Sunday, September 23, 2018

Brad DeLong — Rob Johnson and George Soros: A Better Bailout Was Possible

Rob Johnson and George Soros: A Better Bailout Was Possible: "A critical opportunity was missed when the burden of post-crisis adjustment was tilted heavily in favor of creditors relative to debtors.... When President Barack Obama’s administration arrived, one of us (Soros) repeatedly appealed to Summers... [for] equity injection into fragile financial institutions and... writ[ing] down mortgages to a realistic market value.... Summers objected that ... such a policy reeked of socialism and America is not a socialist country...
The political cost was the Democrats losing both the presidency, the legislature, and most state capitals, largely as a result of failure to stand up.

Grasping Reality
Rob Johnson and George Soros: A Better Bailout Was Possible
Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

7 comments:

Matt Franko said...

Shouldn’t have even happened in the first place if tptb were competent...

Konrad said...

A better bailout was possible

When creditors are bailed out, we praise it as the “American way.”

When debtors are bailed out, we condemn it as “socialism.”

Anything that helps average people, or which narrows the gap between the rich and the rest, is condemned as “socialism.”

Bob Roddis said...

1. Define "we" as in "we praise it as the 'American way'".

2. writ[ing] down mortgages to a realistic market value.... Summers objected that ... such a policy reeked of socialism and America is not a socialist country...

What a mystery. A mis-pricing of mortgages. How could such a thing happen???

Hint: Austrian School theory holds that there is a mis-pricing of almost everything when using fiat funny money along with a continuous theft of purchasing power to those receiving the new fiat funny money first. Fiat funny money bubbles burst because their unsustainable prices collapse to be replaced by realistic pricing. Better not think about that. Or ever allow it to happen.

Konrad said...

"Define 'we'..."

A fair question.

By "we" I refer to America's basic social narrative, which is pro-neoliberal. For example, socialism is vilified in common discourse, and in corporate media rhetoric, and in the lies of pundits, professors, and politicians.

Control the narrative, and you control the mass mind.
Control the mass mind, and you control the world.

The American narrative is anti-socialism, and pro-oligarch. Welfare for rich corporations is ignored, while programs that help average people are commonly called "entitlements" that are "unsustainable."

Andrew Anderson said...

Austrian School theory holds that there is a mis-pricing of almost everything when using fiat funny money along with a continuous theft of purchasing power to those receiving the new fiat funny money first. Bob Roddis

While Austrians and Bob prefer to steal via deflation.

Theft is theft, Bob.

One would think gold is lead, the effect it has on Austrian brains.

Andrew Anderson said...

Besides, Bob, you miss that the non-bank private sector may not even use the "funny money" you condemn except for mere physical fiat.

That means artificially suppressed demand in addition to Cantillon effects, which golden fiat DOES NOT solve.

Konrad said...

@Naoh Way:

Franko is a delinquent little punk. If he can't get positive attention, he seeks negative attention by soiling his diapers and leaving them on everyone's pillow.

He's a wretched little worm that should have been stepped on at birth.