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Comment Re:I would love this, if... (Score 2) 144

I have to imagine it eventually kills productivity though.

Sometimes it's the relaxed brain that comes up with moments of insight when least expected (like in the shower for example).

Like definitely bursts like that for a project that's gripping, but, for myself at least, I'm going to hit a brick wall eventually and step back for a few days, see the problem fresh.

Even if the young folks, it can't be sustainable.

Comment the ugliness of the aztec (Score 1) 79

> Here 25 years later, the market is flooded with
>"compact SUVs" essentially the same as the
>Aztek, and just as ugly.

That's not fair.

The modern ones don't even *approach* the Aztec's level of ugliness! But they *are* painfully bland.

the first time I saw an Aztec, my immediate reaction was surprise that AMC was making cars again. It didn't occur to me that anyone else could make something so hideous!

Comment Re:Banking License (Score 0) 57

>A regular bank can't magic up $1M out of thin air,

uhmm . . . historically, this is *exactly* where paper money comes from, and why they are called "banknotes"!

Banks issued paper notes promising to pay the bearer a sum of money (i.e., an amount of gold or silver) upon presentation. This was a matter of convenience, the paper being easier to haul about. This led to the practice al matter that a bank could issue more paper than it held money, as long as it was careful enough not to issue so much that too much would come in to redeem.

This isn't fundamentally difference than the practice of lending deposits back out to other borrowers (which is generally how this new money created by the banking system was disbursed, anyway).

In time, government stepped in to regulate how much a bank cold lend in this manner (reserve requirement).

Until WWII, the majority of the paper money in the US was *not* issued by the government, but by banks and some other companies (e.g., Railroads printed $2.40 bills, as $2.40 was a common fare).

Even today, some cites print a local currency, generally (universally) backed 1:1 by federal money. It circulates and shows the effects of buying locally as these local bills start showing up in cash registers. (In the same vein, the US Navy used to deal with local discontent and calls for removing bases of rowdy sailors by paying in $2 bills. Once merchants noticed just how much of their registers were full of that uncommon note, attitudes changed quickly!)

The federal government has the exclusive power to coin money--but this means coining metal; it doesn't stop states or other entities from printing paper money.

doc hawk, displaced economics professor

Comment Re:Is this a special needs thing? (Score 1) 165

I was just guessing, not accusing...

I went to a pretty big school that segregated kids into 3 or 4 tiers depend on the subject. I took one of the bottom tier courses and it was absolutely wild to me compared to what I thought was a disrupted class in the I upper two.

It was a mixed income school, but large enough to segregate to an honestly pretty disturbing level.

I'm class of '99 for timeline.

Comment Re:Is this a special needs thing? (Score 1) 165

You were most likely in an average or above average class though (just guessing based on /. demographics).

The bad classes are so much worse.

Like find a school where a large percentage of the students have little supervision at home due to parents work schedules and then go to the lower level class room. It's dramatically different than an average class, or even a typical bad one.

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