Commits random acts of madness

Wanna be Big Wave Surfer. Did lots of cool stuff. Thankfully happy.

[Commits random acts of madness @rlschina]

@Kama_Kamilia #FellaRequest . I donated & bought something from saint Javelin. Hoping that someone can please create a fella with my glasses, and standing next to my my big wave surfboard and my service dog? Photos & receipts attached in thread Thank you so much. Slava Ukrani

[Commits random acts of madness @rlschina]

Photos attached below

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

The future Pope Leo XIV firing up the grill.

[Michael Pettis @michaelxpettis]

Tordoir and Klein are right in saying that the "best" way to resolve global imbalances is for Beijing to take steps (including currency revaluation) to raise the household share of GDP, but it is important to understand the reason "this feels far away".

It is not the Beijing has a special animus towards consumption, as any have argued. The claim that Beijing is ideologically opposed to allowing households more wealth relative to the state seems to have become an after-the-fact justification, both abroad and sometimes even in China.

But in fact other countries that pursued the same high-saving/high-investment growth model also ran into the same set of problems. Once they had closed their underinvestment gap, the economy shifted from rapid, healthy growth to less rapid, and increasingly unhealthy, growth, driven by excessive reliance on unproductive investment and trade surpluses.

They also recognized that they had to rebalance domestic income distribution towards households, but had the same difficulty that China currently has in rebalancing towards consumption. In every case, they were nonetheless forced to do so not because of foreign pressure but because the surging debt associated with the soaring non-productive investment and the manufacturing subsidies eventually became unsustainable.

The most obvious case is – as always – Japan, which formally recognized in 1986 (in the Maekawa Commission Report) that it had a serious problem with low consumption and said, with great fanfare, that it would take urgent steps to boost the consumption share of GDP.

In fact the consumption share of GDP didn't bottom out until 1991, five years later, and it took a further 17 years (until 2008), even under very accommodating global conditions, for Japan to raise its consumption share by 10 percentage points. This wasn't because Tokyo was ideologically opposed to consumption but rather because raising the consumption share required structural changes that undermined other parts of the economy.

Because the low consumption share was part of a growth model that also resulted in easily-available capital, a very forgiving banking system, and heavily-subsidized manufacturing, raising the former also meant reversing the latter. Everyone remembers that in the 17 years during which Japan raised its consumption share, GDP growth declined from roughly 4% in the previous decade to just over 0%. What analysts often don't remember is that during this time Japan's share of global manufacturing also declined by more than 50%.

That's the problem. As long as Beijing sets high GDP growth targets and as long as it wants to continue supporting the manufacturing sector (which, at this point, represents a larger share of the economy than even the property sector at its peak), the only way it can rebalance towards consumption is with huge – and perhaps politically disruptive – transfer of assets and income from local governments to households.

The point is that until Beijing either sharply lowers the GDP growth target (perhaps to 2%?) or forces the transfers to households, it can make all the promises it likes about raising the consumption share of GDP, and foreign policymakers can propose as often as they like that this is the only real solution to global imbalances, but it cannot happen.

That is why it is basically a waste of time for foreign policymakers to try to "convince" Beijing that they should stop opposing a rise in China's consumption share on ideological grounds. Beijing is not opposed to allowing Chinese households to have a better living standard. What they are opposed to is anything that might slow economic growth and undermine manufacturing, especially now when China already has a large problem with youth unemployment and overall underemployment.

[Commits random acts of madness @rlschina]

@goldstar002 @MalcolmNance Life threatening fat issues

[MAGA Cult Slayer @MAGACult2]

Ooooo doggy did Scott Pelley make the rounds🔥Bari Weiss!

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

Wild that there isn’t more coverage of this protest of jared and Ivanka’s luxury resort deal in Albania

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Sandra Bullock is spot on.

[Commits random acts of madness @rlschina]

@MeidasTouch @MalcolmNance This is lame

[Acyn @Acyn]

PabloReports: What do you make of this $1.776 billion fund—

Gavin Newsom: It’s a criminal enterprise. It’s not just corruption, it’s not just graft, it’s a full-on criminal enterprise and it needs to be shut down.

[Roger Parloff @rparloff]

This plan is just root and branch unconstitutional: Trump & @DAGToddBlanche colluding to steal $1.7B from taxpayers to mete out to Trump's friends & thugs in Trump's sole discretion.
https://t.co/DFLMt6IFeO

[Commits random acts of madness @rlschina]

@GuntherEagleman Xi & the rest of the Chinese totally disrespect Trump. It was a deep diplomatic slap in the face that no one of significance came to meet Trump. Xi lectured Trump to stay out of his way in Taiwan. That might have been Xi's diplomatic mistake but Trump is too clueless to respond

[Commits random acts of madness @rlschina]

@LiamChang71 @CoachBetti @CCNextLevelFB @CreekFB @milehighprep @MattT8Scouting @coachwes_23 @eliteperformco @Coach_Ceddy @TyYoung_5 pancakes galore. Can't wait to see what you do senior year.

[Commits random acts of madness @rlschina]

@KiwiRodney @ryanl_hass @carlworker Xi thinks that Trump is a fool and that they have him either by bribery or other means and is tired of sucking up to him. He lectured at Trump but gave him pomp and circumstance, signifying nothing and Trump ate it up. Biden would not have taken the bait.

[Commits random acts of madness @rlschina]

@GovPressOffice Trump is a fool and totally suckered by Xi. Xi dismisses Trump and lectures at him which is a strategic mistake by Xi. He'll get further by just sucking up to him.

[MAGA Cult Slayer @MAGACult2]

What’s the opposite of a flex?

I’d say read the room, but you’d probably plaster gaudy fake gold leaf all over it. Goldmushroomember.

[Commits random acts of madness @rlschina]

Xi has Trump wrapped around his finger. Trump didn't understand that the spectacle without leaders at the airport was a subtle insult but Trump thought it was amazing & will easily give up Taiwan. Eric Trump is there organize a bribe. democrats need to hold the line like in '72.

[Commits random acts of madness @rlschina]

@RpsAgainstTrump @MalcolmNance Hood riddance. We don't want him

[MAGA Cult Slayer @MAGACult2]

The real version

[Commits random acts of madness @rlschina]

@juliaioffe @MalcolmNance His master, satan

[Commits random acts of madness @rlschina]

Inspiring

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Those who pray are aware of their own limitations; they do not kill or threaten with death. Instead, death enslaves those who have turned their backs on the living God, turning themselves and their own power into a mute, blind and deaf idol (Ps 115:4–8), to which they sacrifice every value, demanding that the whole world bend its knee. Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life. #Peace