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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 31, 2018 - 12:27pm PT
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As an economics professor, I would expect Warren to understand Income Statements and Balance Sheets
Well, there’s part of yer problem. “Warren was formerly a professor of law” - Wikipedia
Now, some of my best friends are lawyers and even if I would let them marry my daughter
they wouldn’t be my first choices for answering a tough economics question. I have
internationally recognized economist friends for dat, not that they would pigeonhole themselves
by actually giving me a straight answer. That goes against the bylaws of all econ orgs!
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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Aug 31, 2018 - 02:09pm PT
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Lituya-And now fast fwd and find a certain caste of liberals coveting the wealth of those who, often reluctantly, played the market game? Making sh!t up again.According to recent data from the Federal Reserve, America has the lowest level of stock ownership in 18 years. Yet stock ownership for the wealthy is at a new high—and that has accounted for most of their good fortune compared to the rest of America.
Furthermore, more adult Americans own homes than stocks and live off of a wage. So we're talking about 10% of the wealthiest Americans who own 84% of all stocks. Add to that, the exponential grown of foreign investment in the stock market over the last 10 years. Yeah, we need some oversight.
Expecting the attack on my grammatical errors any time now...
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Aug 31, 2018 - 02:21pm PT
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Well, there’s part of yer problem. “Warren was formerly a professor of law” - Wikipedia
Exactly! And she approaches the issue the way too many lawyers and judges do -- by proposing changes that increase the employment of lawyers. We don't do it maliciously. Our training builds it into us.
I also think "throwing the bums out" is overrated. The two main political parties have spent at least the last 50 years in the political equivalent of ethnic cleansing. To win a primary these days requires playing to the party's "base," i.e. its most uncompromising adherents. I therefore doubt that the newly-elected group would do better at arriving at solutions supported by a majority of the electorate, rather than by a majority of their party.
I've taken a relatively long break from participating in the political threads on ST for many reasons, one of which concerns the hysteria (on both sides) brought about by the election of 2016. It's good to read a discussion that doesn't read like an echo chamber or a riot. Thank you to all who helped keep this thread civil and engaging.
John
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Aug 31, 2018 - 02:25pm PT
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I have
internationally recognized economist friends for dat, not that they would pigeonhole themselves
by actually giving me a straight answer. That goes against the bylaws of all econ orgs!
Having had post-graduate training and business experience on economics as well as law, your friends have obviously let you in on one of the rules of conduct for economists. When I was making my living as an economic forecaster, we used the following rule: "You can give them a number or you can give them a date, but don't give them both."
John
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Lituya
Mountain climber
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Aug 31, 2018 - 02:54pm PT
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Contractor says:
Making sh!t up again. . . So we're talking about 10% of the wealthiest Americans who own 84% of all stocks.
Sadly, he's simply regurgitating Chairwoman Warren's red and gold kool-aid, ohhhh yea. C'mon, C, think fer yerself!
https://www.businessinsider.com/who-actually-owns-the-stock-market-2016-5
"Of the $22.8 trillion in stock outstanding (not including US ownership of foreign stock and stock owned by "pass-through entities" such as exchange-traded funds), retirement accounts owned roughly 37%, the most of any type of holder."
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Nibs
Trad climber
Humboldt, CA
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Aug 31, 2018 - 03:52pm PT
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Great to see you posting again John E.
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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Aug 31, 2018 - 04:07pm PT
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Lituya-Sadly, he's simply regurgitating Chairwoman Warren's red and gold kool-aid, ohhhh yea. C'mon, C, think fer yerself!
https://www.businessinsider.com/who-actually-owns-the-stock-market-2016-5
"Of the $22.8 trillion in stock outstanding (not including US ownership of foreign stock and stock owned by "pass-through entities" such as exchange-traded funds), retirement accounts owned roughly 37%, the most of any type of holder."
Within that random stat, I don't see any breakdown of the 37% that indicates that it's Jody the Patrolman who owns that a majority of that stock and not Mitt Romney, the investment capitalist.
Again-The top 10% of American households, as defined by total wealth, now own 84% of all stocks in 2016, according to a recent paper by NYU economist Edward N. Wolff. I can regurgitate all day and I prefer a fat doob to koolaid- than you.
Anyway, I'm not advocating Warren's plan and I'm certainly not accepting the status quo.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 31, 2018 - 04:20pm PT
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John E, a pleasure to see you here, sir. You are,as it were, a voice of reason howling in the wilderness.
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madbolter1
Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
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Aug 31, 2018 - 04:30pm PT
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I also think "throwing the bums out" is overrated. The two main political parties have spent at least the last 50 years in the political equivalent of ethnic cleansing.
Respect, John, but I think that you're missing the point when you continue to talk about "the two main political parties."
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Aug 31, 2018 - 04:47pm PT
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We have one political party, the Corporate Party. This party has two factions:
the far right Republican faction
the center-right Democrat faction
The Republican faction knows deep down that capitalism doesn't work, hence they are desperately grabbing for all they can before the house of cards collapses.
The Democrat faction thinks capitalism can still work, but realize that the peons need to be thrown a table scrap from time to time or the pitchforks and torches will come out.
It would be nice if someday we had a second, or even a third political party.
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dirtbag
climber
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Aug 31, 2018 - 05:35pm PT
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First, the white nationalist Republican Party, and all its kooks and sycophantic leaders (which is nearly all of them), must be driven to the political wilderness. That damned party has completely lost it.
Otherwise, nothing will happen.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 31, 2018 - 06:03pm PT
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It would be nice if someday we had a second, or even a third political party.
That would be wonderful, if we had a parliamentary system.
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Lituya
Mountain climber
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Aug 31, 2018 - 08:07pm PT
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It would be nice if someday we had a second, or even a third political party.
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Lituya
Mountain climber
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Aug 31, 2018 - 08:17pm PT
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Anyway, I'm not advocating Warren's plan and I'm certainly not accepting the status quo.
Good to hear. Still, we're gonna need you to keep us updated on those elderly, white lawn bowlers. They're the real threat! ;-)
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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Aug 31, 2018 - 10:06pm PT
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Haha, good memory...God forbid you wear khaki on that hallowed lawn bowling venue! Polo white or go home!
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Thanks for the graphic.
John
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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I'm not necessarily a big Warren fan. But she does make some halfway decent points.
Things have tipped a little too far in the direction of big corporations and the rich. And it's not just commie liberals that think so.
The one magazine I read regularly is the Economist. Which has, for the better part of it's 150+ year history been pretty well recognized as tipping towards the free market/traditional liberal side of things.
And yet, recently even the Economist has published a number of articles expressing concern about the divergence of worker and CEO compensation and how the increasing dominance of very large firms may be reducing innovation and growth.
When you've got even the Economist worried about these things, says to me that we have an issue.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Fair point, Steve. My personal response to excessive CEO pay (and there's plenty of it, IMO) remains simple: don't own the stock of any company whose board allows excessive executive compensation.
It's harder to deal with the skewing of the income distribution, but at least hourly earnings are finally increasing after a ten-plus year hiatus.
John
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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stevep, as a long time The Economist subscriber I agree but I am afraid that even the esteemed senator is more inclined towards Nicolas Maduro’s side of the aisle than Adam Smith’s. 😉
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