Responses to Blog #42: Intro to the Job Guarantee

By L. Randall Wray

Thanks for all the comments and the interesting discussions. Sorry this will be late as I’m in Brazil at a couple of conferences. A number of the comments were on topics we will discuss later—especially Vincenzo’s design of his own preferred JG. I am purposely keeping it general in the beginning, and gradually we will introduce the specifics. But note that the discussion made it fairly clear that no “one size fits all” will work everywhere. The real world program will need to be carefully designed to fit “conditions on the ground” (as our Pentagon warriors love to phrase it). We need to look at the general, universal program first so I will stick to that. Later I will argue that in some circumstances it might not be practical (due to political, institutional, sovereignty, managerial capability, or productive capacity constraints) to implement the universal program from the get-go.

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William K. Black on the MF Global Cover-up: “All those that doeth Evil hateth the light!”

William K. Black Comments On the JOBS Act

For more on the JOBS Act, see this interview William K. Black.

Cop Out: The Dogma that Broke Stockton, CA now Blames Stockton’s Police

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

I did not know that there is a group that works every day to destroy any respect we have for our local governments and claims to generate 10 percent of the stories nationwide about local and state government.  This is the group’s self-description:  “Franklin Center identifies, trains, and supports journalists working to detect and expose corruption and incompetence in government at the state and local levels.”  I’m hopelessly old fashioned, so I view their description as an oxymoron.  A “journalist,” under my archaic definition, reports facts and analytics.  Journalists are human and they have biases, but their function is not to write only stories that confirm their ideology.  The Franklin Center is relatively new and works closely with Freedom Works (one of the Koch brother’s many entities).

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The JOBS Act is so Criminogenic that it Guarantees Full-Time Jobs for Criminologists

By William K. Black, Henry N. Pontell and Gilbert Geis

As white-collar criminologists (and a former financial regulator and enforcement head) and experts in ferreting out sophisticated financial frauds, our careers and research focus on financial fraud by the world’s most elite private sector criminals and their political cronies.  Therefore, we write to thank Congress and the President for preparing to adopt a JOBS Act that will provide us with job security for life. We will be the personal beneficiaries of Congress’ decision to adopt the law without the pesky hearings that would allow critics to launch devastating attacks on the proposed bill based on a brutally unfair tactic – the presentation of facts.  Unfortunately, in our professional capacities, we must oppose the bill.  This bill is an atrocity.

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MMP Blog #42: Introduction to the Job Guarantee or Employer of Last Resort

By L. Randall Way

This week we begin our series on the Job Guarantee or employer of last resort. Both terms have been used to refer to the same proposal; indeed we have also experimented with other terms: Buffer Stock Employment and Public Service Employment. Each of these terms has its own advantages and disadvantages—as each draws attention to a different aspect of the program. Henceforth I will use Job Guarantee (JG) in this series.

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Responses to Blog 41: MMT, Austrians, and Ideology

By L. Randall Wray

Sorry for the delay. I will respond to comments on my blog and also to comments on Dan Kervick’s excellent piece on MMT (part one—if I have any comments for part two I will post them after I get time to read the post and comments).

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Stay Tuned for Responses to the Latest MMP Post

Responses to the latest in the “MMT for Austrians” series will be delayed until tommorow.  In addition to addressing questions and comments concerning the MMP piece, Prof. Wray will also deal with others raised in Dan Kervick’s recent two part series.  Stay tuned!

Senator Grassley calls Attorney General Holder’s Bluff

By William K. Black

On March 7, 2012, I testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the failure to prosecute the elite fraudulent financial CEOs who drove the ongoing crisis.  The first witness testifying to the committee was Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, Thomas Perez.  The focus of the hearing was Countrywide’s massive racial and ethnic discrimination against minorities.  Perez testified that there were over 200,000 identified victims of discrimination by Countrywide and that the settlement his office negotiated led to a payment that was 50 times larger than the largest previous settlement.  Perez testified that each of these victims of Countrywide’s discrimination will receive between one and two thousand dollars.

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Newt’s Latest Declaration of Independence From Reality

By William K. Black
(Cross-posted from HuffPo)

Newt Gingrich’s story is that Freddie Mac was so impressed with his skills as an historian that they paid him at least $1.6 million not to lobby, but to serve as their historical muse. Gingrich was, of course, a lobbyist for Freddie Mac, a politically inconvenient fact for a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.

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