Category Archives: Uncategorized

Bank Whistleblowers United Covered in NYT

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Devin Smith | 1 comment

The New York Times has taken notice of Bank Whistleblowers United (BWU). You can read it here.

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Tagged Bank Whistleblowers United, BWU

Explaining Why Federal Deficits Are Needed

Posted on February 3, 2016 by Devin Smith | 34 comments

By Thornton (Tip) Parker

Most MMT advocates probably took months to get comfortable with it. But like a personal computer, one need not understand its innards to use its power. The great power of MMT is its lesson that the federal government can create new dollars by running deficits to do things that should be done. But the lesson is counterintuitive and will be rejected by voters unless it can be explained convincingly in a few minutes. This paper offers five nuggets for explaining it quickly. NEP readers are asked to suggest ways to make the explanation simpler and better.

* * * * *

Most Americans believe the federal government is like a family or business that must live within its income. On the surface, that makes sense and the reasons why it is wrong are complex. Here are five nuggets, or simple ways to explain why it is wrong to voters who will never be economists. They show why federal deficits are necessary. They can be adapted and used as appropriate. Continue reading →

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged deficits, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory

Latest Book Honoring Professor Fred Lee

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Devin Smith | 1 comment

Advancing the Frontiers of Heterodox Economics: Essays in Honor of Frederic S. Lee

Edited by Tae-Hee Jo and Zdravka Todorova
Series in the Routledge Advances in Heterodox Economics ISBN: 978-0-415-73031-0 (hardback), 358 pages, $160. August 2015, Routledge. (20% Discount code: FLR40)

For more information visit:
http://www .taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415730310

Continue reading →

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More on the DOJ’s Prosecution Policy

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Devin Smith | Comments Off

William D. Cohan in the later part of his post “Justice Dept. Shift on White-Collar Crime Is Long Overdue” over at NYT extensively presents and supports NEP’s Bill Black’s views from Bill’s recent post “Now the DOJ Admits They Got it Wrong“.

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Ahead of their time?

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Devin Smith | 1 comment

Julie Verhage and Alex Balogh have published a piece over at Bloomberg about 9 people who saw the Greek Crisis many years before everyone else did. Several names you will recognize from NEP. Three are from UMKC plus Warren Mosler. They warned about the euro system and crises like Greece. You can read the article here.

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MINDS Conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Posted on June 26, 2015 by Devin Smith | Comments Off

Rio de Janeiro- RJ. On July 24, the Multidisciplinary Institute for Development and Strategies (MINDS) will gather top policymakers, economists, and analysts at the FORD-MINDS Conference on Banking, Financial Instability, and Financial Governance in Brazil to discuss the structure of Brazil’s financial system to ensure stability for a growing and equitable economy. The conference, is being organized by MINDS with support from the Ford Foundation, and will take place on Friday, July 24, at the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV/EESP), Rua Itapeva 474, in São Paulo. Conference details are below.

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President Obama Fateful Error in Making Bush’s Goldman Sachs/AIG Scandal His Scandal

Posted on June 4, 2015 by William Black | 4 comments

By William K. Black
Quito: June 3, 2015

We have known from the beginning that Lanny Breuer, who the Obama administration chose as its head of the Criminal Division in order to ensure that there would be no prosecutions of the banksters that led, and were enriched by the fraud epidemics that drove the crisis, would be a national embarrassment. Readers may recall that Breuer publicly admitted that what caused him to lose sleep was not the world’s most destructive fraud epidemics that ruined our economy or his grant of effective immunity to the banksters who led and became wealthy through those frauds. He lost sleep solely over his fear that if he held them accountable for the frauds that had bankrupted their corrupt banks those banks might be placed in receivership and honest managers appointed. (Of course, that isn’t how he phrased it, but that is what he was actually saying.)

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4 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged banksters, goldman sachs, lanny breuer

Get Ready to Call ‘Em Out On the TPP!

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 1 comment

So, on May 22, the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) (“Fast Track”) Bill passed the Senate 62 – 37, with 14 Democrats defecting to the pro-Fast TracK/Trade-Pacific Partnership (TPP) forces. However, all was not wine and roses for the Administration and Fast Track/TPP proponents in the Senate.

First, the pro-TPP forces sustained a temporary defeat on May 12, when the Senate would not approve debating Fast Track, introducing delay into the process. The problem was quickly fixed with agreements to consider and vote on related issues such as Trade Adjustment Assistance, forced child labor, and currency manipulation outside of Fast Track. But nevertheless the glitch was unanticipated, and looked bad for an Administration wanting clear sailing in the Senate for Fast Track. Continue reading →

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Posted in Joe Firestone, Uncategorized

Tagged congress, consent of the governed, investor state dispute settlement, ISDS, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, tyranny

Robin Hood in Reverse

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Devin Smith | Comments Off

Senator Sanders’ presentation before hearings focusing on deficit and debt. He calls for a full employment budget.

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Overcoming Systemic Voter Disempowerment with a System Changing Technology

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 9 comments

By Nancy Bordier and Joseph M. Firestone

Most governments claim they are democracies because they hold popular elections. A large majority of their citizens who cast votes also think their governments are democracies.

But there are other criteria besides elections for determining whether or not a country has a functioning democracy — or a failing democracy.

A major criterion, possibly the most important one, is whether voters actually control elections and their legislative consequences.

– Can voters decide who runs for office and set the priorities for the legislation their elected representatives pass if they are elected?

– Can voters freely run their own candidates? Or must they vote for candidates run by intermediaries like political parties or special interests?

– Do institutions like the U.S. electoral college and election authorities place limitations on voters’ ability to run their own candidates by imposing requirements voters find it difficult or impossible to fulfill, such as collecting massive numbers of signatures, paying unaffordable fees, etc.?

Continue reading →