Has the Decline in Manufacturing Output and Jobs Been Good, Bad, or a Mix of Both . . .

. . . for the overall dynamism of the US economy and the well-being of the American people?  The question deals with multiple complex issues, and the buggy answer --- set out in five lengthy posts (all linked by a coherent analytical framework) --- can be found by linking to it at Economist's View.  Click here.  

Oh, be sure to click on the "show more" bar at the bottom of the first page of the thread.

Today's Buggy Topic

For all its length, it does not refer to any posters here at this site --- not possible you see: prof bug forced to close comments four years ago, after several atomic blasts of thousands of spam that forced prof bug's end Internet-server out of operation.  The reference is to a particular unnamed furioso whose raw frenzied posts are crammed with unintended hilarity at Economist's View, where the buggy guy set out a do-it-yourself test to uncover your true personality structure, hidden from your conscious and deluded mind.

Click here and enjoy.

Today's Buggy Topic Continues . . .

. . . The sustained strident efforts of prof bug to contest the humbug pieties of left-wing types at Economist's View, a very good economic blog run by Professor Mark Thoma of the University of Oregon.   Click here for the several buggy posts left in the thread linked to in the previous prof bug entry.   They should be both informative and at times humorous . . . or so the buggy prof hopes.

Today's Buggy Topic

The title above captures it faithfully except for a clarifying add-on: the EU West Europeans' lower income inequality --- which means after (federal or central government) taxes and transfer payment like welfare or social security payments --- is lower in comparison to the USA's.  As it happens, prof bug shows in three lengthy commentries left at Economist's View that the right answer for key social problems such as violent crime, corruption, and tax evasion shows a correlation with rising problems on these scores for West Europeans, even as these problems in the USA have declined noticeably for 20 years.

And Expected Longevity at Birth?

As it also happens, there is no correlatin at all between the rises in the USA and West Europe on this score.  For the buggy stuff, click here.

So Far, Two Lengthy Buggy Commentaries Have

. . . Appeared on this complex topic, which are found at Economist's View.  As usual, lots of data and other hard evidence are set out in these two wide-ranging buggy posts, with a third and final one to follow . . . most likely tomorrow.  Click here for the bugged-out stuff, which is found on page two of the thread's comments. 

Oh, wait!  To reach the second page, click on "Show More Comments" link at the bottom of the first page.

The Question Just Posed Is . . .

 . . . What the Buggy Prof sought to deal with, at length and with lots of data and comparative analysis --- including China eventually, for more general purposes --- in a thread found at Economist's View.  No need to say more, except that you should read the linked to article that starts the thread.  Click here.

Today's Buggy Topic Is . . .

. . . found at Economist's View, in a thread started by Prof. Thoma --- the manager of that web site --- linking to a lengthy commentary on fascism by Professor Daniel Little, a philosopher at the University of Michigan.  Prof bug has comments extensively in the past on both European fascism and its varieties that emerged after WWI and flourished in most of Europe in the 1930s and during WWI, not to forget its ongoing influences after 1945 . . . right down to the present.   Which means Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the clerical fascist regime in Iran (now under siege), and in radical Islamist circles found all over the Islamic world.

Click

. . . here for Professor Little's stimulating remarks, followed by prof bug's.

The Hocus-Pocus Is . . .

. . . found in a lengthy thread, 160+ posts, full of dogmatic left-wing pieties and the usual phantasmagoric make-believe among the radical posters who believe, amid the ongoing economic crisis, that the political and economic future of the USA clearly, really --- yes, really really, brothers and sisters!  No fooling this time! --- belongs to them at long last.  Not the distant future, mind you.  Rather, imminently . . . starting in the November 2010 Congressional elections.  ;

 Yes, pell-mell, just like that . . . the exploited, downtrodden, immiserized American working classes, their academic avant-garde showing them the way forward, are about to rise up; reject their dismal dog-eat-dog  existence in capitalist, sexist, racist, homophobic, neo-neo-post-modern imperialist AmeriKa;  sweep out the mercilessly exploitive Oligarchy-in-Control, not to forget its running-dogs in Congress and once again in the White House --- oh Obama, you cruel cruel sell-out! ; and --- as the topper, the final systematic change, then alter the American Constitution so that our political system looks like Sweden's or France's, concentrated power everywhere in the hands of the New Benevolent Rulers.  After which, brothers and sisters! pow . . . institute full-tilt Social Democracy, just like that. 

Wait Though!  Social-Democracy Just a Way-Station, a Temporary Rest for Our Benevolent New Power-Wielders and Sagacious Saviors!

And soon --- not just pow! but, boom!  boom-like!  we'll all shoot forward at superman-speed to full-blooded socialism . . . yes,, heavenly bliss on earth, the American masses saved by our radical brethren from misery and chronic downtrodden depression.  Wisdom, generosity, and endless empathy afoot throughout America and, by extension, the world.  Democracy finally real in this country, no longer a sham facade for the Oligarchy and the rich and treacherous politicians.  Wars ended or near end.  Environmental greenry everywhere.  Regulations of full benign intent in full force on a global scale.  And, needless to add --- maybe thanks to endless transfers via foreign aid --- a global redistribution of income while finally all of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia flourish, develop wisely, fully attentive to the environment, and AmeriKan arrogance and power turn into American benevolent philanthropy everywhere.

Yowee!

All this hoked-up mumbo-jumbo and collective self-delusion, note with joy, is fully on display in a thread at Economist's View . . . the Marxist wind-machine gibber there- totally cut off from reality except as it exists in the self-deluded minds of the Magnificent Seven Post-Slingers  who monopolize about 75-80% of the posts, along with their camp-followers of all genders, ages, and shared groupthink hallucinations.

Enter the Buggy Professor

After about 130 of these startlingly daffy, cloud-chasing posts that would have done justice to scholastic philosophers of the Middle Ages obsessed with counting the correct number of angels dancing on a pin-head, prof bug --- once he finished laughing with belly-aching delight and caught his breath ---- decided to enter the ring with these world-class nit-wits and try to bring the discussion back to planet-earth and American life and society in 2010.  Specifically, by noting first just how out of touch with political trends in American life these windy, other-worldly pulpit-pounders happen to be.  Then, more specifically still, by citing at length the results of two different surveys of U.S. public opinion on an array of political matters . . . both surveys, using different questions and samples, showing that even Democrats oppose a bigger, more activist government and higher taxes by 51% to 37% (as one polls nailed the figure).

That 37% of the American public adds up --- what with self-identified  Democrats and Republicans alike getting 40% of the vote last November (20% left to Independent) --- to a mere 14.8% of the electorate.  And with, t0 boot, 74% of Americans found in one of those surveys to believe that the United States is basically a fair and decent country.

What Followed?

A deluge of attacks, all amounting to goofball personal attacks on yours truly, plus --- far more important --- a bevy of dogmatic, utterly close-minded rejection of this evidence.  Wow!  How dare the manipulated American masses --- victims of false-consciousness --- presume to know their self-interests and views of American life not in line with those of the true-believing Left!  And how shameless is the troll-bug to insult the pulpit-pounding pieties of the avant-garde intelligentsia, kindergarten-version!

All this flight from hard, down-to-earth realities, mind you,  materializing in circles of left-wing Marxists and other Socialists whose members most likely rub their eyes, their minds afire with mockery, when they read  or hear that fundamentalist religious people of all religions reject Darwinian evolution as wrong, lacking anchorage in hard evidence compared to their belief systems. 

And so prof bug, more delighted than ever --- feeling bright and bouncy --- posted two more times, full of naughty-boy roguery.  Click here for the three buggy posts.  Observe that all three are found on the 2nd page of the posted comments.  To get to that page, scroll to the bottom of the first page, click on the "continue" button, and voilà!  you'll find some revealing buggy evidence and lots of unintentionally hilarious radical twaddle of crazy-house proportions and padded-cell delusion.

In Answer to the Subject Title,

. . . Paul Krugman thinks so, unless we follow his policy advice and not only add more fiscal stimuli to the economy despite the proclaimed end of the recession in August of 2009, but keep short-term interest rates as close to zero as possible.  His argument, set out in the NY Times was linked to by Prof. Mark Thoma of Economist's View, following which  dozens of posts immediately materialized in that thread  . . . almost all of which set out the usual fast, top-skimming left-wing dogma of pulpit-pounding groupthink.

In Reply, Prof Bug Left Three Lengthy Posts,

. . . Two of which analyzed what happened in the 2nd Big-Dip Depression within the Great Depression in 1937-38.  As usual, that analysis drew on lots of data and some theoretical matters, cited the buggy sources, and ended up with a cautiously hedged endorsement of some of Krugman's worries.  It did, though, disagree with his pessimism, and especially his urgings --- now repeated in almost all his NY Times op-eds that if the Chinese don't stop their neo-mercantilism manipulation of their Yuan currency, let it appreciate noticeably in dollar terms, and reduce their huge trade-surplus with us, we should get tough somehow.

As prof bug notes, this exaggerates our leverage over the Chinese even though their $2 trillion in their reserve holdings make them a hostage in part to  American economic and financial fortunes.  The old banking adage is sound here: if you owe your bank a few thousand dollars, you're in trouble.  If you owe it billions, never mind trillions, then the (Chinese) bank is in big trouble and at your mercy.

Above All, Prof Bug Notes,

. . . How we have not just limited leverage other than diplomatic pressure with others on the Chinese to switch from export-led neo-mercantilist growth to domestic-oriented growth, but also we have to be concerned with the diplomatic, military, and political fall-out of an overly tough policy.  (Note that trade protection against China, moreover, is illegal under World Trade Organization rules, and there is nothing illegal in IMF rules if the Chinese or any other country wants to peg its currency to the US dollar . . . or for that matter, as has happened in the past at times, to let it float within a managed range in dollar terms.)

Enter the Third Post,

. . . A few humorous pokes at the left-wing dogmatists who complain about Prof bug's bugged-out sort.  Enjoy it (I hope).