Tag Archives: MMT

Why Obama Refuses to Kill the Sequester

Posted on February 25, 2013 by | 27 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Benzinga.com)

We are in the midst of the blame game about the “Sequester.”  I wrote last year about the fact that President Obama had twice blocked Republican efforts to remove the Sequester.  President Obama went so far as to issue a veto threat to block the second effort.  I found contemporaneous reportage on the President’s efforts to preserve the Sequester – and the articles were not critical of those efforts.  I found no contemporaneous rebuttal by the administration of these reports.

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The Economic Crisis: Causes, Consequences, and What’s Next

Posted on February 24, 2013 by | 4 comments

As part of it’s Annual Colloquium Series, The Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA  is sponsoring “The Economic Crisis: Causes, Consequences, and What’s Next.” NEP’s Randall Wray is appearing along with Frank Partnoy and Robert Brenner on Monday, 25 February 2013 2:00-5:00 pm, in the History Conference Room, 6275 Bunche on the UCLA campus.

The speakers will consider the origins and results of the ongoing global economic crisis. They will give special attention to the rise of finance and the role of financial markets and institutions in its onset, spread, and ultimate consequences. How has the meltdown of Wall Street, its bailout by government, and its apparent recovery affected the macro-economy and the future of finance itself? Are the great banks and other leading financial institutions now more or less likely to experience new meltdowns in the foreseeable future? Will the real economy see a new surge of growth, continuing stagnation, or renewed crisis? These are only some of the issues that will be addressed at this colloquium.

For more information call Center for Social Theory and Comparative History (310) 206-5675 or email [email protected]

 

 

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Krugman is Right about Simpson-Bowles: The Buzzards Circle the Fiscal Cliff

Posted on February 22, 2013 by | 42 comments

By L. Randall Wray
(Cross posted from economonitor.com/lwray)

In a powerful piece, Paul Krugman blasts Alan Simpson as an ignoramus when it comes to federal government budgets. He rightly wonders why anyone takes this nutter seriously:

Simpson is, demonstrably, grossly ignorant on precisely the subjects on which he is treated as a guru, not understanding the finances of Social Security, the truth about life expectancy, and much more. He is also a reliably terrible forecaster, having predicted an imminent fiscal crisis — within two years — um, two years ago…. So what is it that makes Simpson the figure he is? Clearly, it’s an affinity thing: never mind his obvious lack of knowledge, his ludicrous track record, reporters trust and idolize Simpson because he’s their kind of guy.

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Blinder Leading the Blind

Posted on February 17, 2013 by | 43 comments

By Dan Kervick

The establishment’s debt and deficit hawks have taken flight once again, this time to launch a counterassault against Paul Krugman’s sensible and increasingly successful campaign to get people to stop clutching their pearls over the federal budget situation, and to focus attention on more pressing matters of high unemployment and economic stagnation.  Joe Scarborough, Ezra Klein and the Washington Post editorial board are among those springing into action on behalf of deficit worry, and against the dangerous movement of calmness and sobriety breaking out all over.  One thing that becomes more apparent as this debate unfolds is that the budget warriors frequently confuse broader public policy challenges that happen to have a budgetary component with narrower problems related to size of the budget deficit itself.  A recent Atlantic piece by Alan Blinder unfortunately contributes to that confusion.

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Ecuador Chooses Stimulus over Austerity

Posted on February 17, 2013 by | 7 comments

NEP’s William Black appeared on The Real News , February 17, 2013, discussing how Ecuador has been dealing with the recession, and some of the things we can learn from it. You can view the video below or if you wish to view the video as well as the transcript posted at TRNN, you can click this link.

 

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Martin Wolf: “Lord Turner Thinks the Unthinkable”

Posted on February 14, 2013 by | 27 comments

By John Lounsbury
(Cross posted from econintersec.com)

February 13th, 2013

Paul Kasriel alerted me in an email this morning to check out Martin Wolf’s column today (13 February 2013) in the Financial Times.  Wolf’s title:  “A case to reset basis of monetary policy.”  The widely read associate editor and chief economics commentator for FT is one of the world’s most influential writers on economics.  And he often swims at the edge of the mainstream and sometimes thinks completely outside the box that limits many economic thinkers.  So when you want a breath of fresh air, read Martin Wolf.  He can pull heads out of the sand; there isn’t much fresh air in that medium. Continue reading →

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What’s the Best Way to Stimulate the Economy?

Posted on February 14, 2013 by | 24 comments

NEP’s William Black is part NYTimes.com’s Room for Debate. You can view his questions that senators should be asking Jack Lew at his confirmation hearings as well as the subsequent comments and debate at NYTimes.com.

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The State of the Economic Union

Posted on February 11, 2013 by | 31 comments

By Dan Kervick

On Tuesday night, President Obama will give the first State of the Union message of his second term.  Preliminary indications from Washington are that the President will attempt to shift some attention back to jobs and economic growth.  But similar White House moves to address jobs and the economy over the past four years have been half-hearted and politically feeble.  It is likely that the jobs message delivered by Obama will be overshadowed and weighed down by the endless and destructive partisan battles over our long-term budget position and Washington’s misguided plans for budget austerity and fiscal contraction.  Obama came into office extolling “the fierce urgency of now” – but Washington’s mystifying obsessions with the federal debt and impossible projections of future budget deficits have moved the beltway agenda from the fierce urgencies of 2013 to the unknowable contingencies of 2035.  The unemployed are trapped despairing and jobless here in 2013, choking on the spreadsheets of dueling beltway actuaries.

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Stephanie Kelton Virtually Speaking

Posted on February 10, 2013 by | 9 comments

NEP’s Stephanie Kelton appeared on Virtually Speaking with Jay Ackroyd February 7. You can listen with the player below or visit Virtually Speaking on Blogtalk Radio. The conversation begins with the platinum coin and the the nature of fiat currency.

Listen to internet radio with Jay Ackroyd on Blog Talk Radio

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Framing Platinum Coin Seigniorage: A Working Document

Posted on February 5, 2013 by | 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.

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