Politics Thread!

[PFVA]

On the situation in Spain I'm not sure if I understand why Spain hasn't asked for international help.

I know they like to take care of their own problems but this situation is serious.

Even the USA after Katrina asked for international help. Teams went fm all over the world.

I know one of the ajuntaments asked for help fm us here, a specific team which is already on the way, but it wasn't even at national level .

Sorry, I just find strange.

[Harlequin]

That does seem curious.

[KlaxonCow]

No, I agree with you that mass immigration is driven by large corporate interests among those of other political groups.

Strictly, I never actually said that. So, to be accurate, you are agreeing with what you imagined I was saying. But, ah, it's close enough that I'll let it go for now.

But you're still leaving me with the question of "why are you blaming the victim?", as this doesn't really address that and only emphasises my point further.

You KNOW it's corporations. You KNOW it's landlords. You KNOW it's the immigration system, manipulated for political purpose.

You know where the blame lies. You know exactly what's causing it and why they're doing it. You know all this.

So where is the criticism of the perpetrators rather than the victims?

I mean, yes, an instant cry of "racist" at anyone wishing to debate the issue is not helpful. But it exists for a reason, when the native white people don't get any of the flak thrown at them, even from those who're openly admitting that the native white people are the actual cause.

Like, it was a rare "moment of clarity" in the midst of it all that I spotted you mentioning landlords. Which is why I pounced on it.

Because whilst moaning about people on benefits, there it was: the admission that this is really all to the benefit of landlords ultimately.

That the system itself is designed this way, inflating house prices and rents, so even working people need to claim housing benefit to be housed at all and then this taxpayer cash is, quite literally, put directly in the landlord's bank account.

A system that doesn't really want to fix the problem at all. Which is why, across multiple different governments who've all promised more house building for decades, there's not been any house building. Because the house builders don't want to deflate house prices, landlords don't want to deflate house prices and rents.

So, for decades, they've been colluding with their political friends to create an artificial scarcity of housing, to keep the house prices and rents way up in the stratosphere.

This reminds me of De Beers. They actually burn diamonds. They dig up these fossilised bits of carbon but if the haul is too large, this could affect the price of diamonds on the market. So, with a bit of liquid oxygen, they actually burn them. Because, yes, you can burn diamonds, as they're just carbon, so with liquid oxygen and enough heat, you can create CO2 out of them and burn them away.

This is atrocious, not only because they're destroying resources that took millions upon millions of years to form, which is a brutal vandalism that need not happen, but the result of burning diamonds is much like burning coal, and they're producing CO2 making climate change worse at the same time.

Artificial scarcity. This is actually the primary reason why a completely "free market" doesn't work. Because, as we already see in our corporate multinationals, they all tend towards monopoly or near-monopoly - which is the death of capitalism, as there's no consumer choice and no competitive pressure, driving price reductions, new innovations and improving manufacturing methods - then they all conspire to create artificial scarcity by throttling the supply, to drive up the prices.

Indeed, with house prices, there's a second layer that they're being taken out of the reach of future generations to ever afford. Forcing them to be forever renters. Recalling that line from Davos: "You will own nothing and you will be happy". The "subscription" / rent future where there is no private property, but everything is rented from corporations who can charge you forever.

[KlaxonCow]

Double post.

[snaff]

The yield captures and signals inflation expectations. Not sure what I've said that anybody disagrees with.

That's the bit, just before your question. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of what gilt yields represent. It is, in fact, utter bollocks. Remember, gilt coupons do not change over the lifetime of the gilt.

The coupon is fixed, but the price of the bond changes as it is traded. The yield is the relationship between the bond price and the coupon, thus the yield changes with the price.

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answer ... -price.asp

"Say that a $1,000 face value bond has a coupon interest rate of 5%. No matter what happens to the bond's price, the bondholder receives $50 that year from the issuer. However, if the bond price climbs from $1,000 to $1,500, the effective yield on that bond changes from 5% to 3.33%. "

There's also your "unintentional" misstatement of inflation rates.

Inflation over the last five years has been 22%.

Whilst you do say "over the last five years", making your statement technically true, that's not how inflation is measured; if I was an unkind man I'd perhaps suggest you were being disingenuous.
"Inflation" in UK terms is generally taken to refer to the annual inflation rate, which, apart from a spike to 9% in 2022, has pretty much held around 3% ±2% for the past 30 years or so. Indeed, the forecast rate out to 2029 is 2%. See https://www.statista.com/statistics/270 ... d-kingdom/

I spoke about inflation over five years because that is relevant to a parliamentary term. I was not trying to mislead but was drawing attention to the compounding. Annual numbers look quite small but over a few years compound up to a huge loss in purchasing power.

People with life savings in low interest accounts rarely realise how much they are losing, especially with that ~30 years of disinflation lulling them into complacency. If you have faith in government holding 2% then no problem, but otherwise you need to get your cash to safety.

[tufty]

I spoke about inflation over five years because that is relevant to a parliamentary term.

Oh fuck off, you fucking lying twat.

What you were saying was "the market is expecting 25% inflation over the term of the LABOUR GOVERNMENT" as opposed to "the market expecting no significant change in inflation compared to the last 30 years". So get fucked.

[SuperMappy]

http://www.boundingintosports.com/nfl/p ... ouse-race/

President Aaron Rodgers? Bookmakers Reveal Odds Of New York Jets QB’s Chances Of Winning White House In 2028

[KlaxonCow]

What are the odds on "no-one, because Trump has suspended American democracy forever and is about to cause WWIII and wipe out all life on Earth"?

I'll put a tenner on that one. Not that - now that I think of it - I'd ever have the chance to collect. But, ah, I'll still take that bet, because if it happens then I at least get "told you so" rights in the final moments.

[PFVA]

On the situation in Spain I'm not sure if I understand why Spain hasn't asked for international help.

I know they like to take care of their own problems but this situation is serious.

Even the USA after Katrina asked for international help. Teams went fm all over the world.

I know one of the ajuntaments asked for help fm us here, a specific team which is already on the way, but it wasn't even at national level .

Sorry, I just find strange.

And they finally did it. Teams of 7 EU countries there as of yesterday.
I still can't figure out why it took so long specially with the problems of after storm public health.

[PFVA]

The new coach of the Manchester United received his UK working visa in 7 days. He can start working tomorrow. The fact is making 7 million may have helped to speed up the process.
(I don't know if the 7 million is the yearly wage or if it includes possible bonus, etc)

[F-ZeroOne]

Wait, not that Korea?!!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn38321180et

[zip accident]

Wait, not that Korea?!!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn38321180et

All Koreans can be very aggressive. I hadn't heard there was a current problem before this.

[Dio]

Not really acceptable language that, chap.

[zip accident]

Not really acceptable language that, chap.

I play go, aka wei-chi/weiqi online, baduk/paduk is the same game, same rules, but a very different attitude, it's all about the fighting. I hope it's obvious this is fighting in a board game, not fisticuffs or worse, but it's still different to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)

I'm not saying it's racial, it's very probably a cultural thing, but it happens. The other way to compete is to capture territory, it can be a game of strategy, but the Korean way in the game is to fight locally everywhere.

"All" was probably an over-reaction.

[SuperMappy]

This is another excellent video from this person's channel. I do like how he at least seems to be passionate about what he is talking about.