Archive for August, 2007
Marxian alienation and modern workplace
A question from Yahoo! Answers:
How can Karl Marx’s theory of alienation (and his other labour market theories) apply to the MODERN workplace?
Also, what are the instances where Karl Marx’s labour market theories FAIL to be of relevance to the MODERN workplace.
Thanks:)
Karl Marx’s theory of alienation does NOT apply to ANY workplace. Alienation, as we understand it today, is a consequence of parental neglect suffered between ages two and six and thus has absolutely nothing to do with workplace.
Marx, being a genius, saw the problem and described it as best he could. However, he was not equipped to deal with it. They say, when the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems start looking like nails. Marx did exactly that; he treated the problem of alienation as an economic one, because no other way of treating it existed during his lifetime. Marx died in 1883, while Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, the founders of modern child psychology, were both born in 1896…
Does inflation help the rich?
A question from Yahoo! Answers:
Inflation Helps the Rich?
This question is for the people who have read the book “Poor Dad, Rich Dad,” by Robert Kiyosaki.
In his book, he states that inflation actually benefits the rich while making the poor even more poor. How is this so when inflation makes money worth less?
Whenever Robert Kiyosaki says anything, you’d be well advised to assume it’s not true. Inflation does not benefit the rich; in fact, serious economists have long known that inflation and wealth concentration are inversely related. Inflation benefits the government at the expense of the private sector. Here’s how Keynes once put it:
By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth. Those to whom the system brings windfalls, beyond their deserts and even beyond their expectations or desires, become ‘profiteers,’ who are the object of the hatred of the bourgeoisie, whom the inflationism has impoverished, not less than of the proletariat.
Additionally, inflation devalues interest income more drastically than wage income.
The plight of Paulus
A question from Yahoo! Answers:
What was the plight of Paulus after his surrender at Stalingrad?
He remained in Soviet captivity until 1953. After he was released, he lived in Dresden (East Germany), where he served as a police inspector until his death in 1957.
Source:
If Germany signed a separate peace with the USSR…
A question from Yahoo! Answers:
Will Normandy’s landing still be a success if Germany made peace pact with USSR?
Highly unlikely. Whatever the Allies did during World War II was relatively minor compared to what’s been happening at the Russian front. During Battle of France (1940), Germany deployed 141 divisions (Italy supplied additional 32). Much of this force was subsequently dispatched to the Eastern front, where Germany alone deployed over 200 divisions. Between the height of Battle of France and the time the Allies landed in Normandy, the German military presence in France has been reduced from four million (which included 700,000 Italian troops) to 380,000.
This said, a peace pact with the USSR was even more unlikely. Germany and the USSR signed such a pact in 1939, and Germany broke it in less than two years. By the time the Allies landed in Normandy, the Red Army has recaptured all Soviet territory and made significant inroads into Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. The Soviet leadership began to think that winning the war was only a matter of time, while Soviet population (including the armed forces) grew extremely angry as atrocities committed by SS in occupied Soviet territories became known…
What is comparative history?
A question from Yahoo! Answers:
What is comparitive history?
This may seem like a dumb question, I understand the basic concept, comparing events in two or more places/times, but much of the comparative history I have encountered seems to be more sociology or anthropology than history. I understand that academic history sometimes does this, crosses into other disciplines, but comparative history is confusing to me. I know this is a vague question, but any insight you can offer is appreciated, any clearifications or descriptions of what compartive history is/means. Thanks in advance
Comparative history has nothing to do with “comparing events in two or more places/times”. Comparative history is an attempt to discover the natural laws that govern the course of history in the long-run. Most of professional historians find the idea of natural law being a driving force of history repulsive and thus consider comparative history a waste of time. Arnold Toynbee found out about it the hard way after he wrote “A Study of History“…
The problem with most of comparative history is that scholars who do it are usually educated in the wrong discipline (history) and thus are unable to support their theories with any sort of verifiable formal model. Most of people who produce convincing comparative history are either mathematicians or life scientists (or, in case of Peter Turchin, whose “Historical Dynamics” I highly recommend, both).
Starting a hedge fund (again)
A question from Yahoo! Answers:
How is a hedge fund started? What are the requirements/regulations? How to file for company’s broker license?
I would really appreciate it if you could provide me some links to official sites that would answer my questions. Thank you very much!
Hedge funds are not regulated, so there is no official site. The most important requirement is that all your U.S. clients must be accredited investors (individuals with more than $1 million in investable assets or with annual income over $300,000, or organizations with investable assets over $5 million, or regulated financial institutions regardless of assets). Another requirement is that you do not advertise your fund and do not offer it to anyone who is not willing to sign a piece of paper saying they are an accredited investor.
To operate a hedge fund, you do not need a broker license. You might consider getting registered as an investment adviser though.
The mechanics of starting a hedge fund depends on whether you expect to market it to taxable U.S. investors. If that’s the case, you need to structure the fund as a U.S. limited partnership. If you plan to market in only to foreign investors and tax-free U.S. investors (pension plans, college endowments, non-profit foundations, etc.), you can structure the fund as an offshore corporation in a convenient jurisdiction (Bermuda, Caymans, Channel Islands, Luxembourg, etc.) Usually, the law firm (or, in case of offshore fund, firms — one in the U.S., the other in the fund domicile) you hire take care of all the paperwork.
To actually trade, you will need a prime broker (most prime brokerages are units of large brokerage firms, although there are a few specialists). The choice of prime broker depends on what instruments you plan to trade and how much money you have under management (some firms have minimums as high as $20 million, others will work with you even if you have only $1 million).
A good fund usually has an independent administrator (a company that keeps the fund’s books on a day-to-day basis and calculates net assets and performance at the end of each reporting period) and an auditor.
To market your fund, you may consider engaging a third-party marketing firm or use capital introduction service provided by your prime broker.
That’s about it, really…
Was Hiroshima justifiable?
A question from Yahoo! Answers:
Were American atomic drop on Nagasaki and Hiroshima justifiable?
Esp. with respect to the tremendous amount of destructive energy released. No doubt the Imperial Japanese army atrocities were beyond human comprehension but is this anything comparable to atomic bombs?
The most important justification for dropping the atomic bombs on Japan is that the U.S. were trying to occupy Japan before the Soviets do. (Whether or not it’s a good justification is up to you.)
During the Yalta Conference, the U.S. has obtained Stalin’s consent to declare war on Japan once Germany was defeated. By July 1945, the USSR has amassed substantial forces transferred from the European theater on its borders with Manchuria. The U.S. leadership suspected that Soviet attack on Japanese forces will be swift and will eventually end in occupation of Japan by the USSR. The former did happen (between August 8 and August 18, the Soviet forces destroyed Japanese army in Manchuria and occupied Manchuria and half of Korea); the latter didn’t, because on August 15, Japan surrendered to the U.S., while formally remaining at war with China and USSR. American occupation began on August 28, while the Japanese forces in China surrendered to the Chinese on September 9. USSR and Japan have never signed a formal armistice…
Classical and Keynesian economics
A question from Yahoo! Answers:
Describe and differentiate between Classical and Keynesian economics.?
In a nutshell, they had very different views on rigidity of wages and the nature of economy’s response to recession.
During classical times (1770-1850), wages were downward-flexible, and economies responded to contracting aggregate demand by lowering the price level. By 1900, it was no longer the case. Wages became downward-inflexible (or, as economists sometimes say, sticky), so economies began to respond to reductions of aggregate demand by increasing unemployment. Keynes was the first to point it out and offer some suggestions for coping with it.
Unlike classics, who contended that things always sort themselves out in the long-run, Keynes thought that the short-run is also important (hence, his famous phrase, “in the long-run, we are all dead”), so a government may consider employing short-term policies to limit the swings of the business cycle.
On national competitiveness
A question from Yahoo! Answers:
How can the U.S. economy succeed competitively when it is so expensive to produce in this country?
It seems that producing anything in the United States becomes more expensive every year and beyond the normal rates of simple inflation. I think the U.S. is the greatest country in the world and believe that our citizens are more fairly and equally treated than most peoples of other government. But with all the litigation meant to improve things there is far too much done purely for greed and you end up with all these expensive unneccesary rules imposed on employers driving up the cost of production. Then when you factor is all the money that must be paid for healthcare, workers comp, social services, etc how can we possibly compete with these countries that don’t saddle their producers with these financial burdens? Is the ever increasing costs of production in this country mean our eventual economic doom?
You really (no, REALLY) need to read “Competitiveness: Does It Matter?” by Paul Krugman:
http://www.pkarchive.org/trade/Competiti…
What you fail to realize is that most of what the U.S. (or any other industrialized) economy produces is services. In the U.S., services account for more that 70% of all consumption. And services are very hard to trade internationally (or even interstate).
Also, if you really want to see production whose costs run far ahead of inflation, look at higher education and healthcare…
The impact of automobiles on American society
A question from Yahoo! Answers:
Discuss the impact that automobiles have had on U.S. society.?
Wow… Where do you even begin?
Automobiles were the single most important enabling factor in urban sprawl. Before automobile, cities grew mostly up, not out.
Automotive industry was arguably the first one to master mass production of capital goods.
Automotive industry and its unions played very important role in the labor movement.
Automotive industry is partially responsible for the rise of the Big Government. In the age of railroads, tracks were built and owned privately. Automotive industry successfully lobbied for increased public spending on (and public ownership of) roads.
Several industries changed their shape to better fit with automobile (drive-through restaurants, drive-in movie theaters, liability insurance, etc.) A few industries (dealerships, auto repair, gas stations) simply evolved to serve the needs of automobile owners.
Automobiles remain one of the most heavily advertised category of goods, so they have an impact on media.