Wednesday, December 21, 2011

John Carney schools Mitt Romney and hat tips Warren Mosler


CNBC NetNet
Mitt Romney's Ridiculous Comparison of US to Greece
by John Carney, Senior Editor, CNBC.com

Excellent piece. Concise, clear and precise. HIts home.

Between President Obama saying that the US is running out of money, and Mitt Romney, the likely GOP nominee, saying that US can become Greece, it's difficult to say who is more out of touch with the reality of the existing monetary system. It is clear that neither of them have a clue.

None of the other GOP candidates seem to have a clue either, since they advocate balanced budgets and fiscal austerity in the face of a intractable high unemployment and lagging effective demand, with saving increasing and the government yield curve collapsing. They seem to be rooting for deflationary depression.

Here are Warren's related posts:
Romney: US could face ‘financial crisis’ like Greece, Italy if Obama is reelected

Carney on Mosler on Romney

UPDATE: Mark Thoma: Mitt Romney endorses "the Big Lie" 

Romney: “The reason we have the housing crises we have is that the federal government played too heavy a role in our markets,” Romney said in a Nov. 9 Republican debate. “The federal government came in with Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac, and Barney Frank and Chris Dodd told banks they had to give loans to people who couldn’t afford to pay them back.”
quoted at Bloomberg: Romney-Gingrich Bid to pin Crisis on Gov't by David J. Lynch

8 comments:

Dan said...

Politics is about perception, not reality.

Ken said...

He's almost got it, except in the first paragraph, where he doesn't distinguish between private and US gov't "debt" when talking about it being a drag on the economy.

Tom Hickey said...

Ken "US gov't "debt" when talking about it being a drag on the economy."

Needs to study Scott Fulwiller's explanation of the MMT view of interest rates and his deconstruction of the IGBC.

Paul Krugman — The Conscience of a Neo-Liberal?

Interest Rates and Fiscal Sustainability

DanF said...

Tom,

What is you opinion of Steve Keen's work?

beowulf said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
beowulf said...

"I realize that Republicans want the United States to accumulate less debt."
Nahh, they embrace the idea of a shapeshifting budget deficit. Its as solid as a brick wall when it stands in the way of progressive govt spending and as ethereal as morning fog when it stands in the way of cutting high income taxes.

Curiously, alone among GOP candidates, Romney appears to dissent from this dogma (but like Bill Murray in Zombieland, wearing makeup to fit in with the undead, Romney has to work extra hard to sound as crazy as the other guys), check out this exchange with Chris Wallace:

WALLACE:... You would keep the top tax rate at 35 percent. And in contrast to most of your rivals, you would not lower the tax on capital gains and dividends for anyone making more than $200,000 a year... aren't you basically right there with Barack Obama, the rich should pay more?... [after Wallace has asked the aame question a couple different ways]...

ROMNEY: The policies that I've seen put forward of that nature [from the other candidates] have represented dramatic reductions in tax for the very highest income people... But my intent in running for president is to help middle income Americans and a plan that dramatically cuts taxes for the very, very wealthiest is in my opinion not the right course.
http://nation.foxnews.com/mitt-romney/2011/12/19/romney-goes-yard-fox-news-sunday-tremendous-defense-free-enterprise-and-capitalism

At about this point in the interview, Mitt realizes that he's not sounding crazy enough, so he quickly segues into his support for the balanced budget amendment. Oh, and here's a link to Bill Murray playing himself in Zombieland.
http://youtu.be/EXIZ4ySFoY8

Tom Hickey said...

Dan F: What is you opinion of Steve Keen's work?

I am neither an economist nor have I gone through Keen's work, so I have no opinion abouti it personally. I'll leave that to qualified people who are familiar with it.

Anti said...

It's great that the senior editor at CNBC isn't a stupid, hard money/deficit hawk supply-sider like most of the hosts.