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Although this thread does not function under the same strict guidelines as the USPMT, it is still a general practice on TL to provide a source with an explanation on why it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion. Failure to do so will result in a mod action. |
On April 16 2015 02:02 WhiteDog wrote:Why would you take high heels if you know you're going to jump on a desk ? Draghi fear is delicious tho. Show nested quote +On April 14 2015 23:47 RvB wrote:On April 14 2015 22:59 WhiteDog wrote:On April 14 2015 19:45 RvB wrote:On April 14 2015 17:40 WhiteDog wrote:
Benefit maybe, but considering that the return on capital investment is usually higher than growth, it mostly benefit the capitalists, and it does not balance out the balance. You can continue to invoke chemistry, facts are still there. How can you explain china ? germany ? We don't see a tendancy toward balance, but an increase of disparities since the crisis...
I know right, it's not chemistry, it's alchemy. China is highly protectionist, closing off markets to foreign companies subsidising SOE's trough cheap bank funding and fixing the exchange rate. I don't see how you can use them as an argument that free trade causes their imbalance. Already adressed before. By the way : how do you think china sell all their goodies ? Thanks to low tariff.... Where did you adres it, can you quote it? Obviously they want to sell their goods and don't restrict outgoing flows. That doesn't change the fact that they close of whole markets to foreign competitors. Tariffs isn't the only factor in protectionism. Yeah and everybody is in China's situation : they all want to sell their good and not buy too much from others. China just does it in a more crude way, but they don't strictly go against any of the OMC directives (since obviously, they were condemned at some point and change their behavior). China is still very open to international trade, that the trade is not perfectly free is another matter (nothing is, that's the main problem).
I would like some of the stuff you smoked to see them high heels.
god look at all the "journalists" getting a boner. horrific
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Cayman Islands24199 Posts
he thought the mic was the heel.
good protest
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On April 16 2015 01:36 JonnyBNoHo wrote:Protester at ECB Press conference today: ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KFDuGEX.gif) + Show Spoiler +
world class security level, if she was crazy and had a weapon like a knife he would have been seriously injured
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On April 16 2015 03:15 Makro wrote:world class security level, if she was crazy and had a weapon like a knife he would have been seriously injured
I've been to the ECB once and no way you get a weapon into that. Everyone had to go trough a check like at the airport.
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What if it was an acid attack? Metal detectors wouldn't figure that out.
In Draghi's defense, that is an attack and you don't have the time to process the fact that there are security checks and what not. Lots of people making fun of Draghi for being scared, as if they wouldn't shit their pants too.
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Some classy journalism on that gif.
Something retarded happens: clic clic clic clic clic clic clic clic clic clic clic clic clic clic clic
Edit: And Greece is now downrated CCC+ by SP.
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Cayman Islands24199 Posts
where did this victim complex of europe come from. poor europe exploited by the usa and strong China, which was a bunch of villages only 30 years ago.
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On April 16 2015 06:51 oneofthem wrote:
where did this victim complex of europe come from. poor europe exploited by the usa and strong China, which was a bunch of villages only 30 years ago.
Could have something to do with American aggressive foreign policy and Chinese approach to industrial property, human rights and ecology. Europeans can pretend they're the only ones who play fair
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Zurich15363 Posts
On April 16 2015 06:51 oneofthem wrote:
where did this victim complex of europe come from. poor europe exploited by the usa and strong China, which was a bunch of villages only 30 years ago.
Are you responding to anything specific in this thread? I don't think this was brought up in here.
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every european bitching about EU or US brings it up indirectly.
everyone to the E of germany-czech-austria-slovenia?(maybe) = victims; the others just have 1st world problems.
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That security at the 1bn brand new ECB building is a joke, you can kill or seriously injure with a pen if you're so inclined, nevermind knifes and such.
There have been a whole lot of security lapses lately, running guy running right into Cameron, (very small) drone flying around Merkel in a press conference, several White House incidents, this thingy now... can't help but get a certain foreboding feeling given the state of a large part of the world.
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Cayman Islands24199 Posts
On April 16 2015 16:56 zatic wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2015 06:51 oneofthem wrote:
where did this victim complex of europe come from. poor europe exploited by the usa and strong China, which was a bunch of villages only 30 years ago. Are you responding to anything specific in this thread? I don't think this was brought up in here.
this particular ahistorical history. well, it's not exactly poor europe. it's rich and weak europe.
On April 14 2015 21:00 phil.ipp wrote:Show nested quote +On April 14 2015 19:45 RvB wrote:On April 14 2015 17:40 WhiteDog wrote:
Benefit maybe, but considering that the return on capital investment is usually higher than growth, it mostly benefit the capitalists, and it does not balance out the balance. You can continue to invoke chemistry, facts are still there. How can you explain china ? germany ? We don't see a tendancy toward balance, but an increase of disparities since the crisis...
I know right, it's not chemistry, it's alchemy. China is highly protectionist, closing off markets to foreign companies subsidising SOE's trough cheap bank funding and fixing the exchange rate. I don't see how you can use them as an argument that free trade causes their imbalance. everyone does this, china just does it more bluntly than everyone else. "free market" is a concept for third world (africa) and weak (europe) countrys to let the big ones USA and China exploit their resources (africa) and draw as much money out of the country as possible (europe), with that money they buy afterwards, real estate, companys, or give big credits for political influence, or just buy every land they get their hands on, like china does in africa. In China its the State itself, in america its the "free" corporations, which then are bound by laws like Patriot Act or Export limitations (intel for example cant export chips to china, cause the US government just suddenly decided). In the end its the same. this game is so fucking obvious, its sad that many of you cant see that. the idea of globalization, full free trade is a good idea if there would be ONE government for the whole world. its obvious that the superpowers just abusing the system now to gain more and more influence.
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oh no you get me totally wrong, i dont see europe as a victim of the EVIL EMPIRES around us haha :D
europe is a victim of its own politicans and maybe just history and how things developed, and of course the fact that its split into 30+ countrys doesnt really help today. and of course once upon a time it was the biggest evil empire of them all 
i just brought that up, cause its seems many people believe that every country participates in a game called "economy and free trade", where everyone follows some given rules and its a totally well thought out fair game, where everyone has the same chances to get to the top.
in reality everyone tries to exploit the game as much as possible, rules are only followed if it benefits you.
china wants to build a better computer than the US, just dont sell chips to them.
china produces cheaper solar panels than the rest of the world - hm just tax the import to the point where they are not cheaper anymore
some random African country has the best cotton in the world - lets subsidize our cotton industry to the point where the African country has to sell its cotton for super low price.
or like the WTO Trade Agreement with India, where they wanted india to agree on not allowing itself to provide free food for starving people - fucking classic :D
its not a fair game, if it would be, the US wouldnt need double and triple the military everyone else has. it wouldnt need a NSA who tries to get it hands on any information there is. its just to ensure victory even if you somehow get the shorter stick in that "fair" free trade game.
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Cayman Islands24199 Posts
and suppose you are not pessimistic about how this all will turn out, but think some sort of politics will be the solution. what kind of politics would save europe from its internal traitors/class enemies and their external clientele?
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another example which comes to mind
europe does not have a facebook, google, apple. we could make our own, and just kick the others out like china does but no, we play the game. it benefits our people to buy these products from US companys, at least some people have this opinion.
so europeans buy these products, google, apple and all those others basically dont pay taxes, ship the money to some island where ridicoulous amounts are stored. and what does america to get to that money?
they make extra laws for these companys so they can cheaply import that money into the US with little taxes - of course with the condition that it will be invested in the US.
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On April 17 2015 01:19 oneofthem wrote:
and suppose you are not pessimistic about how this all will turn out, but think some sort of politics will be the solution. what kind of politics would save europe from its internal traitors/class enemies and their external clientele?
i really see no reason to not be pessimistic about this haha
of course nothing what im now saying will happen in any way
but in a magical world where everything happens what i wish
1. europe would have to go through a unification process, like europe one country afterwards.
2. we would need the chance to arm our military to a point where we could defend ourself from organisations like NSA, or military drones ect. without get bombed into stoneage from other countrys.
then i think i would feel the playing field is leveld.
afterwards we could engage in trade beneficial to all parties
what probably will happen:
at some point europe countrys will decide to get into a sort of trade union and military union (NATO) with america, like the EU now, where mostly american politicans will have a say, cause they will provide military safety. to achieve this they probably tell us, russia and china are evil empires who wants to kill us all.
from that point on we will probably work together in winning the the "economy" game, against china, russia, and who knows else.
and prey everyday that there is no third world war, because any of the other atom countrys feels they lose the game.
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Europe can't afford a proper military. Nearly every single country is below NATO required spending, and that is a pittance compared to what is actually required for proper defense infrastructure.
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we cant afford?
of course we could afford, we just dont want to.
i know not a single soul in my circle of friends who would go to a war for our country.
i would never vote for a party who wants to rise military spending.
concepts like "pride to fight for america" dont exist in europe mostly, maybe a bit in france and UK but thats it.
thats why europe is weak, we wish that things like military might dont matter anymore in the world, but it does matter the same as 100 years ago.
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Norway28761 Posts
it doesn't matter the same as 100 years ago, not even close? For one, nukes are the grand equalizer. Secondly, the idea of a western european country invading a western european country is absolutely inconceivable - 100 years ago Western Europe was warring like never before.
It doesn't matter in nearly the same way when dealing with the world outside Europe, either. European military imperialism is dead, and something truly special would have to happen for the population to be remotely supportive of anything resembling colonial times. Sliiight exception for France and UK in that regard (where I have the impression France still has some feeling of both responsibility and desire to have influence over former Northern African colonies, and the UK is 5th in the world in terms of military expenditure. )
See that's the thing though. Europe isn't even weak in terms of military. It's just that the US has such ridiculous power that everyone seems weak by comparison, and China, even though it spends a smaller of gdp % than both France and UK, is so populous and has such a strong economy that it also comes out much stronger - but expecting countries with 80 million people to compete militarily with countries that have 1,2 billion people, that's a recipe for bankruptcy.. Russia, they only spend 30% more than either France or the UK, that's hardly anything to worry about..
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Yeah. Basically, Europe has a military strong enough to beat anyone attacking them soundly (except the US i guess, but even then depending on how finished your Rocket Shield is any sort of war would probably still be MAD at least on some level. Probably worse for us, but not something you would wish for. And that is ignoring the fact that there is literally NO political reason for such a war, the US and EU generally see each other as allies, and despite the BS you tend to pull with your spying programs that will probably not change for a while). And that is all you need.
Anything else you could use a military for is some sort of humanitarian intervention on foreign soil, but ignoring the fact of how horribly bad they tend to turn out, we even spend enough to be able to deal with that sort of thing should it be necessary.
What we don't spend enough money for is randomly invading middle eastern countries and occupying them for decades, or to have military bases and fleets all over the globe just in case you need to fight a war there on a moments notice.
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