Author Archives: Stephanie Kelton

By Marshall Auerback

Hans-Werner Sinn, President of Germany’s Ifo Institute and the Director of the Center for Economic Studies at the University of Munich, has taken to the pages of the NY Times to explain why Berlin is balking on a further bailout for Europe. Amongst the points that Sinn makes against German sharing in the debt of the euro zone’s southern nations is a legal one: “For one thing, such a bailout is illegal under the Maastricht Treaty, which governs the euro zone. Because the treaty is law in each member state, a bailout would be rejected by Germany’s Constitutional Court.”

Continue reading →

By J.D. Alt

Today I cut out of the Wall Street Journal an article and photo that, in combination, illustrate the absurd plight we have placed ourselves in as a society by insisting that we are too poor to create the things we really need. The article is about the Pittsburgh metro area and how it is drastically reducing its public transit routes (as well as increasing fares) in order to cope with a $64 million deficit in its operating funds. The accompanying photo was of a young, bright-looking mother of two day-care aged children (the article explained) sitting at a bus stop that will soon be removed, waiting not for a ride to her job, but for a ride to a job placement agency where she spends four hours a day looking for work. When her bus route is eliminated, she won’t even be able to get to the placement agency. And this is America, the great achievement of modern civilization. I hang my head in shame.

Continue reading →

By William K. Black

Yesterday, I wrote an article entitled Why Progressive Austerians do the Greatest Damage. The article was prompted by a column written by Brad Plumer. Plumer commented on my article, expressing his disagreement with my characterization of his position.

Continue reading →

By William K. Black

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder secured passage of “Public Act 4, the Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act.  The Act allows the Governor to appoint emergency managers (EMs) for any government in Michigan.  The EM has unlimited dictatorial powers.  He can – and the EMs appointed by Snyder have exercised this power – effectively eliminate the elected government.  Republicans have blocked a challenge to this remarkable law; arguing that the petitions had too small a font.  Snyder has used the EM power to take over primarily cities with African-American majorities.

Chris Savage, writing in The Nation, quoted the Benton Harbor EM’s putsch:

In April the Benton Harbor EM, Joe Harris, decreed: “Absent prior express written authorization and approval by the Emergency Manager”—himself—‘no City Board, Commission or Authority shall take any action for or on behalf of the City whatsoever other than: i) Call a meeting to order, ii) Approve of meeting minutes, iii) Adjourn a meeting.’” The move in effect abolished Benton Harbor’s elected City Commission and replaced it with an unelected bureaucrat, perhaps the first time this has happened in US history.

I grew up in Michigan so I follow Snyder’s assault on democracy and African-Americans fairly closely.  I can now report that European “austerians” are following Snyder’s lead.

Continue reading →

By Klaus Hagendorf

Below is a statement from the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi (Press conference, Barcelona, 3 Mai 2012):

“What does this growth compact mean? It refers to a variety of ideas that have been expressed in a number of places, and I certainly don’t claim any patent on this concept. But, if one had to summarise, it means basically three things. First of all, there must be a continuation of structural reforms in all the economies of the euro area. These structural reforms are different for different countries, but one can find some common themes. The first common area is the set of structural reforms in product markets. Our minds go back to the need to complete the single market as a first step, and to increase competition. You have to reform the product markets and the labour markets together, because you have to have more competition in both. Labour market reforms have three features: first they should increase flexibility, second they should increase mobility, and third, they should also increase equity in the labour market. Now we basically have a situation which is imbalanced against young people. Youth unemployment rates are going up and this is because of distortions in the labour market at the present time. You also want to make sure that you have an unemployment insurance system that makes these mobility and flexibility requirements realistic.”

When economic experts talk this way about the necessary measures to assure the exit from the economic crisis, I can’t help it but get the impression that what these “experts” have in mind looks something like this:

The Future European Worker – mobile, flexible, ready for everything at an affordable price.

Following the daily news there come protests from all sites.  My studies in the MIME project have led me to the clear answer:  Against this doctrine we have to wage the strategy of “Controlling Capital.”  To learn more, please visit http://eurodos.free.fr/mime or http://eurodos.free.fr/cocnet