Category Archives: William K. Black

Obama commits Unilateral Disarmament as a Debt Ceiling Negotiator

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Devin Smith | 23 comments

President Obama is getting ready to negotiate (or if you believe him, not negotiate) an extension of the debt limit. The Republicans control the House and are promising to follow Donald Trump’s suggestion that they use what he called the “nuclear weapon” to terrorize the U.S. economy and people in order to gain negotiating leverage over Obama. That act of treachery was designed to produce two other acts of betrayal of the American people. First, Trump’s urged the Republicans to use their “nuclear weapon” to force Obama to inflict austerity on our Nation and force us back into recession. Second, Trump urged the Republicans to use their leverage to force Obama to gut the safety net. It is somehow fitting that Trump’s advice to act in unprincipled manner was designed to produce policies that would enrich the wealthy and cause immense harm to the Nation.

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23 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged austerity, debt ceiling, debt limit, grand bargain, great betrayal

The Most Embarrassing Financial Column of 2013

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Devin Smith | 29 comments

By William K. Black

We are only two weeks in to 2013 and there is plenty of time for far more embarrassing financial columns to be written, but The Guardian’s financial editor, Heidi Moore, has opened up an early lead in the competition. Moore’s column represents five embarrassing elements. She entitled her piece: “’Mint the coin’: why the platinum coin campaign doesn’t even work as satire.”

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29 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged #MintTheCoin, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, neo-liberal doctrine

Krugman and Obama’s Dangerous Austerity Myths

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Devin Smith | 18 comments

By William K. Black

Austerity in response to the Great Recession has proven to be an economic weapon of mass destruction. On January 10, 2013, Paul Krugman (Nobel Laureate in Economics) and President Obama launched the same dangerous austerity myth in remarkably similar language.

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18 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged austerity, Geithner, lew, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory

NEP’s William Black appears on Democracy Now

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Devin Smith | 2 comments

NEP’s William K. Black appeared along on Democracy Now. The appearance has been split into two parts and posted below.

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2 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged austerity, banksters, crony capitalism, Jack Lew

“Third Way’s” “Fresh Thinking” – the EU is our model for Austerity

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Devin Smith | 4 comments

By William K. Black

On September 15, 2011, a Wall Street lobbying organization known as “Third Way” proposed that the congressional “super committee” adopt a stringent austerity program.

Third Way’s tag line on its web site is “Fresh Thinking,” but it simply a mouthpiece for Wall Street’s curdled ideas. Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged austerity, Third Way

Jacob Lew: Another brick in the Wall Street on the Potomac

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Devin Smith | 2 comments

By William K. Black

The New York Times has just run two articles confirming that President Obama intends to appoint Jacob Lew as Treasury Secretary Geithner’s replacement. Most people assume that Geithner is a creature of Wall Street through direct employment, but Geithner never drew a paycheck directly from Wall Street. Geithner worked for a wholly-controlled subsidiary of Wall Street – the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Lew is the real deal, another brick in Obama’s creation of Wall Street on the Potomac. While the first NYT article ignored Lew’s work on Wall Street, the second article simply tries to minimize it. Continue reading →

2 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged austerity, banksters, crony capitalism, Jacob Lew, MMT

EU austerians rely on US stimulus to bail them out of recession

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Devin Smith | 21 comments

By William K. Black

The New York Times’ web version ran a story this morning (January 8, 2013) entitled “Unemployment Continues to Climb in Euro Zone.”

Eurostat reports that Eurozone unemployment has reached the record rate of 11.7%, with 18.8 million unemployed (an increase of two million in a year). “[Y]outh unemployment continues to grow, with 5.8 million people under 25 classified as jobless in November, up 420,000 from a year earlier.” As youth unemployment surges it becomes common for college graduates in the periphery to emigrate. The article shows that Berlin’s insistence on inflicting austerity on Spain and Greece has forced them into Great Depression levels of unemployment. Italy’s level of youth unemployment is also at Great Depression levels.
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21 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Austerians, austerity, eu, european debt

How Safe Is The New International Liquidity Agreement?

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Devin Smith | Comments Off

William K. Black appears on al Jazeera discussing how safe the Basel III International Liquidity agreement truly are.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged banksters, basel 3, Financial crisis, liquidity agreement

Neo-Liberals’ Dismissal of Latin Americans as “Idiots”

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Devin Smith | 11 comments

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

Alvaro Vargas Llosa (AVL) co-authored the Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot with two other journalists. He revisited the subject with an article in 2007 entitled “The Return of the Idiot.”

“The ‘Idiot’ species, we suggested, bore responsibility for Latin America’s underdevelopment. Its beliefs — revolution, economic nationalism, hatred of the United States, faith in the government as an agent of social justice, a passion for strongman rule over the rule of law — derived, in our opinion, from an inferiority complex. In the late 1990s, it seemed as if the Idiot were finally retreating. But the retreat was short lived. Today, the species is back in force in the form of populist heads of state who are reenacting the failed policies of the past, opinion leaders from around the world who are lending new credence to them, and supporters who are giving new life to ideas that seemed extinct.” Continue reading →

11 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged CATO institute, ecuador, emigration, Iceland, ireland, latin america, neoliberalism, Portugal, spain

The Washington Post’s tries again to create a moral panic sufficient to push the Grand Betrayal

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Devin Smith | 18 comments

By William K. Black

The Washington Post’s mission has been to create a “moral panic” sufficient to cause the Obama administration to overcome the objections of Senate Democrats and adopt the “Grand Bargain” (sic). The deal would actually constitute the Grand Betrayal. The betrayal of Democratic Party principles and promises would inflict a recession through massive austerity via large cuts to the safety net and social programs and modest/moderate increases in revenues. Continue reading →