All Posts by baff

Originally posted by Reborn17

 Do foreign nationals pay income tax to the U.S. when they're working in their own country?

 I pay tax in the U.S.

I'm foreign and I don't work or live there.

The key to manipulation of inflation figures is the products you choose to include in your Consumer Price Index.

For example if I include the price od televisions in my index then the drop in the price of 40 inch flat screens counts against the rise in the price of bread and petrol. However almost noboddy is buying a new flat screen TV every year. It's a manipulation. You should be looking at a spread of inflation figures to judge it by, not just one agencies. Particularly not just one government agency with an obvious political agenda to float.

Another common manipulation is not to include taxation rises.

Originally posted by Nasica

 

You should learn the definition of racism before you make comments like this.
Calling an asian an asian is not racist, calling an african american an african american is not racist.

 

Yes it is.

You have discriminated him from all the other Americans.

When you stop calling people, African Americans, Korean Americans, Native Americans, Muslim Americans... and all the rest and start referring to them as "Americans", you will be with the program.

As long as you keep profiling people by their ethnicity you are being racist.

P.S. I've seen Bush on TV a lot this week presiding over the economic crisis. I wish my PM was in his league. He speaks clearly and with confidence. He isn't ducking the issue and he is heading up a bi-partisan team to address the issues with alacrity and decisiveness.

I've always liked his bi-partisan approach. Condalezza Rice was a former Democrat too.

However, his foreign policy is a train wreck. This is a man with quite simply no insights into foreign culture and no respect for it. His domestic policy on the otherhand all seems pretty solid to me, and when he opens his mouth on TV I am not automatically instilled with the desire to cry "liar" everytime as I am with almost all of my own domestic MP's.

Likeable chap Bush and his dad is a hero.

As someone who buys games for his LAN, I don't buy games I can't crack.

5 installs would leave me short.

I didn't buy BF2142 because the anti-piracy would not let me run two copies from the same LAN, no matter how many copies I purchased. (BF2 did it without issue, BF2 also allowed me to run LAN games from one copy).

I'm not anti EA games in any way. They have their boat to row, and I have mine. I own a few EA titles I enjoy. If they make something I want to buy in th future, I still will.

I don't appreciate overzealous DRM at all. If it can't be disabled I won't buy it. I have enough technical issues hosting servers and networking multiple PC's and upgrading drivers and hardware and showing drunk people how to left click a mouse to fill my life with. I don't need any extra's.

Companies like EA only respond to court orders, not customer feedback, so it's nice to see this one get to court so quickly.

It's kind of a pity in some respects though ,as if ever a company like EA feels it cannot make a profit on single player games, they will stop producing them altogether. I wonder if that day will come.

It works.

And it trickles down very quickly, not "eventually".

A bar in the city makes a lot of money off rich people. Everyday.

It wouldn't work if rich people didn't spend any money. But they all do.

Economically it works and it works well, it is the primary driver in national economics.

Socially, it doesn't work so well.

Uneven distribution of wealth creates resentment. (Wealth creates resentment).

100 people can spend the same amount of money faster than 5 people on their own can. 

Redistribution of wealth creates a secondary economic driver.

This only works if the primary income generators maintain their level of productivity. (Typically 80-95% in any given society). There is a play off here as over taxing them will remove their incentive to produce.

Politically, both sides of the argument overstate their cases for personal gain. A happy medium is the correct course to plot.

Originally posted by kedoremos

 

Here's the problem: not since the Great Depression has our currency been backed by gold. The only thing that makes our money worth anything is that the government says it is.

So if the government owns the money and the government makes the money (physically makes it) and the government sets it's value then they could do whatever the Hell they want if they control the stock markets.

The only thing that makes your money have value is that the person who redeems goods for it, says it does.

Not the government, the guy you buy stuff from with it.

It's value is negotiated between you and whoever you use it to buy things from. Every time you do so. You set the value. You personally.

It's better not to rely on the state for your pension.

(Investment) Banks make their money out of the margin. Yes.

Investors also make a cut of that margin.

In the case of banks and stock markets, the "gold", comes from the little people. Pensioners. Savers.

Not some mega rich guy with his assets shielded, but someone like you. Your mum, your dad. The guy next to you at work who contributes to his pension scheme or life insurance.

These are the evil gold owners in your scenario. These are the investers. They are not a small number of very large stake investors, but rather a very large number of very small stake investors. They pay tax, and they need that money as much as you do.

Sell them to who?

Who is going to buy them?

Really mate. Right now, they can't sell them.

Who do you think has 1.34 trillion spare that wants to turn that 1.34 trillion into a much smaller sum of money?

Answer: No one.

There is a credit crunch. A global recession. No one has any access to money.

Who the F wants to buy 1.34 trillion dollars of U.S. debt at a time like this?

No one is buying that off China and China doesn't want to make a loss on it anymore than anyone else who isn't buying dollars off China at the moment does.

It's basic economics. Buy low, sell high, not buy high sell low.

If Korea and Kuwait want to sell their dollars and China doesn't want to buy them, they won't be selling theirs either. No one else has that kind of money at the moment  and if they did they wouldn't be looking to buy dollars any more than anyone else, they would be looking to sell them too.

China is stuffed. It can't cash out of your economy. It can lend you more and hope that you recover, but it can't get it's money back. As much as they would like to. There is no such option available to them.

America is an investment blackhole.

 If a meltdown comes China will be very affected just like everyone else. There isn't any getting on the train and you'll be alright.

Originally posted by iZakaroN

 

I personally do not think that typical WoW player will go for WAR, WAR is very different to be liked by most WoW addicted players...

Looks identical to me.

Originally posted by Raphaell

Originally posted by Daffid011

 

The games I was referring to that come out feature incomplete are games line Conan, Vangaurd, Tabula Rasa, etc.  There is no reason for people to sit around waiting for 6 months while devs try to get their act together.  People have better things to do with their time now with other options.  Games come out fun at release or people just migrate back to their previous game.  I really loath companies that run under the mentality they can finish their games after they sell it to me.  Argh!

 

Also, I wasn't really defending warhammer so to speak.  I don't think the game is going to do as well as people seem to think it is.  I agree the game itself will get better over the next six month, but I think it will start to wear thin on fun factor also.  I could be wrong, but that is my inital impression.  That aside it is a pretty good release, especially compared to so many other games that got pushed out the door incomplete. 

 

 

 

Well, companies don't always intentionally release them unfinished. Usually, they release what appears to be finished, only for more bugs/kinks to be brought to their attention by players. Hence why MMOs always release patches, cause there's pretty much always stuff that needs to be fixed, which isn't noticed before retail release.

Companies that were unable to meet their critical deadlines can be relied upon to fail to meet all the other lesser ones too.
 

Why would they suddenly be able to do what they were incapable of originally doing after 2-4 years in 6 months time?

What does that tell you about the state of any patches or expansions to come, once their dev team has shrunk and their budget has been cut to a small percntage of what it was, why do you suddenly think they will be able to fix anything now?

When the Titanic sank, no one invited the ships pilot to drive a lifeboat.

Originally posted by paulscott

Hicksville USA(yes there are some in the north_ isn't much more racist than a majority of the world.  Americans are just asses and say what's on they're thoughts.

The parts of the US that aren't hicksville US just aren't as entertaining to the media when they're trying to paint a picture of racism and whatever.

No mate.

Everywhere.

The media has nothing to do with it. Everyone and his dog has first hand experience of America and American's.

Tourists don't go to Hicksville USA. They go to New York, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. 

Originally posted by olddaddy

Originally posted by billie

Early 2007 China had threatened to liquidate it's vast holding of US treasuries, amounting to $1.33 trillion, if Washington imposed trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation. The Communist power has also repeatedly expressed it's anger at the Fed’s indifference to the weakening dollar. If China were to dump the dollar it would likely set in motion a chain of events that would lead to a collapse of the greenback.
 

This right here, foreign banks dumping out of the dollar, will be the next crisis.

As the fed has already indicated, they are not going to lower interest rates because they believe inflation is the threat. That is because, after the AIG bailout, they increased the printing of money, thereby devaluing the dollar.

In order to keep the foreign banks, like China, from divesting themselves of dollars, the Fed has to increase interest rates. What do you think that is going to do to borrowing costs for business expansion? For buying a car? For buying a home?

If the fed doesn't increase interest rates, and the Central Asain Banks sell off the dollar, what do you think that will do to the prices of imported products?

Not to fear though, your government was looking out for you a couple of years back when they made personal bankruptcy protection alomost impossible for most Americans. Seems like the financial industry knew the whole house of cards was coming down, and wanted to stick the borrowers all the way to the grave.

Their looking out for you now too, bailing out the corporations that make the political donations, that hire the lobbyists. That is why you see absolutely no discussion of the government, which will own all these bad mortgages, re-negotiating the mortgage and extending the term to keep people in their homes, and receive some sort of an income stream. Eventually, the government would collect on the loan if they really believe they can turn this mess around. If the economic bailout were successful, people would eventually refinance, move, or die, and those mortgages could be collected. But keeping people in their home and keeping them paying something is not on the government agenda. Wall Street is. Their actions show that they really don't believe they can turn this thing around. It's all short term help for their buddies, not long term help for Americans.

I sure hope you young people can adjust to a life of serfdom.

They will never sell their dollars, becuase when the dollar is low, they can't get a return on them.
 

They will only sell your dollars if your economy recovers enough for get value for them. They are trapped in a Catch 22. The chances are you will never repay them anything even approaching the amount they paid for them. It is just one more example of bad debt.

The next crisis for the U.S. economy, or rather the next step in the crisis, in my opinion, is what happens when the U.S. fails to reform it's economy.

When the U.S. people fail to stop living on their overdrafts, when the U.S. government fails to spend within it's taxable income.

There is a credit crunch on. No one can lend you money anymore. Discussing the national debt every year is all very well when there are people out there willing to lend you more next year.

But it's the credit crunch. No one is. 

At least no one but China. Who you are unable to repay and keep deflatting the value of your dollar against so that the repayments don't match what you were originally lent.

China will not sell their dollars, China will simply stop buying U.S. government bonds.

If they can't make any money lending it to you they will simply stop doing so. 

People talk about the bail out of companies using taxpayers money.......but it isn't taxpayers money they are using, it's Chinese peoples life savings. They already spent all the taxpayers money. As a nation you have been living on borrowed time (money) for decades now. You don't pay it back. You just declare bankrupt and go fishing for someone else to invest in your next start up.

The game is up.

The Fed has to increase intrests rates to stop people borrowing. Not to please the Chinese, but to stop the rot in your economy. You have been spending money you don't have, personally and as a nation for the last 3 decades. It has become culturally acceptable and even the norm to do so.

You've had the money and spent it. Now you have to pay it all back before anyone will lend you any more.

It's a question of investor confidence. People will lend you more money if they think you will pay it back, preferably with some intrest.

If they think there is any danger that you won't, they will turn off the money tap. Which they are all doing. You have lost investor confidence. Your economy is due to shrink now. It will be painful, think back to the collapse of the Soviet Union 15 years ago.

This election I predict you will see a load of politicians attempting to bribe the electorate with more Chinese money. Just like the Soviets, they would all rather ride the train over the cliff than miss their chance to drive it.

The fundamentals of your country are basically good. It has the resources, the manpower, the education and the infrsastructure to make money. Like Russia, everything you need, is there. The only thing that isn't working, is the system. The political system. The economic system.

The economic system needs to change and the democratic system of government prevents that from occouring. Both must dramatically change before you'll see anymore of my money. Russia is a safer bet.

It's a lot more racist to it's own people than in my country, and a lot more racist to it's own people than many of the other countries I have visited. It's really noticeable wherever you go, and all visitors to your country from mine, mention it.

But it's not what you would call a world leader in racism. There are plenty of countries with civil wars going on.

America hardly tops Zimbabwe or Israel for example.

Originally posted by Fishermage

4) People win, people lose -- the market discipline, when allowed to happen, eventually works out in the end. That's a GOOD thing.

Except when it doesn't, then it's a bad thing.

Originally posted by Fishermage

1) Who assumes that "everyone" does anything? Economic growth means everyone is doing all sorts of things, we are talking about aggregates here; not collectives. Lower taxes leads to more choices and more opportunities, it also leads more importantly for middle class peope to RISK and become rich people 9whatever these terms mean -- almost meaningless now in this extremely mobile society in which we live).
 

Lower taxes leads to increased reliance on foreign debt. As long as you are fundamentally unwilling to pay your way, you will always be China's bitch, until they get bored of you. Then you will be a collapsed ex super-power like what the Soviet Union was.

You won't have any social mobility, other than all the rich people leaving the country as fast as they can. You are in recession. Your social mobility is downward.

Your economy is not good. This crash was not unexpected. You can't just keep on borrowing indefinitely. You can't just have more tax cuts becuase it's election time again. Your government has no money. It is trying to sell government bonds to raise cash.

You aren't just broke, you are overdrawn in a credit crisis living beyond your means.

Originally posted by c4ligul4

Splendid article. Now its time for the repubs to come in and and say that taxing the rich would hurt the economy. They just can't handle the truth.

Depends how much you tax them. If they leave, you get nothing.

Never. They don't have the gear and they won't be able to get their hands on it in time.

America is flat broke. So they won't either.

If I was a betting man, I'd be betting Iran joins the nuclear club and then we all start talking nicely to them again.

HSBC is the worlds largest bank.

It's a High Street bank not a mortgage lender.

I own loads of it.

That's what you should be looking for, banks that aren't exposed to the mortgage market and that have steady alternative income streams.

HSBC is a Chinese bank centred in London with branches all over the world. I stopped investing in America decades ago. The place will suck you dry. It's an investment black hole.

I think Bank of America looks like a decent U.S. bank, that's probably a good local buy if the price is low.

In th U.K. I've recently bought Lloyds and Barclays.

The problem with buying foreign currency is that the market is very volatile. You have to keep a very close day to day eye on it. You need to be watching whats going on in international politics. It's quite a hair raising way to make money.

Had you bought British pounds for example (Usually the worlds stablest economy), one month ago, you would be 15% poorer today.

I suggest that this months most stable currency would be the Renminbi. The problem is if you buy foreign currency now, it will be worth less when the dollar, which is pretty low currently, eventually recovers.

Buying foreign exchange is is easy, your bank can arrange it for you, or if you search for "Online FOREX trader", you will get plenty of results.

Ultimately the above posters are right, even when the bank collapses you will still be able to withdraw your savings. The government guarentees it (and the Chinese people guarentee your government lol!). When Northern Rock collapsed I got my £100,000 out without any trouble. A lot of people queued around the block for weeks, but I just waited until all that was over  and got mine a few weeks later.

If your government collapses to the point where that is not possible then your dollar will already be valueless due to rocket inflation.

Invest in some foreign companies for security. Banks are the biggest bargains right now. HSBC is the safest one there is on the planet.

If it has to be gold, consider investing in a gold mine.

As long as i don't fall out with a game, I'll came back and play it again when it has more content.

If I overplay it, or fall out over nerfs or bust up unpleasently with a group of friends or have a billing dispute or get banned or hacked and not reinstated or something like that....then I am never coming back.

I tend to leave when the pace of new content dries up. Either i have done everything, or i have done so much that it takes days and weeks to progress my character or grind up stuff.

At that point I take a break for months.

I think I have returned to WoW 4 times now which is twice as many times as any other MMO. I expect to do so at least one more time before I'm done.

War has 1.5 million copies shipped ot retailers, that is double AOC's 700,000 on launch.

The Burning Crusade however sold 2.4 million copies to actual customers in it's first 24 hours.

War has taken EA's record for being their most pre-ordered game ever.

It cannot however beat WoW on this print run. They simply haven't made enough copies for it to even come close.

Originally posted by Fishermage

 

Actually, that's false. Reagan presided over a great economy (longest peace time growth in history at that time); Most of George H.W. Bush's tenure the economy was pretty good; as it was for most of Bill Clinton, as it was for the past administration. Any recessions we had were short, and then followed by growth. It was all good overall.to do with "trickle down economics?" Or are you just repeating democrat talking points because you want a democrat in the white house?

Growth in borrowing isn't the kind of growth we are looking for.

Neither is "growth" the holiest word in economics. As we have just seen in the credit crunch all those banks that have chased blindly after growth have done significantly less well than those banks which pursued a path of sustainable profitability.

The established "economic theory" has just been turned on it's head. There are lessons to be learnt from this. Growth isn't the be all and end all of economics. Using it as a measure of success may lead to pitfalls.