Daily Archives: March 14, 2012

Stay Tuned for Responses to the Latest MMP Post

Responses to the latest in the “MMT for Austrians” series will be delayed until tommorow.  In addition to addressing questions and comments concerning the MMP piece, Prof. Wray will also deal with others raised in Dan Kervick’s recent two part series.  Stay tuned!

Senator Grassley calls Attorney General Holder’s Bluff

By William K. Black

On March 7, 2012, I testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the failure to prosecute the elite fraudulent financial CEOs who drove the ongoing crisis.  The first witness testifying to the committee was Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, Thomas Perez.  The focus of the hearing was Countrywide’s massive racial and ethnic discrimination against minorities.  Perez testified that there were over 200,000 identified victims of discrimination by Countrywide and that the settlement his office negotiated led to a payment that was 50 times larger than the largest previous settlement.  Perez testified that each of these victims of Countrywide’s discrimination will receive between one and two thousand dollars.

Continue reading

Newt’s Latest Declaration of Independence From Reality

By William K. Black
(Cross-posted from HuffPo)

Newt Gingrich’s story is that Freddie Mac was so impressed with his skills as an historian that they paid him at least $1.6 million not to lobby, but to serve as their historical muse. Gingrich was, of course, a lobbyist for Freddie Mac, a politically inconvenient fact for a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.

Continue reading

(Re) Occupy Greece

By William K. Black
(Cross-posted from Benzinga.com)

While the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement set its sights on occupying a financial center, Germany has accomplished the vastly more impressive feat of occupying an entire nation – Greece.  Germany has experience at occupying Greece having done so during World War II.  The art of occupying another nation is to recruit a local puppet to do the dirty work required to repress the citizens.  Germany used several puppets, most notoriously the murderous Ioannis Rallis, to (nominally) rule Greece and terrify the Greek people during World War II.  (After Germany’s defeat, Rallis was executed for his treason.)

Continue reading

William K Black’s Testimony Before the Senate Judiciary Committee

The full hearing can be viewed here.  Prof. Black’s testimony starts around the 144th minute.

The Public Money Monopoly (Pt. II)

By Dan Kervick

In Part One of this essay I defended the MMT view that the national government is the monopoly issuer of the currency in the US, and I attempted to clarify the actual economic status of that government currency with respect to the Fed’s conventional balance sheet accounting.   In this concluding part of the essay I will further develop the contrast between the government’s role as currency issuer and the role of private sector households and firms – including commercial banks – as currency users.  I will then make a few points about how the government supplies currency to the non-governmental sectors of the economy before concluding with a discussion of several topics that tend to engender resistance to the very idea that such a currency monopoly exists.

Continue reading