Author Archives: Devin Smith

Robert J. Samuelson tries to create a moral panic about deficits

Posted on October 2, 2012 | 41 comments

The Washington Post leads the pack when it comes to generating what scientists term a “moral panic” about budget deficits. As part of that effort they generated the series of myths that Paul Ryan was “serious,” “courageous,” and “expert” about “solving” the “deficit crisis.” The newspaper’s theme is that anyone who doesn’t fall for their effort to create a moral panic is not “serious” and should be ignored. The paper runs a column by Robert J. Samuelson that is devoted to generating a moral panic about the deficit. Like Ryan, his central targets are imposing austerity and cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Continue reading →

41 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged deficits, moral panic, Third Way

Let’s test Romney’s claims about the 47% by offering the unemployed jobs

Posted on October 1, 2012 | 28 comments

By William Black
(Cross posted at Benzinga.com & Huffington Post)

I have explained how Governor Romney and Representative Ryan have self-destructed because they have followed Charles Murray’s demands that the wealthy denounce working class Americans’ supposed refusal to take personal responsibility for their lives by refusing to work. Murray is the far right’s leading intellectual. Murray’s Myth is that the wealthy are rich because they are morally superior to the lazy poor and that the poor are not employed because they are lazy. Murray’s explanation for his support for Governor Romney says it all: “Who better to be president of the greatest of all capitalist nations than a man who got rich by being a brilliant capitalist?” Continue reading →

28 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Deficit Hawks (Obama, Romney, Bowles, Boehner) Plan to Shrink YOUR Economy – Part 2

Posted on September 30, 2012 | 11 comments

By Michael Hoexter

Shrinking “Their” Economy Shrinks Yours

The word “economy” comes from the Greek “oikos” meaning “hearth” or “household”. Everybody has a household economy that looks slightly different from that of their neighbors. However, because of the nature of a monetary economy, household economies are linked quite tightly together and trends that effect one household start to have effects in other households soon or over the longer term. While within the same economy some households can prosper while others do not, generally there is a movement in tandem for some obvious reasons related to how society and the monetary system work. Continue reading →

11 Comments

Posted in Michael Hoexter

Tagged austerity, deficit hawks

Economic Roundtable: Post-Keynesian Theory

Posted on September 30, 2012 | 6 comments

Thursday, September 29, 2012, William Black, Randall Wray and Michael Hudson appeared on KCUR.org’s Central Standard. The discussion was a roundtable on all things Post-Keynesian. This link will take you to KCUR’s page where you can listen the discussion.

6 Comments

Posted in L. Randall Wray, Michael Hudson, William K. Black

Tagged post keynesian

Deficit Hawks (Obama, Romney, Bowles, Boehner) Plan to Shrink YOUR Economy – Part 1

Posted on September 29, 2012 | 19 comments

By Michael Hoexter

Most of the US political class has been infected with the “mind virus” of austerity that suggests to them that either virtue or necessity consists of cutting government spending and government programs. Under the influence of this “folk economics” with no evidentiary support, the equivalent of economic superstition, politicians seem prepared to slash vital supports to the economy despite the ability of monetarily sovereign governments, like the US federal government, to afford continued spending on current and even expanded government programs. Continue reading →

19 Comments

Posted in Michael Hoexter

Tagged austerity, deficit hawks

Bird Brains: From Austerity to Prosperity

Posted on September 29, 2012 | 10 comments

By Avraham Baranes and Stephanie Kelton

Presentation from session on Euro Issues from 11th International Post Keynesian Conference.

10 Comments

Posted in Stephanie Kelton

Tagged austerity, deficit doves, defict hawks, euro, euro crisis

Former NY FED President McDonough is worried about your $4 million

Posted on September 28, 2012 | 16 comments

By Lucy Komisar
(This post is courtesy of thekomisarscoop.com)

I was having lunch today at the Council on Foreign Relations before a meeting with one of the national leaders in town for the UN General Assembly. At my table was William F. McDonough, president of the New York Fed from 1993 to 2003. That meant he was vice chairman and a permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which formulates U.S. monetary policy.

Continue reading →

16 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged bankers, FOMC, inflation, MMT

These Folks are Soooo Clever . . .

Posted on September 26, 2012 | 87 comments

Last week, Reps. Michael Honda, Keith Ellison, Raul Grijalva, Jan Schakowsky, John Conyers, Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey stalwarts of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) begged for mercy from “the Gang of Eight” in a letter.

Here’s what they said and my commentary on their “loser liberalism.” Continue reading →

87 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged debt issuance, deficit reduction, deficits, fiscal cliff, MMT, modern money theory, national debt, PPCS, Proof Platinum Coin Seigniorage, Ratings Agencies, Trillion Dollar Coin

Mario vs. Mariano Could Mean the End of Spain

Posted on September 25, 2012 | 26 comments

By Marshall Auerback

The real weak link now in the Eurozone is Spain, where the data is a disaster. It is Greece writ large. And this is before Madrid, under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, has submitted to a new ECB program of agreed austerity in exchange for the ECB backstopping the nation’s bonds via a renewed Securities Market Program (SMP).

Continue reading →

26 Comments

Posted in Marshall Auerback

Tagged banking crisis, Catalonia, debt crisis, Mariano Rajoy, spain

Romney implicitly endorses Too Big to Fail Banks

Posted on September 24, 2012 | 13 comments

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

I explained in a prior column that Gregory Mankiw, Governor Romney’s lead economist, wrote a column endorsing the regulatory “competition in laxity.” “Romney’s Lead Economist Urges Policies that will Cause the Next Financial Crisis.” One of the key events in “winning” the regulatory race to the bottom is welcoming significantly dangerous institutions (SDIs). The SDIs are the leading contributor to U.S. politicians – and the politicians of many nations). The difficulty is that “too big to fail” (TBTF) institutions are unpopular with both parties’ voters. Historically, TBTF was a misleading phrase, for TBTF banks could fail. TBTF actually meant that the general creditors would be bailed out by the government.

Continue reading →