Hard, fast rules regarding politics that you follow

[zarus tathra]

The biggest one I can think of is to never listen to economists. Economists failed to predict the crash, and this was probably due more to the fact that they were all under the employ of banks than true incompetence on their part.

[PickelledEggs]

I don't follow rules... I don't even fill my water cup with water when I go to Chipotle; I fill it with soda because it's free and I'm a rebel.

Rock on, bitchz

Sent from your mom

[Minimalist]

I only have one rule.

I never vote for any republicunt.

[SGOS]

Economists, at least the one's who become talking heads for the media, all seem to have a political bias, and often sound like cheerleaders for one party or the other.  However, they should be in a better position to understand economics than politicians whose job seems to be not to understand anything about economics.  Honestly, I've run into economists that seem almost recruited by political interests to make statements of propaganda.  You can't trust them.

I don't know that economists didn't see the big crunch before it hit.  I know that some people did, and I suspect that some economists did.  I know that while I'm not an economist, I felt unsettled by dizzying surge in home prices, and was not surprised when the recession hit.  I suspect those who attempted to raise flags of concern during the swelling of the bubble, were simply drowned out by the euphoric voices that consider anything less than a never ending bubble economy to be an economy in trouble.

Economists, like anyone else, can be used for nefarious ends, and much economic theory may be more like ideology than science.  Or at least economists are more susceptible to being coopted by ideological interests.

[Mermaid]

I won't vote for someone with an anti-woman agenda.

[LoriPinkAngel]

Don't neglect local elections.  They sometimes impact you more than the national.

[josephpalazzo]

The biggest one I can think of is to never listen to economists. Economists failed to predict the crash, and this was probably due more to the fact that they were all under the employ of banks than true incompetence on their part.

This is like saying that a meteorologist failed to see the coming of a hurricane, therefore never listen to a meteorologist. Forget the fact that more than 95% forecasting the weather is right on spot.

Secondly, there are economists that have their own political agenda, but who doesn't. I can show you physicists who are left-wing as much there are those who are right-wing - it doesn't discredit the physics they do, if they do it right.

If you want to learn about economics then take the trouble and effort. Take courses in economics. Do the painful assignment, do the readings and join discussion groups whose members have some qualifications in the subject.

Disparaging a subject in which you have but only superficial knowledge will make you look like an idiot.

BTW: the title of this thread is misleading; it should read, "how I can knock down a subject of which I'm ignorant".   

[SGOS]

I read an interesting book about several people who accurately predicted the housing crash.  One was an investment guy that ran a small company for people to put their investment play money in.  He had Asperger's syndrome, and apparently as some people with Aspergers do, he would focus obsessively on something unsettling until he understood the problem.  He followed all possible outcomes of the subprime mortgage tranches, and realized the whole thing would collapse in a few years, although he couldn't predict any exact year.

While practically everyone else was buying up tranched bundles of worthless subprime mortgages in a heady fury, he was taking all of his investor's money and buying up credit default swaps (basically insurance policies against the failure of mortgage investments).  Turns out he could buy them at a song, because early on, insurance companies like AIG would sell them cheap thinking they would never have to pay a dime on something as lovely as bundles of mortgage investments that were puzzlingly triple AAA rated by ratings investment companies.  And the strange thing about credit default swaps is you could buy them against someone else's investment.  It would be like insuring your neighbor's house, and you collecting the money when his house burned down.

Not being able to predict the exact date of the collapse, he bought millions of dollars worth of these things for three years, and like any insurance, the annual premiums must be paid to keep the policy.  This enraged his investors who saw nothing but money going down a rat hole.  They began filing law suits against the guy and sending him hate mail.  LOL

But of course, the mortgage market did collapse, and when it did, his investors made huge profits beyond their wildest expectations.  And none of them gave him so much as a thank you.  When there's a big bubble taking place, people don't want to look at reality and get depressed.  Never-the-less, you should take reality into consideration.  It often has a funny effect on hopes, dreams, and eventual outcomes.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

People were predicting the crash of the housing bubble years before it happened. I remember sitting in an economics lecture in 2005 for my undergraduate where the lecturer gave a presentation on the dynamics of bubbles. His main example was the housing bubble in London and its role in driving forward the rest of the housing market in the UK.

It's obvious there would be a crash when supply outstripped demand but the prices kept on rising. A lot of people didn't recognise it, but then again a lot of people are ignorant to even the most basic of political and economic principles and theories.

[Atheon]

Rule #1: Vote for the candidate most likely to defeat the Republican.
Rule #2: Never trust a right-winger. Never believe anything a right-winger says, and never trust information coming from a right-wing source.
Rule #3: Never vote for anyone who opposes abortion rights. Even if he's a Democrat. (The stance on that issue alone is highly indicative of an underlying psychosis that will affect the person's policy decisions in many other unrelated areas.)
Rule #4: Be wary of libertarians. Many of them are good and reasonable, but some are actually right-wingnuts hiding under the libertarian banner. If they use the word "statist" or quote Ayn Rand, you can safely disregard anything they have to say. Ask them if they support abortion and gay marriage. If not, they are right-wingnuts, not libertarians.

[KUSA]

My litmus test is if they are anti-gun. If they are I don't vote for them.

[doorknob]

Never vote for a republican.

I'd like to stop religion from being a requirement for our politicians but I face the reality that I'm out numbered on that thought.

Look closely at what the democrat I'm voting for is saying. Then maybe vote for them.

I don't bother listening to republicans I have no interest in them as I don't support most of their agendas.

[Green Bottle]

Never had much time for politics or politicians in general because imo none of them can be trusted.
I dare say when a lot of them go into it they do it with the best intentions and to try to make a difference , but once they are in they seem to be corrupted, contaminated by it and and all their good intentions go rite out the window.
I know there are decent ppl in politics but they dont really get a look in v the corrupt majority who shout the loudest and outvote the rest, an we all know how it works,  you only need to see the news on tv where it takes them weeks to agree to think about sending helicopters to drop much needed aid to starving and terrified people stranded on a mountain in Iraq, politics in action, fuckin disgustin...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"In any election there may not be anyone to vote FOR, but there is always someone to vote AGAINST."

[SGOS]

I don't bother listening to republicans I have no interest in them as I don't support most of their agendas.

Yeah, I don't even call myself a Democrat anymore, but I usually listen to them.  I may not agree or may not even believe them, but I usually at least listen.  Republicans?  I tune them out, and it's not like I even have to work to tune them out.  My head just goes someplace else.