Monthly Archives: March 2013

Modern Money and Public Purpose 5 – Money, Democracy and the Constitution

The latest installment of Modern Money and Public Purpose is now online.  This seminar explores the relationship between money and the legal formation of the modern liberal capitalist state, with a particular emphasis on the pre-Revolutionary and early United States.  In contrast to conventional economic narratives that cast money as lubrication for existing forms of exchange, this event highlights the legal and political origins of our modern monetary system, and traces the influence of those forces on the shape of the modern economy.

You can view the video below or view at the Modern Money and Public Purpose Continue reading

The SEC embraces irony – its enforcement “inflection” “point”

By William K. Black

Many readers doubtless shared my doubt that the SEC was capable of exercising the critical self-examination and sense of humor about itself as a flawed institution that would make it capable of deliberate irony.  When I accessed the Wall Street Journal’s home page I found the most delicious example of SEC (and WSJ) irony.  The WSJ synopsis of its article on the SEC reads: “The SEC is filing significantly fewer civil fraud cases this year, as its efforts to punish misconduct related to the financial crisis start to ebb.”

“Start to ebb?”  Is it only me, or have other readers missed the tidal bore of SEC enforcement cases “punishing” the “misconduct” of the most culpable, elite perpetrators of what, even conservative, finance scholars describe as “pervasive” accounting control fraud by our “most reputable banks”?  Continue reading

The EU Needs a Bill Seidman to Save It from Itself: Cyprus and the “Reverse Toaster Theory”

By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Benzinga.com)

Everyone involved in financial regulation in modern times with any broad knowledge of the field will know of Bill Seidman, Chairman of the FDIC and the RTC.  In 1989, the newly elected President Bush (the First) had a very good idea that became the Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA).  FIRREA was one of the very unusual cases of enhancing financial regulation.  It was prompted by the lessons we had learned in containing the Savings and Loan (S&L) Debacle.  The original administration bill, however, had a very bad idea associated with the President’s chief of staff, John H. Sununu.  Sununu is a brilliant guy – who wants you to know how much smarter he is than everybody else.  His wiki biography page informs the reader that: Continue reading

Without an Effective Macroethics, Our Civilization is Doomed

By Michael Hoexter

In a previous post, I outlined how leaders in positions of political power, especially at the national level, are chosen to fulfill a unique ethical role, that differs from that which is appropriate for private individuals and business leaders.  Because of the power that accrues to political leaders and the hopes attached to them by their constituents, politicians’ actions in office have much greater repercussions than, for the most part, the actions of individuals and individual businesses in the private sector.  Once elected or appointed, political leaders have choices to make, often with room for their own discretion, which draw upon values they hold, values that are in part conditioned by, though not entirely reducible to their political and political-economic ideology.   These decisions most often are concerned with policymaking, budgeting, and legislation that impact an entire nation or the international system of nations. Continue reading

Slate Agrees that Obama’s Vanity Drives the Grand Betrayal – and Praises the Betrayal

By William K. Black

Slate’s John Dickerson leads its (and CBS’) political reportage so his specialty is in examining what is actually driving politicians’ policies and their efforts to “spin” those policies.  Dickerson authored an article entitled “Why Obama’s Outreach to Republicans is All About Obama” (March 12, 2013).   

Dickerson’s theme is one I have long emphasized:  Obama is driven by concerns for his “legacy.”  In more human terms, he is intensely vain about how history will perceive him.  That is common, particularly in politicians’ final terms, and it can be a positive influence on policy.  Dickerson also agrees with my warnings that Obama sees inflicting the “Grand Bargain” on the Nation as his means of achieving his legacy.  Here is Dickerson’s introduction to his article. Continue reading

The I.O.U. in the U.S. Dollar

By J.D. Alt

One of the strangest things to understand about Modern Money Theory is why, if government doesn’t need your tax dollars in order to spend, does government tax at all? Here is an attempt at a new and “better” explanation. It is based on the insight that the government DOES, in fact, need to collect taxes, but the “taxes” it collects are not your “tax dollars.” This may sound like gibberish, but stick with me a moment and see if the following doesn’t make sense—and cast a new light on OTHER things as well (like, for example, the “national debt”).

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Government Debt and Deficits Are Not the Problem. Private Debt Is.

By Michael Hudson
(Remarks by Prof. Michael Hudson at The Atlantic’s Economy Summit, Washington DC, Wednesday, March 13, 2013)

There are two quite different perspectives in the set of speeches at this conference. Many on our morning panels – Steve Keen, William Greider, and earlier Yves Smith and Robert Kuttner – have warned about the economy being strapped by debt. The debt we are talking about is private-sector debt. But most officials this afternoon focus on government debt and budget deficits as the problem – especially social spending such as Social Security, not bailouts to the banks and Federal Reserve credit to re-inflate prices for real estate, stocks and bonds.

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Which Aspect of the FDIC’s Litigation Failures is the Most Embarrassing and Damaging?

By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Benzinga.com)

On March 11, 2013 the Los Angeles Times published a revealing article by E. Scott Reckard entitled:  “In major policy shift, scores of FDIC settlements go unannounced.”

The article’s summary statement captures the theme nicely.  “Since the mortgage meltdown, the FDIC has opted to settle cases while helping banks avoid bad press, rather than trumpeting punitive actions as a deterrent to others.” Continue reading

What is Modern Monetary Theory, or “MMT”?

By Dale Pierce

Introduction

Modern Monetary Theory is a way of doing economics that incorporates a clear understanding of the way our present-day monetary system actually works – it emphasizes the frequently misunderstood dynamics of our so-called “fiat-money” economy. Most people are unnerved by the thought that money isn’t “backed” by anything anymore – backed by gold, for example. They’re afraid that this makes money a less reliable store of value. And, of course, it is perfectly true that a poorly managed monetary system, or one which is experiencing something like an oil-price shock, can also experience inflation. But people today simply don’t realize how much bigger a problem the opposite condition can be. Under the gold standard, and largely because of the gold standard, the capitalist world endured eight different deflationary slumps severe enough to be called “depressions.” Since the gold standard was abolished, there have been none – and, as we shall see, this is anything but coincidental.

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THE MYTH OF DEBT

By Chris Cook
(Cross posted from www.heraldscotland.com)

FROM the latest cuts to the economic forecasts to the Italian elections to the gathering debate about how George Osborne should play this year’s Budget, all discussions about the financial system now lead swiftly back to the world’s sovereign debt problem. It towers over every effort to get back to prosperity, threatening to take decades at best before it can be resolved, very possibly with an almighty crash along the way.
But maybe that is because we are looking at a 21st-century problem in a 20th-century light. My research at University College London indicates that the answers might lie in modern versions of legal structures and instruments which pre-date the modern financial system and even the incorporating Union of England and Scotland in 1707. But before I explain this “back to the future” proposal for recovery, a warning: we’ll need to turn much of the received wisdom that underlies modern economics and politics upside down as we proceed.

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