Friday, March 24, 2017

Michael J. Sainato — Bernie Sanders’ Economic Advisor [Stephanie Kelton] Shreds Trumponomics


Stephanie Kelton.

Counterpunch
Bernie Sanders’ Economic Advisor Shreds Trumponomics
Michael J. Sainato

19 comments:

Matt Franko said...

", there may be no more room for economic recovery given the economy has reached its true employment potential,"

Krugmanesque....

Noah Way said...

Misrepresented by taking it out of context.

there may be no more room for economic recovery given the economy has reached its true employment potential, or as Kelton puts it, ” output is near its full employment ceiling not because the economy rose to its potential but because we lowered the definition of what we believe our nation’s productive capacity to be. It’s a bit like giving up on the idea that your child is capable of achieving straight As, relaxing the goal to a 2.0 GPA, and then celebrating when he presents you with across-the-board Cs.”

Matt Franko said...

Its still Krugmanesque...

Peter Pan said...

Trumponomics down on the farm...
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-farms-immigration/

Matt Franko said...

ie The counterpunch guy is misrepresenting Kelton's position as Krugmanesque...

and his lede is overstating it quite a bit...

Matt Franko said...

and the whole thing from Counterpunch here is fake news to begin with:

"Don't believe those phony numbers when you hear 4.9 and 5 percent unemployment. The number's probably 28, 29, as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently 42 percent."
— Donald Trump on Tuesday, February 9th, 2016 in a victory speech after the New Hampshire primary

Checkmate...

Peter Pan said...

There's no mention of "Krugmanesque" in the article. And thankfully, no painting to illustrate it.

Matt Franko said...

""We knew economic recovery would be slow and we are near full employment," Krugman said of the Obama recovery.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/08/07/stephen_moore_vs_paul_krugman_obama-paul_krugman_model_has_failed.html

this is where the whole NAIRU recent dust up came from...

The counterpunch guy is trying to ascribe this Krugman position to Kelton imo...

The article is not well written...

imo Kelton and Trump are on the same page wrt employment levels and the guy is trying to draw a technical distinction where there really isnt any...

Hes probably a journalist...

Matt Franko said...

Look the guy says:

"but as Bernie Sanders Former Chief Economic Advisor Stephanie Kelton, a Professor of Economics at University of Missouri-Kansas City, notes in a recent paper, there may be no more room for economic recovery given the economy has reached its true employment potential, "

Which is the current Krugman position...

And then he quotes Kelton who says no such thing she provides an analogy to show that the current UE figures are all phony BS in the first place same as Trump has been doing for the whole of his campaign....

ie more pure politics and a lack of technical competency from counterpunch as usual....

Peter Pan said...

From the paper authored by Kelton:
As Larry Summers has shown, the bulk of the progress that was made in closing the output
gap came, “not through the economy’s growth but through downward revisions in its potential” (2014, p. 66). In other words, as Figure 2 shows, output is near its full employment ceiling not because the economy rose to its potential but because we lowered the definition of what we believe our nation’s productive capacity to be. It’s a bit like giving up on the idea that your child is capable of achieving straight As, relaxing the goal to a 2.0 GPA, and then celebrating when he presents you with across-the-board Cs. Junior is now a high achiever!


She is providing arguments from more than one side.

Peter Pan said...

Read the LA Times article
"Wages rise on California farms. Americans still don’t want the job"
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-farms-immigration/

Depending on your perspective, part of Trumponomics is being shredded by the realities of the agriculture industry.

Peter Pan said...

From a JG perspective, we want to be increasing the cost of labour, to encourage mechanization.

Matt Franko said...

"because we lowered the definition of what we believe our nation’s productive capacity to be."

Who is "we"? Not me... not Trump... not many other MMTers seemingly who think there should still be a JG under current employment conditions...

Matt Franko said...

Oh boo hoo the price of Chardonnay is going to go up or the bazillionaires who own those vineyards are going to have to eat it...

Peter Pan said...

The expensive wine farmers can afford the wage increase... and they are poaching their neighbours.

Noah Way said...

U6 is over 9%, and BLS routinely changes its methodology to reduce the numbers.

Andrew Anderson said...

From a JG perspective, we want to be increasing the cost of labour, to encourage mechanization. Bob

A UBI would increase the cost of labor, as well it should, since humans should not have to be wage slaves to survive - not even to government.

Most humans COULD survive without being wage slaves before family homes, farms, businesses, and the commons were stolen by government-privileged usury cartels and other un-Biblical means such as unlimited land ownership.

Matt Franko said...

We can't all be farmers ... we all don't have to be farmers...

Peter Pan said...

Sounds like the Venezuelan Way...