Author Archives: Mitch Green

We Must Not Speak Uncomfortable Truths to Power: Why I Won’t be Briefing Congress about Derivatives

Posted on May 29, 2012 | 21 comments

When I was the Deputy Director of FSLIC, House Banking Committee Chairman St Germain was helping Speaker Wright hold the FSLIC recapitalization bill hostage to extort favors for Texas control frauds, including Don Dixon’s Vernon Savings (which was providing prostitutes to the State of Texas’ top S&L regulator and was building towards having 96% of its ADC loans in default – which is why we referred to it as “Vermin”). The attack on our agency was that we were mad dogs biased against Texas S&Ls and causing the Texas crisis by closing too many insolvent but well-run Texas S&Ls. Our response had many elements, but one of our principal points was that the Texas S&Ls we were closing were typically control frauds. At this juncture, St Germain’s staffers made a mistake. They requested that we testify on a host of issues, but the invite letter had a zinger, premised on an article saying that the Feds were slow to prosecute frauds in the Southwest. The invite specifically called for us to respond and discuss the role of fraud in the Southwest. We used the opportunity to explain the extensive role of fraud in Texas S&L failures.

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21 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized, William K. Black

Unjustified Fears over Sovereign Debt

Posted on May 29, 2012 | 4 comments

By Nora Apter

Another great video by a student in Eric Tymgoine’s modern money course.

4 Comments

Posted in Eric Tymoigne

MMP Blog 50: MMT Without the JG? Conclusion

Posted on May 28, 2012 | 131 comments

By L. Randall Wray

Sorry for the interruption of the blog. Originally I had planned 52 blogs, one-year’s-worth, although along the way I added a few so that we would have run about 13 months. Here’s why: the blogs came from a book manuscript, the Modern Money Primer. The idea was that you would not only be a test audience, but that your questions and comments would allow me to revise the manuscript as we went along. And that worked. I think the manuscript was much improved because of this blog. You helped write the book.

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131 Comments

Posted in L. Randall Wray, MMP

Tagged ELR, job guarantee, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, modern money theory

Embedded Examiners always married the Natives, but now their Bosses Do Hook Ups

Posted on May 28, 2012 | 5 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross-posted from Benzinga.com)

Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Ben Protess have written an extraordinarily important column for the New York Times about embedded examiners at JPMorgan.

Embedded examiners’ are federal regulators whose normal work station is a desk at the bank. We only embed examiners for systemically dangerous institutions (SDIs) – banks so large that they pose a systemic risk to global economy.

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5 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged embedded examiners, jp morgan chase, regulation, systemically dangerous institutions, too big to fail

The Fiscal Summit Counter-Narrative: Part Three, Are There Spending Constraints On Governments Sovereign in Their Currencies?

Posted on May 25, 2012 | 29 comments

By Joe Firestone

An issue at the core of all the fuss about fiscal sustainability is Government solvency. The deficit hawks and doves believe that Governments sovereign in their own currency can run out of money if they keep deficit spending, and keep borrowing to do it. They believe that if deficit/debt levels are high enough, then Government insolvency can occur, because eventually the burden of interest on the public debt will crowd out all other public spending and investments. So, they are for working towards debt/deficit reduction, “reforming” (i.e. cutting) entitlement spending, and raising taxes, though not necessarily on the rich.

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29 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Bill Mitchell, Fiscal Summit, Fiscal Sustainability, Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In Counter-conference, hyperinflation, inflation, Marshall Auerback, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Peterson Foundation, Stephanie Kelton, warren mosler

The Fiscal Summit Counter-Narrative: Part Two, Defining Fiscal Sustainability

Posted on May 25, 2012 | 1 comment

By Joe Firestone

One of the most irritating things about the deficit hawk/austerity literature, is that it uses the ideas of “fiscal sustainability” and “fiscal responsibility” in an ideological way, without ever really analyzing or explaining these labels. It’s almost as if the austerians know that if they clearly and directly stated what they meant by these terms, and how their meanings were actually related to the ideas of “sustainability” and “responsibility”, then flaws in their whole ideological and policy framework would be very clear to everyone else.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Austerians, Bowles-Simpson, Catfood Commission, David Walker, Fiscal Reform, Fiscal Responsibility, Fiscal Summit, Fiscal Sustainability, Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In Counter-conference, hyperinflation, inflation, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Peterson Foundation

Fiscal Summit Counter-Narrative: Part One

Posted on May 25, 2012 | 2 comments

By Joe Firestone

Well, it’s Springtime in DC. Time for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s annual event. The Fiscal Summit, to be held on May 15, better named the Fiscal Cesspool of distortions, half-truths and lies, is a propaganda extravaganza designed to maintain and strengthen the Washington and national elite consensuses on the existence of a debt crisis, the long-term ravages of entitlement spending on America’s fiscal well-being, and the need for long-term deficit reductions plans to combat this truly phantom menace. The purpose of maintaining that consensus is to keep an impenetrable screen of fantasy intact in order to justify policies of economic austerity. that have been impoverishing people and transferring financial and real wealth to the globalizing elite comprised of the 1% or far less of the population, depending on which nation one is talking about.

The 2010 Fiscal Summit

The first “Fiscal Summit” was held in Washington, DC on April 28, 2010. It was lavishly funded by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, and included many “big names” associated with “fiscal sustainability” and “fiscal responsibility,” including Bill Clinton, who appeared along with personalities from Peterson’s stable of deficit hawks such as David Walker, Alice Rivlin. Robert Rubin, Alan Simpson, Erskine Bowles, and Paul Ryan. Its purpose was to spread the deficit hawk message of Peter G. Peterson, including various myths of the world-wide austerity movement: Continue reading →

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Posted in Uncategorized

MMP Blog 49: Should Growth Drive Jobs, or Jobs Drive Growth?

Posted on May 24, 2012 | 31 comments

By L. Randall Wray

Sorry for the hiatus, but a family emergency is consuming all of my time. I hope to be able to post something next week—to move to finish up the MMP blog. Meanwhile I offer the following.

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31 Comments

Posted in L. Randall Wray, MMP

William K. Black: Greece Is Tearing Europe Apart Politically, Socially and Economically

Posted on May 24, 2012 | 5 comments

5 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged austerity, Eurozone, greece

Why Progressive Austerians do the Greatest Damage

Posted on May 23, 2012 | 8 comments

By William K. Black

To many people, it seems paradoxical that conservatives target not the worst social programs, but the best. There is no paradox. Bad government programs are desirable from the right’s perspective – they discredit government intervention. Good government programs pose an existential challenge to conservative memes, so they are the prime target for attack.

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