New Economic Perspectives

Some Platinum Coin Objections from the Mainstream: Part IV

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 5 comments

This is Part IV of my reply to Philip Wallach’s reply to my evaluation of his views on the platinum coin proposal and other options for settling debt ceiling conflicts. In Part I I discussed some preliminary mis-characterizations of what I said and, more importantly, why the commonly recognized fiscal policy rule that, at least over a number of years, government revenues ought to match government spending is fiscally unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible in light of deductions from the Sectoral Financial Balances (SFB) model.

In Part II I continued with a discussion of political legitimacy and usurpation issues and then covered some legal objections to using the $100 T platinum coin option related to the “intent” of the coin law. In Part III I discussed a legal objection based on Wallach’s view of the intent of the coin law, which quickly morphed into a political objection about the desirability of mutual respect and comity among the three branches of government, as well as the threat to political legitimacy arising from the judgment that the platinum coin option is really “weird.”

In this, Part IV, I’ll continue discussing the “weirdness” objection, and also cover Wallach’s views on Inflation and hyper-inflation, and Modern Money Theory. Continue reading →

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Tagged $100 Trillion coin, 14th Amendment, Brookings Institution, Conservatism, debt ceiling crisis, debt limit, fiscal myths, Mike Castle, Philip A. Wallach, Philip N. Diehl, platinum coin seigniorage, Political legitimacy, Trillion Dollar Coin, weirdness

Some Platinum Coin Objections from the Mainstream: Part III

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 13 comments

This is Part III of my lengthy reply to Philip Wallach’s reply to my evaluation of his views on the platinum coin proposal and other options for settling debt ceiling conflicts. In Part I I discussed some preliminary mis-characterizations of what I said and, more importantly, why the commonly recognized fiscal policy rule that, at least over a number of years, government revenues ought to match government spending is fiscally unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible in light of deductions from the Sectoral Financial Balances (SFB) model. In Part II I continued with a discussion of political legitimacy and usurpation issues and then covered some legal objections to using the $100 T platinum coin option related to the “intent” of the coin law.

In this installment I’ll continue with more discussion of political objections. Continue reading →

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Tagged $100 Trillion coin, 14th Amendment, beowulf, Brookings Institution, Carlos Mucha, Conservatism, debt ceiling crisis, debt limit, fiscal myths, Mike Castle, Philip A. Wallach, Philip N. Diehl, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Some Platinum Coin Objections from the Mainstream: Part II

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 17 comments

I began a lengthy critical reply to Philip Wallach’s reply to my earlier analysis of his paper in Part I of this series. There I covered some preliminary mis-characterizations of what I said and, more importantly, why the commonly recognized fiscal policy rule that, at least over a number of years, government revenues ought to match government spending is fiscally unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible in light of deductions from the Sectoral Financial Balances (SFB) model. In this Part II, I’ll cover some conjectures about political legitimacy Wallach offers about the consequences of minting a $100 T, some legal legitimacy issues, and some additional political legitimacy issues. Continue reading →

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Some Platinum Coin Objections from the Mainstream: Part I

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 10 comments

As I was working my way through the series of posts beginning with this one, news was announced that Republican and Democratic Party leaders in Congress, along with the President had come to agreement on the terms of ending the debt ceiling standoff in the context of a new budget deal. Their agreement provides for suspension of the debt ceiling until March of 2017; so the immediate need to turn to unusual solutions to a pending debt ceiling crisis is now gone, and, along with it, crisis-driven discussions about the platinum coin option.

Nevertheless, even though the immediate reason motivating renewed discussions of the platinum coin option is now gone, I still have some unfinished business dealing with the issues surrounding it. Late last week I replied to a paper from Philip Wallach of The Brookings Institution with a post at Naked Capitalism, as well as a number of other sites in the blogosphere. Now, Wallach has replied to my post, which mostly presents new arguments not in his original paper.

These are important to answer for the record, since platinum coin options and debt ceiling issues are likely to return again in the future, especially if we still have divided government in 2017, a very good possibility, I think. Answering them is also important, however, because they are the kinds of arguments that will be offered by the mainstream neoliberals against using the $100 T platinum coin, as well as the trillion dollar version. This series, of which this post is Part I, will present a detailed reply to Wallach’s new paper. Continue reading →

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Tagged $100 Trillion coin, 14th Amendment, Brookings Institution, Conservatism, debt ceiling crisis, debt limit, fiscal myths, Philip A. Wallach, platinum coin seigniorage, sectoral financial balances model, SFB model, Trillion Dollar Coin

The Road To COP21: Where is the “Locus of Control” of Effective Climate Action?

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Michael Hoexter | 2 comments

By Michael Hoexter

In the next several weeks, I will attempt through this series “The Road to COP21” to outline key issues facing policymakers and activists as they converge on Paris at the UN’s Conference of the Parties-21 starting on November 30^th and possibly culminating in a global climate treaty by the end of the conference on December 11^th. COP21 is being viewed as a last chance for humanity to seriously address climate change in concert and thereby face humanity’s most serious and ominous existential crisis. Human survival as a species may very well be at stake.

With the approach of COP21, policymakers and activists concerned about the climate will have a series of choices to make, choices perhaps that will seal the fate of humanity as a species. These decisions will be influenced by the participants’ pre-existing or emerging ideas about who or what are the central players or forces in effective climate action and which are the social-political-economic dynamics that they will initiate or continue to maintain. Alternatively if those participants are not sincerely concerned about the fate of humanity as regards climate, they may simply enact “some” climate policy as a fig-leaf or showpiece. Seriousness, sincerity, and clear-headedness, would seem to be prerequisites for, at COP21 and surrounding events, both a successful negotiation as well as a design of an effective new international system to reduce human-caused warming emissions eventually to net zero or less. So for the moment, in this discussion here, I’m going to assume that there are at least some people in positions of influence (a very large group) or political power (a few people) who sincerely want to cut emissions to stabilize the climate, employing a variety of means.

Continue reading →

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Tagged climate action, climate policy, COP21

Who Needs Balanced Trade? Who Needs Balance Budgets: A New Book on Trade and Fiscal Policy

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 3 comments

The intensity of the conflict over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has died down since last June, after the Administration won its victory in getting Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) through Congress. During the Intervening months, the efforts of the Special Trade Representative (STR) to complete TPP negotiations have continued. At the end of June, the goal was to complete negotiations by August so that the Administration could send the Agreement to Congress in enough time to start the clock on the 90-day countdown period Congress has to vote on an agreement negotiated under the TPA, and to schedule a ratification vote on it before the end of 2015.

Continue reading →

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Tagged A Holistic Approach to Trade and Fiscal Policy, Balanced Budget Fiscal Policy, balanced trade, Budgeting for Public Purpose Fiscal Policy, Deficit Neutrality in the Long Run Fiscal Policy, fair trade, free trade, Impact Assessment for Trade Policy, MMT, modern money theory, public purpose, TISA, TPP, Trade for Public Purpose, TTIP

Yes, ExxonMobil Committed “Unparalleled Evil” Yet that Evil Can Distract From Taking Action

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Michael Hoexter | 8 comments

By Michael Hoexter

In a series of revelations over the past three months, the Pulitzer Prize winning website Inside Climate News has revealed what may be the greatest crime of the 20^th and the 21^st Centuries. Via interviews and archival research, ICN recovered irrefutable evidence that Exxon scientists (and then ExxonMobil) had an extensive climate research program in the late 1970’s and 1980’s and came to the conclusions that fossil fuel use would lead to heating of the atmosphere, a radical change in climate, and would lead very likely to catastrophic consequences. In the 1980’s, Exxon scientists participated in scientific conferences that explored the role of carbon dioxide in warming and other climatic effects. However, ExxonMobil, once government officials were alerted in 1988 by the broader scientific community that global warming was occurring and was a global crisis, changed course and funded climate denial, delaying and weakening climate action and nascent climate policies. Exxon’s current CEO, Rex Tillerson, claims that global warming’s effects are exaggerated and won’t be that bad for humanity. The Los Angeles Times has used some of the same archival material to come to similar conclusions as has ICN.

Continue reading →

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Tagged Bill McKibben, climate, climate change, climate policy

Fiscal Myths of Campaign 2016: A New Kindle e-Book

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 1 comment

Most of the world, and most notably the United States, is in the grip of fiscal myths fostered by the ideology of neoliberalism. There is virtual unanimity across the major political parties in the United States in accepting the viewpoint of neoliberalism, and the fiscal myths associated with it.

This book is about these myths, the arguments showing that they are, indeed, myths, and the truths that can counter them. It is about Campaign 2016, and some of its issues, because the fiscal myths will certainly be used in the Campaign; since, for the first time in a very long time, there is a major party candidate running, who, because he advocates for a very broad agenda and for fighting inequality, will, sooner or later, find that some, and perhaps a large number, of fiscal myths are being directed at him by his opponents and their supporters, who want to persuade voters that his agenda is “fiscally irresponsible.”

Continue reading →

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Tagged bernie sanders, Burden of Government Debt, consols, fiat currency, fiat money sovereigns, Fiscal Myths of Campaign 2016, Fiscal Responsibility, Fiscal Sustainability, fiscal truths, Government Austerity, Government Debt, Government Family or Household, government solvency, Hyper-inflation, inflation, money, Our Economic Future, platinum coins, Running Out of Money, Shared Sacrifice, Wall Street Journal

The Platinum Coin Returns

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 22 comments

Upon my oath, I didn’t intend to bring back the coin proposal until much later in the renewed process of Republican hostage-taking over the debt ceiling. After all, there’s not much chance that the President would ever use the platinum coin option, because his budget policy direction of getting ever closer to a budget surplus, is best served by a “forced” compromise with the Republicans, that results in another few hundred billion in spending cuts for 2016, while allowing him to place the blame on them for that outcome. Using the platinum coin option would not have that result, because it would deliver a clear victory to him.

Of course, he doesn’t want a default due to Republican brinksmanship either, so if the Republicans do drag everyone too close to the cliff, then he may decide to take some extraordinary measures and the coin is one that is available, so it’s conceivable that he might choose this undoubtedly, from his point of view, distasteful option. It is for this reason, I suppose, that the Brookings Institution is warning him off the coin to weight his choice towards some more conventional approach. Continue reading →

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Tagged $100 Trillion coin, 14th Amendment, Brookings Institution, debt ceiling crisis, debt limit, fiscal myths, Philip A. Wallach, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Scott Fullwiler’s Central Banking Operations Now in Italian

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Devin Smith | Comments Off

Our friends over at RETE in Italy have done it again! They have translated and posted Scott Fullwiler’s works on central banking operations into Italian. For our Italian speaking friends, you can now check out Scott’s translated posts here.