Tag Archives: deficit spending

The Way Out of Shutdown Shenanigans

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 6 comments

Today, I received an e-mail from the Friends of (the very popular with progressives) Senator Bernie Sanders. In it the Senator says:

I’m joining with the members of Progressives United to send a clear message to President Obama that we will stand with him when he vetoes Republican legislation that attacks the well-being of the struggling middle class.

Join me and members of Progressives United to urge the president to VETO any Republican legislation that attacks working families.

NO to cuts in Social Security. NO to cuts in Medicaid. NO to converting Medicare into a voucher program. NO to new trade legislation that sends our jobs overseas and hammers our middle-class workers. NO to cuts to nutrition programs, education or environmental protection.

YES to raising the minimum wage. YES to a massive jobs program rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. YES to transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels. YES to pay equity for women workers. YES to overturning Citizens United.

We already know what “compromise” will mean from a Republican Congress: their way or the highway. In order to win in the future, President Obama must stand strong for the American middle class, and we must support him.

Tell President Obama: Standing firm is the only option, and that means committing to VETO legislation that attacks working families, and fighting for legislation that defends their needs.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged $100 Trillion coin, austerity, bernie sanders, debt and deficits, deficit spending, fiat money, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, MMT, modern money theory

Peterson/CBO Beat for Austerity Goes On!

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 13 comments

By Joe Firestone

Recently, I’ve been writing about oligarchs advocating for entitlement cuts and austerity. I’ve discussed attacks on entitlement benefits for the elderly from Abby Huntsman (of MSNBC’s The Cycle) and Catherine Rampell (a Washington Post columnist), both the children of well-off individuals. These posts have come in the context of the English language release of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and the more recent pre-publication release of a study by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page using quantitative methods and empirical data to explore the question of whether the US is an oligarchy or a majoritarian democracy. They conclude:

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, austerity, CBO projections, congress, consols, deficit spending, deficit terrorism, Gilens and Page, Michael A. Peterson, net interest, oligarchy, Peter G. Peterson Foundation, platinum coin seigniorage, Sector Financial Balances, the Fed, Treasury

More Misdirection from Rampell in the Service of Generational War

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 6 comments

By Joe Firestone

In my last post, I took issue with a recent column by Catherine Rampell, who tries to make the case that seniors haven’t paid for their Social Security and Medicare because they “generally receive” more in benefits out of these programs than they pay into them. Rampell relies on an Urban Institute study to make her case. Since that post, she’s offered another that replies to some of the questions raised by commenters on her earlier effort. I’ll reply to that new post shortly, but first I want to present key points emerging from my analysis of Federal monetary operations in my reply to her earlier post. See that post for the full argument.

First, once Congress mandates spending, there is no way that the Treasury can be forced into insolvency or an inability to pay its obligations as long as it is willing to make use of all the ways it can cause the Fed to create reserve credits in Treasury spending accounts which can then be used for its reserve keystroking into private sector account activities that today represent most of the reality of Federal spending.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, baby boomers, Catherine Rampell, coin seigniorage, congress, deficit spending, Economic Bill of Rights, entitlement benefits, entitlement solvency, entitlement spending, FDR, generational cohorts, generational warfare, medicare, millennial, neoliberalism, seniors, Social Security, SS, the Fed, the Treasury, Treasury

Misdirection: Rampell Views Entitlements Through the Generational War Lens

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 2 comments

Some of the favored children of the economic elite who have a public presence, work hard in their writing and speaking to divert attention from inequality and oligarchy issues by raising the issue of competition between seniors and millennials for “scarce” Federal funds. That’s understandable. If millennials develop full consciousness of who, exactly, has been flushing their prospects for a decent life down the toilet, their anger and activism might bring down the system of wealth and economic and social privilege that benefits both their families and the favored themselves in the new America of oligarchy and plutocracy.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, Abby Hunstman, baby boomers, Catherine Rampell, congress, consols, deficit spending, entitlement spending, FDR, generational war, medicare, millennial, platinum coin seigniorage, Randy Wray, seniors, Social Security, SS, SS solvency, the Fed, Treasury

Is the MSM Blackout on Inequality, Plutocracy, and Oligarchy Ending?

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 14 comments

By Joe Firestone

All of a sudden MSNBC cable commentators are talking about plutocracy and oligarchy. Surprisingly, the first occurrence of this I’m aware of was Chuck Todd, reacting on his Daily Rundown show to the spectacle of Republican candidates traveling to Vegas to seek funding from Sheldon Adelson and his group of hugely wealthy Jewish Republican donors. Todd began to explore the implications of that event. He seemed exercised, and more than the slightest bit upset, about its meaning for Democracy and used the words plutocracy and oligarchy. Andrea Mitchell also discussed it later and she, too, registered apparent dismay, while using the “p” and “o” words.

Chris Hayes has been on leave during this period, so we haven’t heard from him about this. But Chris Matthews, the “oh so very slightly left-of-center insider” has been making very unfriendly noises about Adelson, the Kochs, and the Supremes, culminating today (April 3rd) with nasty references to plutocrats, oligarchs, and candidates, kissing oligarchs somewhere or other, on both his program and Al Sharpton’s.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged Abby Hunstman, deficit spending, inequality, jamie galbraith, Krystal Ball, MMT, modern money theory, oligarchy, plutocracy, REAL fiscal responsibility, Susan Ochs, Thomas Piketty, threat to democracy

The Village Still Ignores the Most Important Point

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 2 comments

By Joe Firestone

In recent posts I reviewed two commentaries by Abby Huntsman on Social Security and other entitlements, also noting points made in other critiques of her narratives. Abby’s commentaries are here, and here, and my critiques are here and here. The most important point I emphasized in my two rebuttals is that there are no fiscal solvency or sustainability issues related to Social Security, or other parts of the safety net, but that the issues involve only the willingness of Congress to appropriate entitlement spending, and either the removal of current constraints on Treasury to spend appropriations such as the debt limit, or the willingness of the Executive Branch to use its current legislative authority either to a) generate sufficient seigniorage from platinum coins to spend such appropriations; or b) use a type of debt instrument, such as consols, which aren’t counted toward the debt limit.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, Abby Hunstman, congress, consols, DC village progressives, deficit spending, platinum coin seigniorage, Richard Eskow, Social Security, SS, SS solvency, the Fed, Treasury

When You Really Look, Financial Quicksand Turns Into Oligarchical BS

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 3 comments

By Joe Firestone

Abby Huntsman’s first rant about entitlements soliciting generational warfare got a lot of pushback from defenders. I reviewed the main points made in defense of entitlements, and then added “the most important point of all” as well. Abby made a second try, however, this time singling out Michael Hiltzik’s reply to her to respond to and adding a few more points, while withdrawing a bit from her claim that life expectancy has changed very much for seniors since the New Deal period. Hiltzik took issue with that one too. Let’s review Huntsman’s reply to Hiltzik by analyzing the MSNBC transcript of her second rant against entitlements.

Abby Huntsman:

. . . the need for entitlement reform. there was a firestorm of reaction. an article in the ” l.a. times” went as far as to say i want to lead my generation into poverty. come on, man. this isn’t about me. it’s about the major problem.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, Abby Hunstman, deficit spending, economic opportunity, inequality, Michael Hiltzik, platinum coin seigniorage, Social Security, SS, SS solvency, the Fed, Treasury

The Most Important Point of All Was Ignored

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 11 comments

By Joe Firestone

MSNBC’s right wing representative on The Cycle, Abby Huntsman, got a lot of pushback from Social Security defenders after her rant last week. They made points similar to the following in countering Huntsman:

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, Abby Hunstman, deficit spending, economic opportunity, inequality, platinum coin seigniorage, Social Security, SS, SS solvency, the Fed, Treasury

Off the Debt Limit Hook for at Least the Next Four Months

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 35 comments

By Joe Firestone

Provided that the Senate and House follow through on the scenario now on the table, it looks like the game of chicken worked for the Democrats this time. We’re off the hook on default and Government shutdown for now, and Washington village pundits are in full-throated cries of celebration.

Congress is off the hook too. They don’t have to offer any solutions to real, rather than manufactured, problems.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, $60 Trillion Coin, asset sales, austerity, consols, debt ceiling, debt limit, debt limit crisis options, debt-subject-to-the-limit, default, deficit spending, grand bargain, great betrayal, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, MMT, modern money theory, President Obama, public debt

Rationalization and Obligation, Part VI: What He Ought to Do, What He Probably Will Do

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 19 comments

By Joe Firestone

This is Part VI of a six part series replying to a claim by the President at his recent White House News Conference. Part I covered the News Conference and the first two (the selective default, and the exploding option) of seven options the President might use to try save the US from defaulting in the face of continued deadlock in the Congress on raising the debt limit or repealing the law enabling it in its entirety. Part II discussed Platinum Coin Seigniorage, invoking the 14th amendment to justify continuing to issue conventional Treasury debt instruments, and consols. Part III discussed premium bonds, and Treasury sales of the Government’s material and cultural assets to the Federal Reserve. Part IV, then evaluated all seven options in light of variations among them in likely degree of legal difficulties they might face, and also the likely impact of each on confidence in the bond markets, if used. Part V then summarized my evaluation of the seven options. This part will end the series by saying first, what the President ought to do, and then by saying what I think he is most likely to do.

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