Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Venezuela Out of Munnie


I'm starting to think that these people may be technically incompetent and actually incapable of operating a currency system rather than simply USD zombies... consider that operating a state currency system may be simply above their head, so this second rate nation HAS TO piggy back the USD system.

There simply may not be enough systems people there who are trained and technically competent to do this kind of work.




10 comments:

André said...

Good point... Maybe general incompetence is a justification for pegging a currency.

But the currency peg may also harm badly the economy, so it seems like and unsolvable problem...

Maybe education and knowledge are the best we can hope for.

Ignacio said...

The solution to all problems is education and knowledge ;) Otherwise we would be just like any other animal performing basic functions.

Peter Pan said...

Now we know how the toilet paper shortage was alleviated.

Matt Franko said...

"Maybe general incompetence is a justification for pegging a currency."

Yes this is what I am considering...

Seems simple to us but it may not be for them...

Could go back as long as examined by that article Tom put up yesterday about the establishment of institutional education in the west via the Protestant operations...

So we have centuries of experience with these institutional arrangements (Universities) that teach/train and these second rate nations not so much... so you see them sending students to study in the west, etc... their institutions they try to form are second rate, etc...

I would also lump in our longer term experience with the institution of the corporation or firm...

Gets back to "real constraints" again... in this case real people with the KSAs....

So when the MMT people say: "a government can always..." that is another statement which is not always true... if the nation does not possess enough people with the necessary skills, then "a govt CANNOT always..." because they dont have the qualified people there in their nation...

Simsalablunder said...

"MMT people say: "a government can always..." that is another statement which is not always true..."

But then you put another meaning into it than MMT-people do. MMT-people have explained what they mean by it, that is they've given the statement a certain meaning in a context, which taken out of its context and given another meaning gets distorted.

Matt Franko said...

Sims their theory assumes people who are competent/trained/qualified to do work like this are ubiquitous... which I am proposing may not be the case... hence we see what we are seeing...

Simsalablunder said...

No, MMT-people are saying "a government can always..." because THEY are competent/trained/qualified to do so because THEY understand how the system is supposed to work. They also know that others aren't always competent/trained/qualified hence the outcome of that incompetence we've see all over the western world.

They also know that rules and laws have been put in place to hinder the "a government can always...". But that can be change by putting another government in charge with the right knowledge. That is of course not an easy task as we both know from our different perspective.

Matt Franko said...

Sims idk I am trying to create an alternative theory in contrast to the "neoliberal conspiracy!" explanations I keep hearing from them...

imo the issue is one of basic competency...

Look at Bill last year with the Greek thing... you had the person put in the position of finance minister there, Yanis V., who didnt even know that Greece still possessed a Treasury minting and engraving facility... so Bill did a google maps or mapquest or wtf thing and found it and posted the map link to his blog...

So I dont see how this is a "neo-liberal conspiracy!" when the guy hired was so incompetent he didnt even know they still had a printing and engraving operation in the Country, etc... much less have the training in general systems theory to be able to properly administer a complex system like we are talking about here...

So Bill thinks the guy is lying when there is no evidence of that...

Calgacus said...

It's a lot easier to run a system without a peg, than with one. The problem is not an absence of trained people, but the presence of people who are certified as being trained but aren't. Mainstream economics, especially concerning the foreign sector is negative knowledge. Someone with no training at all would do a much better job - the only use of "trained people" would be to listen carefully, and always do the exact opposite. Mark Weisbrot notes that there is the (psychotic) idea in Venezuela & elsewhere that pegging currencies is more "progressive" & "left" than floating.

Simsalablunder said...

" "neoliberal conspiracy!"

I'm pretty sure Bill doesn't use the word "conspiracy" for good reasons, and that is because it's not a conspiracy. You can have people running the same direction without there being a conspiracy behind it.