With regard to measuring poverty and the WTO self assessment that it is doing a ruddy good job, the Global Multi-dimensional poverty index - MPI - may be a more relevant yardstick than simply raw incomes.
Notice that 'There are 50% more MPI poor people in the countries analysed than there are income poor people using the $1.90/day poverty line.'

http://www.ophi.org.uk/wp-content/up...16-2-pager.pdf

http://www.ophi.org.uk/multidimensio...obal-mpi-2016/

MPI Measures include

Health
Education
Living Standard
Nutrition
Child Mortality
Years of Education
School Attendance
Cooking Fuel
Sanitation
Drinking Water
Electricity
Floor
Assets

Therefore 'social programs' are inherently necessary within the free market system to alleviate poverty.

Well usually a jobs report that indicates a slowing economy like when the economy has a net loss of jobs will at least lead to a modest bond market rally. Looks like yesterday the bond market sold off a little bit on this report. Of course there are a lot factors involved in determining price levels but it is pretty clear that this report wasn't a shock. The ADP number was +135,000 IIRC in the private sector.

With all that stated, sure hold TRUMP to account because he claimed he would be the greatest jobs creating POTUS ever. My take is that TRUMP fiscal policy has had little impact. I am guessing TRUMP would claim that "tax reform" is the cornerstone of his fiscal policy so we gotta wait.

Regarding monetary policy, TRUMP admin is making noises about replacing Yellen. That would be addition by subtraction in my view. Fed rate increases were just bad monetary policy in the current economic environment. Inflationary pressures? Well the UE rate came in at 4.2% but inflationary pressures that would lead to higher demand for employees that would lead to higher wages seem very low to me. Certainly not enough to justify a Fed tightening. But alas the federal government has a vested interest in keeping inflationary pressures low. SS COLA being the primary reason. With all this stated, yes I am bullish on the long end of the yield curve. We'll see how it plays out.

Solid followup to your posts about trump fiscal policy having had little impact on the previous jobs reports with rising numbers.

No inflation in the high street but meanwhile we have massive asset price inflation and big increases in debt, the longer interest rates stay low, the bigger the impact of raising them later.

The idea that low interest rates are a free lunch with no drawbacks other than over inflation in consumer items (One of the purposes of low IRs is to create inflation within a certain bound) is one of the most dangerous, fallacious and damaging ideas of modern times.

We had exactly the same situation before 2007/8. Asset price increases, huge debt expansion, mysterious lack of mainstreet inflation given inputs into money supply.

I am the reflection of my snow-balled experiences. You are the result of yours.

Insofar as we share experiences, we identify with one another, allowing a fungibility of consideration.**

Insofar as our experiences differ, we are unable to identify, and our conclusions about one another will be subject to an increasingly outward speculation.


For two of us to communicate, let alone agree, we have to share a set of terms and referents. So much political discussion is fruitless from its outset because people mean different things by the same word. People have their reasons for their word-intentions, and they may or may not be sound reasons, but if the purpose of the words, even if used solely in the context of a given discussion, is to facilitate that discussion, rather than to rib or chide, disagreements should begin by ensuring a semantic harmony.


To get past communication, to reach agreement, we have to share expectations and desires. This is a crucial second step to a successful (fruitful, influential) political discussion. Rationality is goal dependent. If shared goals cannot be established, then competing methods/approaches/plans cannot find meaningful resolution.



People have a sense of community, baked into their sense of identity. It is a belonging, a comfort. It helps fill in gaps of understanding.

The sense of identity, of shared experiences, language, and expectations, is not perfect, and what one member of a certain group believes can be different from that of another member. This makes an exact identification of a specific group difficult, both from within the group (knowing how and to whom you belong) and from without. It can be helpful to determine another's group-identification, in that doing so can short-cut conclusions that generally permeate that group, but in so doing one risks the hazard of misidentifying the other's group both as an outward entity and as that person's inward sense of belonging.



It is not so simple, though, to strip away all group identification from a person to deal with that person directly. The person "directly", constitutionally, is a loose conglomerate of various groups, some self-aware some not, and understanding the former without the context of the latter is, it seems to me, fundamentally impossible.



All of this is to be a caution, for those who earnestly want to engage in political discussion for the common benefit of all participants, constantly to hedge one's perspective, of one's own self-directed biases and of one's presuppositions of another's group-identification (on both the "what is the group" and the "how do they fit in the group" levels).



I don't think the project of fruitful political discussion, measured by *the coalescence of ideals and the reformation of the errant*, is futile, so long as these caveats are carried close to heart throughout the endeavor. Eschewing these caveats, however, will increasingly frustrate this purpose, possibly to the point of intractability, which is where I think most people, at least on this board, stand.




* read: to forge a **common ground