Tag Archives: budget deficits

Pete Peterson Has Won

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Stephanie Kelton | 186 comments

The US is broke. Government deficits are de facto evidence of a government gone wild. We’re careening toward Greece. Entitlements are the root cause of our fiscal woes, and the Chinese are coming for our grandchildren. How many Americans believe this garbage? My guess? Most of them.

Continue reading →

186 Comments

Posted in Stephanie Kelton

Tagged budget deficits, deficits

Neoliberalism Kills: Part Two

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Devin Smith | 6 comments

By Joe Firestone

During Part One of this series, I approached the end of my post with this paragraph.

Apart from the political opposition from the insurance companies that Medicare for All would have engendered, I think the main justification for abandoning Medicare for All and switching to the PO and eventually the PO-less ACA, was actually neoliberalism. The President, his main advisers, the Democratic leaders in Congress, and most progressives working for Washington progressive organizations were steeped in neoliberal doctrine. They viewed the Bush tax cuts and the two Wars as unpaid for. The ARRA stimulus Act was similarly unpaid for and added to deficit spending and to the debt-subject-to-the-limit. They believed and most believe today that the Federal Government can have solvency problems if the debt-to-GDP ratio increases too much, and interest rates on the national debt are driven up by the bond vigilantes.

Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged austerity, budget deficits, debt burden, debt-to-GDP ratio, deficit hawks, Fiscal Responsibility, MMT, modern money theory, Neoliberalism. Fiscal sustainability

Neoliberalism Kills: Part One

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Devin Smith | 17 comments

By Joe Firestone

During the run-up to passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), I wrote a number of posts here, here, and here assessing the ACA very negatively, and pointing out the shortcomings of the various versions of this bill, preceding its final passage. My focus was on contrasting varying versions with HR 676, the Conyers-Kucinich Medicare for All bill, in relation to its likely impact on fatalities, bankruptcies and divorces attributed to lack of health insurance coverage in the US.

Continue reading →

17 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged budget deficits, debt burden, MMT, modern money theory, paul krugman, trade deficits

Paul K’s Strange Logic

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Devin Smith | 62 comments

By Joe Firestone

In an October 12th Post entitled “Foreigners and the Burden of Debt,” Paul Krugman made the following comment.

”. . . we’d all agree that deficits make us poorer if they crowd out investment spending — which they would if the economy were near full employment, but won’t if we’re deeply depressed. All we have to do is realize that net foreign investment — purchases minus sales of assets from and to foreigners — is also a form of investment. Or to put it a bit more simply, sure, budget deficits can make us poorer as a nation if they lead to bigger trade deficits.”

Continue reading →