we're not following the trend of the civil war.

we're following the trend of the Wiemar Republic.

2/10/2012 5:41:20 PM

Weimar Republic

2/11/2012 12:55:12 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNjQuHeYlJg


lololol its pryderi. i found him. lol

[Edited on February 25, 2012 at 9:03 AM. Reason : ,]

2/25/2012 9:01:57 AM

Huge victory for OWS:

Official Announcement from Anonymous via OWS:

"Your government leaders have decided to move the G8 economic summit from a ‘public’ location in Chicago to a highly secure military installation designed to protect the president and world leaders during high level diplomatic conferences… They ARE SCARED OF US… And they ARE Cowards… That is why they hide behind armies of police and security forces."

[Edited on March 5, 2012 at 8:31 PM. Reason : -]

3/5/2012 8:31:30 PM

Actionpants, jazon, str8foolish. you guys sure talk the talk, but we need you to start walking the walk if you expect us all to buy into your bullshit conspiracy theories constantly...

i expect to see you hypocritical chevrolet driving asses out there representing your causes.


[Edited on March 5, 2012 at 9:46 PM. Reason : ,]

3/5/2012 9:42:57 PM

I got an LRAD headache and a fat whiff of tear gas in 2009 at the G20, so I'll sideline this one. And I'm not sure what "conspiracy theories" you think I subscribe to, let alone any that include NATO and the G8




[Edited on March 6, 2012 at 9:10 AM. Reason : .]

3/6/2012 9:09:13 AM

404 pics not loading?

3/6/2012 9:32:40 AM

3/6/2012 9:52:36 AM

Hahaha, how am I getting mentioned by name in the soapbox

And I drive a honda

[Edited on March 6, 2012 at 3:39 PM. Reason : ]

3/6/2012 3:38:54 PM

This.

3/6/2012 6:35:08 PM

^wow long time no post.



"Back up in yo ass with tha resurrection?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqXT4-bY5Gk



[Edited on March 6, 2012 at 8:03 PM. Reason : They wanna ban us up on capitol hill, die mothafuckas die mothafuckas still. . . . .]

3/6/2012 8:00:02 PM

3.14.2012
Police seize tents and personal possessions on day 130 Occupy Honolulu

Police raid Occupy Honolulu not because it is a homeless camp (because it's not one), or because it violates "Bill 54" (because it doesn't).

Police seized literature and art from the encampment along with tents and personal possessions while Madori Rumpungworn recited the Kanawai Mamalahoe, the Law of the Splintered Paddle, which is incorporated into the State Constitution and guarantees that all who lie by the roadside be undisturbed.


The encampment is in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement, and continues inspite of this attempt -- the 11th raid in the 130 continuous days of encampment.

http://dougnote.blogspot.com/2012/03/day-130-brings-raid-11-on-occupy.html

3/16/2012 1:13:11 AM

March 15, 2012


Approximately 50 Occupy Wall Street protesters rallied outside Bank of America this afternoon, as part of a nationwide demonstration to symbolically "foreclose" on the giant predatory behemoth. Activists intend to target Bank of America on the 15th of every month until executives break down into tears and turn every branch into a C.S.A. farmshare. Bank of America is infamous for cranking out foreclosures, and has received two bailouts from Washington totaling $45 billion; it was also the first major bank to get into the subprime-mortgage business.




http://gothamist.com/2012/03/15/occupy_wall_street_protesters_slam.php#photo-2

3/16/2012 1:31:24 AM

http://youtu.be/jUzMLu4K_2o

3/16/2012 10:38:03 AM

^^&^^^

Quote :

"Do not consecutively reply to a topic - If you are within the alloted timespan for editing a message that no one has replied to and you think of something to add, EDIT the message. DO NOT REPLY AGAIN. Constant abuse of this will not be tolerated."

3/16/2012 11:18:02 AM

I don't double post to be annoying.

I do double post to separate ideas.

There's a difference.

3/16/2012 1:45:50 PM

OWS this afternoon:



[Edited on March 16, 2012 at 4:31 PM. Reason : .]

3/16/2012 4:30:50 PM

Quote :

"I don't double post to be annoying. I do double post to separate ideas. There's a difference."

Not when those ideas are yours.

3/16/2012 4:40:17 PM

somebody can't read
i'm very sorry

Quote :

"If you are within the alloted timespan for editing a message that no one has replied to and you think of something to add, EDIT the message. DO NOT REPLY AGAIN."

[Edited on March 17, 2012 at 9:45 AM. Reason : hey i get it now... you're like OWS. you don't play by the rules. ]

3/17/2012 9:43:35 AM

http://youtu.be/RuB0aKPkjDg

3/17/2012 12:21:32 PM

http://webewizards.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/repost-why-is-gas-so-fucking-expensive-the-answer-may-surprise-you/

Why Is Gas So Fucking Expensive ?!? The Answer May Surprise You.

Quote :

"To use an example frequently offered by Masters, imagine if someone continually showed up at car dealerships and asked to buy $500,000 worth of cars. This mystery person doesn’t care how many cars, mind you, he just wants a half million bucks’ worth. Eventually, someone is going to sell that guy one car for $500,000. Put enough of those people out there visiting car dealerships, your car market is going to get very weird very quickly. Soon enough, the people who are coming into the dealership looking to buy cars they actually plan on driving are going to find that they’ve been priced out of the market."

3/18/2012 6:00:43 PM

Quote :

"Why Is Gas So Fucking Expensive ?!? The Answer May Surprise You."

I grind my teeth every time I read this.

I cringed in 1999 when I paid 0.99 cents per gallon. I knew that shit wasn't sustainable.

*puts on hipster glasses*

3/18/2012 11:04:53 PM

^ do you don't believe deregulations through the 90s that allowed speculators to hijack the process play a huge role?

3/18/2012 11:15:45 PM

1 gallon of gas still costs a dime of silver.


Don't talk to me about sustainable.

3/18/2012 11:25:45 PM

Quote :

"^ do you don't believe deregulations through the 90s that allowed speculators to hijack the process play a huge role?"

I srsly can't tell what you're saying. Are you implying that speculators drove down the price in the 90s?

Let's talk about the oil markets. Here are my claims:

1. global oil consumption is basically constant on the order of a year
2. speculators can't affect price on a time frame beyond the inventory metric
3. the inventory metric for oil depends on the source and the nation, but it's maybe 1 month, maybe 2 months, and according to some definitions of what can be practically adjusted without market impact, maybe 2 fucking days.

What about time frames beyond the inventory metric? In that case, price is determined by the balance between supply and demand. And oh fucking shock, maybe the fact that production is nearly inelastic has something to do with the fact the the price if schizophrenic.

Seriously, the greatest source of consumption elasticity are the fucking refineries, because they can redirect different cuts to different industries that can adjust their use because they have competing feedstocks unlike the mentally disabled American driver who has exactly 1 source of transportation fuel and blames price spikes on speculators.

3/18/2012 11:50:07 PM

Clearly you didn't read even half of the link.

When commodity speculators represent the vast majority of buyers they ARE the supply and demand. The "actual" supply and demand become irrelevant, which is why laws up until the 90s prevented paper speculators from being too much of a percentage of buyers.

3/18/2012 11:54:53 PM

Quote :

"When commodity speculators represent the vast majority of buyers they ARE the supply and demand. "

No they aren't. They have to exist their positions before expiry.

Quote :

"The "actual" supply and demand become irrelevant"

You are violating basic mathematics.

Integrate the total buy volume of speculators over the last decade. Do the same for sell volume of speculators. Subtract. I promise the resulting number is less than the inventory metric.

3/18/2012 11:59:27 PM

Quote :

"No they aren't. They have to exist their positions before expiry."

Also discussed in the link...

The normal hedgers would in fact have to exit their position, but the commodity traders just want the price to keep going up and always rebuy (the "only buy longs" as the link says). This is the problem with speculators vs. hedgers. The speculators don't care.

Quote :

" Integrate the total buy volume of speculators over the last decade. Do the same for sell volume of speculators. Subtract. I promise the resulting number is less than the inventory metric."

So you're saying over the course of a decade or so the price might normalize, which justifies the intermediate bubbles and instability the over-speculation creates?

There are links to articles there discussing over-speculation of wheat artificially driving up the price of bread and other food around the world, pushing millions into starvation, and near starvation. This isn't worth it so that well connected banks and investment firms can make a quick buck.

[Edited on March 19, 2012 at 12:28 AM. Reason : ]

3/19/2012 12:26:07 AM

Quote :

"So you're saying over the course of a decade or so the price might normalize, which justifies the intermediate bubbles and instability the over-speculation creates?"

The speculators with a decade-long net-zero position could still make a profit. That's the point of speculating. They want to buy high and sell low. But a buy is ultimately coupled with a sell. That's a trader.

Quote :

"This isn't worth it so that well connected banks and investment firms can make a quick buck."

I'm not saying you can't do this, but you have to use momentum effects. You have to "scare" the price up so it keeps rising after you buy. Sure, it's possible to starve people that way. However, I do believe that wheat has a larger inventory relative to oil.

3/19/2012 12:43:11 AM

Jury Finds Occupy Seattle Protesters Not Guilty of Locking Down Chase Bank



http://www.portlandoccupier.org/2012/03/16/jury-finds-occupy-seattle-protesters-not-guilty-of-locking-down-chase-bank/

These are the stories that should be the norm.

[Edited on March 19, 2012 at 12:50 AM. Reason : .]

3/19/2012 12:49:29 AM

Well I'm glad someone still knows how to do jury nullification.

Although... that is Seattle

3/19/2012 12:53:15 AM

Relevant to a few posts up:



This explains entirely why the price of oil is behaving like it is. Sure, speculators could also play a role, but we don't need to introduce that. The world makes sense without speculators driving the price.

3/19/2012 1:09:46 AM

Quote :

"The speculators with a decade-long net-zero position could still make a profit. That's the point of speculating. They want to buy high and sell low. But a buy is ultimately coupled with a sell. That's a trader."

That's the problem... commodities wrapped up in index funds don't take a sell position, it's a perpetual buy, and re-buy. This is what Goldman Sachs has been doing.

You've exactly laid out the scenario that would create a problem (no sells), and this is in fact the reality of the problem that the speculators have created. This is what's described in the link...

^ there's not "could" here. This isn't a theoretical argument. If you look at the current layout of the system, the speculators ARE the problem.

And i'm not sure what that graph of prices and supply is supposed to show, when the supply is rising steadily. You seem to be reinforcing my point. What is creating those wild price swings? It's certainly not a supply problem. Why does the price change seem completely decoupled from the supply? Couldn't be... speculators?



[Edited on March 19, 2012 at 1:35 AM. Reason : ]

3/19/2012 1:32:31 AM

Rising demand in world oil.

I think the more likely explanation is that it's a combination of inelastic supply and increasing world demand as well as short-term speculation. Of course the long term price of oil will increase with no additional supply and increasing demand. Anyone who came to class on the first day of EC 101 could tell you that. But the short term volatility can be explained by market speculators who have no actual role in the production and distribution of oil. Why do we have the huge swings in price over the past decade? Why does the price change because Iran threatens to blow Israel away but there's not actually any supply issues? Because the speculators are speculating about geopolitical happenings.

Obviously there are a lot of things I don't understand about the process, but why do we allow a middleman to take a cut of the most valuable natural resource in the world? Why don't drillers sell directly to refineries with no in between?

This was a really good documentary on how psychology affects markets and causes even the most expert of traders to act irrationally in the hopes of making another dollar. My favorite is probably the average guy who buys a $20 in an auction for $28. Markets do not always act rationally because people do not always act rationally. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYXD-_AMstQ

3/19/2012 5:04:04 AM

Quote :

"Markets do not always act rationally because people do not always act rationally."

Of course this is only a surprise to someone reading a right-wing econ book like the Bible

3/19/2012 9:48:23 AM

Quote :

"You've exactly laid out the scenario that would create a problem (no sells), and this is in fact the reality of the problem that the speculators have created. "

Christ you can't be this dumb. If GS have been sustaining a long position, then they roll over their contracts. They don't just keep buying more long positions. When they roll over a position, they sell a near-term contract for delivery and buy a contract for delivery further out.

If GS kept buying without selling, that would mean their total position would be growing. So how far in are they now? What's the current total position? By your argument, their total position in 2012 would be greater than 2011, which would be greater than 2010. That's madness. Eventually the contract roll-overs are going to sink them.

Quote :

"Why does the price change seem completely decoupled from the supply? Couldn't be... speculators?"

No, they are decoupled because supply and demand are too inelastic. Did you see the price change by a factor of 4? How much did production change at that point? The stability of this system depends on the ability of consumption and supply to change in response to a price signal.

It changes almost nothing in response to a price signal, no matter how severe.

That's the problem.

3/19/2012 9:53:26 AM

^^



[Edited on March 19, 2012 at 10:05 AM. Reason : -]

3/19/2012 9:55:16 AM

What in the fuck?

3/19/2012 10:41:36 AM

Haha I think pack_bryan's tumor's growing a bit

3/19/2012 10:43:24 AM

From this weekend I think

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r3X-Gx6AVxk#!

3/19/2012 7:27:38 PM

i cant really follow what just happened here, but the tumor comment was funny.

3/19/2012 8:47:02 PM

Buy guns.

3/19/2012 8:51:39 PM

coming to theater city near you.

3/20/2012 12:23:27 AM

Quote :

"1 gallon of gas still costs a dime of silver."

No it doesn't. Where'd you hear that?

http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1946-1964-Silver-Roosevelt-Dime-Value.html

[Edited on March 20, 2012 at 9:42 AM. Reason : .]

3/20/2012 9:41:41 AM

^ Ron Paul said it in one of the Republican debates

3/20/2012 11:38:10 AM

Oh, his bad, It's 2 dimes.

3/20/2012 11:41:35 AM

Wow so the price of gas has more than doubled, adjusted for inflation.

3/20/2012 11:43:51 AM

Let's print more money, hand it out, then we can all afford to buy more shiny things and gas for our government subsidized cars.

That won't affect the buying power of our currency.

3/20/2012 11:48:23 AM

Who is this imaginary liberal you're arguing against that actually thinks that?

3/20/2012 11:49:45 AM

2 dimes is twice as many as 1!

RON PAUL BUCKS EXPERIENCE 100% INFLATION IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS SINCE THE DEBATE WHEN HE MADE THE CLAIM

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!

3/20/2012 11:52:09 AM