The Off Topic Topic

[celedhring]

I agree, and this makes me really fearful of a social explosion when the next recession comes around.

[Syt]

[Richard Hakluyt]

THE world is still in recovery mode fully ten years after the financial crisis of 2008-09. Inflation-adjusted wages grew by an average of 27% in the decade before the crisis in the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries. In the ten years since, real wages have increased by just 8.4%, on average. Ten OECD countries experienced real-wage growth of 30% or more in the ten years to 2007. And in the ten years since, just one OECD member, Lithuania has enjoyed such heady growth. By contrast, real wages have fallen by a fifth in Greece, a country that is still saddled with enormous government debt.

Surprisingly, Britain is one the OECD's worst performers over the past decade. At 4%, its unemployment rate is at its lowest level since 1975. A relationship first sketched out by William Phillips 60 years ago reckons that when unemployment falls, wages should rise. Yet Britain appears to be increasingly divorced from the "Phillips curve": a 4% unemployment rate in 1980s Britain would have been associated with a 5% rise in wages. Today wage growth is a weaker 2.9%. Britain is not the exception. Policymakers in America and Germany alike have noted that their low unemployment rates are not yielding significant wage rises for workers.

Interesting that poor wage growth even during favorable economic conditions seems to be a general issue in the West. I assume this is a factor that contributes to the raise of populism in the West.

I think this is very much the case. What is even worse is that financial success is being decoupled from employment and work, at least in the UK.

[Josquius]

No surprise there.
Makes one wonder whether it was the plan all along. Impoverish the people then blame Europe for it in order to break free of the EU allowing further impoverishment of the people. For fun and profit.

[Tamas]

No surprise there.
Makes one wonder whether it was the plan all along. Impoverish the people then blame Europe for it in order to break free of the EU allowing further impoverishment of the people. For fun and profit.

I don't think it is justified to assume god-like powers from the leaders of the global economy, whoever they are or supposed to be.

If you take a historical age/event, and read up on it in detail, you'll see that what seems like a deliberate plan pushed through by a few key actors was indeed the tangled mess of local interests semi-randomly clashing against each other in chaos.

[celedhring]

The fact there's no secret cabal of evil jews capitalists running the world makes the whole thing more scary, tbf.

[Tamas]

The fact there's no secret cabal of evil jews capitalists running the world makes the whole thing more scary, tbf.

Yes I am pretty sure that's the reason why people into conspiracy theories (and religion): makes the world way more predictable and thus safer.

[Josquius]

No surprise there.
Makes one wonder whether it was the plan all along. Impoverish the people then blame Europe for it in order to break free of the EU allowing further impoverishment of the people. For fun and profit.

I don't think it is justified to assume god-like powers from the leaders of the global economy, whoever they are or supposed to be.

If you take a historical age/event, and read up on it in detail, you'll see that what seems like a deliberate plan pushed through by a few key actors was indeed the tangled mess of local interests semi-randomly clashing against each other in chaos.

Oh sure, incompetence that worked out for them seems more likely.
But though a secret cabal running the world is nutty, that the governing party of a particular country could be planning years in advance is perfectly reasonable

[Richard Hakluyt]

If the Tories had tried to engineer brexit then we would have had an overwhelming majority for Remain 

[Tamas]

This is NOT fake. It's a bench for wheelchair users, installed by a Hungarian town's council. They totally meant it.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I rather like the bench, a bit surreal perhaps.

[Tamas]

I rather like the bench, a bit surreal perhaps.

It is mind-blowingly pointless.

Pretty much like the Braille writing on our Presiden'ts homepage:

http://www.keh.hu/index2.php

[celedhring]

I rather like the bench, a bit surreal perhaps.

It is mind-blowingly pointless.

Pretty much like the Braille writing on our Presiden'ts homepage:

http://www.keh.hu/index2.php

Okay, that *is* surreal. 

The bench is like the wheelchair "seating" areas we have in our buses. Although they make more sense in a moving vehicle.

[The Larch]

THE world is still in recovery mode fully ten years after the financial crisis of 2008-09. Inflation-adjusted wages grew by an average of 27% in the decade before the crisis in the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries. In the ten years since, real wages have increased by just 8.4%, on average. Ten OECD countries experienced real-wage growth of 30% or more in the ten years to 2007. And in the ten years since, just one OECD member, Lithuania has enjoyed such heady growth. By contrast, real wages have fallen by a fifth in Greece, a country that is still saddled with enormous government debt.

Surprisingly, Britain is one the OECD's worst performers over the past decade. At 4%, its unemployment rate is at its lowest level since 1975. A relationship first sketched out by William Phillips 60 years ago reckons that when unemployment falls, wages should rise. Yet Britain appears to be increasingly divorced from the "Phillips curve": a 4% unemployment rate in 1980s Britain would have been associated with a 5% rise in wages. Today wage growth is a weaker 2.9%. Britain is not the exception. Policymakers in America and Germany alike have noted that their low unemployment rates are not yielding significant wage rises for workers.

Interesting that poor wage growth even during favorable economic conditions seems to be a general issue in the West. I assume this is a factor that contributes to the raise of populism in the West.

I guess that the increase in employment without a related increase in wages in the UK can be reasonably linked to 0 hour contracts and crap like that. When governments make fudges to employment stats like those (you are officially employed and don't count towards unemployment numbers, but you don't really have a guaranteed salary) it's no wonder that they look good in one metric (% of people employed) without looking pretty in another (real wages). Mini jobs in Germany are a similar issue, although I guess those have at least some guaranteed income.

[Maladict]