Tag Archives: HVPCS

What Would You Have the President Do? Part II, Getting to Full Employment

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 22 comments

Responding to a Post at Naked Capitalism by Michael Hudson with some additions by Yves Smith, a commenter, objecting to the criticism of the President’s Knox College speech, issued the challenge ”What would u have him do?” in connection with his promised effort to restore prosperity to the middle class and the poor. In this series I’m giving my answer to that question. In Part I, “Necessary First Moves,” I offered and described two of these. Ending the filibuster, and using High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage (HVPCS) to fill the Treasury General Account (TGA) with $60 Trillion in reserves. Continue reading →

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Tagged $60 Trillion Coin, austerity, debt and deficits, deficit spending, entitlement guarantee, fiat money, filibuster, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, job guarantee, MMT, modern money theory, Social Security, state revenue sharing

What Would You Have the President Do? Part I, Necessary First Moves

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 37 comments

There were varying reactions to the President’s recent speech at Knox College this week. My reaction was that the speech was deeply dishonest in light of the President’s previous policies, actions, and results, and I intended to do a critique, but Michael Hudson and Yves Smith beat me to it. In a fine post at Naked Capitalism, entitled “Michael Hudson Shreds Obama’s Orwellian Speech On Middle Class Prosperity,” Michael Hudson, with occasional added comments from Yves, deconstructs the speech paragraph by paragraph, and sometimes line-by-line, pointing out disingenuous assertions and outright dishonesty. In her introduction Yves remarks on the context: Continue reading →

37 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged $60 Trillion Coin, austerity, debt and deficits, deficit spending, fiat money, filibuster, Hight Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, MMT, modern money theory

Mr. President, End Debt Ceiling Hostage-taking for Good!

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 11 comments

On May 9, 2013, The Republican House passed H.R. 807 the Full Faith and Credit Act. The Bill says in part:

(a) In General- In the event that the debt of the United States Government, as defined in section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, reaches the statutory limit, the Secretary of the Treasury shall, in addition to any other authority provided by law, issue obligations under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, to pay with legal tender, and solely for the purpose of paying, the principal and interest on obligations of the United States described in subsection (b) after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(b) Obligations Described- For purposes of this subsection, obligations described in this subsection are obligations which are–
(1) held by the public, or
(2) held by the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and Disability Insurance Trust Fund.

So, in brief, the Bill provides for the Treasury, even when it is about to reach the debt ceiling, to issue additional debt to pay principal and interest on debt instruments issued to the public including foreign nations, and to pay principal and interest on Social Security (SS) “trust fund bonds” in the course of paying SS recipients. Continue reading →

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Tagged $60 Trillion Coin, austerity, debt and deficits, debt ceiling, debt limit, Full Faith and Credit Act, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, MMT, modern money theory, platinum coin seigniorage

Make ‘em Prove the Causality before They Cause Any More Suffering: Part One

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 22 comments

By Joe Firestone

OK, austerity has always been about the causality. The people who are trying their best to get us to cut more and more spending, somewhat less than their best to get us to raise taxes, and who are doing nothing to fix our fraud-laden financial system, or the worst period of dis-employment we’ve experienced since the Great Depression, have been making other people (never themselves) suffer, because they believe the theory that excessive public debt hurts economic growth, and that to get rid of it we must follow a plan of long-term deficit reduction. And I’m being very charitable when I opine that they believe in this theory, because the alternative is that they don’t believe it, but are just using it as an excuse to make other people suffer, and widen the wealth gap between themselves and the rest of the population. Continue reading →

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Tagged austerity, Brian Hartley, debt and deficits, debt-to-GDP ratio, deficit reduction, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, Kansas City, Matthew Berg, Michael Ash, MMT, modern money theory, Reinhart and Rogoff, Robert Pollin, Thomas Herndon, University of Massachusetts, University of Missouri

Hell No! The Ultimate Pushback against the Grand Bargain

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Joe Firestone | 15 comments

By Joe Firestone

The underlying rationale for “a Grand Bargain” and the President’s deficit reduction budget including cuts to both Social Security (SS) and Medicare and many valuable discretionary programs, apart from the pragmatic justification, that he may be able to complete such a bargain with the Republicans and blue dog Democrats in Congress, is that the fiscal health of the United States requires that we can’t keep running annual deficits of the size we’ve been running. Why? Because that results in increases to our debt-to-GDP ratio, which in turn will cause the bond markets to drive up our interest rates higher and higher and eventually make interest on the Federal debt such a large share of the Federal Debt that we won’t have money for anything else. So, we have to implement a long-term deficit reduction plan to ensure the fiscal sustainability of the Federal Budget. To do anything else would be fiscally irresponsible. Continue reading →

15 Comments

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Tagged austerity, chained CPI, grand bargain, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, MMT, modern money theory, Social Security. Social Security Solvency, White House 2014 Budget

Is It Really About “Dysfunctional” Partisanship?

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Devin Smith | 24 comments

By Joe Firestone

The popular narrative in Washington, DC these days among the MSM pundits is that the Congress is “dysfunctional” in the sense that it is very difficult for it to pass a budget and rise above periodic “fiscal” “debt” and “deficit” crises. This difficulty is attributed to the failure of our representatives to rise above their party interests and to accept compromises proposed by “adults” such as the President, which would, it’s claimed, resolve our long term “fiscal sustainability”/”fiscal responsibility” problem through a “balanced” long-term $4 Trillion deficit reduction plan.

Continue reading →

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Tagged #PCS, debt ceiling, filibuster, Fiscal Policy, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, MMT, partisanship, Trillion Dollar Coin

Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: A Working Document

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Devin Smith | 9 comments

By Joe Firestone

Jack Foster proposed a framing document for High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, in a recent comment he made on one of my posts. In response, I posted a six-part blog series to accommodate readers who prefer the blog format.

Continue reading →

9 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, #TDC, $60 T coin, austerity, debt ceiling, Fiscal Policy, game-changing PCS, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, MMT, modern money theory, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: Part Six, More Political/Economic Objections

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Devin Smith | 11 comments

By Joe Firestone

This series provides a framing document for Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS). In the five previous parts of the series, I pointed out that there are three classes of opponents of High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage (HVPCS, $30 T and above). The first and largest group opposes all Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) of whatever type. The second, opposes HVPCS, but favors using the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) for the limited purpose of avoiding the debt ceiling. The third, opposes HVPCS, and doesn’t really favor using the TDC either, except, perhaps, as a last resort to avoid the debt ceiling. It favors an incremental approach to PCS beginning perhaps in the millions or billions in face value, and over a long period of time, after giving people years to adjust to Treasury using platinum coins with unusual, and unprecedented, face values, eventually building up to a TDC. Continue reading →

11 Comments

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Tagged #PCS, #TDC, $60 T coin, beowulf, debt ceiling, Fiscal Policy, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, MMT, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: Part Five, Institutional Objections

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Devin Smith | 8 comments

By Joe Firestone

This series provides a framing document for Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS). In the four previous parts of the series, I pointed out that there are three classes of opponents of High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage (HVPCS, $30 T and above). The first and largest group opposes all Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) of whatever type. The second, opposes HVPCS, but favors using the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) for the limited purpose of avoiding the debt ceiling. The third, opposes HVPCS, and doesn’t really favor using the TDC either, except, perhaps, as a last resort to avoid the debt ceiling. It favors an incremental approach to PCS beginning perhaps in the millions or billions in face value, and over a long period of time, after giving people years to adjust to Treasury using platinum coins with unusual, and unprecedented, face values, eventually building up to a TDC.

Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, #TDC, $60 T coin, beowulf, debt ceiling, Ezra Klein, Fiscal Policy, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HVPCS, John Lounsbury, MMT, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin, warren mosler

Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: Part Four, Political/Economic Objections

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Devin Smith | 13 comments

By Joe Firestone

This series provides a framing document for Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS). In the three previous parts of the series, I pointed out that there are three classes of opponents of High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage (HVPCS, $30 T and above). The first and largest group opposes all Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) of whatever type. The second, opposes HVPCS, but favors using the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) for the limited purpose of avoiding the debt ceiling. The third, opposes HVPCS, and doesn’t really favor using the TDC either, except, perhaps, as a last resort to avoid the debt ceiling. It favors an incremental approach to PCS beginning perhaps in the millions or billions in face value, and over a long period of time, after giving people years to adjust to Treasury using platinum coins with unusual, and unprecedented, face values, eventually building up to a TDC.

Continue reading →