NEP’s William Black appears on Daily Ticker with Henry Blodget. The election in Italy moved markets around the world. Blodget gets an explanation from Bill why Italy has such an impact.
You can view the episode at this link. (Sorry no embedding Yahoo videos).
Posted in William K. Black
Tagged austerity, eurozone crisis, Financial crisis, Italy, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory
By Matthew Berg
The central insight of the sectoral balances model of the economy is that not all sectors of the economy can net-save at the same time. That means that if all those of us in the private sector in aggregate want to (on net) take in more money than we spend, then some other sector will have to spend more money than it receives. In a simple three sector version, the three sectors are the domestic private sector, the government sector, and the foreign sector.
Posted in Guest Blogger
Tagged bubble, Financial crisis, Hyman Minsky, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, wynne godley
By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Benzinga.com)
We are in the midst of the blame game about the “Sequester.” I wrote last year about the fact that President Obama had twice blocked Republican efforts to remove the Sequester. President Obama went so far as to issue a veto threat to block the second effort. I found contemporaneous reportage on the President’s efforts to preserve the Sequester – and the articles were not critical of those efforts. I found no contemporaneous rebuttal by the administration of these reports.
Posted in William K. Black
Tagged austerity, blame game, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, obama, sequester
As part of it’s Annual Colloquium Series, The Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA is sponsoring “The Economic Crisis: Causes, Consequences, and What’s Next.” NEP’s Randall Wray is appearing along with Frank Partnoy and Robert Brenner on Monday, 25 February 2013 2:00-5:00 pm, in the History Conference Room, 6275 Bunche on the UCLA campus.
The speakers will consider the origins and results of the ongoing global economic crisis. They will give special attention to the rise of finance and the role of financial markets and institutions in its onset, spread, and ultimate consequences. How has the meltdown of Wall Street, its bailout by government, and its apparent recovery affected the macro-economy and the future of finance itself? Are the great banks and other leading financial institutions now more or less likely to experience new meltdowns in the foreseeable future? Will the real economy see a new surge of growth, continuing stagnation, or renewed crisis? These are only some of the issues that will be addressed at this colloquium.
For more information call Center for Social Theory and Comparative History (310) 206-5675 or email [email protected]
By L. Randall Wray
(Cross posted from economonitor.com/lwray)
In a powerful piece, Paul Krugman blasts Alan Simpson as an ignoramus when it comes to federal government budgets. He rightly wonders why anyone takes this nutter seriously:
Simpson is, demonstrably, grossly ignorant on precisely the subjects on which he is treated as a guru, not understanding the finances of Social Security, the truth about life expectancy, and much more. He is also a reliably terrible forecaster, having predicted an imminent fiscal crisis — within two years — um, two years ago…. So what is it that makes Simpson the figure he is? Clearly, it’s an affinity thing: never mind his obvious lack of knowledge, his ludicrous track record, reporters trust and idolize Simpson because he’s their kind of guy.
Posted in L. Randall Wray
Tagged fiscal cliff, krugman, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Simpson-Bowles
NEP’s Marshall Auerback appears on the Thom Hartman program, 20 February 2013, discussing limits on banksters’ salaries and bonuses. There is some discussion of jobs guarantee near the end of the segment (near 9:00 mark).
By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Benzinga.com)
Introduction to the “Reinventing Government” movement
Anyone who has worked for a large government or firm knows their tendency to be bureaucratic. Everyone has had the experience of dealing with bureaucratic mentalities, including the volunteer soccer referee who lets power go to his head and becomes an arrogant demigod. Everyone has had to deal with a public clerk or a private insurance company’s claim official who drives one nuts. Working for a federal agency meant that I often had to deal with a bureaucratic personality to get things done. That is why so many of us that have worked for a large government or firm are passionately anti-bureaucratic.
Posted in William K. Black
Tagged 1995 speeches, clinton, crony capitalism, gore, reinventing government
By Michael Hoexter
There is no unified theory in our popular understanding of value: there are the market values of goods and then there are our “values” which we consider to be some of the most personal and even sacred aspects of ourselves. Once people emerge from the realm of necessity or being driven by what seems to them to be compulsions of various kinds, they may feel that they are then making decisions which draw to some degree on their ethical or personal values. People often have the impression that most of their financial dealings have little to do with their personal ethics; the realm of market interaction is viewed for the most part as an area of life controlled by forces outside the self or motivated by our insistent drives for self-preservation and pleasure. There are exceptions: people of often modest means give money to religious organizations, as a way to express something of their ethical values or at least the ethical values that are expected of them by their religious community of reference. And wealthy people will tend to use some of their substantial discretionary income to make an ethical statement directed by some combination of personal commitments and the desire to make a public statement about themselves. Alternatively, if someone controls a business or a portion of a business, they may express personal values by the way they conduct themselves in that business or by strategic decisions they may make, with the important proviso that the business must maintain its solvency.
NEP’s William Black appeared on The Real News , February 17, 2013, discussing how Ecuador has been dealing with the recession, and some of the things we can learn from it. You can view the video below or if you wish to view the video as well as the transcript posted at TRNN, you can click this link.
Posted in William K. Black
Tagged austerity, correa, ecuador, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, stimulus
By John Lounsbury
(Cross posted from econintersec.com)
February 13th, 2013
Paul Kasriel alerted me in an email this morning to check out Martin Wolf’s column today (13 February 2013) in the Financial Times. Wolf’s title: “A case to reset basis of monetary policy.” The widely read associate editor and chief economics commentator for FT is one of the world’s most influential writers on economics. And he often swims at the edge of the mainstream and sometimes thinks completely outside the box that limits many economic thinkers. So when you want a breath of fresh air, read Martin Wolf. He can pull heads out of the sand; there isn’t much fresh air in that medium. Continue reading
Click images to view details
