Miscellaneous news items that don't warrant their own thread

[kalm]

Senate Republicans Align With Democrats to Avoid Shutdown

The vote is the latest sign of a breach among Republicans over the shutdown strategy, a sharp contrast to a political battle earlier this year over raising the US legal debt limit. Senate and House Republicans then united to force President Joe Biden to agree to spending cuts in exchange for avoiding the nation’s first default.
...
“We know that in divided government you are not going to get everything in a bill,” said Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota. “We need our military to get the funds they need.”

Looks like the House ultra conservatives may have overplayed their hand. Expecting lots of RINO name calling and calls for moderates to be primaried. This could lead to Republicans losing winnable House seats.

The spring agreement was just delaying the inevitable. They’ll push for impeachment and a government shutdown right up to the brink.

[GannonFan]

Senate Republicans Align With Democrats to Avoid Shutdown



Looks like the House ultra conservatives may have overplayed their hand. Expecting lots of RINO name calling and calls for moderates to be primaried. This could lead to Republicans losing winnable House seats.

The spring agreement was just delaying the inevitable. They’ll push for impeachment and a government shutdown right up to the brink.

Yup, there was only so much delaying of the whackos. Of course they were going to play their hand at some point.

[UNI88]

The spring agreement was just delaying the inevitable. They’ll push for impeachment and a government shutdown right up to the brink.

Yup, there was only so much delaying of the whackos. Of course they were going to play their hand at some point.

I don't understand how the extremists think they can hold their breath and get their way and that there won't be a cost. If they do get their way, it will be used against members of their party in purple states and they'll very likely lose seats and their majority. If they don't get their way, they'll call the representatives who didn't toe their line names and attempt to unseat them with a more extreme candidate in the primary who will likely lose the seat and the party their majority. Are they daft?

[BDKJMU]

March 2020.

Why?

The 2.2 trillion Cares Act was enough to deal with Covid. That covered extended, enhanced unemployment until late 2020, vaccine funding, and the 1st round if stimulus checka. Paying 2 more rounds of stimuls + paying extended, enhanced unemployment through the fall of 2021 just pumped another 3 trillion of fiat money (.9 trillion Trump, 1.9 trillion Biden) into the economy, created more labor shortages, increased labor costs, and was one of the 2 biggest factors driving inflation higher (other yr+ of 0% int rates).

[kalm]

Why?

The 2.2 trillion Cares Act was enough to deal with Covid. That covered extended, enhanced unemployment until late 2020, vaccine funding, and the 1st round if stimulus checka. Paying 2 more rounds of stimuls + paying extended, enhanced unemployment through the fall of 2021 just pumped another 3 trillion of fiat money (.9 trillion Trump, 1.9 trillion Biden) into the economy, created more labor shortages, increased labor costs, and was one of the 2 biggest factors driving inflation higher (other yr+ of 0% int rates).

How many lives did it save? Did sick workers affect worker shortages? Did it keep people in their homes/apartments? Did it reduce businesses closing? Did it protect property owners?

There were upsides to it as well.

[BDKJMU]

The 2.2 trillion Cares Act was enough to deal with Covid. That covered extended, enhanced unemployment until late 2020, vaccine funding, and the 1st round if stimulus checka. Paying 2 more rounds of stimuls + paying extended, enhanced unemployment through the fall of 2021 just pumped another 3 trillion of fiat money (.9 trillion Trump, 1.9 trillion Biden) into the economy, created more labor shortages, increased labor costs, and was one of the 2 biggest factors driving inflation higher (other yr+ of 0% int rates).

How many lives did it save? Did sick workers affect worker shortages? Did it keep people in their homes/apartments? Did it reduce businesses closing? Did it protect property owners?

There were upsides to it as well.

Few
Not as much as paying people not to work at all.
Not really
No
No

[kalm]

How many lives did it save? Did sick workers affect worker shortages? Did it keep people in their homes/apartments? Did it reduce businesses closing? Did it protect property owners?

There were upsides to it as well.

Few
Not as much as paying people not to work at all.
Not really
No
No

How many is few?
Based on what?
How many is not really?
No businesses would have closed? I can think of one. There must be more.
So it would have been business as usual starting in April? No job cuts and business closures hence rent would have been paid by all?

[BDKJMU]

Few
Not as much as paying people not to work at all.
Not really
No
No

How many is few?
Based on what?
How many is not really?
No businesses would have closed? I can think of one. There must be more.
So it would have been business as usual starting in April? No job cuts and business closures hence rent would have been paid by all?

Not enough to justify creating runaway inflation. By 2021 worker sickness wasn’t as big an issue as the labor shortages from not being able to hire enough workers. Busineess couldn’t compete with workers being paid enhanced unemployment not to work.

Based on by the end of 2020 we knew what we were dealing with.

People who hadn’t paid rent since months didn’t all of a sudden pay 9 months of back rent at the end of 2020/beginning of 2021. It was clearly unconstitutional, and all it did was screw landlords, the majority of whom were middle class, and the majority of whom weren’t made whole.

How many businesses closed in 2021 because of runaway inflation and labor shortages caused by the 2nd and 3rd major Covid bills?

We’re not talking April 2020. We’re talking 2021 here. What was passed in March covered till the end of 2020. We’re talking about the bills passed in Dec 2020 March 2021 as being unecessary.

[kalm]

How many is few?
Based on what?
How many is not really?
No businesses would have closed? I can think of one. There must be more.
So it would have been business as usual starting in April? No job cuts and business closures hence rent would have been paid by all?

Not enough to justify creating runaway inflation. By 2021 worker sickness wasn’t as big an issue as the labor shortages from not being able to hire enough workers. Busineess couldn’t compete with workers being paid enhanced unemployment not to work.

Based on by the end of 2020 we knew what we were dealing with.

People who hadn’t paid rent since months didn’t all of a sudden pay 9 months of back rent at the end of 2020/beginning of 2021. It was clearly unconstitutional, and all it did was screw landlords, the majority of whom were middle class, and the majority of whom weren’t made whole.

How many businesses closed in 2021 because of runaway inflation and labor shortages caused by the 2nd and 3rd major Covid bills?

We’re not talking April 2020. We’re talking 2021 here. What was passed in March covered till the end of 2020. We’re talking about the bills passed in Dec 2020 March 2021 as being unecessary.

How many deaths and businesses would have justified taking extra steps?

And why did the Kansas City Fed find 60% of inflation was corporate profit driven?

Are people more important than low inflation?

[GannonFan]

Not enough to justify creating runaway inflation. By 2021 worker sickness wasn’t as big an issue as the labor shortages from not being able to hire enough workers. Busineess couldn’t compete with workers being paid enhanced unemployment not to work.

Based on by the end of 2020 we knew what we were dealing with.

People who hadn’t paid rent since months didn’t all of a sudden pay 9 months of back rent at the end of 2020/beginning of 2021. It was clearly unconstitutional, and all it did was screw landlords, the majority of whom were middle class, and the majority of whom weren’t made whole.

How many businesses closed in 2021 because of runaway inflation and labor shortages caused by the 2nd and 3rd major Covid bills?

We’re not talking April 2020. We’re talking 2021 here. What was passed in March covered till the end of 2020. We’re talking about the bills passed in Dec 2020 March 2021 as being unecessary.

How many deaths and businesses would have justified taking extra steps?

And why did the Kansas City Fed find 60% of inflation was corporate profit driven?

Are people more important than low inflation?

So the KC Fed determined that the Fed wasn't partly responsible for inflation? Super independent source there.

And again, once the inflation horse is let out of the door, it's very hard to contain. Sure, you can try to make the argument that businesses tried to profit on inflationary pressures and tried to maximize profit, but businesses generally try to maximize profit most of the time anyway. Just like workers try to maximize salary whenever they can, which, during periods of rampant inflation, they tried to do as well. The issues with rampant runaway inflation is that it makes everything uncertain - businesses trying to project costs for the next year or two as they place orders for longer supply chain things will make different decisions to try to mitigate unknown, future inflationary pressures. Maybe they'll predict prices will be x amount higher and they'll build that in to their pricing. Maybe those predictions come to fruition, maybe they don't, but it's a bet people will make with inflationary uncertainty. Bottom line, don't let inflation get out of hand in the first place and you don't have these knock-down effects.

[kalm]

How many deaths and businesses would have justified taking extra steps?

And why did the Kansas City Fed find 60% of inflation was corporate profit driven?

Are people more important than low inflation?

So the KC Fed determined that the Fed wasn't partly responsible for inflation? Super independent source there.

And again, once the inflation horse is let out of the door, it's very hard to contain. Sure, you can try to make the argument that businesses tried to profit on inflationary pressures and tried to maximize profit, but businesses generally try to maximize profit most of the time anyway. Just like workers try to maximize salary whenever they can, which, during periods of rampant inflation, they tried to do as well. The issues with rampant runaway inflation is that it makes everything uncertain - businesses trying to project costs for the next year or two as they place orders for longer supply chain things will make different decisions to try to mitigate unknown, future inflationary pressures. Maybe they'll predict prices will be x amount higher and they'll build that in to their pricing. Maybe those predictions come to fruition, maybe they don't, but it's a bet people will make with inflationary uncertainty. Bottom line, don't let inflation get out of hand in the first place and you don't have these knock-down effects.

Still….60% lower inflation would have been better, no?

I agree that everyone likes free money. Those profits were not based on market principles. They came from monetary policy. There’s a reason financiers tend to come out of economic catastrophes. Even ones created by natural disasters. The Fed was at least partly created to avert suffering through these times not to further enrich monied interests.

…or maybe it was.

[GannonFan]

So the KC Fed determined that the Fed wasn't partly responsible for inflation? Super independent source there.

And again, once the inflation horse is let out of the door, it's very hard to contain. Sure, you can try to make the argument that businesses tried to profit on inflationary pressures and tried to maximize profit, but businesses generally try to maximize profit most of the time anyway. Just like workers try to maximize salary whenever they can, which, during periods of rampant inflation, they tried to do as well. The issues with rampant runaway inflation is that it makes everything uncertain - businesses trying to project costs for the next year or two as they place orders for longer supply chain things will make different decisions to try to mitigate unknown, future inflationary pressures. Maybe they'll predict prices will be x amount higher and they'll build that in to their pricing. Maybe those predictions come to fruition, maybe they don't, but it's a bet people will make with inflationary uncertainty. Bottom line, don't let inflation get out of hand in the first place and you don't have these knock-down effects.

Still….60% lower inflation would have been better, no?

I agree that everyone likes free money. Those profits were not based on market principles. They came from monetary policy. There’s a reason financiers tend to come out of economic catastrophes. Even ones created by natural disasters. The Fed was at least partly created to avert suffering through these times not to further enrich monied interests.

…or maybe it was.

You're not getting it. People and businesses weren't necessarily being nefarious or underhanded when dealing with inflation. Maybe some were, sure, but the biggest issue is around the uncertainty. If you don't know what inflation will be like 3, 6, or 9 months from now, you're going to bake in some healthy hedges to make sure you don't end up screwed 9 months from now when your estimation of where inflation was going to be was underestimated and now you're swallowing a loss. If I'm selling a product, I'm going to move the price up because I hear rumblings from my suppliers that they're going to be increasing their prices, and maybe multiple times over multiple suppliers. And then businesses need to factor in that eventually, when performance reviews come around, what would've been a 2-3% increase in your own wages from year to year will now be 4-5% increases, at least. And that's probably happening at their suppliers as well.

It's real easy from a game theory perspective to see how the initial inflation would then lead to additional inflation as people try to gauge how to effectively respond to an uncertain environment. Again, don't cause inflation in the first place, and certainly don't cause such rampant inflation in such a short period of time, and none of this happens. Don't vastly increase the money supply with rampant government spending and asleep-at-the-wheel Fed response (other than their finger pointing like your KC Fed example) and none of this happens. Once the initial error happens, it ripples and ripples for quite some time before it gets under control again.

[kalm]

Still….60% lower inflation would have been better, no?

I agree that everyone likes free money. Those profits were not based on market principles. They came from monetary policy. There’s a reason financiers tend to come out of economic catastrophes. Even ones created by natural disasters. The Fed was at least partly created to avert suffering through these times not to further enrich monied interests.

…or maybe it was.

You're not getting it. People and businesses weren't necessarily being nefarious or underhanded when dealing with inflation. Maybe some were, sure, but the biggest issue is around the uncertainty. If you don't know what inflation will be like 3, 6, or 9 months from now, you're going to bake in some healthy hedges to make sure you don't end up screwed 9 months from now when your estimation of where inflation was going to be was underestimated and now you're swallowing a loss. If I'm selling a product, I'm going to move the price up because I hear rumblings from my suppliers that they're going to be increasing their prices, and maybe multiple times over multiple suppliers. And then businesses need to factor in that eventually, when performance reviews come around, what would've been a 2-3% increase in your own wages from year to year will now be 4-5% increases, at least. And that's probably happening at their suppliers as well.

It's real easy from a game theory perspective to see how the initial inflation would then lead to additional inflation as people try to gauge how to effectively respond to an uncertain environment. Again, don't cause inflation in the first place, and certainly don't cause such rampant inflation in such a short period of time, and none of this happens. Don't vastly increase the money supply with rampant government spending and asleep-at-the-wheel Fed response (other than their finger pointing like your KC Fed example) and none of this happens. Once the initial error happens, it ripples and ripples for quite some time before it gets under control again.

Some of this makes sense but you’re ignoring one gigantic factor. Greed.

[UNI88]

You're not getting it. People and businesses weren't necessarily being nefarious or underhanded when dealing with inflation. Maybe some were, sure, but the biggest issue is around the uncertainty. If you don't know what inflation will be like 3, 6, or 9 months from now, you're going to bake in some healthy hedges to make sure you don't end up screwed 9 months from now when your estimation of where inflation was going to be was underestimated and now you're swallowing a loss. If I'm selling a product, I'm going to move the price up because I hear rumblings from my suppliers that they're going to be increasing their prices, and maybe multiple times over multiple suppliers. And then businesses need to factor in that eventually, when performance reviews come around, what would've been a 2-3% increase in your own wages from year to year will now be 4-5% increases, at least. And that's probably happening at their suppliers as well.

It's real easy from a game theory perspective to see how the initial inflation would then lead to additional inflation as people try to gauge how to effectively respond to an uncertain environment. Again, don't cause inflation in the first place, and certainly don't cause such rampant inflation in such a short period of time, and none of this happens. Don't vastly increase the money supply with rampant government spending and asleep-at-the-wheel Fed response (other than their finger pointing like your KC Fed example) and none of this happens. Once the initial error happens, it ripples and ripples for quite some time before it gets under control again.

Some of this makes sense but you’re ignoring one gigantic factor. Greed.

No he isn't.

[GannonFan]

You're not getting it. People and businesses weren't necessarily being nefarious or underhanded when dealing with inflation. Maybe some were, sure, but the biggest issue is around the uncertainty. If you don't know what inflation will be like 3, 6, or 9 months from now, you're going to bake in some healthy hedges to make sure you don't end up screwed 9 months from now when your estimation of where inflation was going to be was underestimated and now you're swallowing a loss. If I'm selling a product, I'm going to move the price up because I hear rumblings from my suppliers that they're going to be increasing their prices, and maybe multiple times over multiple suppliers. And then businesses need to factor in that eventually, when performance reviews come around, what would've been a 2-3% increase in your own wages from year to year will now be 4-5% increases, at least. And that's probably happening at their suppliers as well.

It's real easy from a game theory perspective to see how the initial inflation would then lead to additional inflation as people try to gauge how to effectively respond to an uncertain environment. Again, don't cause inflation in the first place, and certainly don't cause such rampant inflation in such a short period of time, and none of this happens. Don't vastly increase the money supply with rampant government spending and asleep-at-the-wheel Fed response (other than their finger pointing like your KC Fed example) and none of this happens. Once the initial error happens, it ripples and ripples for quite some time before it gets under control again.

Some of this makes sense but you’re ignoring one gigantic factor. Greed.

I'm not ignoring it all, I've already said everyone's main goal is to maximize their profit - companies and businesses want to make as much as they can, workers want to also make as much as they can, and people buying things don't want to pay as little as possible. That's greed, for lack of a better word, from every person involved in an economy. None of that is in dispute and of course all of that is, and will continue to happen.

But that's the case all the time no matter what the government overspends nor whether the Fed is asleep or not. The only thing that changed here was that the government decided to go all in on modern monetary theory and the Fed forgot they have to act from time to time. The government blew out the coffers under the delusional idea that there is no limit to government spending and they can do so without impacting inflation. Clearly that has been proven completely wrong. And the Fed clearly was way too slow to respond.

The other market forces, i.e. businesses and consumers trying to do everything they can to maximize their bank accounts, work perfectly fine (well, tends to be a lot more perfectly balanced for a better word) when the government doesn't exist in fantasy-land and when the Fed does their job. Like I said, the biggest impact of rampant inflation is the uncertainty that inflation causes and it results in businesses and consumers making less balanced decisions as they try to maximize their bank accounts, as they always do. Of course their actions when doing this will further the inflationary period, but it only happens when the inflation is not under control in the first place.

[UNI88]

Some of this makes sense but you’re ignoring one gigantic factor. Greed.

I'm not ignoring it all, I've already said everyone's main goal is to maximize their profit - companies and businesses want to make as much as they can, workers want to also make as much as they can, and people buying things don't want to pay as little as possible. That's greed, for lack of a better word, from every person involved in an economy. None of that is in dispute and of course all of that is, and will continue to happen.

But that's the case all the time no matter what the government overspends nor whether the Fed is asleep or not. The only thing that changed here was that the government decided to go all in on modern monetary theory and the Fed forgot they have to act from time to time. The government blew out the coffers under the delusional idea that there is no limit to government spending and they can do so without impacting inflation. Clearly that has been proven completely wrong. And the Fed clearly was way too slow to respond.

The other market forces, i.e. businesses and consumers trying to do everything they can to maximize their bank accounts, work perfectly fine (well, tends to be a lot more perfectly balanced for a better word) when the government doesn't exist in fantasy-land and when the Fed does their job. Like I said, the biggest impact of rampant inflation is the uncertainty that inflation causes and it results in businesses and consumers making less balanced decisions as they try to maximize their bank accounts, as they always do. Of course their actions when doing this will further the inflationary period, but it only happens when the inflation is not under control in the first place.

In kalm’s world consumers can be greedy but businesses should be altruistic.


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[SeattleGriz]

Willing to throw your reputation out over the fact you didn't read an article.

Regardless of what you uninformedly think, Paramilitary were paid by Ukraine and the US to cleanse the Donbas. That was the point of the article.

You think anyone who doesn’t agree with you and your preferred “experts” is uninformed.

I might not work in international relations but I’ve been a history lover since I was a kid and studied political science with a lot of international relations classes in college. Lash out at me all you want but my knowledge of international relations is not insubstantial.


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No. Terrible answer.

The history you claim you read, is made by this guy. Anywho, if what you say about the hatred is true, it validates his version of the story. Ukrainians so angry, they passed legislation that marginalized the Russians so bad that they asked for autonomy. Then the,as you say,angry Ukrainians lashed out and started bombing the Donbass. If our media were to report on it, it would be ethnic cleansing.

[SeattleGriz]

Willing to throw your reputation out over the fact you didn't read an article.

Regardless of what you uninformedly think, Paramilitary were paid by Ukraine and the US to cleanse the Donbas. That was the point of the article.

Does the article also talk about Russian influence in UKR politics? Or the history going back millennia?

My wife’s hometown was settled by Volga River Russians which were really Germans who Catherine the Great encouraged to settle the steppes.

Point being it’s a complicated region. UKR is an independent country. Russia invaded it without provocation.

Wrong.

[BDKJMU]

UAW goes on strike.

[GannonFan]

Does the article also talk about Russian influence in UKR politics? Or the history going back millennia?

My wife’s hometown was settled by Volga River Russians which were really Germans who Catherine the Great encouraged to settle the steppes.

Point being it’s a complicated region. UKR is an independent country. Russia invaded it without provocation.

Wrong.

How? How was Russia provoked? How was Russia's safety as a country put at risk that they had to invade and try to annex another country to protect their own safety?

[kalm]

Wrong.

How? How was Russia provoked? How was Russia's safety as a country put at risk that they had to invade and try to annex another country to protect their own safety?

You obviously don’t remember all those times NATO provoked a country by invading. Something Russia has never done.

[kalm]

Some of this makes sense but you’re ignoring one gigantic factor. Greed.

I'm not ignoring it all, I've already said everyone's main goal is to maximize their profit - companies and businesses want to make as much as they can, workers want to also make as much as they can, and people buying things don't want to pay as little as possible. That's greed, for lack of a better word, from every person involved in an economy. None of that is in dispute and of course all of that is, and will continue to happen.

But that's the case all the time no matter what the government overspends nor whether the Fed is asleep or not. The only thing that changed here was that the government decided to go all in on modern monetary theory and the Fed forgot they have to act from time to time. The government blew out the coffers under the delusional idea that there is no limit to government spending and they can do so without impacting inflation. Clearly that has been proven completely wrong. And the Fed clearly was way too slow to respond.

The other market forces, i.e. businesses and consumers trying to do everything they can to maximize their bank accounts, work perfectly fine (well, tends to be a lot more perfectly balanced for a better word) when the government doesn't exist in fantasy-land and when the Fed does their job. Like I said, the biggest impact of rampant inflation is the uncertainty that inflation causes and it results in businesses and consumers making less balanced decisions as they try to maximize their bank accounts, as they always do. Of course their actions when doing this will further the inflationary period, but it only happens when the inflation is not under control in the first place.

Also global pandemic. Or have no other nations experienced inflation.

And crisis are a great time to increase wealth for some. It’s a kinder-gentler form of theft/stealing from the commons.

[UNI88]

I'm not ignoring it all, I've already said everyone's main goal is to maximize their profit - companies and businesses want to make as much as they can, workers want to also make as much as they can, and people buying things don't want to pay as little as possible. That's greed, for lack of a better word, from every person involved in an economy. None of that is in dispute and of course all of that is, and will continue to happen.

But that's the case all the time no matter what the government overspends nor whether the Fed is asleep or not. The only thing that changed here was that the government decided to go all in on modern monetary theory and the Fed forgot they have to act from time to time. The government blew out the coffers under the delusional idea that there is no limit to government spending and they can do so without impacting inflation. Clearly that has been proven completely wrong. And the Fed clearly was way too slow to respond.

The other market forces, i.e. businesses and consumers trying to do everything they can to maximize their bank accounts, work perfectly fine (well, tends to be a lot more perfectly balanced for a better word) when the government doesn't exist in fantasy-land and when the Fed does their job. Like I said, the biggest impact of rampant inflation is the uncertainty that inflation causes and it results in businesses and consumers making less balanced decisions as they try to maximize their bank accounts, as they always do. Of course their actions when doing this will further the inflationary period, but it only happens when the inflation is not under control in the first place.

Also global pandemic. Or have no other nations experienced inflation.

And crisis are a great time to increase wealth for some. It’s a kinder-gentler form of theft/stealing from the commons.

All those people choosing not to pay rent and/or work and collecting unemployment is also a form of theft/stealing from the commons. Greedy bastards.


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[UNI88]

You think anyone who doesn’t agree with you and your preferred “experts” is uninformed.

I might not work in international relations but I’ve been a history lover since I was a kid and studied political science with a lot of international relations classes in college. Lash out at me all you want but my knowledge of international relations is not insubstantial.


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No. Terrible answer.

The history you claim you read, is made by this guy. Anywho, if what you say about the hatred is true, it validates his version of the story. Ukrainians so angry, they passed legislation that marginalized the Russians so bad that they asked for autonomy. Then the,as you say,angry Ukrainians lashed out and started bombing the Donbass. If our media were to report on it, it would be ethnic cleansing.

russians mistreated and oppressed Ukrainians for hundreds of years. The Ukrainians finally turned the tables and mistreated and oppressed russians for a couple of years and the russians called their mommy for help. Now the russians are giving the Ukrainians a master class in ethnic cleansing.


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[kalm]

Also global pandemic. Or have no other nations experienced inflation.

And crisis are a great time to increase wealth for some. It’s a kinder-gentler form of theft/stealing from the commons.

All those people choosing not to pay rent and/or work and collecting unemployment is also a form of theft/stealing from the commons. Greedy bastards.


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I’m not sure you understand how the commons works.