Tuesday, November 15, 2016

GOP and Trump put deficit on back burner


You knew this was going to happen... you have to just feel sorry for the left.





25 comments:

Malmo's Ghost said...

If he didn't parrot that the deficit is a big deal he'd have lost.

Not sure his fellow Republicans will go along for the ride, however. I highly doubt they will.

Tom Hickey said...

Ryan was just chosen speaker for the incoming Congress. The caucus was unanimous. Of course, a vote will have to be taken the the next congress is seated but right now, he is a shoe in.

Ryan is talking up Trump now, but it does seem that they have irreconcilable differences unless one of them gives.

Malmo's Ghost said...

Leopards don't change their spots. Ryan was undermining Trump every step of the way, much of which was because they differ on the core issues that got Trump elected. It's not good optics for Trump no matter how you spin it. Yet in a test of wits I think Trump will make him his proverbial bitch.

Matt Franko said...

You can take the boy out of the Ayn Rand but you cant take the Ayn Rand out of the boy...

Malmo's Ghost said...

True, Matt, but I fret not. The talking heads failed, including Mr Ayn Ryan.

Now the Bigs are attacking with their hordes of useful idiots on the streets. And there’s still war to quiet the upstarts. But watching the American oligarchy, including that dumb ass Ryan, currently in control of the intellectual means of production taking the beating of their collective lives warms my heart to no end. The iron law of oligarchy has been cut asunder. God doth live!

Matt Franko said...

yeah but in the other thread it looks like Trump has taken to run a quick few weeks of 'The Apprentice' to figure out who he wants for his staff...

Its one of his sons vs. Prince Reibus vs. Bannon.... who will survive to week 4??????

UFB!!!!!

Andy Blatchford said...

Nepotism, corruption...same ol same ol, meet the new boss etc.

Unknown said...

Deficit - what's the problem? Just print more money.

mmcosker said...

I hope he makes the deficit yuuuuuge.

Matt Franko said...

I hope he increases leading flow appropriately....

Tom Hickey said...

The iron law of oligarchy has been cut asunder.

We'll see. And I don't think we'll to wait long either if the transition team is any indication. It even includes the Trump dynasty.

Tom Hickey said...

I hope he increases leading flow appropriately...

If infrastructure is privately financed based on tax credits, where is the leading flow, by which I assume you mean the Treasury statement.

No leading flow from tax cuts.

GLH said...

Dick Cheney said, "Deficits don't matter." They only mattered when democrats were in office.

Andrew Anderson said...

Deficit - what's the problem? Xaiver Buchs IV

That inherently risk-free sovereign debt pays positive interest and is thus welfare proportionate to wealth, not need.

Price inflation is another possible problem but the severity of that could be reduced or even eliminated (while deposit insurance is being abolished) by eliminating privileges for depository institutions.

Matt Franko said...

That's why you can't look at "the deficit!" Tom...

We're going to have to monitor these tax credits in order to gauge their effects same as other components of leading flows...

Matt Franko said...

AA,

Its not proportional to wealth its proportional to USD savings...

You never address consideration for savers with your ZIRP advocacy....

Salsabob said...

Ah, the usual MMTers - never met any federal deficit spending they didn't fall in love with. Too bad they weren't around to get all giddy over Reagan's deficit spending that set the stage for the neo-Liberal takeover and stagnant wages for the 90%.

Let's see; the Great Orange One checklist -
- increase infrasturucture spending for pipelines and roads to remote frackin zones and drive energy prices down for some more 'healthy disinflation' because that's what the world really needs now - check
- increase infrastructure spending to build the wall (latest is that fences will now be okay with the Orange One) which has no production value whatsoever - check.
- siphon off considerable overhead from the infrastructure spending to the Giuliani mafisos - check
- use the deficit hysteria to cut other government spending, particularly safety nets, to the bone- check
- cut taxes the old trickle-down way and let the elites sock away the windfall into do-nothing T-bills because there's no sense in increasing production/hiring when demand from the lower 90% incomes remain stagnant; but give some of them enough to buy a extra 6-pac each month to feel good about the Great Orange One - check
- work a deal with China so the Orange One has a meaningless but front-page worthy win to show his trade toughness, but China gets the TPP template to dictate trade throughout the Asian Pacific.
- push Mexico and Canada out of NAFTA and into China's new trade paradigm; make the US as isolated as the Soviet Union in the 1980s
- throw big party for oligarchs, neoliberals and debate whether Saint Trump has outdone Saint Reagan - check

Tom Hickey said...

The question is how long the Trump supporters will give DJT to start turning things around for the people that put him in office to rein in the establishment, eliminate crony capitalism, and increase labor share.

DJT doesn't have to stand for reelection until 2020, if there is no tangible progress by the mid-terms, there will probably be some political pushback.

None of the programs that DJT has proposed so far is fast-acting, as a worker-directed tax cut would be or increased spending that benefits the lower three quintiles, who are most likely to increase consumption.

The fundamental challenge that most economists and policy makers miss is viewing the global economy as a system of national economies and national economies as nodes in that network that are also subsystems.

The result is thinking in terms of levers and control knobs without realizing that the circuit is interconnected. The result is unintended consequences and surprises.

As far as I can see GJT is a piecemeal thinker in this regard, thinking in terms of making deals and putting out fires, and he doesn't seem to have advisers that are systems thinkers.

In addition the system configured to be inefficient because it is policy-dependent and policy is political, involving an active opposition and many competing interests that don't take the whole into account.

We are going to see how smart economically and skillful politically DJT is.

Matt Franko said...

"he doesn't seem to have advisers that are systems thinkers."

Neither does MMT...

Ignacio said...

You never address consideration for savers with your ZIRP advocacy....

Because it's an stupid way to fix a symptom.

You don't treat the symptoms, you treat the problems. Well, in a functioning world, not the one we live in.

Matt Franko said...

So saving is stupid?

Tom Hickey said...

So saving is stupid?

Rewarding saving when it constitutes demand leakage is inefficient when there is no operational constraint on currency issuance.

Matt Franko said...

Well what if people want to save and retire early and then they die without being able to spend their savings?

Where was their compensation for never consuming while they were alive?

Tom Hickey said...

If the need to save to retire were replaced with an adequate education (no saving for kids' ed), healthcare and pension funding as a matter of common welfare, then the need for saving would be greatly reduced. If there were a hefty inheritance tax were in place, asset accumulation would be reduced.

It's not difficult to design a society in which everyone's basic needs are met as a public dividend while there is also abundant freedom of choice about what to consume as a matter of discretion.

Saving is largely a matter of morality rather than economic necessity and it is inefficient economically when it is not needed operationally.

In my view this is the message that needs to be communicated and debated. It cannot be forced on a society and if a society wants to be ruled by "morality" rather than economic opportunity, so be it. But people should understand the alternatives.

Matt Franko said...

Well the best both parties have to offer think "we're out of money!" so I dont see any of that type of a society being "designed" any time soon...

Also, what's with the Peterson people now all saying the Trump tax credit thing is "a gimmick!" when other left people are saying its a scam for the 1%?

Left: "Peterson people are a neo-liberal conspiracy!"

Left: "Trump's tax credit scheme is a neo-liberal conspiracy!"

Peterson people: "Trump's tax credit scheme is a big gimmick!"

Can you see the disconnect in the logic here?????