Monthly Archives: August 2012

Wall Street’s War Against the Cities: Why Bondholders Can’t – and Shouldn’t – be Paid

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Devin Smith | 10 comments

The pace of Wall Street’s war against the 99% is quickening in preparation for the kill. Having demonized public employees for being scheduled to receive pensions on their lifetime employment service, bondholders are insisting on getting the money instead. It is the same austerity philosophy that has been forced on Greece and Spain – and the same that is prompting President Obama and Mitt Romney to urge scaling back Social Security and Medicare.

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10 Comments

Posted in Michael Hudson

Tagged bondholders, pension, state and local debt

Why do Keynesians Think More Spending will Stimulate the Economy?

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Stephanie Kelton | 53 comments

By Stephanie Kelton

My Twitter followers are constantly asking me if I think more spending would really help the economy recover. I understand their skepticism. Many are probably struggling with high debt levels, and the last thing they want is some economist urging them to rack up more debt for the good of the economy. (Bad advice, indeed.) Others have heard President Obama talk about putting Americans back to work by investing in our nation’s infrastructure, educational system, energy future, etc., but many aren’t sure if the “stimulus even worked“, so they, too, wonder if more spending is really the right way to grow the economy. Well, here’s the answer.

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53 Comments

Posted in Stephanie Kelton

Tagged economic recovery, keynsians, spending

Why is Paul Ryan, an Irish Catholic, praising the dogmas that drove the Great Hunger?

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Devin Smith | 24 comments

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

At the invitation of the Steamboat Institute’s “Freedom Conference” I debated Dan Mitchell, an economist at Cato on Friday August 25, 2012. Dan suggested me as his debate opponent, a role we have played several times in Europe. Our primary topic was Paul Ryan’s budget policies. In the course of our debate Dan stressed an August 24 column he wrote entitled “For Once, I Hope Paul Krugman is Right.” Continue reading →

24 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged budget, great hunger, irish potato famine, paul ryan

Economists for Romney: a closer look

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Pavlina Tcherneva | 15 comments

By Pavlina R. Tcherneva

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney boasts support from the scientific community for his supply-side trickle-down economic proposal. It is outlined here, along with the list of economists endorsing the plan.

Several Nobel Prize winners grace the top of the list. Here is a quick look at some of these luminaries and their contributions to some of the most pressing problems of our time. Continue reading →

15 Comments

Posted in Pavlina R. Tcherneva

Tagged economists, Mitt Romney

A CONSERVATIVE DEFENSE OF A JOBS GUARANTEE PROGRAM

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Devin Smith | 17 comments

By John Henry

John Locke is the “father” of property rights theory, and continues to be referenced in defense of private property. In the second volume of his Two Treatises of Government, Locke specified the conditions that must be satisfied in order for property to be deemed legitimate. Initially, any property taken from “the commons” (public or collective property) had to be based on one’s labor that was expended to improve that property. (While Locke focused on landed property, his argument applies more generally.)

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17 Comments

Posted in John Henry

Tagged full employment, John Locke, property rights

Part 2 – Is an Anti-Austerity Alliance of Left Neo-classicals and Post-Keynesians Possible? Is it Desirable?

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Devin Smith | 24 comments

By Michael Hoexter

Points of Agreement and Division (con’t)

United as they are in their critique of neoclassical economics, it would be a mistake to portray post-Keynesians as united among themselves, a further complication for the emergence of any unified message from anti-austerity economists. Continue reading →

24 Comments

Posted in Michael Hoexter

Tagged austerity, neo-classicals, post keynesian

The Dangerous Myth that Financial Regulation is Unrelated to Financial Crime

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Devin Smith | 2 comments

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

The inspiration for this article was an op ed in the Wall Street Journal by Wendy Long, the Republican/Conservative Party of New York’s candidate for the U.S. Senate. Long’s thesis is: Continue reading →

2 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, bank regulation

Men on a Wall

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Devin Smith | 19 comments

By J.D. Alt

I recently saw a newspaper photo of ten or twelve men sitting on a crumbling stone wall beside a dirt road. It was somewhere in Africa, but the location doesn’t matter. What matters is that the men, as the caption made clear, were sitting on the wall because they had nothing else to do: they had no land to farm, there was no local job or employment available to them, they had no savings or credit with which to start some venture. Continue reading →

19 Comments

Posted in J. D. Alt

Tagged balanced budget, conservatives, progressives, unemployment

Part 1 – Is an Anti-Austerity Alliance of Left Neo-classicals and Post-Keynesians Possible? Is it Desirable?

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Devin Smith | 16 comments

By Michael Hoexter

I drafted the “Mixed Economy Manifesto” as one attempt to create a common basis for anti-austerity economists and non-economists to argue against, in the clearest terms possible, the waves of government spending cutbacks that are advocated by misguided elites, by the right-wing and by right-leaning neoclassical economists. Continue reading →