Author Archives: Devin Smith

Modern Money and Public Purpose – Session 1

Posted on September 22, 2012 | 21 comments

First Session of Modern Money and Public Purpose – The Historical Evolution of Money and Debt featuring L Randall Wray and Michael Hudson.

21 Comments

Posted in L. Randall Wray, Michael Hudson

Tagged debt, History of Money, money

Promises for America

Posted on September 21, 2012 | 17 comments

By Joe Firestone

The polling since the conventions shows that Democrats are doing better than expected. President Obama now apparently has a clear lead over Mitt Romney. Democratic Party control of the Senate seems likely to survive this election year of many more Democratic rather than Republican Senate seats up for election. And, even in House races, it looks like the Democrats will pick up a number of seats; though whether they can pick up enough seats to take back the House is still an unlikely prospect, and without the House President Obama’s second term is likely to be much like his last year and three-quarters, rather than his first two years.

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17 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged deficit reduction, deficits, MMT, modern money theory, national debt, Promises for America

Cutting Off Our Nose to Spite Our Face

Posted on September 20, 2012 | 6 comments

By Joel David Palmer

We tie ourselves in knots developing strange moral equations to demonstrate why it’s ok to punish with impoverishment those we think don’t deserve an income. And we do it almost exclusively to rationalize a desire to not pay taxes. Our lives are hard enough, we say, without paying someone else’s way too. We suffer all kinds of anxieties – bad bosses, low wages, fear of layoffs, worry about having enough for retirement – and we are prone to resenting anyone who seems to have gotten even a slight advantage on us without, apparently, working so hard. Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in Joel David Palmer

Tagged #poverty, Taxes

Where does money come from?

Posted on September 20, 2012 | 13 comments

By Paul Meli

An explanation of how money is created in the U.S. in easy to understand terms.

13 Comments

Posted in Paul Meli

Tagged debt, money, sovereign currency

Candid Candidates – HuffPost Live

Posted on September 19, 2012 | 5 comments

NEP’s William K. Black appeared on Candid Candidates over at HuffPost Live. The topic of discussion was Romney’s off the cuff remarks and whether or not we should applaud this kind of honesty from the candidates.

5 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Charles Murray, Mitt Romney

The WSJ Conflates Lending to Blacks with Imprudent Lending

Posted on September 19, 2012 | 4 comments

By William K. Black

The Wall Street Journal has written a revealing editorial entitled: A Fine for Doing Good: The Justice Department sues a bank for prudent lending.

The WSJ appears to have forgotten the concept of a poll tax as a means to exclude most blacks from voting. Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged DOJ, poll tax, WSJ

Pink Slime: What we have here is a failure to communicate

Posted on September 18, 2012 | 6 comments

By William K. Black
(Crossposted from Benzinga.com)

BPI, the corporation that sold the “pink slime” that was secretly added to our hamburgers has now brought a $1.2+ billion tort suit against ABC News, individual ABC journalists, two former USDA scientists, and a former BPI employee. BPI claims that the defendants defamed it by, for example, calling its meat product, which it calls “lean finely textured beef” (LFTB), “pink slime.” It’s not clear from BPI’s complaint why the ABC defendants wanted to harm BPI. Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged first amendment, pink slime

Romney dooms his Candidacy by doing the full Murray

Posted on September 18, 2012 | 11 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Huffington Post)

Charles Murray’s newest book: Coming Apart: The State of White America proves two classic truths. First, it is impossible to compete with self-parody. Second, be careful what you ask for; for you may receive it. Charles Murray asked right-wing plutocrats (he dismissed left-wing plutocrats as disloyal to their class and to capitalism) to drop what he derided as “political correctness” and denounce Americans who received governmental support as immoral failures. Continue reading →

11 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Charles Murray, Mitt Romney

Fiat Justitia? Breuer fires blanks on elite financial frauds

Posted on September 17, 2012 | 20 comments

By William K. Black

Beurre blanc is the classic white butter sauce of France. Americans who hate the French claim that they became adept at saucing to cover up the rot in their meat in earlier times. A beurre blanc does not remove the rot. It masks the bad taste and the bad color of bad meat. Indeed, the sauce makes the dish even less healthy. If the rotten meat doesn’t get you, the sauce’s cholesterol will.

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20 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged banksters, Control Fraud, criminogenic, DPA, elite corporate crime, NDA

Alan Grayson’s Right; But He Misses the Larger Point

Posted on September 14, 2012 | 9 comments

By Joe Firestone

Alan Grayson’s e-mail on Moody’s warning that it might reduce the US’s AAA rating, suggested that Moody’s was either threatening a downgrade because it wants to get the Bush tax cuts for the rich extended, or, alternatively, that “Moody’s is living in what Aristophanes called “Cloud Cuckoo Land.”” He says this because Moody’s is upset about the possibility that the US may go over the so-called “fiscal cliff,” even though if it did, it would theoretically result in $560 Billion of deficit reduction annually, without further legislative changes, and it makes no sense on the surface for a ratings agency to think that the risk of US bond default is greater when the annual deficit is being reduced by $560 B per year, than by some lesser amount, which is likely to happen if Congress doesn’t take us over that “cliff.”

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