Tea party founder Michael Johns nailed things honestly back in 1997, when he spoke and published at Warren Mosler's Epic Coalition consortium.
"... the balanced-budget debate, rather than seeking the advancement of any specific macroeconomic goal is more a convenient means by advocates for accomplishing other political objectives that otherwise might be less sellable"
That text was published in several places, back in 1996, and recently reposted.
http://www.worldandihomeschool.com/public_articles/1996/april/wis14111.asp
http://www.epicoalition.org/docs/bbnta.html
http://moslereconomics.com/2012/09/06/1996-washington-post-article/
And was even discussed in Turkish (crude translation here)
http://dergi.sayistay.gov.tr/icerik/der50m5.pdf
So far, I haven't found a link to a copy supposedly re-posted to the Washington Post in 1996.
See also, "Balanced budget legislation or bad budget legislation? John Loxley http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-17891126.html
In addition, note several articles positing the same theme, by William Vickrey, plus much more, at the Columbia University Archives.
13 199 Balanced Budget is Not the Answer, Paper, 2 June 1992
13 200 Balancing the Budget is a Recipe for Economic Disaster, Paper, Feb-May 1995
13 201 Budget Balancing: A Cruel, Pious Fraud, letter to editor, undated
14 comments:
Roger,
Just to point out (no antagonism) that this is hearsay.
iow the folks in these references are asserting that some are misrepresenting their true knowledge about fiscal policy and the related monetary system characteristics for alternative purposes, but they are providing no evidence to this effect.
They are simply asserting that this is so.
We would need leaked emails, a transcript of a meeting, etc..
ie Ryan on tape somewhere saying: "yeah, I know we could let the deficit go where ever it wants to as all it represents is the ex post savings desires of the non-govt sector, but we feel that would provide too much money to our political enemies... so instead, what I am doing is going around and making up this big false propaganda story about how we're going broke and borrowing from the Chinese and all of this and the American people are buying it! Ha ha ha...."
We dont have any evidence that Ryan or any others out of paradigm have ever revealed this about themselves or ever admitted to any of this...
these assertions assume that these people actually know a lot more than they are letting on but there is NO EVIDENCE of this....
iow are these people asserting that Ron Paul is really NOT literally in love with gold? I say he is.
rsp,
Roger -- Good finds. This whole deficit madness has got to be stopped. The entire political establishment, from left to right, seems to have fallen for it. I see the talking heads on CNN and others just parroting the deficit hawks, without the slightest question of whether deficit reduction is even a good idea. And understanding MMT isn't even necessary. There is plenty of mainstream economic theory that says this is exactly the wrong time to cut the deficit. Apparently Keynesian has become a dirty word.
Matt, you talk about people who are disgraced. One of the saddest disgraces in this country right now is the COMPLETE abdication by the Press of its responsibility to challenge the political classes and financial elites. Very sad (and very bad!).
John,
Right, my comment above is related to the issue of trying to pinpoint what is the real problem here...
ie Are prople just not able to understand in mathematical terms how a state currency can/should operate? And they are then stuck in the semantics? In this case it is a human cognition problem?
OR... do people really have cognition of these operations but are frauds? bearers of false witness? liars? etc.. like Roger's post here posits towards other objectives with propaganda???
I think we have to nail this down before we can be most effective in operating against these falsehoods.
I'm trying to identify cases where there is hard evidence of people verifiably exhibiting knowledge on one occasion, but then pretending they dont on another, with evidence.... I'm not finding any that does not rely on hearsay and innuendo...
But then towards the theory that it is just a giant cognition problem, we have immeasurable amounts of evidence of stupid statements, manifest irrationality, dumbfoundedness, obsession, etc...
So I submit that based on available evidence, at this point, this is a HUGE mathematical human cognition problem of EPIC proportions...
But evidence could of course change this conclusion....
rsp,
Don't know if this is what you are looking for, but in Paul Ryan's case, it's unabashed hypocrisy. He argued for "Keynesian" deficit spending/stimulus on the floor of the House in 2002.
The Breathtaking Hypocrisy of Paul Ryan
Political self-interest is the best explanation.
It doesn't matter if they don't know, what matters is they ought to know. They can be condemned for this alone.
Furthermore, there's plenty of evidence that some of them do know, and lie.
Look at Cheney, who famously said, "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter". Now, he was speaking in context of getting re-elected, but to suggest that none of these people know what they are doing is not credible. They run the banks. How can they be ignorant of the truth? Bernanke has said repeatedly in public interviews that what he does is no different than marking up numbers in a computer. Some of them do indeed grasp the operational realities.
This is a purely political decision. They throw away trillions to the military and Wall Street, and gripe over a widow's mite for the poor. They are making a clear-eyed calculation that shoveling graft to the rich will benefit themselves personally more than helping their fellow citizens. Maybe some are not making this calculation consciously -- they simply shy away from the truth. After all the best liars believe their own fiction.
Matt,
I saw a video interview with Pete Stark (D-CA)a while back where he seemed to be in paradigm. Don't know his voting record on pertinent budget issues.
Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjbPZAMked0
Matt,
I saw a video interview with Pete Stark (D-CA)a while back where he seemed to be in paradigm. Don't know his voting record on pertinent budget issues.
Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjbPZAMked0
Anon,
Yes Ryan did that back then small tax cuts and then the economy took off.
So he thinks small "pump priming" works now.
What he doesnt understand are the true reasons why the economy took off (huge private deficits) in the early 2,000s... and now he thinks its "too late" and Obama squandered the stimulus and the deficit is exploding higher, etc...
reslez, yes they are believing their own bullshit..
Paul, yes I remember that Stark video but then if this is so, what does this guy do all day???? Does he not think it is a problem for officials to be out there all day dispensing falsehoods to the public? this makes me think he doesnt really get it...
rsp
Matt,
Pete Stark is one of the most liberal congressmen around. His voting record has been to increase spending. He is vocal in his district on the issues raised in the video. In his town hall meetings, he does not suffer fools (morons in your terminology) easily. In fact he is quite brutally honest - not too different than you saw on the video. But since the Clinton led DLC takeover of the Democratic Party, he and other old time liberal/Keynesians have been sidelined from policy making.
As the old time liberals retire, their seats are taken over by young neo-liberals in the Democratic Party who kiss the ass of the DLC.
Clonal,
No mention of any of this in Stark's priorities here:
http://www.petestark.com/priorities/issues
No mention at all of these fiscal falsehoods..
Here's another one:
"Paul Ryan is wrong for the Middle Class"
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=485884638090815&id=15746130061
He's not wrong for everybody? Wrong for seniors? A moron across the board? Looks like if he ever was once in paradigm, he's now lost it....
And this from Warren's site on how certain lower level GOP staffers were in paradigm about the "debt" and deficts, BUT yet the GOP leadership looked at this back in the 90's:
"Responding to this criticism from House Republican freshmen. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has made it clear that the objective of a balanced budget surpasses any other progrowth initiatives. “They have two highly competitive desires: to balance the budget and a tax cut,” Gingrich was quoted as saying about Republican freshmen in January. “At some point, you’ve got to say, ‘O.K., which has precedence?’ And I think in the end, balancing the budget does.”
So there is perhaps some lower level GOP people who understand this and are mostly in paradigm, but the leadership remain clueless even till now 15+ years later....
This is the way I am looking at it right now (EVIDENCE NOT HEARSAY could change my beliefs)
Democrats: 100% morons
GOPers: 99% morons / 1% in paradigm (but suppressed/ignored)
rsp,
Matt,
I think this is one of those instances where we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
We're coming in from behind here.
I see what youre saying Paul...
btw, heard a fresh interview of Ryan on CNBC this AM, revising the above projection:
GOPers: 99.999 % morons / 0.001 % non-morons...
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