Monday, August 24, 2015

Roger Farmer — The Next Great Depression

What can we do? What should we do?

First: Give the Fed the power to buy a value weighted Exchange Traded Fund that contains every publicly traded stock. Commit to support the ETF by buying stocks. Pay for the shares by borrowing, or by trading Social Security Trust Fund.

Second: Raise the money interest rate to bring us back to normality and restore normal functioning of monetary policy.

When? Now!

If we do not act, and act soon, we are headed for another Great Depression.
Roger Farmer's Economic Window
Roger Farmer | Distinguished Professor of Economics at UCLA

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lol. I can see the neoliberal heads exploding. Krugman had a meltdown over the idea that the Chinese government was buying stocks.

Brian Romanchuk said...

This is ridiculous. The U.S. stock market is a few percentage points off of all-time highs, and the government has to go out and provide cash to those exiting the stock market?

If something happens to the real economy, enact some fiscal stimulus.

Matt Franko said...

"What can we do? What should we do?

First: Give the Fed the power to buy a value weighted Exchange Traded Fund that contains every publicly traded stock. Commit to support the ETF by buying stocks. Pay for the shares by borrowing, or by trading Social Security Trust Fund."

Now we have this guy having the Fed having to "borrow to pay for"..... This is a perfect example of JKH's opine that these academic economists just dont understand the operations... pretty sad state of affairs in the academe....

Greg said...

What a moron

This; "Pay for the shares by borrowing, or by trading Social Security Trust Fund"... tells you all you need to know about this guy. He thinks the Fed has to borrow the money from somewhere else in order to buy something.

How the hell do these guy even get paid for their academic positions? Its about as incoherent on monetary operations as one can get.

He's screaming that something needs to be done now..... cuz its an EMERGENCY.... and asks the entity that, according to all the neoliberal monetarists out there... is the all knowing and all powerful FED to go around with hat in hand and ask the Treasury if it can use some SSTF money or borrow from somewhere else (where?) in order to do what ONLY the all powerful Fed can do.

The stupid makes my head hurt.

Greg said...

You beat me to the comment Matt.... Im such a slow typist

Matt Franko said...

Greg its a real shame....

The irony is that we know all this stuff but we're not the ones working there... and then they wont listen to us... and the Fed people wont even correct them... which makes me think even the Fed people dont even know what the heck is even going on... if they let a guy like this get away with stuff like this...

unqualified leadership everywhere you look...

Greg said...

For sure Matt, being led by the blind.

It is absolutely gobsmacking though to have a guy yell for the FED to do something bold, as only they can supposedly, and then say that the boldness involves borrowing from someone else!!!! So who has the power here Mr Farmer? Is it the Fed or the guys they are trying to borrow from??

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

Imbecile was a medical category of people with moderate to severe intellectual disability, as well as a type of criminal. The term arises from the Latin word imbecillus, meaning weak, or weak-minded. It included people with an IQ of 26–50, between "moron" (IQ of 51–70) and "idiot" (IQ of 0–25).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbecile

This guy, basically.

Matt Franko said...

I,

the moron word is from an original Greek scriptural term (iirc "moroi") it means 'insipid or tasteless"... like a food cuisine prepared without salting to taste... imo perhaps"lacking a key ingredient"... they just cant get it... they manifestly lack "the key ingredient" (knowledge? aptitude? cognitive ability? all the above?) to be able to understand these systems and the systemic relationships....

so they have no choice but to fall back on "rote" learning methods and they just simply believe what they read and regurgitate it... without really ever reaching an actual understanding of it.. imo....

rsp,

lastgreek said...

Matt,

The word "moron" (μωρός, -ά, -όν) means "foolish" in the NT, just as it does in older forms of Greek such as Attic Greek, or even in modern Greek. How did you come up with "insipid" or "tasteless"? Btw, "moron" is also used for the word "baby" in modern Greek: το μωρό, for obvious reasons ;)

Peter Pan said...

nin·com·poop
ˈniNGkəmˌpo͞op/
noun
noun: nincompoop; plural noun: nincompoops
a foolish or stupid person.
Origin

late 17th century: perhaps from the given name Nicholas or from Nicodemus (by association with the Pharisee of this name, and his naive questioning of Jesus Christ; compare with French nicodème ‘simpleton’).

Roger Erickson said...

Just when you thought that no one could outdo the Committee to Neuter Our Fiat :(

Roger Erickson said...

right on cue

CounterPunch ‏@NatCounterPunch
The United States of Stupidity:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/25/the-united-states-of-stupidity/ …

Peter Pan said...

fixed:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/25/the-united-states-of-stupidity/