Lib Dems prove once again they are not fit to govern

[sasguru]

I have travelled all over the US so i am well acquainted with the transport network there. .

Have you been to Germany? Super smooth autobahns (as they have to be since there is no speed limit), the ICE super -fast train, air is as good as anywhere.
No crumbling bridges and pot-holed roads as in the US and UK.
IMO the US is rapidly becoming a failed state, in no small part due to its idiotic extreme free-maket policy, which you support against all the evidence.

[d000hg]

Their trains sure make British Rail look good.

[Robinho]

Well, it would probably have worked out better if you had said that and risked me having to use google rather than spouting a load of utter tulipbiscuits, but each to their own.

You knew what i meant all along. Or at least i hope you did.

Should be simple to write an equation down then shouldn't it.

Look it is an off the cuffs comments. Are you denying that this is what happens on a macro level?

You haven't "explained clearly" you've merely stated it as fact and it doesn't follow that because the housing supply is inelastic that there is no monopoly effect, that is just wishful thinking.

Come on, this really is basic stuff. There is little incentive to undercut the competition when there is an inelastic supply, you can't steal his customers because you only have limited supply of a product yourself, thus selling for less than him is is simply throwing away money. If a monopolist buys all the houses in a town and charges more than what the market will bear, people will move out and he will lose money, so the amount of competitors makes essentially no difference to the optimal pricing of a product.

Right, and can you explain why that's "sound" and how that would actually work in practice?

Like a bank should work. A depositor puts money in a bank and agrees that the bank can lend it for a set period of time, he is paid interest, and the bank lends this money to people or businesses it deems a worthy investment, and charges slightly more interest.

It is sound because there is only a finite amount of resources in the world, thus there should only be a finite amount of money. This means a bank has to think about what it is investing in, instead of simply pumping up the next debt fueled housing bubble and over-leveraging itself into a position where it has to be bailed out by the government.

[Robinho]

Have you been to Germany? Super smooth autobahns (as they have to be since there is no speed limit), the ICE super -fast train, air is as good as anywhere.
No crumbling bridges and pot-holed roads as in the US and UK.
IMO the US is rapidly becoming a failed state, in no small part due to its idiotic extreme free-maket policy, which you support against all the evidence.

High speed rail costs and absolute fortune to build and an absolute fortune to maintain. Don't mistake "good" with cost effective.

The US is become a failed state because of the government, not due to the free market.

[minestrone]

I think we should settle this with a game of risk.

[Mich the Tester]

I think we should settle this with a game of risk.

Or just ignore it.

[darmstadt]

It's Wikipedia. If you click the heading where it says "disposable" it explains what disposable income is.

I thought that meant the Wikipedia article was disposable as we all know not to believe it 100%....

[sasguru]

High speed rail costs and absolute fortune to build and an absolute fortune to maintain. Don't mistake "good" with cost effective.

The US is become a failed state because of the government, not due to the free market.

German trains make a profit AFAIK.

You really haven't answered the question as to why Germany isn't a failed state since it has more govt. intervention than the US.
According to your naive thesis: free market good, any intervention bad.
Or perhaps you're arguing that its the type of intervention that matters?
Perhaps German govt. intervention is better than the US sort?

You really are an intellectual midget.
Together with Dodgy, Batman to your Robin, you make the characters in Dumb and Dumber look like Nobel Prize Winners.

[doodab]

Like a bank should work. A depositor puts money in a bank and agrees that the bank can lend it for a set period of time, he is paid interest, and the bank lends this money to people or businesses it deems a worthy investment, and charges slightly more interest.

To make a "normal profit" with a 10x smaller loan book the margin would need to be 10x higher. So instead of 3-4% spread between the saving and lending rate we would have 30-40%. The free movement of capital, and with it the free markets you advocate, would disappear overnight.

[Robinho]

German trains make a profit AFAIK.

You really haven't answered the question as to why Germany isn't a failed state since it has more govt. intervention than the US.
According to your naive thesis: free market good, any intervention bad.
Or perhaps you're arguing that its the type of intervention that matters?
Perhaps German govt. intervention is better than the US sort?

You really are an intellectual midget.
Together with Dodgy, Batman to your Robin, you make the characters in Dumb and Dumber look like Nobel Prize Winners.

The whole of the western world is failing including Germany. Not sure if you missed that.