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It's academics taken to its illogical extreme. You see the same thing in climate science. Absolute certainty in theories that have been mistaken for facts, and every time the theory is unable to predict the future, reasons are found after the fact to justify the theory's failure. When you question the theory, you are deemed too stupid. The Soviets called them useful idiots. Unfortunately they predominate in academia and politics. They proliferate during the good times, and skitter away like roaches when things get ugly. But I think our resident economist is more like General Chang than he is like Paul Krugman. It was a good run.

Thought experiment: If the cost of Ukraine assistance was a tenth of what it currently is but still as effective in pushing Russia’s shit in, would the same American commentators still be complaining? Of course they would, because it’s not really about the money, it’s about a combination of 1.) politically countering Democrat administration successes and 2.) actual sympathy towards Russian efforts.

Russian propaganda is directly influencing conservative media and indirectly influencing you if you think that specific 0.01% of the budget is the problem to focus on. Best ROR of any defense spending program ever. Because fuck Putin, that’s why.

You have an intriguing perspective but your hubris and delivery is off-putting. Is every conversation in your life a lecture or do you dialogue at all? If “everything is always politics” then we can disregard all your points as political spin meant to manipulate rather than educate.

This guy is almost as good as General Chang was in his glory days 🤣😂

That would only be true if the invasion of Iraq was relatively cheap and wildly successful at improving American security, which it was neither.

Goddamn this is well said. I'm glad there aren't just retard Russian shills in here.

Yes, and zero (in the government spending component) would dramatically lower the GDP. We agree. And it's sad I need to add this, but not all govt spending is a loan. Taxation is the primary source. That's why government spending is in the GDP in the first place, because it is meant to capture the spending by the populace that was precluded through government taxation. If there was no deficit spending, this would actually be a fair measure, as taxation responds reliably to economic growth and contraction. Sure you did: "Growth is a measure of spending, if the gov spends, growth increases by definition." You weren't. Just pointing out another silly metric used to portray the economic reality in a politically favorable light. The secretary of Treasury. Good enough? “We’ve raised the interest-rate forecast,” Yellen noted Friday in an interview with Bloomberg News. “That does make a difference. It makes it somewhat more challenging to keep deficits and interest expense under control.” https://fortune.com/2024/05/25/deficit-debt-warning-janet-yellen-higher-rate-outlook-interest-expenses/ https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/boj-wont-raise-rates-when-markets-are-unstable-deputy-gov-says-6f4bf962 Right, they just had to backtrack on future hikes after a whopping .25% hike. That screams stability. The Yen devaluing by 1/3 in a few years is perfect normal too. No, what's happening here is the normal people are talking about the actual economy using unambiguous terminology. You are attempting to convert the conversation into something more akin to academic economics. But the field of macroeconomics has been dead for decades. There's a reason investors don't lean on guys like Krugman to make money. Modern economics stopped being viable when it became a political tool to justify the utopian desires of elected fools. And no matter how many times the predictions are wrong, we just get more reasons why actually its very very complicated and you definitely can't use common sense. You've once again demonstrated this quite effectively.

this graphic breaks it out better: https://www.crfb.org/blogs/congressionally-approved-ukraine-aid-totals-175-billion

The anti-Ukraine movement is Russian propaganda that MAGA has stupidly bitten off on because it’s a counter to a wildly successful venture by the current administration. For a pittance (<1% of our normal defense spending), we’ve enabled the Russian military to destroy itself by proving the overwhelming superiority of American weapons (very old ones, at that) in the hands of motivated locals. The effort has helped deter those who use FSU-derived weaponry while upending the idea that a modern Army can just steamroll a determined (and well-equipped) local populace at will. Taiwan would be wise to use the same posture to deter China. Putin is a shithead sacrificing Russian youth to overcompensate for his insecurities. He is a tiny-dicked fuck that deserves a horrible death, which he will eventually get because the oligarchs would rather make money than see it dissolve in a war.

RIP to Matt, if y'all can, please donate to help his family out. Luckily I just saw that the Special Operations Warrior Foundation will be taking are of all of his kids' educational expenses from here on out. SOWF is one of my absolute favorite charities to donate to and support, and I encourage you to do that too if you can.

Oh FFS lol. If you don't understand that all money is debt just stop posting and go read a book. Taxation cannot be a source for spending, how does one tax something which doesn't exist yet? If you secede from the US to start your own state and create your own new currency, you have to distribute it first before you can tax it. All money balances created are 'deficit spending'. Just do the math dude. I think Helo dude brought up growth. "You" you be "You guys". This place is like a field of mushrooms, everyone is the same. You = y'all. 🤣 I see boiler plate non-speak there, IMO. Yen floats, they can do whatever they want. Depreciation only improves foreign consumption of their output. Ah. Economics is a language, used by the ruling class to justify political decisions. It's like modern Latin. That's it. Everything is everywhere, always, just politics. And everyone on this forum is literally too stupid to get that. This is the problem. Fix that and you fix everything else. Go kill the priests or learn the language. Those are your options.