Tag Archives: MMT

The Great Austerity Swindle!

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Devin Smith | 21 comments

Our Congresspeople, corporate CEOs, tea partiers, most economists, Pete Peterson’s minions, and even our President, tell us that we’re running out of money; and that if we can’t keep running huge deficits, and increasing our national debt forever, because eventually, our creditors will just cease lending us our dollars back.

Continue reading →

21 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #mintthehvpcs, $60 T coin, austerity, Fiscal Policy, grand bargain, great betrayal, HVPCS, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Understanding the Permanent Floor—An Important Inconsistency in Neoclassical Monetary Economics

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Scott Fullwiler | 156 comments

By Scott Fullwiler

I’ve written numerous times already about how a deficit “financed” by bonds vs. “money” doesn’t matter in terms of inflationary effect. Notwithstanding my views there (which are not discussed in this post), the point of this post will be to explore the neoclassical paradigm on this matter, since this is at the core of the recent debate between Steve Randy Waldman (see here, here, and here) and Paul Krugman (see here and here) on the so-called “permanent floor.” (It might be of interest to some that I explained how a “permanent floor” would work back in 2004.)

Continue reading →

156 Comments

Posted in Scott Fullwiler

Tagged krugman, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, neoclassical inconsistencies, permanent floor, QE, Waldman

Some One Penny Bets

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Devin Smith | 63 comments

By James Stuart

This post is not about the TDC, although I am a big fan. This is about putting into the MMT conversation a different point of view about Obama. Most MMTers seem to think that the President is a Trojan Horse – attractive on the outside; dangerous, even lethal on the inside. I have a different perspective. What I often do now, when I disagree with someone, instead of arguing, I make one penny bets. The bets need to be about something definite and measurable. If I win, my position on the issue may not be proven, but it is at least partially vindicated.

Continue reading →

63 Comments

Posted in Guest Blogger

Tagged deficit ceiling, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, obama, republicans, sequestration

MMT Movie: Economics for Dummiez

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Devin Smith | 16 comments

By Donna D’Souza (Trixie)

16 Comments

Posted in Guest Blogger

Tagged MMT, Modern Monetary Theory

The Political Economy of the Coin and the Debt Ceiling

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Devin Smith | 21 comments

By Matthew Berg

A fateful Saturday in January

On Saturday afternoon, the White House ruled out using platinum coin seignorage as a way to defuse the political crisis caused by Congressional Republicans’ unwillingness to raise the debt ceiling. In the words of press secretary Jay Carney:

“There are only two options to deal with the debt limit: Congress can pay its bills or they can fail to act and put the nation into default.”

Continue reading →

21 Comments

Posted in Guest Blogger

Tagged #TDC, coin seigniorage, debt ceiling, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, sequestration

The Most Embarrassing Financial Column of 2013

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Devin Smith | 29 comments

By William K. Black

We are only two weeks in to 2013 and there is plenty of time for far more embarrassing financial columns to be written, but The Guardian’s financial editor, Heidi Moore, has opened up an early lead in the competition. Moore’s column represents five embarrassing elements. She entitled her piece: “’Mint the coin’: why the platinum coin campaign doesn’t even work as satire.”

Continue reading →

29 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged #MintTheCoin, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, neo-liberal doctrine

Public Debt, Debt Ceiling and Monetary Sovereignty: Some Accounting Realities

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Devin Smith | 45 comments

By Eric Tymoigne

The public debt is the outstanding U.S. Treasury securities (USTS). It includes both marketable (T-bills, T-notes, T-bonds, TIPSs, and a few others) and non-marketable securities (United States notes, Gold certificates, U.S. savings bonds, Treasury demand deposits issued to States and Local Gov., all sorts of government account series securities held by Deposit Funds). What are the means to reduce the public debt? Continue reading →

45 Comments

Posted in Eric Tymoigne

Tagged debt ceiling, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, monetary sovereignty, public debt

Ezra Klein Chooses Fear Mongering the Big Coin, I Choose Ending Austerity!

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Devin Smith | 29 comments

By Joe Firestone
(H/t to Lambert Strether for the title!)

Here’s a commentary on Ezra Klein’s recent diatribe against Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS).

But there’s nothing benign about the platinum coin. It is a breakdown in the American system of governance, a symbol that we have become a banana republic. And perhaps we have. But the platinum coin is not the first cousin of cleanly raising the debt ceiling. It is the first cousin of defaulting on our debts. As with true default, it proves to the financial markets that we can no longer be trusted to manage our economic affairs predictably and rationally. It’s evidence that American politics has transitioned from dysfunctional to broken and that all manner of once-ludicrous outcomes have muscled their way into the realm of possibility. As with default, it will mean our borrowing costs rise and financial markets gradually lose trust in our system, though perhaps not with the disruptive panic that default would bring.

Continue reading →

29 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, #TDC, $60 T coin, austerity, beowulf, debt ceiling, debt-subject-to-the-limit, Ezra Klein, Fiscal Policy, game-changing PCS, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Philip Diehl, platinum coin seigniorage, small ball PCS, Trillion Dollar Coin

Krugman and Obama’s Dangerous Austerity Myths

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Devin Smith | 18 comments

By William K. Black

Austerity in response to the Great Recession has proven to be an economic weapon of mass destruction. On January 10, 2013, Paul Krugman (Nobel Laureate in Economics) and President Obama launched the same dangerous austerity myth in remarkably similar language.

Continue reading →

18 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged austerity, Geithner, lew, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory

Wake Up Progressives: the Trillion Dollar Coin Can Be Game-Changing!

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Devin Smith | 35 comments

By Joe Firestone

Well, not really. But if you view the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) meme, as I do, as a short-hand for the more general idea of using Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS), then yes, it can change the whole political game for progressives if President Obama dares to use it.

Literal TDC proposals would solve the debt-ceiling, but they won’t solve the larger problem of defeating the austerity politics that is so close to getting the cuts to social safety net and important discretionary government programs that austerians have long sought. PCS game-changer proposals are the ones calling for, or analyzing the impact of, PCS options aimed at paying off the national debt and covering anticipated federal deficit spending for some years. Continue reading →