AmericanEconomicThinkTank

Lol yea, think tank thing is real as well. First-gen student and all that, so thought hell I have the education might as well use it, even if I’m a one man show here. This is genuinely turning into a whole lecture here lmao so uh, good luck lol.

Funny you say that, that’s actually one of the reasons I’m trying to push my local library to host a few community education semminars and the such, in a perfect world I would spend my life going from one subject to another just soaking in everything I can.

Economics as a whole, and the economists themselves, can either end up being practically stuck in the 19th or 20th century, or standing right on the bleeding edge of theory and application. While as a field in and of itself, economics equally relies on existing mathematical principles for use, so it’s a rarity to find an economist trying to create new mathematical principle like you would with a mathematician, but you will find lots of economists working to use new mathematics to integrate into economics models. A good example of this, is how often models used in the world of physics end up being used in modeling economies, or specific sectors. Even right now, the most common model used for determining market averages is a 19th century equation developed to determine the temperature of a room. Though that’s not even looking at the priciples of the subject, which are as old as know written language, if I recall you can still find basic economic principles on old cuneiform tablets. As for actual acceptance of theory, it’s pretty much always up for grabs, given it’s a field of observations on the real world, it’s impossible by it’s nature to have a universal proof, mathematically speaking at least.

As for currently widely accepted theory, the easiest to point to in the modern world are two basic assumptions. First, is that in any given economy, growth is considered a perpetuity. In the junior economics world (aka business leaders lol) they take that as the mantra “expand or die,” though it’s quite a bit more accurate to see each part of an economy, whether that’s a single business or entire sector, as limited in it’s current full potential, but the additions to the economy as a whole tend to be stay within the whole, in one form or another, even if that firm or sector disappears. Mostly this is through research, infrastructure, even how taxes paid get redistributed. So, you can technically have “infinite” future growth, while still operating within a limited resource world.

Of course the problem is most businness leaders and politicians don’t end up taking that longer run thinking, and just jump into the take everything you can and give nothing back bandwagon.

Recessions are a bit of of a hot-bed in the policy side of things, given the underlying assumption of the post-war economic models implemented in the US after WW2, and copied world-wide, is that consistent inflation on a year to year basis would be able to both foster greater economic growth by increasing total possible credit in an economy (which it does) but, that that year to year constant inflation rates should also prevent recessions and general depressions. Of course that half hasn’t come true, most senior economists over the years have pivoted into the viewpoint that controlled inflation smoothes out larger recessions and depressions, but that’s still up in the air. Since the 2008 recession was very much a depression, with many recessions ocurring pretty much decade after decade since it was enacted in 1945, it’s very much being questioned as a central policy, but for the most part it hasn’t collapsed so it’s still probably going to be enacted.

Democrats now are where Republicans were in the 80s

Kinda like that other guy, once I ripped my cd collection to digital, just didn’t even get into streaming.

Still make mixtapes the old fashioned way for my partner (corny lol I know) and I buy the occasional remaster at a local thrift shop, or the old baked out hippie running a music / instrument shop.

It’s an honest joy.

I try to curate zines from around the world into local exhibitions, do hand translating alongside if need be, imitate the original paper best I can.

It’s kinda fun lol. That and kinda similarly, but I love♡ spending time on online software radio sites, just listening into different channels like I was there myself.

Lol sorta. For me, I run official accounts in these sorts of circles mainly because I despise modern corporate social media platforms, I’d still be on newsgroups if it weren’t so much work lol.

So, I do enjoy seeing notifs, mainly in the hope (like every other boring ass economist) that I get to have some dialog on an interesting topic.

Interesting, I’m starting to see what you mean there. Comparable to US steel quality dropping and being supplanted by Japan, or currently China.

Hell even the axis started using compressed cardboard by the end of the war.

I recall hearing the statements about bone health increasing in the generations after the collapse of the Rome and the such. That ring true? What piqued your interest in the era?

If that’s what you’re facing, maybe try thinking of it like you’re trying to get to know them a little. If you start talking about say, your recent effort to make sambal oelek for use in say noodles, asking if they’re familiar with the name, talk about how it has some origin in French cooking from the colonial period, add some info about how you like to use it etc.

Like if I’m ordering food, I’ll always go for the full pronunciation, then maybe follow up with the server or whoever asking if it’s the dish with this or that main focus.

I also love having fun with themed dinner parties with friends and the such, give full presentation on the pronunciation, it’s history in different areas that make it slightly different, give everyone a copy of the recipe (minus a few key but subtle ingredients lol) in both the original language and English.

All in all I say just try to make it a chance to be enjoyed one way or another and it doesn’t take long to get your confidence flowing lol. I totally empathize, I used to be absolutely mortified about the same thing, still do sometimes, just less so these days.

I would say absolutely in the general sense nost people, and the salesmen, frame them in.

When I was invited to assist with the GDC development, I got a chance to partner with a few AI developers and see the development process firsthand, try my hand at it myself, and get my hands on a few low parameter models for my own personal use. It’s really interesting just how capable some models are in their specific use-cases. However, even high param. models easily become useless at the drop of a hat.

I found the best case, one that’s rarely done mind you, is integrate the model into a program that has the ability to call a known database. With a properly trained model to format output in both natural language and use a given database for context calls, and concrete information, the qualitative performance leaps ahead by bounds. Problem is, that requires so much customization it pretty much ends up being something a capable hobbyist would do, it’s just not economically sound for a business to adopt.

It’s almost funny seeing the unblinkimg sycophants working the same idea across the media spectrum the past few weeks in preparation.

Honestly primary these guys.

Pretty much.

Interesting comparison though, sad to say my understanding of old world economics is too low to give a real answer in that regard lol.

I try to find even 10 minutes alone to decompress and watch what little nature I can. Usually helps a bit.

That or a short walk or stretch, both good.

Honestly it’s mostly unconscious for me, the brain just does it’s thing sometimes.

Well to give you a real answer that would depend on how you look at it. Transport industry tends to favor east coast, but that’s mostly thanks to legacy infrastructure.

On the other hand, the past few years of infrastructure bills promoted southwest manufacturing uptick due to easier tax rates, preferred interest from government structures, and as well lower cost workforce that require lower per capita investment for bringing training up to speed.

California had a whole bunch, between strong port access, strong technical expertise, the whole Silicon Valley thing lol.

But given current administration policies, attitudes towards education achievements, and importance of targeted subsidizing, nevermind everything else the past 40 or so years of privatization. It’s a lot to catch up on, most of which requires long term planning.

Of course then you could get into the economics side of things, and that the amount invested through our own foreign direct investment brings about greater income in the long run. Basically by subsidizing foreign production of different goods, we don’t bear the cost of better research and investment in the future, we can use trade agreements to purchase, say computer chips to keep things consistent, which have stipulations that the exporting country purchase mass quantities of lower trade goods at a price advantageous to us.

So uh, it’s pretty much a loose loose situation here lol.

Surely you couldn’t expect our representatives and congressmen to be motivated to work by anything other the big bucks.

Few of my personal favorites: “I’m disappointed in you” “You don’t have to be your parents you know” “Is this what you do with your free time?”

Of course, it’s been their weekend fun for a few centuries now.

I miss when life was boring.

Considering everyone in the room knows the Commander in Chief wouldn’t be able to pass the basic reading tests for recruits, I’d say this just doesn’t hit home as well as they all hope it does.

Like much of the administration, incompetence and yesmenship is what you get when you hamfistedly shove a junior statesmen into leadership.

Shit like this is why I spend time volunteering with potential candidates nationwide.

So I’m going to toot my own horn here lmao but personally? Mine lol. Sure, technically doesn’t precisely fit the bill for 20 years, given it’s changed domains, content and the such while I was ironing out my interests in life and future expectations.

But I’ve had variations of the site for different projects, purposes, employment needs, and more recently the whole starting my own organization thing lol. All in all however, I’d compare it to those 3 generation soups that are a big selling point in family shops throughout the Asiatic, sure nothing of the original exists per se, but the spirit is there.

I do have such a soft spot for the old ascii and plaintext site design, I’ve never really left the scheme since I first learned html. To me, the more basic a site has made it’s web design the more likely I am to trust it. Something about corporate web design just never sits right with me.