Tag Archives: modern money theory

Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: Part Two, Legal Objections

Posted on February 1, 2013 by | 6 Comments

By Joe Firestone

There are three classes of opponents of High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage (HVPCS, $30 T and above). The first and largest group opposes all PCS of whatever type. The second, opposes HVPCS, but favors using the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) for the limited purpose of avoiding the debt ceiling. The third, opposes HVPCS, and doesn’t really favor using the TDC either, except, perhaps, as a last resort. 

Continue reading →

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: Part One, Basics

Posted on January 31, 2013 by | 58 Comments

By Joe Firestone

How many times have you heard that the Government can only spend money after it raises revenue by either taxing or borrowing? Nearly every time someone talks or writes about the US’s public deficit/debt problem? How come nobody asks why, since Congress has the unlimited authority to create coins and currency, it doesn’t just create money when it deficit spends? The short answer is that Congress in 1913, constrained the Executive Branch from creating currency or bank reserves, delegated its power to do that to the Federal Reserve System, and never looked back when we went off the gold standard in 1971, even though this removed the danger of money-creation outrunning gold reserves, and also created a new monetary system based on fiat currency.

Continue reading →

→ 58 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Catch Randy Wray Discussing His Modern Money Theory Book on FDLSalon

Posted on January 3, 2013 by | 4 Comments

Firedoglake is hosting a book salon with Randy Wray discussing his new book Modern Money Theory: A Primer on Macroeconomics for Sovereign Monetary Systems.  NEP’s William K. Black will be the host for the salon.

When: Saturday, January 5, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. pacific /5:00 eastern

Where: fdlbooksalon.com

 

→ 4 Comments

Posted in L. Randall Wray

Tagged , , ,

Government Financial Asset Addition = “Deficit”; Government Financial Asset Destruction = “Surplus”

Posted on December 26, 2012 by | 16 Comments

By Joe Firestone

The word “deficit,” when applied to the Government financial accounting of a monetarily sovereign nation, that is, one that issues a non-convertible fiat currency, with a floating exchange rate, and no debts in a currency it doesn’t issue, is a problem, because the label “deficit” when applied to such a Government doesn’t mean what most people think it means. As Michel Hoexter points out:

Continue reading →

→ 16 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Neoliberalism Kills: Part Two

Posted on October 24, 2012 by | 6 Comments

By Joe Firestone

During Part One of this series,  I approached the end of my post with this paragraph.

Apart from the political opposition from the insurance companies that Medicare for All would have engendered, I think the main justification for abandoning Medicare for All and switching to the PO and eventually the PO-less ACA, was actually neoliberalism. The President, his main advisers, the Democratic leaders in Congress, and most progressives working for Washington progressive organizations were steeped in neoliberal doctrine. They viewed the Bush tax cuts and the two Wars as unpaid for. The ARRA stimulus Act was similarly unpaid for and added to deficit spending and to the debt-subject-to-the-limit. They believed and most believe today that the Federal Government can have solvency problems if the debt-to-GDP ratio increases too much, and interest rates on the national debt are driven up by the bond vigilantes.

Continue reading →

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Neoliberalism Kills: Part One

Posted on October 18, 2012 by | 16 Comments

By Joe Firestone

During the run-up to passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), I wrote a number of posts here, here, and here assessing the ACA very negatively, and pointing out the shortcomings of the various versions of this bill, preceding its final passage. My focus was on contrasting varying versions with HR 676, the Conyers-Kucinich Medicare for All bill, in relation to its likely impact on fatalities, bankruptcies and divorces attributed to lack of health insurance coverage in the US.

Continue reading →

→ 16 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged , , , , ,

Paul K’s Strange Logic

Posted on October 17, 2012 by | 62 Comments

By Joe Firestone

In an October 12th Post entitled “Foreigners and the Burden of Debt,” Paul Krugman made the following comment.

”. . . we’d all agree that deficits make us poorer if they crowd out investment spending — which they would if the economy were near full employment, but won’t if we’re deeply depressed. All we have to do is realize that net foreign investment — purchases minus sales of assets from and to foreigners — is also a form of investment. Or to put it a bit more simply, sure, budget deficits can make us poorer as a nation if they lead to bigger trade deficits.”

Continue reading →

→ 62 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged , , , , ,

These Folks are Soooo Clever . . .

Posted on September 26, 2012 by | 87 Comments

Last week, Reps. Michael Honda, Keith Ellison, Raul Grijalva, Jan Schakowsky, John Conyers, Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey stalwarts of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) begged for mercy from “the Gang of Eight” in a letter.

Here’s what they said and my commentary on their “loser liberalism.” Continue reading →

→ 87 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Promises for America

Posted on September 21, 2012 by | 17 Comments

By Joe Firestone

The polling since the conventions shows that Democrats are doing better than expected. President Obama now apparently has a clear lead over Mitt Romney. Democratic Party control of the Senate seems likely to survive this election year of many more Democratic rather than Republican Senate seats up for election. And, even in House races, it looks like the Democrats will pick up a number of seats; though whether they can pick up enough seats  to take back the House is still an unlikely prospect, and without the House President Obama’s second term is likely to be much like his last year and three-quarters, rather than his first two years.

Continue reading →

→ 17 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged , , , , ,

Alan Grayson’s Right; But He Misses the Larger Point

Posted on September 14, 2012 by | 9 Comments

By Joe Firestone

Alan Grayson’s e-mail on Moody’s warning that it might reduce the US’s AAA rating, suggested that Moody’s was either threatening a downgrade because it wants to get the Bush tax cuts for the rich extended, or, alternatively, that “Moody’s is living in what Aristophanes called “Cloud Cuckoo Land.”” He says this because Moody’s is upset about the possibility that the US may go over the so-called “fiscal cliff,” even though if it did, it would theoretically result in $560 Billion of deficit reduction annually, without further legislative changes, and it makes no sense on the surface for a ratings agency to think that the risk of US bond default is greater when the annual deficit is being reduced by $560 B per year, than by some lesser amount, which is likely to happen if Congress doesn’t take us over that “cliff.”

Continue reading →

→ 9 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,