Daily Archives: October 14, 2013

Rationalization and Obligation, Part V: Differences Are Everything

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 13 comments

This is Part V of a six part series replying to a claim by the President at his recent White House News Conference. Part I covered the News Conference and the first two (the selective default, and the exploding option) of seven options the President might use to try save the US from defaulting in the face of continued deadlock in the Congress on raising the debt limit or repealing the law enabling it in its entirety. Part II discussed Platinum Coin Seigniorage, invoking the 14th amendment to justify continuing to issue conventional Treasury debt instruments, and consols. Part III discussed premium bonds, and Treasury sales of the Government’s material and cultural assets to the Federal Reserve. Part IV, then evaluated all seven options in light of variations among them in likely degree of legal difficulties they might face, and also the likely impact of each on confidence in the bond markets, if used.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, $60 Trillion Coin, 14th Amendment, austerity, bill black, debt ceiling, debt limit, debt limit crisis options, debt-subject-to-the-limit, default, deficit spending, Ezra Klein, great betrayal, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, kabuki, Matt Kevin Drum, MMT, modern money theory, President Obama, public debt

MINSKY DOES RIO: Notes from a Conference

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Devin Smith | 4 comments

By L. Randall Wray

I recently returned from conference in Brazil jointly sponsored by the Levy Economics Institute, the Ford Foundation, and the Brazilian research group MINDS. It is part of a bigger project to take Hyman P. Minsky global. In my view, Minsky was hands-down the greatest economist of the second half of the twentieth century and he deserves the attention he’s getting. Watch for an upcoming film by Monty Python’s Terry Jones that will feature Minsky and his work. Minsky will even make an appearance—or, more accurately, a bigger-than-life Minsky puppet will be in the film. (Steve Keen and I were also interviewed.)

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Posted in L. Randall Wray

Tagged minsky, Rio

Rationalization and Obligation, Part IV: Differences Among Options

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 18 comments

In Part I, Part II, and Part III, I listed and analyzed seven options, analyzed them and also pointed out that the President’s 14th amendment option, actually makes turning to the 14th as a justification for continuing to issue debt beyond the ceiling, a last resort, and also places an obligation on the President to exhaust other available options, whose legality is probable, but not finally determined by the Supreme Court. But, in his recent Press Conference, the President also failed to recognize any differences among the options in relation to his main point: that loss of public confidence caused by legal challenges would affect sales of debt instruments and other options including Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS).

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18 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, $60 Trillion Coin, 14th Amendment, austerity, bill black, debt ceiling, debt limit, debt limit crisis options, debt-subject-to-the-limit, default, deficit spending, Ezra Klein, great betrayal, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, Kevin Drum, Matt Levine, Matthew Yglesias, MMT, modern money theory, President Obama, public debt, wigwam

Arnold Kling’s Cunning Hairdresser Theory of the Financial Crisis

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Devin Smith | 4 comments

By William K. Black

Arnold Kling is a libertarian economist who once worked for Freddie Mac. This article discusses a blog and an article he wrote about the causes of the crisis. Both (unintentionally) illustrate key theoclassical economic positions critical to understanding the origins of the crisis. Kling’s blog was in response to a January 29, 2013 post by Thomas J. Sugrue. Sugrue provided data demonstrating that blacks and Latino homeowners suffered far greater wealth losses in the crisis than did whites. This upset Kling, who responded:

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