Daily Archives: September 6, 2013

NEP’s Bill Black appears on CCTV America’s Biz Asia America

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Devin Smith | Comments Off

Bill Black appears on CCTV America’s Biz Asia America discussing whether the G20 summit is still necessary as well as growth and internal issues.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Biz Asia America, CCTV America, G20, summit

QE’s Fanboys and Fearmongers Fan Economic Perversity

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Dan Kervick | 29 comments

By Dan Kervick

The government released a disappointing August jobs report today. And unfortunately, the hype and misinformation surrounding the Fed’s quantitative easing program has created a perverse situation in the capital markets which may contribute to sustaining that job market stagnation for some time.

For several months now, we have seen the establishment of an entrenched pattern in which investors routinely respond to a bad jobs reports with bullish behavior and respond to a good jobs reports with bearish behavior. Bad jobs news is treated as good news for investors; good jobs news is treated as bad news for investors. Why in the world would they respond in this way? Because in a classic case of the madness of crowds driven by misinformation and disinformation, the markets have convinced themselves that the fate of the world now depends on whether or not the Fed will choose either to continue or “taper” its quantitative easing program in the near term.

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Posted in Dan Kervick

Hooray of the Day

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Devin Smith | 3 comments

Today’s jobs report was lousy. Employers added just 169,000 jobs to non-farm payrolls in August, and downward revisions to June and July payroll numbers erased 74,000 jobs from the record. Lots of people are saying that the this weakness means that the Fed cannot, must not, dare not Septaper. Others have said what a bad time it would be to let a debt ceiling fight force a government shutdown. I’ve only seen one person zero in on the fundamental problem with our economy — the government’s deficit has gotten too small. Kudos to Ezra Klein for connecting the dots and to Carolyn McClanahan for immediately recognizing this as a key MMT insight

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Posted in Stephanie Kelton

Tagged Carolyn McClanahan, Ezra Klein, hooray of the day

Stephanie Kelton Interviews Warren Mosler

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Dan Kervick | 13 comments

By Dan Kervick

Stephanie Kelton has inaugurated a new series of New Economic Perspectives podcasts with a fantastic interview of Warren Mosler. The discussion covers current forecasts by Goldman Sachs and others on the state of the US economy; the Fed’s quantitative easing program and market jitters about tapering; the impact of Japan’s “Abenomics”; the political inertia behind the European community’s intractable political commitment to austerity; the investment foibles of the goldbugs; and more.

For all of those people who wonder why MMTers are so skeptical about QE, this is the podcast for them. Mosler’s explanation is as clear as a bell.

The podcast can be downloaded via iTunes by searching for “Stephanie Kelton” or “stephaniekelton’s podcast”. But is also available here via the web. Highly recommended!