Daily Archives: August 29, 2013

Jack Lew: Avoiding Default Is Your Responsibility Too

By Joe Firestone

With the end of the Summer break, now comes the return of the debt limit dance. From Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew’s letter to John Boehner:

“Congress should act as soon as possible to protect America’s good credit by extending normal borrowing authority well before any risk of default becomes imminent.

“Based on our latest estimates extraordinary measures are projected to be exhausted in the middle of October. At that point, the United States will have reached the limit of its borrowing authority, and Treasury would be left to fund the government with only the cash we have on hand on any given day, The cash balance at that time is currently forecasted to be approximately $50 billion.

“. . . A cash balance of approximately $50 Billion would be insufficient to cover net expenditures for an extended period of time. And, on certain days, net expenditures could exceed such a cash balance.

“. . . Protecting the full faith and credit of the United States is the responsibility of Congress because only Congress can extend the nation’s borrowing authority . . .“

OK. So, only Congress can extend the nation’s borrowing authority. But it doesn’t follow from that fact that protecting the full faith and credit of the United States is solely the responsibility of Congress.

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NEP’s William Black appears on HuffPost Live

William Black appeared on HuffPost Live with Mike Sacks on the Four Massive Economic Threats episode. Black discusses sovereign currencies vs. austerity.

A Response to J.D. Alt: Mobilization and Money

By Glenn Stehle

Analyzing the nexus of war, economics, and society is a fascinating undertaking.  War is the deployment of the state’s instruments of violence — the military and the police.  So instead of the nexus of war, economics, and society, we could just as easily speak of the nexus of state violence, economics and society.  And since Alt chose to make his article a morality tale, I would like to continue in that vein.

The two moral prerogatives which Alt articulates are 1) utilitarianism and 2) equality. We see this, for instance, when he notes that Continue reading

Zero Prosecutions of Elite Banksters is too many Prosecutions for the Wall Street Journal

By William K. Black

Unintentional self-parody was the result to a coordinated effort by the systemically dangerous institutions’ (SDIs) press flacks to gin up outrage that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would have the audacity to sue the SDIs’ for their manifold violations of the law.  The Wall Street Journal recalled one of its former opinion page pundits to active duty as a shill for the Street.   George Melloan’s August 25 column warned:

“If dubious prosecutions continue to mount, they could backfire on the regulatory agencies and further diminish sinking public confidence in government. Ask the folks at the IRS.”

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