New MSM Trillion Dollar Coin Wave Misses the Big Story: Pethokoukis and Wiesenthal

Posted on December 12, 2012 by | 6 comments

By Joe Firestone

In this post I said I would blog about the likely expected relationship between the different PCS options and inflation using the framework laid out by Scott Fullwiler!  But, after reconsidering, I thought I’d hold off until later, and, instead, first provide a discussion of the “new wave” of MSM-based blog posts on the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) “solution” to the upcoming debt ceiling conflict. As it turns out that will take a number of posts in itself. Continue reading →

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NEP’s Stephanie Kelton appears on Capital Account

Posted on December 12, 2012 by | 28 comments

Stephanie appeared on Capital Account with Lauren Lyster on December 11. The topic was MMT’s goals for Full Employment and the government’s deficit.

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An Alternative Meme For Money, Part 7: Framing Deficits

Posted on December 12, 2012 by | 60 comments

By L. Randall Wray

Deficits and Debt are probably the most terrifying topic that MMT addresses. We need to be careful. We are treading on moral (or religious) grounds. We know that one should not be a debtor (or, a creditor)—most religions tell us so. One who proclaims that deficits and debts are OK is automatically engaged in blasphemy of various sorts, not least of which is a crime against morality. Let’s try to frame the discussion. Continue reading →

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My Appearance Today on The Attitude

Posted on December 11, 2012 by | 7 comments

I appeared today on The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen, broadcast by WNHN 94.7 in Concord, New Hampshire.   The topic of our discussion was full employment, and the possibility of moving to a full employment economy by using a Job Guarantee program.

Deborah “Arnie” Arnesen is a former member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, a former fellow of the Harvard Institute of Politics, and was the Democratic nominee in the New Hampshire 1992 gubernatorial race.  She also ran for the U.S. Congress in 1996, and is a very well-known New Hampshire political figure and radio personality.  You can listen to the podcast of the show at the link below:

“The Attitude” with Arnie Arnesen on WNHN 94.7 FM

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An Alternative Meme for Money, Part 6: Alternative Framing on Inflation

Posted on December 11, 2012 by | 57 comments

By L. Randall Wray

As we have discussed, sovereign government cannot run out of the keystrokes it uses to mark-up balance sheets as it spends. Does our argument rely on modern technology, that sends electrons or photons (I’m not sure which) pulsing through copper or fiber-optic lines? No, of course not.

Government always spent by notching hazelwood, imprinting clay, stamping coins, chalk on slate, or “running the printing press”. There has never been another alternative. These marks or electronic entries represent government IOUs. Continue reading →

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The Reality of Nightmares

Posted on December 10, 2012 by | 14 comments

By J. D. Alt

In his 12/8 Washington Post column, Ezra Klein says, “Projected deficits are driven by two factors: health-care-costs and old people.” He goes on to suggest, quite logically it seems, that in order to pay for all the health-care services elderly American’s are going to require, tax rates will to have to be raised so high they’ll begin “doing real damage to the economy”, or deficits will “grow to the point that they cause a fiscal crisis.” Continue reading →

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Full Employment as the New Progressive Paradigm

Posted on December 10, 2012 by | 19 comments

By Dan Kervick

Part One of a four-part essay

Progressives might have been permitted a short respite from anxiety after the election of November 7th, 2012.  They could find a measure of solace from the result: at least the country hadn’t fallen into the hands of an expert practitioner of one of the more barbarous styles of American capitalism, a man who had expressed open contempt for the 47% of Americans who receive assistance from the government he was seeking to head.   Of course, Mitt Romney’s disdain for government assistance extends only so far, since he has no objection to the sturdy fortress of legislative, judicial and police protections erected to both institute and protect private property.   He knows as well as anybody that without these government-funded protections many members of the propertied classes would not remain propertied.  But let us not dwell on the past.   We can move on knowing that at least there will be no Mitt Romney era.   Romney can now go back to his former occupation of buying, selling, dismantling, dismembering, repackaging and reselling the enterprises built by other people, throwing many of the people who work in those enterprises out on the street, and stashing the proceeds in island banks, far away from the greedy hands of the democratic rabble whose votes he recently begged.

Alas, the desired respite has been all but non-existent, because Washington has moved on immediately to renew the flagellation of the American people.   Continue reading →

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Obama and Boehner’s Grand Bargain: Gullible Democrats are Falling for the Ol’ “Good Cop, Bad Cop” Routine

Posted on December 10, 2012 by | 11 comments

By Michael Hoexter

Generally political analyses of the last four years suffer from two main faults:  they either describe an almost undifferentiated environment of complete political corruption or they pinpoint a single main source of our political downfall and attribute most “evil” to that source.  Both of these approaches can at times illuminate but ultimately they leave activists and citizens with prescriptions for a campaign of either unimaginative partisanship or ultimately exhausting efforts to joust at every powerful actor and institution on the political scene.  In other words, we are often left with either on the one hand “they’re all evil” and on the other “evil emanates mostly from this person/institution/party”. Continue reading →

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An Alternative Meme for Money, Part 5: A Spending Meme

Posted on December 10, 2012 by | 55 comments

By L. Randall Wray

We take care of our own
We take care of our own
Wherever this flag’s flown
We take care of our own

Let me repeat and clarify my purpose in this series. I am attempting to initiate a discussion among progressives on how to frame discussions about money and related issues. My perspective is MMT. To be sure, on one level MMT is a description. It provides a correct description of the operation of a sovereign currency system. Some commentators have objected to my progressive framing; they assert that one can accept MMT without the progressive bias. Sure they can. One can understand how money “works” but prefer NOT to use money in the public interest. Continue reading →

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Why is the failed Monti a “technocrat” and the successful Correa a “left-leaning economist”?

Posted on December 9, 2012 by | 9 comments

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

The New York Times produces profiles of national leaders like Italy’s Mario Monti and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa.  I invite readers to contrast the worshipful treatment accorded Monti with the Correa profile.  The next time someone tells you the NYT is a “leftist” paper you can show them how far right it is on financial issues.

Continue reading →

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