doesn't anyone think short hair (on women)is sexy anymore?
Only on Halle Barry ;-)
You mean like a Brazilian, right?
not a fan of heidi klum, too old now & has stretch marks...
Ok, OK, This I understand.
man is the plaything of woman and woman is the plaything of the devil.
HORNY.
+1bazillion
It's o.k. to want to hump your mother dude...don't be so hard on yourself...
Err, so jobs aren't created unless there's a net gain? What manner of sophistry is that?
Ok keynesian stimulus spending .... check..... I think.
If somebody could give me a simple breakdown of how much money is still going into failed investments of the past vs new investments for the future it would be much appreciated.
I do not see it - the governments are only trying to keep the system ticking over while the vast bulk of the money is still feeding the bad bank investments.
My admittedly limited understanding of this strangely complex financial world is very jaundiced at this stage - but feel free to enlighten me if you wish.
Well, that's pretty much it. Nothing's been done over the last 18 months to actually fix anything. It's just the politicians/banksters robbing the taxpayers to support their various positions/salaries/bonuses. And now the deflationary collapse comes where the banksters (newly propped up) repossess all the collateral. Then, hyper-inflation 'reflates' their value.
Voila!
I doubt the bond market will allow anymore money dumping into TBTF banks and by the looks of the UST's and USD, looks like the US leads the world again in global financial forecasting. There is simply no escape from this world wide deflationary black hole, and that includes emerging markets.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/07/treasury-bull-market-...
Pretty much all the models are from Europe and South America. We even have to import hot ass now. Is there anything that America makes well anymore???
Debt!
+QE2....it's that funny.
Yeah. Spoiled, brain-dead fat chicks whose match dot com dating profile headline reads "Make Me Laugh".
When this recession really gets going fat chicks will become fashionable again.
It will be the ultimate indicator of wealth - "boy that girl can really feed herself" " her boyfriend must be seriously rich man"
Plus, they're better at keeping you warm in the winter time (among other things!)
Do not forget that fat women provide lots of shade in the summertime. Cue up Mungo Jerry's hit from the late 1960's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDY4nR1IqCs
BS, foodstamps & desperados
Economics is not such a dismal science after all!
Nice avatar!
Thanks! But I like yours better for some reason.
I love this site!
Sex and violence. You have a point!
Once I can find some working software that does animated .gifs, I too will have an animated one!
Everyone should read the excellent new article in the American Spectator online on "America's Ruling Class--And the Perils of Revolution."A brilliant historical analysis of the rise of the leftist bureaucratic state, and its control of America through highly disciplined patronage.
masterinchancery
"A brilliant historical analysis of the rise of the leftist bureaucratic state, and its control of America through highly disciplined patronage."
Unlike the rise of the Fascist right bureaucratic state , and its control of America through highly disciplined patronage.
Shit meet stinky.
If you read the article with the appropriate partisan filters applied (substitute "statist" for "leftist", as an example), it's actually a pretty spot-on article.
Yeah, it's spun of course - what do you expect from Am Spec? But even with those pretty glaring scemantic flaws it's a pretty sound telling of how the Fed.GOV got to become the untamable and unshrinkable beast we're saddled with today.
EDIT: To follow-up, having read it again the article is actually pretty brutal on the Republicans. Just saying.
docj-"Statist" gets right at it--BIG GOV types of all kinds are the problem, incrementalism+ or incrementalism++, still all wrong direction for all kinds of reasons and results on people's lives.
Was in Chicago 2 weeks ago, outside of the mile, it is becoming a shell of a place. But Big Daley rules.
- Ned
Keynes said to pump AUD/JPY at the end of the day. Look at the verticle leap.
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/9610/stockl.jpg
Just as no aphrodisiac can substitute for a woman, no QE can substitute for a real economy. In any case, Keynes being the quintessential gay lord, he would take exception at this post.
Lol. There are indeed bunch of economic nonothings. The whole field of economics and especially capitalism revolves around transferring money from the left pocket to the right pocket. The only thing that changes is the velocity of how fast the money is drained from the left pocket. At some point the right pocket begins to lend money to the left pocket; eventually, the right pocket just creates fictitious credit and lends it to the left pocket. All along, the right pocket thinks that it's immensely profitable and wealthy.
Finally, the right pocket gets the government to borrow 'credit for nothing' from it and marks up more credit plus interest. The right pockets then demands that government tax the deadbeat left pocket at which point the left pocket sticks up its middle finger.
linrom
It isn't limited to Economics, everything is a lie. Democracy, yep we are so fucking great with that. Truth, first victim.
The problem is more and more people can now accept their illusions about a benevolent ruling class, because as we all know Government is just the tool not the hand, being burst. Access to information makes it harder to lie and maintain the myths.
Opinion: The last thing Zero Hedge needs to encourage profitable and useful discussion is soft porn comedy and additional encouragement to a rising level of obscenity.
_
I most sincerely second your opinion my good sir.
_
_
And third it.
_
I only see two. We would need Cramer's third nipple here.
Crusty the Clown has three, too.
You are correct sir. The last thing we need around here is real people, with real likes and dislikes, using real language and humor.
Because we didn't hit 25% unemployment and are at "only" 15% unemployment, by the new math, that means that America is actually at "Full Employment" or "hovering" around a "stimulus adjusted" 5% unemployment. You can't even *smoke* that kind of math.
continuing with that logic, a 20% pay cut sounds so good? On that note, my German counterparts hit with Kurtzarbeit are now being told they are inefficient. Short work week + insult > no job I guess.
new normal don'tcha know
Stimulating the packages of economists.
And all the debaucheries of that most crazed up Keynesianism where corrected when everything was privatized and deregulated. Thanks Milton for some sound economic theory! What would be of us I mean ME without him.
lmao-I was in OK in the late '70's when (please sit down) "Free to Choose" mini-series was on ... PBS.
Could never happen today. Milton and Anna, Milton and Rose. we need you.
- Ned
the non-BS-side of CNBC with uber-leverage guru Steve Wynn demonstrating his ability to speak plainly regarding the economy and the consequences of government leverage, how the democrasy fails once the politicians learn that they can bribe the public for votes with its own money.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232/?video=1506508223&play=1
ahem...
well, at least something is pointing higher today.
ah, finally some stimulation.
Government pep talks, like Victoria Secret models, start by giving the public a rise but quickly get old, worn out and desperate leave us feeling empty, frustrated and with soiled underdaks.
ozzii-yes, all too true for most of us. Tom Brady??? not so much - Ned
Funny, most of them have stripper names.
http://www.rateitall.com/t-1933-stripper-names.aspx
HOW DARE ZH USE ANGELS TO EXPLAIN DEMONS!!
baseline budgeting!
I am ahead +7!!
ppt?
Holy viagra batman..
only 74(now 75) comments?
key Knee-sian stimulatiion indeed!!
"Holy viagra batman" :-))
Not sure if thats where its coming from, but I feel
I need to share: 3 bored women decide to check how
tight and short (like in the fine clips above) leather
clothes affect the mood of their lover, fiancee and
husband respectively. The lover got excited,
great sex, blah-blah, the fiancee great sex blah-blah,
the husband comes home, looks at his wife and says:
"Hi batman, whats for dinner?"
Stop pretending, ya all know thats RobotTrader under cover ;-))
Can't be anyone else. Right, Tyler ?
And, stop posting such stuff, because, see what
happens- the PPT gets distracted and looses control
of the market...
Don't forget about The Solid Gold Dancers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr6H241usvY
There are still people reading the crap the Cato Institute publishes?! Astonishing. And this line of reasoning in particular is just embarassing. No wonder everyone thinks Cato is morally and intellectually bankrupt. To wit:
Mr. Mitchell's analogy with Victoria's Secret models would only make sense if he _began_ with a net positive number of nights that he was spending with them... on a regular basis. As in: "I was spending 5 nights a week with VS models. But then, I did something really stupid to piss them off (this part is easy to credit). They were so angry that I thought sure they'd ditch me completely (-5 nights per week). But I apologized, and they forgave me, a little bit--but they still let me know who's boss by cutting back to only spending 3 nights per week with me (net -2 nights per week)." Sure seems to me like that apology was worth 3 nights per week of VS debauchery.
There's nothing wrong with the CBO's math on this one, apart from the usual rouding error in ruling party's favor. The stimulus _did_ save a lot of jobs, although only temporarily. Turns out this recession wasn't simply a cyclical setback. The real issue--what really pisses me off--is that close to nothing was done during the interim to fix the real problems, which are (1) crazy global trade imbalances, (2) ridiculous developed world debt levels (read: Greenspan credit bubble), and (3) crushingly stupid and egregiously corrupt financial sector actively misallocating resources.
Seems to me just an argument over terms or where to arbitrarily place the net zero starting point. I'm more concerned over the authors disregard for the importance of moving the money from one pocket to another. Maybe we created jobs, maybe we can't just create jobs and only moved some cash around on the board, or maybe I'm still pissed because I feel like that money was in my pocket to start with.
Well, when talking about Mr. Mitchell spending the night with VS models, any starting point will be arbitrary, yes. But not with jobs. We have a pretty good tumbnail of how many there are in the very recent past, and can project trends into the near future with some reliability. So, not so arbitrary.
Anyone with more training is invited to correct me, as I'm sure to garble something here, but I think the idea behind Keynsian stimulus is to keep as much cash as possible out of any pocket. As long as the velocity of money remains high enough, people can stay employed. Real damage to the economy--and to individual lives--happens with long term shrinkage in the number of jobs. It's not easy to organize assets to put them to productive use, so it's important to try to keep them in use as much as possible.
I definitely sympathize with the idea that the gov't spent your money frivolously. I'm 100% certain that this stimulus could have been better organized and better aimed. But give how inexpensively the US can borrow money at this point, I think a rather mediocre stimulus was almost certainly better than none.
How could Keynes have gotten it so wrong?
Easy, says author Vin Suprynowicz. “Hazlitt shows again and again that Keynes pronounced his theories ‘ex cathedra,’ without substantial statistics to back them up. Then, if actual statistics were produced that seemed to show results opposite to what his theories had predicted, he simply challenged the statistics!”
It was not a mediocre stimulus, IMO; it was a useless, dangerous one. (Thanks for nailing Cato and Mitchell, by the way.)
I can think of some uses of government money that might stimulate the economy (I am no expert either but neither are the Keynesians), such as marketing contests for entrepreneurs, but to take stimulus money and give it to government employees who are already overpaid, like the teachers, or to nonproductive temporary government workers, or to some to buy cars and houses by taking the money away from others, does not stimulate recovery.
The definition of stimulus by a congressman means being able to take taxpayer money to give to his supporters. He jumps at the chance to give it to somebody back in his district who’s supported him or to one of the special interest groups that support him.
It’s just another way of wealth transfer.
And, of course, there are some dirty fingerprints all over stimulus that belong to the investment bankers. It wasn’t a coincidence that one of the 21st century’s greatest liars, Hank “The Performer” Paulson, was selected to do the selling. He isn’t exactly a paragon of honesty.
To paraphrase a letter-to-the-editor I read this morning:
The administration continues to paint the picture of its recovery methods with the disasters left behind by the Bush Years—it recounts the severe unemployment the Republicans left behind… it outlines the housing disaster… it recalls the banking crisis… it rails against the bad economic news created by Bush… it laments the wars…
Ends the writer: “My one question is, when does the Obama Administration take over?”
So called "stimulus" did nothing positive. It just put off problems until tomorrow and made those problems worse by putting us much much deeper in debt (to hostile foreign governments) and by creating moral hazard. No, it didn't "create jobs" since that would require innovation; it only kept some people temporarily in their current unnecessary jobs (GM bailout) or paid people to do nothing useful (unemployment).
As for the "real problem," the things you listed are only symptoms of the disease. The real disease is the decline of the American public, genetically, culturally, and morally. This is epitomized by the influx of tens of millions of Mexicans of the past 40 years. The Mexicans have never been successful and a Mexicanized America will also fail as they drag us down to their level. But even this influx was due to the weakening of the American public -- our forebears would have driven the Mexicans out of our country and taken more of the land they claimed for good measure.
A period of great hardship might turn the tide, but the liberal socialists will never allow that. They will keep up the government spending and the social welfare programs and the weak liberal thinking as the American public rots at the core.
While the acquirers and cultural destroyers of Victoria’s Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch— Leslie and Abigail Koppel Wexner of the Limited Stores--bask in their $13.1 million Apartment 10B in Manhattan's posh condo high rise at 15 Central Park West (along with Lloyd and Laura Blankfein in their $26 million penthouse duplex at16-17A), as part of their infectious thong movement, American cities are having to order workers to wear underwear.
And Abercrombie is back in the news again with widespread complaints from the public about provocative and suggestive advertising directed to impressionable young people, at the same time Victoria’s Secret dominates America’s malls with young models in strip tease poses with thumbs in their underwear.
Now, Brooksville, Florida, is trying to clean up its cultural decline and population with a new dress code that requires city workers to wear underwear and use deodorant.
According to the AP, “The city council in Brooksville north of Tampa (in 2009) approved a dress code that instructs employees to observe ‘strict personal hygiene.’
“It also prohibits exposed underwear, clothing with foul-language, ‘sexually provocative’ clothes and piercings anywhere except the ears.
“Repeat offenders can be fired.”
Incidentally, after 5 years of operations, Roy Raymond “sold” the Victoria's Secret company to the Wexners in 1982, with its six stores and 42-page catalogue, grossing $6 million per year, for $4 million.
In 1984, Raymond started My Child's Destiny, a retail store for premature children which went bankrupt in 1986.
On August 26, 1993, Raymond committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. He was 47. (Wikipedia)
Since the stimulus helped many parents house and feed their children, then it did indeed accomplish something positive. If you don't understand how the stimulus accomplished that, you need to do some remedial economics reading. Your point about additional debt is poorly informed. Krugman is wrong about many things, but he's right that the US can borrow a lot of money very cheaply right now (denominated in US dollars, so who cares if it's owned by foreign governments?). The US could shoulder much more debt right now, if it wanted to.
The moral hazard issue is one with which I agree completely. The bank bailouts were stupid--the banks should have been completely nationalized, the management and shareholders liquidiated, bondholders given a nice haircut, bad assets written down, and the bank then sold back to the open market.
I don't really understand the point about innovation. Innovation is hardly the only source of new jobs. Market growth is far more common than market creation.
While some jobs that were saved certainly were unnecessary, not all were. Maybe not even most. More cash flowing through the system keeps everyone employed longer. GM workers need air conditioners and shoes and so on, like everyone else. And I'd still like you to explain to the GM worker's daughter why daddy can't work anymore. You're apparently thinking that the only two choices we have are the perpetuation of malinvestment and the immediate halt of any activity that isn't perfectly economically optimal. Get real. I mean, I don't really care that unemployment benefits were extended--but it really ticks me off that gov't still hasn't figured out how to invest resources in the creation of future jobs (like, say, tax rebates for the construction of factories on US soil). Are we in agreement on that?
I don't know about the decline of the US public in moral terms. My sense is that you might be right, but I'm skeptical of my own intuition here, and you should be, too. Such things are nearly impossible to measure. And even so, a diagnosis of culture deterioration is only actionable if it concerns things we have developed. I have my money on cheap oil, industrial agriculture, and TV, in that order. If we get rid of those things, I bet conditions in the US improve.
You obviously know nothing about Mexico or Mexicans, and your blaming them is simply laughable (not to mention offensive; dude, didn't your mama teach you that people of moral substance don't go blaming other people--let alone whole other ethnicities--for their own problems?). If we want to find the source of the problem, we start by looking in the mirror. Looking anywhere else is simply moral cowardice. Your characterization of our forebears is equally stupid and offensive, although more reprehensible, since you ought to at least know your own history. At least give us moderately original racist tripe. You sound exactly like that insane colonel in Dr. Strangelove raving about the contamination of "bodily fluids." Feh.
Your use of the words "liberal" and "socialist" clearly indicates that you haven't the slightest fucking idea what you're talking about when you use them. Until you understand what liberalism and socialism have to offer, both philosophically and practically, in support of the Bill of Rights, you should probably just refrain from using those words. I mean, seriously, you need some anonymous schmuck on the internet (namely, me) to tell you that there are no easy answers ("Just kick out the Mexicans and let the next Golden Age begin!") and no obvious demons ("Liberal socialists are responsible for acid rain, the breakup of the Beatles, and that one time we got really drunk and ate so many donoughts we got sick!")? No one who cares about the future of the US can afford to be as naive as your last paragraph.
Help!
How do I get myself inserted back into the Matrix???
I'm with you pal! This "Desert of the Real" is heavy on the Desert with way too little in the way of Real!
Thanks, again, for the LaRouche links you provided in another post. Even when I disagree, I still learn a lot from what he has to say.
Did you hear his discussion on Bach and music theory as applicable to a science of economics? I'm a huge fan of Douglas Hofstadter and his book Godel, Escher, & Bach, and found that talk most fascinating on many levels.
The matrix I came from was like a really bad B-movie. Not much to go back to.
I'd buy that for a dollar!
Homina, Homina, Homina...
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=homina
Obviously nobody here is a mathematician, or at least not a serious one.
My high school math teachers would have failed me with this logic.
But, I enjoy a good joke as much as anyone -- especially with scantily clad models!
Updated DOW chart:
http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com
Damn, that Marisa Miller is a goddess.