…it doesn’t matter how much you have.
Case in point: Almost 80% of NFL players near bankruptcy two years after they retire.
Archive for the ‘Paper Money’ Category
When you don’t know how to handle money
Sunday, March 21st, 2010The Mundell-Fleming GTA Hypothesis
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009Grand Theft Auto IV achievement and trophy loyalists will remember the “Impossible Trinity” reward received after completing the “Museum Piece” mission. Speculation abounded over the nature of the name and its significance, and later it was more or less revealed to be a teaser for the next two playable characters in the GTA IV episodic installments [Kotaku, Giant Bomb]
For me this discussion went by the wayside until just recently, when Professor Jeffrey Frieden lectured about the “unholy/impossible trinity” in international economics (formally derived from the Mundell-Fleming model). Basically, a country can at any time only choose two of three goals: 1) a fixed or pegged exchange rate, 2) an independent monetary policy, and 3) free capital mobility. Given a world where there is free capital mobility or capital controls can be avoided, countries will have to choose between 1 and 2. Although this is a simplistic way of looking at the model, one could argue that the US, which lets its currency float, has chosen 2. More information about this here and here.
What does this mean? Probably nothing. Maybe the person in charge of achievements had studied economics and was just having fun with the idea. Or maybe “impossible trinity” is one of those blanket terms that can refer to many things that come in 3′s, not just economics. Heck, I could write the religious hypothesis after this. But that should not stop the mass speculation! If you can only have 2 out of 3 characters, what are the GTA-specific reasons why you can’t have the 3rd? Is Niko Bellic representative of fixed exchange rates or free capital mobility?
…
Ok, it was probably just a broad term or a reference to religion. Extending economic models and hypotheses to try to interpret video game lore will just lead to a cluster****.
Barney Frank drove two thousand American Samoans out of work
Sunday, May 24th, 2009Remember this hilarious video (we had posted it) of Barney Frank whipping it out on the House podium?
We didn’t really know or care why the other guy thought the minimum wage bill was such a big deal for American Samoa. But then recently this came up [Reuters]:
Chicken of the Sea, the tuna company, announced this month that it will close its canning plant in American Samoa in September. The culprit is 2007 legislation in Washington that gradually increased the islands’ minimum wage until it reaches $7.25 an hour in July 2009, almost double the 2007 levels.
In 2007, the hourly minimum wage in American Samoa for fish canning and processing was $3.76 and the minimum wage for government employees was $3.41. Shipping had the highest minimum wage, at $4.59. Garment manufacturers got the lowest, at $3.18 an hour. A $7.25 wage is a substantial increase for most residents.
Chicken of the Sea will lay off 2,041 employees—12 percent of total employment, almost half of all cannery workers. And the 2,700 workers at StarKist, the other American Samoa tuna canning company and Chicken of the Sea’s rival, are probably concerned that their jobs are the next to go.
ABC also notes M0 increasing more than ever before
Monday, March 16th, 2009From This Week with George Stephanopoulos:
We have been writing about this for several months. This particular graph shows M0 through the decades.
Monetary Inflation Watch
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009The monetary inflation continues… M0 is now about twice as large as it was?
This will be fun. Maybe.
Oh Dear God the Monetary Inflation
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Houston, we have a (monetary) problem
Friday, October 24th, 2008Helicopter Ben has just become Rocket Ben, according to the latest M0 figure from the Fed’s published data. [St. Louis Fed]
Btw, Ron Paul. [CNN]
Helicopter Ben makes good on his name: M0 going through the roof
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008From the Fed’s own published data: [St. Louis Fed]
The Monetary Base, or M0, is the amount of physical (or, practically physical, i.e., deposits sitting in the central bank) currency in existence.
“But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press…” – Ben Bernanke, the Helicopter Speech
Websterflation
Monday, October 13th, 2008Right after that Websters post we ran across a real live Mr. John Webster and his economics blog. [New Financial Wisdom]
He’s posted a video on YouTube about inflation. It’s actually out of a Duck Tales episode, from the good old days before Pokemon and all that other crap which followed. [YouTube]
Oh Noes the National Debt
Monday, October 13th, 2008Congress gets to raise the debt ceiling whenever it wants, but the famous National Debt Clock on the Times Square has only a finite number of digits. [CNN]
We’re too tired of this shit to talk about it so let me spam some links:
- This top Internet landmark, thanks to Ed Hall:
- http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
- Official daily figures from the Treasury:
- http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np
- Ross Perot loves teh charts:
- http://perotcharts.com/