Tag Archives: inequality

Equality, MMT, Real Fiscal Responsibility, and Re-inventing Democracy

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 8 comments

Inequality and MMT

For some time now, MMT has been receiving criticism from self-identified progressives charging that MMT economists and advocates aren’t concerned about one of the most pressing problems in modern democracies and especially in the US, namely, increasing and often extreme inequality. MMT supporters have responded by citing much previous work on inequality, a lot of it done at the Levy Institute, by pointing out their great concern over the problem, and their work in advocating for a Federal Job Guarantee that would do more than perhaps any other single piece of legislation to ameliorate both poverty and inequality.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged austerity, inequality, interactive voter choice system, IVCS, MMT, modern money theory, Neil Irwin, Pavlina Tcherneva, REAL fiscal responsibility, Reinvent Democracy

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

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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11 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

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

Inequality Revisited: The Rise of the Individual is Always at the Expense of Community

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Devin Smith | 9 comments

By June Carbone

The debate over inequality has shifted. It is no longer whether greater inequality exists (it indisputably does) or whether it is a good thing (even David Brooks and Marco Rubio concede that it is not). Instead, the big issue is whether the rise of the top one tenth of one percent with their extraordinary concentration of wealth has anything to do with the rise of inequality between the middle and the bottom. The answer is, of course it does, in ways that are both simple and complex. Let us begin to count the ways . . . .

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