Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Michael Stephens — Galbraith and Wray on Putting Full Employment Back on the Agenda (Video)

James Galbraith and Randall Wray spoke about returning full employment to the policy agenda at an event in Helsinki on Monday organized by the Foundation for European Progressive Studies and supported by the Kalevi Sorsa Foundation and the Finnish Confederation on Trade Unions (SAK).
Wray focused on Minsky’s under-discussed work on poverty and full employment (the Levy Institute is currently putting together a new book containing a collection of Minsky’s writings on these topics): “Minsky wrote almost as much on poverty, unemployment, and employment policy as he had on financial instability.”
Multiplier Effect
Putting Full Employment Back on the Agenda (Video)
Michael Stephens

13 comments:

paul meli said...

This is how you play the game…go on the offensive.

Radicals do the heavy lifting, moderates take the credit.

A little off-topic but I highly recommend this article (review) on the new film "Lincoln":

http://jacobinmag.com/2012/11/lincoln-against-the-radicals-2/

it discusses the realities of who really pushes the policy envelope and what happens to real people when we compromise.

Matt Franko said...

Seems like Speilberg and Kushner miss the insights that Septeus left us at my "Lincoln" post from last week.... as far as making a stand to defend the principle of maintaining a western system of representative govt... "of by and for..."

Prosecuting a war that killed more people than previous in human history does not seem like a "compromising" action... Antietam still stands as the worst 1 day loss of life in a battle of Armed Forces I believe...

Lincoln hardly looks like a "compromiser" (to me anyway)...

rsp,

Matt Franko said...

Paul,

As far as "framing" to me, I would prefer to hear Septeus' type of "framing" as far as how to present the essence of state currency systems... it's about authority and power.

FD: I am no libertarian...

rsp,

paul meli said...

Matt,

Those soldiers died for something that took another hundred years of suffering (the ones the War supposedly saved) and hard work by movement radicals before it was finally addressed for real…Lincoln compromised principles for expedience, just as we seem to be witnessing now with Obama.

Whats a few dozen million lives in the scheme of things?

paul meli said...

"it's about authority and power…"

Matt, I understand your argument but here it's about fair authority and power and we haven't had that in our lifetimes, at least not from my perspective.

As I've said before I am willing to submit to reasonable authority, but authority (and institutions) have betrayed our trust, and show no signs of regaining it.

The only thing they have left now is force or witholding our means of support.

Matt Franko said...

"authority (and institutions) have betrayed our trust"

Paul, Consider it is not "authority" but rather the persons who have occupied the positions of authority who have betrayed us...

Saying "we're out of money" or "we are borrowing from China" is the same as saying "I reject/deny the authority of the position I am currently occupying" (to me, again, FD: I am no libertarian....)

"1 Let every soul be subject to the superior authorities, for there is no authority except under God. Now those which are, have been set under God, 2 so that he who is resisting an authority has withstood God's mandate." Romans 13:1

"authority" in this scripture is NOT a human being... I believe Lincoln had this scripture in view constantly....

The morons on the political right as well as left continuously deny this authority that has been given to humanity... this is the core of the problem from my (non-libertarian) pov...

I'm on "team human"... I view these morons as almost "sub-human", traitorous to their own species... I'd like to see them all in GITMO...

rsp,

Matt Franko said...

Septeus comment from the other thread (I re-post):

"Lincoln was not a "strong supporter of the Fugitive Slave Act" but a reluctant one who didn't want to give credence to the radical abolitionist who where calling for the destruction of the Union and denouncing the Constitution. Anyone who knows anything about Lincoln knows that the preserving the Union was in his view the only way to end slavery and he was correct in that assessment.

Neoconfederate Racist Traitors like racist Bob Roddis hate Lincoln because his defense of the Nation against foreign imperial domination via the "Free Trade" and from attacks by proxy states and terrorists against in the Union in the form successionism.

The strong Federalism of the Union provided the only defense against the formation of a world British Empire with absolute control seeing as the United States was the only truly independent power after the Crimean War and it alone could stand against the international system of Free Trade which demands slavery at it's core to operate.

Bob Roddis is pro-world government just like his buddy Ron Paul as strong it's a "gold standard controlled" by Rothchild and Barring Banks just like it was during the 19th century. All the so-called economist he cites studied at the "London School" and that is why he so obsessed trying to destroy public currency in favor of "sound currency" which was a favorite of the Confederate and Bankster propaganda against the Union.

I'm betting that Bob Roddis will soon start citing Aaron Burr as an authority to use against the evil's of fiat money as soon as he find it just like many Ron Paul supporters have...

He doesn't believe in state's rights but rather wants the states so weak and conflicted that they can be dominated and controlled by foreign banking interests. He has no principled stand against federalism he only opposes interest of the state acting to protect on the basis of principle rather than property.

Libertarianism is the heart and soul of world Imperialism and slavery for the reason that it cannot abide the idea that Nation by it own authority declare certain actions of international markets and forces that controlled those market will not be allowed to imposed their will on the Nation. By standing on the principle of National Independence Lincoln alone defeated the institutions of world slavery because the only principle that could ever defeat slavery that of the sovereign nation claiming it's rightful authority against the privileged claims of property rights and for human liberty."

paul meli said...

"I'm on "team human"... I view these morons as almost "sub-human", traitorous to their own species... I'd like to see them all in GITMO…"

I'm with you here…and GITMO is too good for them.

But except for things like gravity, people are the only things we actually deal with when dealing with authority. Even the "authority" of God or as read from the Bible is subject to whomever is reading it.

I have to stop my religious friends when they try to tell me what the Bible "says". How would they know? Can they legitimately claim to speak for God?

When you quote scriptures in your posts here it seems to me you are generally trying to make a point, that these things that should be obvious have been known for some time, the ideas are not new, but are part of some higher"authority", not necessarily asserting authority. The ideas represent wisdom.

paul meli said...

Matt, re septeus' comment:

I'm not a history buff but my takeaway from the article I quoted didn't give me the impression that the abolitionist movement was uniformly "calling for the destruction of the Union and denouncing the Constitution". Maybe some of them.

The radicals said of the conquered states “their leaders must be hanged and their states treated as conquered provinces.”

This isn't a whole lot different than sending them to GITMO.

I have no problem hanging the bankers responsible for the GFC and treating the financial sector parts of a failed enterprise.

Maybe the Civil War saved the Union but we institutionalized Jim Crow and continued de-facto slavery for another 100 years.

I'm not sure the South is part of the Union yet.

What I'm talking about is a far cry from Bob Roddis' rantings.

Anyway, my take-away is that Obama is going to compromise us into a worse position than we started from, just like Lincoln did with the slaves, and there is nothing to be gained from this.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to be on the radio here in NH next week, and told the host that I want to talk about full employment. She has already posted some quotes from billyblog on Facebook. Boning up on all of the MMT JG/ELR full employment literature this weekend.

geerussell said...

That's great news, Dan. Will there be a stream or podcast download available?

Matt Franko said...

book 'em Dan-o!

;) best of luck .. (not that you will need it..) rsp,

Unknown said...

Good luck Dan!