HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: cjackson@adobe.com (Curtis Jackson)
Newsgroups: sci.econ,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.british,soc.culture.canada
Subject: Re: US as No. 1 (3 data books)
Date: 26 Jan 93 11:40:23 GMT
Article-I.D.: adobe.1993Jan26.114023.28748
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View

In article <1993Jan22.220321.8579@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> jlacey@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (james.w.lacey) writes:
}The logic is thus, "since hundreds of thousands of people
}immigrate to America every year, and millions have immigrated
}here over the past century, this must be the best country
}in the world."

Well, certainly the "look, everyone wants to live here" bit of
"logic" is a factor, but there are many more that are probably
more important. In particular, the issue of individual freedom
and choice (at least, until the drug war started in earnest).

Americans look at other countries and see things by which
Americans are not constrained:

Official state religions

Mandatory government/military service

Mandatory separation of college-bound vs. trade-bound students
in the early/mid teenage years

Unreasonable (to Americans) search and seizure in the name of
public safety

Mandatory shop closing hours (a la Germany, Nederlands, etc.)

Legislation without true representation (House of Lords)


Add to the above the military might of the country, and you have
a citizenry who feel they are powerful as a country and powerful
as individuals. They can own as many guns as they like, they can
drive an automobile with no instruction after passing the most
absurdly minimal of tests, they can worship whomever they like
publicly, and they can stand in front of the White House and call
the President a horse's ass as long as they're not so loud as to
be considered disturbing the peace.

That kind of personal (and national) power breeds arrogance and
contempt; it is human nature. I seem to recall that England
herself had a rather healthy case of it a few hundred years back,
and it ended up costing her The Empire.
-- 
Curtis Jackson			'91 Black Lab/Blue Heeler "Studley Doright"
cjackson@mv.us.adobe.com	'92 Collie/Golden "George"
DoD #721	KotB		'91 Hawk GT	'81 Maxim 650
"I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead." -- J. Buffett
Newsgroups: sci.econ,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.british,soc.culture.canada
From: jac54@cas.org ()
Subject: Re: US as No. 1 (3 data books)
Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 19:45:57 GMT

In article <1993Jan26.172037.2804@adobe.com> cjackson@adobe.com (Curtis Jackson) writes:
>In article <1993Jan26.120132.21873@cas.org> jac54@cas.org () writes:
>}      Going back to food, the U.S. offers some of the worst sausage
>}      it has ever been my dubious privilege to taste.  Oscar Meyer
>}      would cause riots in the streets in Poland, never mind Germany.
>
>Ah, but that is our *chief* advantage, you see. The unwashed masses
>may eat Oscar Meyer sausages, drink Budweiser beer, and eat Velveeta
>brand processed American cheese-like (not!) food-style product, but
>I don't. And why not? BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE TO, here in the SF bay
>area.

	This is exactly what I was getting at.  Life is good for some
	Americans in some parts of the country.  What about the poor
	counties of Mississippi, what about the areas where the life
	expectancy of African-American men is lower that of the
	average Bangladeshi male?

>
>What America lacks in the large commercial advertised arena it more
>than makes up for in small local businesses, many of them run by
>Nth-generation immigrants, where N is a small number. So I get my
>sausages at one of several local German delis, I get my beer from
>local microbreweries, and I get my cheese from local organic dairies.
>I also get my Thai food at restaurants run by Thai immigrants, my
>Vietnamese food at Vietnamese-run restaurants, and my Japanese cooking
>ingredients at a large local Japanese-run grocery.

	There are of course, no decent butchers, bakers, or brewers
	anywhere else.  Why can't one get a decent French loaf anywhere
	in the U.S.?  Simple enough, you can't get the right grain.  I
	used to live round the corner from a Thai grocery in Berlin
	and about a block from the nearest Vietnamese restaurant.  I
	also had access to a cheese counter offering over 1500 kinds
	of cheese.  We didn't have the many Japanese in town now that
	I think of it...

>I have these wonderful nearly-infinite choices of locally-produced
>good quality foods, yet I still have the advantage of the electronics
>and clothing and myriad other consumer goods mass-produced in this
>country. So the American advantage is that the things we lack on a
>national scale can usually be made here by small businesses run by
>people who know how to do them right, whereas the things that Europe
>lacks would require huge capital investment and large factories.

	Hate to disillusion you, very few of those electronics and
	clothes are made in the U.S.  What things does Europe lack
	that would require large capital investment?  Aircraft
	carriers perhaps?  Lousy freeways?  A rapacious health-care
	system?
>
>And, yes, Iowa is horrible, but America is so huge and diverse (despite
>the raging on-slaught of generic television and fast food franchises)
>that one can choose to live in some place almost, but not quite,
>completely unlike Iowa, yet remain in the same country.

	To put it another way, life is good, provided you can go where
	the good life is.

	Alec
Newsgroups: sci.econ
From: cmk@athena.mit.edu (Charles M Kozierok)
Subject: Re: Inflation
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 04:15:45 GMT

In article <1jkp6aINNpme@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> al037@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Dave Polewka) writes:
>
>In a previous article, jfh@beach.cis.ufl.edu (James F. Hranicky) says:
>
>>Under a fiat money system, like the one we have now, inflation can proceed
>>indefinately, as evidence by the hyperinflations in South America, and 
>>of that in Germany in 1920-3. Governmental increases of the money supply
>>are *not* natural.
>
>I think inflation *is* natural.  Just as it's natural for
>governments to get into wars, and it's natural for alcoholics
>to drink.  But that's still not a good reason for it.  It's
>just an excuse.  We don't have to keep doing the same things
>over and over again.  We can break out of the cycle....the
>merry-go-round.  We're allowed!!!

is inflation natural?

i think the answer is: some of it is, but most of it isn't.

the price of something is simply how many dollars someone
is willing to trade for a product. if inflation means that
that number of dollars goes up, then inflation is caused by
the market valuing the product more relative to the dollars
than it did before.

this can happen because of effects related to the product, or
related to the currency. i would say that an increase in demand
for the product would lead to increased prices if supply could
not expand to meet demand. this might lead to "natural inflation".

but most of inflation occurs due to dollar effects: the government
prints up more dollars, so the value of a dollar is worth less than
it was before. as such, inflation is not "natural".

those who know more feel free to correct/expand upon this.

--
charles
Newsgroups: sci.econ
From: cmk@athena.mit.edu (Charles M Kozierok)
Subject: Re: Since no one is defending inflation, (was re: Inflation)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 03:15:44 GMT

In article <1jngr2INNfq7@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> david@cats.ucsc.edu (David Michael Wright) writes:
>
>In article <1993Jan21.211928.8356@athena.mit.edu> cmk@athena.mit.edu (Charles M Kozierok) writes:
>
>|how is [inflation] good? it is rather simplistic to just look at the increasing
>|price of your house without also considering how the price of everything
>|else is also increasing, and the fact that the bottom tier of house
>|buyers is pushed out of the market.
>
>Unanticipated inflation is, in general, a good thing: if wages are
>sticky it gives you the opportunity to work if the real wage is
>reduced, it makes you economize on money balances so you invest more,
>it reduces debt and thereby makes it easier to invest, it gives a
>signal that the economy is improving (which it may be for the
>reasons above or not) and so boosts consumer confidence. Moderate inflation has
>nearly always been associated with rising output.

i think it also has some very bad points. it is essentially a lie that
clouds the issue of productivity: it leads to workers thinking they
are getting increases due to increased efficiency when they are just keeping
pace. it makes people think things are getting better when they aren't.
it also leads to the nightmare of COLA - which is what leads us down
the road into real trouble.

i don't think inflation is appreciated by those who constantly see
prices rise.

>Of course, high inflation, or too variable an inflation rate, makes it
>impossible to judge the difference between real and nominal prices,
>and so the whole economy can go down the tubes. Anticipating this
>event also is disasterous.

yes, but moderate inflation leads to bad inflation in most cases. it
becomes hard to keep it moderate. 

--
charles
From: sirgo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jorge E Sirgo)
Newsgroups: sci.econ
Subject: Need list of Econometric firms in Chicago/area.
Keywords: Economics, Econometrics
Date: 25 Jan 93 22:08:24 GMT
Followup-To: sirgo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu  (Jorge E. Sirgo)
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

Hello, I am an undergraduate (junior) at the University of Pennsylvania.  My
major is ecomomics.  I am searching for econometrics firms in Chicago or the
Chicagoland area to obtain employment for this summer.  I would greatly
appreciate any help from anyone who can supply me with a list of econometrics
firms with addresses, phone numbers, and point of contact that are located in
Chicago or the Chicagoland area.  Again, thank you.

Jorge E. Sirgo
sirgo@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
(215) 573-6133
Box 879
3700 Spruce St.
Philadelphia, PA. 19104



Newsgroups: sci.econ
From: rja@mahogany126.cray.com (Russ Anderson)
Subject: Re: Inflation
Originator: rja@mahogany126
Organization: The 1991 World Champion Minnesota Twins!
Date: 21 Jan 93 16:43:17 CST


In article <2239@blue.cis.pitt.edu>, wbdst+@pitt.edu (William B Dwinnell) writes:
> 
> Are you saying that through the right sort of government activity
> (possibly inactivity), that inflation could be eliminated?

Sure.  Fix all prices.  Then all we have to worry about is
the shortages and surpluses.  :-)

-- 
Russ Anderson    |  Disclaimer: Any statements are my own and do not reflect
------------------              upon my employer or anyone else.  (c) 1992
EX-Twins' Jack Morris, 10 innings pitched, 0 runs (World Series MVP!)
From: wbdst+@pitt.edu (William B Dwinnell)
Newsgroups: sci.econ
Subject: Re: Inflation
Date: 22 Jan 93 00:58:34 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh


Okay, Charles, the point I am trying to make is that inflation would
occur even in a free market without government intervention (the perpetual
bad guy), and even without money. Yes, inflation of prices means "prices
go up", but that doesn;t tell us much. Why do they go up? It seems
to be the contention of some here that inflation occurs because 1.
the government does things to cause it, 2. because we use money, or 3.
both. I am claiming that inflation would occur without either the government
or money, as "natural" inflation will raise prices, due to the fact that
if you sit on something, you waste its useful value. If you still do
not understand, let me know, and I'll run through it again.
Newsgroups: sci.econ
From: apk@athena.mit.edu (Alan Kaufman)
Subject: applied micro-econ: a newcomer seeks help
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 15:52:14 GMT

Hello.  I'm newcomer to economics; my background is in statistics
and optimization.  I'm working on a project involving the recycling
of old newspapers, and I want to model how the markets have evolved
and what might happen down the road.  The phrase "applied microeconomics"
might sum up what I want to try.

I've read the Project Independence report and the criticisms of it
(US energy planning from the 1970s, using a LP to solve some
complementarity conditions) and it didn't "feel right" -- assumptions
of supply/demand curves, the linearization, the model's voracious
appetite for data.

Anybody have any suggestions, or references to other models or
approaches in the literature?

Thanks.  Apologies if this seems somewhat naive... I'm just getting started.
Newsgroups: sci.econ
From: radford@cs.toronto.edu (Radford Neal)
Subject: Re: Since no one is defending inflation, (was re: Inflation)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Date: 22 Jan 93 16:47:18 GMT

In article <1jngr2INNfq7@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> david@cats.ucsc.edu (David Michael Wright) writes:

>Unanticipated inflation is, in general, a good thing: if wages are
 -----------------------
>sticky it gives you the opportunity to work if the real wage is
>reduced, it makes you economize on money balances so you invest more,
>it reduces debt and thereby makes it easier to invest, it gives a
>signal that the economy is improving (which it may be for the
>reasons above or not) and so boosts consumer confidence. Moderate inflation 
>has nearly always been associated with rising output.
>
>Of course, high inflation, or too variable an inflation rate, makes it
                               ------------------------------
>impossible to judge the difference between real and nominal prices,
>and so the whole economy can go down the tubes. Anticipating this
>event also is disasterous.


These statements are contradictory. If the inflation rate is not
variable, then the inflation will be anticipated, assuming a modicum
of intelligence among the population. Furthermore, in the first
paragraph you indicate that sending false signals about the economy
is good, while in the second you say it can make the economy go down
the tubes... Are you maintaining that deceiving the population with
respect to some matters is good, while in other matters its best to
let them known the truth?

You also fail to explain why solving the problem of "sticky" wages
via inflation is preferable to solving it some other way. 

    Radford Neal
Xref: sparky sci.econ:9921 soc.culture.usa:10226 soc.culture.japan:14437 soc.culture.british:19573 soc.culture.canada:10503
From: d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se (Bertil Jonell)
Newsgroups: sci.econ,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.british,soc.culture.canada
Subject: Re: US as No. 1 (3 data books)
Date: 27 Jan 93 11:53:11 GMT
Organization: 'Vilse i Pankakan'-survivors Anonymous

In article <1993Jan26.114023.28748@adobe.com> cjackson@adobe.com (Curtis Jackson) writes:
>Americans look at other countries and see things by which
>Americans are not constrained:
>
>Official state religions

  I'd rather live in a secularized country with a state religion than in a
religious country without a state religion.

>Mandatory government/military service

  It teaches people how to handle guns, and handle themselves around guns,
and is IMHO the single greatest factor in the difference in murder statistics.

>Unreasonable (to Americans) search and seizure in the name of
>public safety

  Like no-knock searches?

>Curtis Jackson			'91 Black Lab/Blue Heeler "Studley Doright"

-bertil-
--
"It can be shown that for any nutty theory, beyond-the-fringe political view or
 strange religion there exists a proponent on the Net. The proof is left as an
 exercise for your kill-file."
Xref: sparky sci.econ:9768 sci.philosophy.tech:4909
From: e343mh@tamuts.tamu.edu (Michael Hand)
Newsgroups: sci.econ,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Good phil of econ anthology?
Date: 21 Jan 1993 19:42:45 GMT
Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: tamuts.tamu.edu

Are there any good philosophy of economics anthologies more
recent than Hollis & Hahn's *Phil and Econ Theory* (about 1980)?
How about good texts in the subject?
Thanks,
M
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Hand                       (409)845-5660, fax (409)845-0458
Philosophy Dept, Texas A&M Univ, College Station TX 77843-4237, USA
mhand@tamu.edu                               e343mh@tamuts.tamu.edu
From: kevin@drogges.tti.com (Kevin Carothers)
Subject: Re: Money Supply (Re: WELLLLL! IT'S DAY ONE)
Organization: Citicorp TTI
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 16:18:23 GMT

In article <1993Jan25.201022.18348@Princeton.EDU> nfs@volkl (Norbert Schlenker) writes:
%In article <1993Jan25.103542.7525@hemlock.cray.com> rja@mahogany126.cray.com (Russ Anderson) writes:
%>
%>In June 1992, M1 had grown 11% over the previous 12 months (Source: 
%>Federal Reserve Board).  The 3 month average was 6% (indicating a 
%>slowdown in the rate).
%
%In December 1992, M1 had grown 15% over the previous 12 months (same
%source).  The actual increase was $125 billion and it was ALL currency.
%Federal Reserve Notes.  All of it.  Currency outstanding increased by
%50% in one year.
%
%Now I'm puzzled, because I simply do not understand what people are
%doing with all this currency.  Did we ship it all to Colombia?  Does
%half the country have a couple of thousand dollars stuffed (literally)
%under the mattress?  Are people that scared?  (I am, but I certainly
%don't get that impression from others while walking around.)
%
%Any economists care to guess?  I've set followups to sci.econ in hopes
%of some reasonable speculation.
 
 I am by NO means an economist, but I'll answer anyway :)

 EuroDollars and EastDollars.
 Believe it or not, one of the chief exports of the US is... dollars!

 When a Japanese businessman buys a Korean freighter, the transaction is
 (usually) undertaken in dollars. When a Dutch oil freighter loads 
 a tanker full of oil in the  mideast, the transaction is undertaken
 in dollars. Ther list goes on and on and on...

 Dollars are a "Key currency" - as such, there are probably much more dollars
 in circulation OUTSIDE the US than inside (I think it's like 140% more).

 And you know what? we (the US) make a PROFIT off of these "external"
 dollars. It's called "seignorage" (What a country). Although seignorage
 is not really what makes dollars so valuable, it's more accurately the
 "convertability" of the dollar that makes it so attractive for non-US
 trade transactions.

 A book that I often tout ("The competitive advantage of nations", by
 Michael Porter) talks quite a bit about the financial advantages of
 undertaking  world trade in western currencies. For over 200 years,
 the British Pound Sterling was the chief international trade currency
 (it still is in many parts of Europe), but dollars have obviated it.

 Anyway, hope this helps.
--
Kevin Carothers   {psivax,philabs,retix,quad1}!ttidca!kevin
Newsgroups: sci.econ,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.british,soc.culture.canada
From: sue@netcom.com (Sue Miller)
Subject: Re: US as No. 1 (3 data books)
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 19:44:37 GMT

In article <1993Jan27.180307.9591@cs.rochester.edu> fulk@cs.rochester.edu (Mark Fulk) writes:
>In article <2937207291.3.p00168@psilink.com> "James F. Tims" <p00168@psilink.com> writes:
>>I would like to make a passing observation about Texas.  My whole family 
>>is from Texas.  All my grandfathers/grandfathers/uncles/aunts, etc., are 
>>from Texas and live there now.  I have lived in Texas.  Do not mistake 
>>Texas with the United States.  Legally, it is one of the states, but 
>>when one is in Texas, one is in a whole 'nother country, as they say.
>
>Molly Ivins's hero, a late 19th century reporter, once said that the
>only trouble with Texas Baptists was that the preacher didn't keep
>them under the water long enough.

(smile)

>
>>Living in central New York gives one a perspective on rudeness.  Not for 
>>nothing is New Yorker the international synonym for asshole.  One has to 
>>go to the City for the full treatment, but it's amazing the level of 
>>interpersonal verbal abuse that transpires without fisticuffs.
>
>Here speaks a man who has not spent much time in Paris.
>-- 

Or London, if one removes the word "verbal" from his last sentence.
We'll not mention Germany at all here.

In fact New Yorker is not the exact synonym for asshole generally 
in the USA.   Hear the exact words of a marketdroid as we left 
San Francisco Int'l airport after a trip to visit Nynex:

	"Jeeezus, easterners are such assholes!"

Hear my words:  "Jeezus, marketdroids are such assholes!  The
engineers I deal with world-wide are Just Fine, thanks."  No,
I didn't say that to him.  He wouldn't have understood.

There are plenty of synonyms in the US and internationally.  

Why not be fair, and say that life in The Big City seems to create
special cultural adaptations in the animal life there.  Likewise
all along the continuum between Big City and The Country.



Newsgroups: sci.econ
From: cmk@athena.mit.edu (Charles M Kozierok)
Subject: Re: Inflation
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 14:32:35 GMT

In article <2422@blue.cis.pitt.edu> wbdst+@pitt.edu (William B Dwinnell) writes:
>
>Charles:
>
>    You say that "inflation is *defined* as an increase in prices...", but
>you didn;t answer my question regarding the measurement of prices in
>money. Why? Does it really make any more sense to say that I purchase
>an autobmobile with money, than it does to say that the auto dealer 
>purchases my money with a car?  We generally measure such things in
>currency, for convenience's sake, but there is no mathmatical reason
>why we must, and that is what economics boils down to: mathematics.

well, i think i already said that if you want to trade cars for butter,
then it is possible that the number of pounds of butter per car could
increase over time. this would be comparable to inflation. you could
call this "butterflation" if you want, or whatever. :^)

but inflation is a specific term with a specific meaning. it refers
to a sustained rise in the *general* price level. and as another poster
pointed out, it is a macro phenomenon, not a micro one. inflation would
mean that the price of both cars *and* butter would rise. the comparison
is not between goods, but rather between goods and earning potential.
and we earn dollars and spend them on goods.

does that make more sense?

--
charles
Newsgroups: soc.culture,sci.econ
From: wbdst+@pitt.edu (William B Dwinnell)
Newsgroups: sci.econ
Subject: Re: Inflation
Date: 24 Jan 93 00:56:56 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh


  Christopher Browne: Yes, I agree with almost everything you said. Thank
you for clearing up some of this.
Xref: sparky sci.econ:9908 soc.culture.usa:10206 soc.culture.japan:14410 soc.culture.british:19543 soc.culture.canada:10481