Edit: new and improved image, now with 100% less support! Used my expert photo editing skills to change “supporting” to say “voting for”

  • rothaine@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    If you don’t mind lots of new corruption in the federal government, maybe Trump seemed ok. But here you go:

    https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-complete-listing-atrocities-1-1-056#2017

    I’m not sure Hillary would have done any better

    I think if Hilary was President, we’d have had a serious conversation about policing reform.

    Now everything is expensive as hell

    This is mainly due to the Fed under Trump printing a shit ton of new money. Remember all the “money printer go brr” memes? And remember how everyone said it would cause huge inflation? Yeah it just took a minute to kick in.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Inflation wasn’t caused by “printing money”, or even COVID PPP loans being unpaid. It was mainly caused by businesses realizing they controlled many aspects of people’s lives.

      When people were paying $50 for some toilet paper, most daily essentials companies realized that people were willing to pay more than they expected. There are very few tp companies and not many Americans install a bidet.

      Americans mostly got raises during COVID and that allowed many companies to raise prices. You always have to eat, clean your house, wash your clothes, go to the bathroom, etc. This is just the consequence of a lack of competition among companies in the US (and other countries).

      • rothaine@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I agree with you that that is a large factor, and certainly a problem, but inflation has always been very strongly correlated with the money supply; you can’t just simply ignore the “printing money” aspect of it.

        • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          No, money supply is not strongly correlated with inflation. Right now M2 is shrinking while inflation is still positive. That wouldn’t happen if they were strongly positively correlated.

          https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL#

          Here’s better explanations:

          Rising commodity prices and supply chain disruptions were the principal triggers of the recent burst of inflation. But, as these factors have faded, tight labor markets and wage pressures are becoming the main drivers of the lower, but still elevated, rate of price increase.

          https://www.nber.org/digest/20239/unpacking-causes-pandemic-era-inflation-us

          Meaning “people have more money, so producers increased prices”.

          • rothaine@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            Right now M2 is shrinking while inflation is still positive. That wouldn’t happen if they were strongly positively correlated.

            We already see that there is a time lag effect, so does that actually matter?

            Anyway, this disagrees with the paper you linked:

            https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042015/how-does-money-supply-affect-inflation.asp

            It’s also curious (from reading the abstract) that the paper you linked didn’t seem to include money supply in their model? Was that deliberate?

            But I’m also just generally skeptical of anything that tries to blame labor or wages for inflation.

    • MacN'Cheezus
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      10 months ago

      I think if Hilary was President, we’d have had a serious conversation about policing reform.

      Perhaps, but would it have been done in time to prevent George Floyd’s death? Look at how Trump’s border wall worked out despite all the effort he put towards it.

      And COVID would likely still have happened unless you’re willing to go so deep into the conspiracy rabbit hole to be willing to say that Democrats released in on purpose to get rid of Trump. Would she have done a better job at handling that? More people died on Biden’s watch than on Trump’s, even if it was only due to the fact he had to deal with it longer.

      • rothaine@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Perhaps, but would it have been done in time to prevent George Floyd’s death? Look at how Trump’s border wall worked out despite all the effort he put towards it.

        No, but I don’t think that’s the bar.

        George Floyd gets murdered, people get mad, people protest; the Trump response was “lol lib cities suck, thin blue line kiddos”. With Hilary maybe we could’ve talked about police resourcing, effective disciplinary actions, malpractice, etc. and got something done. Instead we got a gray flag with a blue stripe. And more polarization.

        Not sure how the Trump wall is relevant.

        Would she have done a better job at handling that?

        Perhaps not, but at the very least she wouldn’t have been pushing conspiracy theories on a national stage. I like to imagine she would’ve helped small businesses more, but the mainstream Dems won’t bite the corpo hand that feeds them either, so /shrug.

        More people died on Biden’s watch than on Trump’s, even if it was only due to the fact he had to deal with it longer.

        You included your own rebuttal so I don’t know what point you are trying to make.

        • MacN'Cheezus
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          9 months ago

          George Floyd gets murdered, people get mad, people protest; the Trump response was “lol lib cities suck, thin blue line kiddos”. With Hilary maybe we could’ve talked about police resourcing, effective disciplinary actions, malpractice, etc. and got something done. Instead we got a gray flag with a blue stripe. And more polarization.

          Yeah, I’m not saying he did a great job at handling it, mostly he just poured more oil on the fire. A more diplomatic approach likely wouldn’t have hurt, even if the probability is very high that not much change would have come from it. At least as long as people are talking, they aren’t burning down any cities.

          Not sure how the Trump wall is relevant.

          It’s relevant as an example of how even the most ardent campaign promises often turn into dust during the actual term. And that’s a problem that affect both sides, I just mentioned Trump here because it’s a very well known example.

          Perhaps not, but at the very least she wouldn’t have been pushing conspiracy theories on a national stage. I like to imagine she would’ve helped small businesses more, but the mainstream Dems won’t bite the corpo hand that feeds them either, so /shrug.

          Right, see comment above. But honestly I’m still surprised he doesn’t get more credit for not starting any new wars. Thanks to Biden, we’re now funding massive slaughter in both Ukraine AND Israel to the tune of billions of dollars… but somehow, everyone’s cool with that. But God help us if that money is spent on “corporate welfare” and turns into lower consumer prices. As if giving away all those weapons to Zelensky wasn’t also massive corporate welfare for the military industrial complex. Priorities, right?