Monthly Archives: November 2013

The Department of Justice’s Willful Blindness to the Willful Blindness of CEOs

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Devin Smith | 1 comment

The best thing that the Department of Justice (DOJ) could do immediately to restore faith in the criminal justice system is to prosecute Steven Cohen, the head of SAC. The indictment of SAC charges that many SAC officers committed crimes due to: “institutional practices that encouraged the widespread solicitation and use of illegal inside information.” That indictment supports that claim with detailed allegations. For example, paragraph 6 states that “employees were financially incentivized to recommend to [Cohen] ‘high conviction’ trading ideas” that would inherently come from insider information. Providing “high conviction” tips to Cohen was a job requirement and a code phrase that signaled to Cohen that he could invest his funds with confidence due to the insider information. Paragraph 7 observes that “the predictable and foreseeable result … was systematic insider trading.” Paragraph 11 explains that SAC investment managers had a duty to provide Cohen with “high conviction” deals and that Cohen made fulfilling this duty a top priority. Paragraph 13 explains that the managers’ bonuses largely depended on the “high conviction” tips they made to Cohen.

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1 Comment

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged DOJ, SAC, Steven Cohen, willful blindness

Irish Fish, and Banks, Rot from the Head

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Devin Smith | 1 comment

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

I’m back from my annual purifying rite – participating in Kilkenomics IV in Kilkenny, Ireland. It was a big success again this year, with dozens of sold out events in which economists (and the odd criminologist) are paired with superb professional comedians who serve to keep things lively, understandable, and blunt. Regular folks stop you on the street and talk to you for hours in the bars about economics. This year, the organizers (Richard Cook and David McWilliams) added “young economist” awards for the equivalent of high school and junior high school awards. The brilliant Dan Ariely and I had the privilege to help judge the final round of the competition. Should you ever find yourself near Ireland in early November during the festival I encourage you to join us in Kilkenny.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, Kilkenomics, Nyberg

Talking Points for the 99% (Part 1)

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Devin Smith | 28 comments

By J.D. Alt

(This is the working draft of a short, targeted eBOOK directed specifically at the millennials—the huge generation of energetic, creative, and cooperatively inclined young people who might, just maybe, rise up and demand a new understanding of the American economy. The eBOOK has three goals: (1) explain the basics of MMT to those who’ve never heard of it (2) unveil, at least partially, the misinformation network of the status-quo, and (3) suggest the scale of very real collective benefits a new understanding actually makes possible. Any suggestions about fine-tuning—or fundamentally altering, if necessary—the basic message of the essay are welcomed. (I’ve divided the draft into two parts to better fit the blogosphere.)

How is it the 1% exerts such complete and dominant control over our national agenda? And by what means can the 99% claim the collective power that, by democratic rights, should be firmly in their hands? The answers obviously have something to do with money—after all, the 1% are defined by various monetary measurements: the top 1% own 42% of the total financial wealth in the U.S. economy; the top 1% own 35% of all privately held stock, 64% of all financial securities, and 62% of all business equity. If all those percentages have a numbing affect, here’s another way to frame it: The top 400 families in America own more financial wealth than the bottom 150 MILLION families combined!

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28 Comments

Posted in J. D. Alt

Tagged 1 percent, 99 percent, millenials, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, talking points

What If China Dumps US Treasury Bonds? Paul Krugman inches toward MMT

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Devin Smith | 35 comments

By L. Randall Wray

Our deficit hysterians love to raise the specter of China. Supposedly Uncle Sam is at the mercy of the Chinese, who have a stranglehold on the supply of dollars necessary to keep the US government above water. If the Chinese suddenly decided to stop lending those scare dollars, Uncle Sam would be forced to default.

Can anyone, please, explain to me how the sovereign issuer of the US dollar—Uncle Sam—could ever run out of his supply of dollars? Please, give me one coherent explanation of how that could happen.

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35 Comments

Posted in L. Randall Wray

Tagged China, dollars, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, paul krugman, treasuries

As the weary titan stumbles, stealing Latin America becomes more difficult

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Devin Smith | 3 comments

By Glenn Stehle

Correa’s four foundational policies are expanded health care, expanded education, improved infrastructure, and encouraging entrepreneurs by reducing the time and cost of starting a business in Ecuador.

[….]

Ecuador needs the money that producing the Yasuni oil can provide.

–WILLIAM K. BLACK, “Why is the economist chortling over the prospect of oil pollution in Ecuador?”

That Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa proposes extracting primary materials to pay for his ambitious policies should come as no surprise.

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3 Comments

Posted in Guest Blogger

Tagged latin america, Oil, primary mateirals, U.S. Hegemony

Are Deaths Due to Lack of Health Insurance Seriously Underestimated?

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 5 comments

Lately, I’ve had the feeling that “progressive” journalists and commentators too often pull their punches in calling attention to social problems, by underestimating the magnitude of problem-related statistics such as the unemployment rate and the number of fatalities due to lack of health insurance in the United States. My theory about this is that “progressives” are being defensive in their approach and bending over backwards to give the right wing the benefit of the doubt by understating numbers out of an abundance of caution.

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5 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged ACA, Census Data, Deaths due to lack of insurance, Harvard Study, medicare for all, Steffi Woolhandler

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth – Neoliberalism Reloaded?

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Dan Kervick | 37 comments

By Dan Kervick

There is a new Washington think tank on the scene. Well, actually it is just a spinoff and re-branding of an older Washington think tank: the Center for American Progress. The new think tank is called the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Here is the organization’s self-description:

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth is a new research and grantmaking organization founded to accelerate cutting-edge analysis into whether and how structural changes in the U.S. economy, particularly related to economic inequality, affect growth. Core to our mission is helping to build a stronger bridge between academics and policymakers so that new research is relevant, accessible, and informative to the policymaking process.

And here are the people involved with the project on its steering committee, advisory board and staff. There are a handful of interesting folks in the lineup, including Heather Boushey, Nancy Folbre and Emmanuel Saez, economists who have an authentic, well-established research interest in issues of economic inequality. But the crew also contains a lot of Clinton and Obama administration veterans who, quite frankly, have been a giant part of the problem, and helped lay the foundations for the repulsive and dehumanizing economic order under which we currently live. And the organization is headed by John Podesta, the ultimate beltway insider.

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Posted in Dan Kervick

Randy Wray and Stephanie Kelton Present at Fields Institute

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Devin Smith | 7 comments

Randy Wray and Stephanie Kelton presented at Fields Institute at University of Toronto in conjunction with INET. The conference was Mathematics for New Economic Thinking. The presentation links below will take you to Field’s site where slides appear side by side with the video. Below the links to the videos are links to view and download PDF versions of the slides as well.

Randy Wray’s presentation, “The Nature of Money: A Series of Debits and Credits” can be viewed here.

Stephanie’s presentation, “Fiscal Space and Financial Stability: A Differential Analysis” can be viewed here.

Randy’s slides are available here.

Stephanie’s slides are available here.

7 Comments

Posted in L. Randall Wray, Stephanie Kelton

Tagged Fields Institute, INET, Mathematics for New Economics

The Crippling Politics of Public Investment

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Dan Kervick | 7 comments

By Dan Kervick

The Financial Times called attention this weekend to one of my favorite themes: the precipitous collapse of US public investment.

Public investment in the US has hit its lowest level since demobilisation after the second world war because of Republican success in stymieing President Barack Obama’s push for more spending on infrastructure, science and education.

Gross capital investment by the public sector has dropped to just 3.6 per cent of US output compared with a postwar average of 5 per cent, according to figures compiled by the Financial Times, as austerity bites in the world’s largest economy.

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