Bill Black — Jobs, Jobs, Jobs – Not Austerity

Democrats under the spell of Rubinomics consign themselves to the political wilderness.

New Economic Perspectives
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs – Not Austerity
William K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC

Bill Mitchell — The Wall Street-US Treasury Complex

Today’s part of the story, is to trace the growing US influence on the IMF and the way it manipulated that institution to further its ‘free market’ agenda on a global scale. We will consider what Jagdish Bhagwati called the “Wall Street-Treasury complex”, which referred to the way in which financial market interests in the US combined with (pressured) the US Treasury Department to advance the myth that liberalisation of global capital flows would deliver massive benefits in the post-1971 period after the convertible currency, fixed exchange rate system collapsed.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The Wall Street-US Treasury Complex
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

The New Corrupt Elite That Is Running Our Economy — Lynn Parramore interviews Janine Wedel

Social anthropologist Janine Wedel, author, most recently, of Unaccountable: How Elite Power Brokers Corrupt Our Finances, Freedom, and Security, has spent decades getting to the bottom of how powerful people wield influence. In her view, old ways of talking about formal systems of power and corruption don't begin to capture new realities. Truth and transparency, she warns, have devolved into performance art. The buck stops nowhere.

AlterNet
The New Corrupt Elite That Is Running Our Economy
Lynn Parramore interviews Janine Wedel

Randy Wray — Egregious Fraudster: Introducing Bob Rubin’s Citicorp

By now you’ve heard that Citigroup admits—yet again—that it engaged in fraud. Heck, it was the business model under Bob Rubin. If you want to blame three individuals for the Global Financial Crisis, only Larry Summers and Alan Greenspan deserve more credit than Rubin.

Together they “softened-up” Congress so that it would free the Banksters, and then he ran Citi into the ground as he sucked gazillions of dollars of executive compensation out of the bank. Like all the CEOs of the biggest banks, he oversaw fraud on a scale never imagined—let alone seen—in the history of the globe.

And what did he get for all the fraud? Rich! Beyond your wildest dreams. Don’t cry for Rubin, he’ll stay rich. His bank will pay the fines–$4 billion in “real” money and another $3 billion in promised, illusory, relief to some of the people his bank screwed.
Don’t worry, Eric Holder will not prosecute actual human beings for crimes. He just wants some piddling fines paid out of shareholder value so that he can trumpet all the money he’s turning over to Uncle Sam.

Economonitor — Great Leap Forward

Egregious Fraudster: Introducing Bob Rubin’s Citicorp

L. Randall Wray | Professor of Economics, University of Missouri at Kansas City

Marshall Auerback — The Financial Crisis Of 2008 Can Be Laid At The Door Of The Clinton Administration

The usual hagiography, particularly amongst Democrats, is that the US got seriously off track during the Bush (II) presidency after the golden years of prosperity under the Presidency of Bill Clinton. That myth has afflicted much policy making amongst the party today, notably within the Obama Administration, which hired a lot of the ex-Rubinites responsible for creating the mess.

And there’s a lot more evidence that has come out to support the view that Clinton’s crew truly was “the wrecking crew” when it came to dismantling many of the protections that had afforded much financial stability to the US for much of the post World War II era....

Macrobits by Marshall Auerback
The Financial Crisis Of 2008 Can Be Laid At The Door Of The Clinton Administration
Marshall Auerback

Mark Thoma — Rubin: Sound Government Finances will Promote Recovery

New Democrat Third Way oracle speaks, invoking the confidence fairy. In other words, what to expect from a New Democrat Third Way administration like the Clinton and Obama administrations.

Economist's View
Rubin: Sound Government Finances will Promote Recovery
Mark Thoma | Professor of Economics, University of Oregon

Ho Hum ... Only Read This 'Cuz I Thought They Were Talking 'Bout The NY Fed!

Commentary by Roger Erickson

New York is Drowning in Bribes and Corruption

That ... uh ... implies that Mississippi is treading water? :)

And that all the London banking district street walkers are on a permanent High? :(

Makes you wonder which gang is actually running the NY jurisdiction? Robert Rubin's?

London? Perhaps ya gotta look at the Royal Family? :(

Yes, Sadly, It's Come To That: "Don’t Just Sit There, Bomb Something"

Commentary by Roger Erickson

Economic, industrial, fiscal and even monetary policy has come down to one, single moment of inertia, all channeled through ONE, POOR CHAP, getting mostly bad advice - by choice. If a US President only knew what all Americans know - we wouldn't have any Output Gap! Sadly, there's an elitist "court" of Presidential Advisers .... and you ain't in it! If you want anything, better lick Robert Rubin's boots.

As Steve Hansen often says. "This BS will keep working. Until it doesn't." Are you noticing, Middle Class America? Is it still working for you?

Hello? Anyone still IN the Middle Class?

Is It Legal To Play Fantasy Economics For Real Resources? :(

Commentary by Roger Erickson

It is if Robert Rubin MAKES it legal!

Whether YOU want it to be legal, or not.

Go back to your own fantasy, dude. The Middle Class fantasy belongs to Robert Rubin. He may even have trademarked and patented the class-ownership rights?

Yessir! Robert "Class Ruin" Rubin - he's our man! Hero to Benedict Arnolds, and Control Frauds everywhere. On the official Control Fraud Keating Scale, Rubin is the only one so far to be lauded Magna Cum Fraud.

You should see CR Rubin's "Beat the Rap" video. It's so hot it's classified!

MisRapture of the Rubine Economy

Commentary by Roger Erickson

Bill Black, the Missouri #ControlFraudHarrier is back to harrying Control Frauds and Deficit Hawks alike.

The New York Times is Wowed that Obama's Six Robert Rubinites Support Larry Summers

Will this epic - the MisRapture of the Rubine Economy - someday be as well known as the Rape of the Sabine Women?

Let's hope not. Shiver me Tibers, mateys. And I'm a tellin' ya we won't stand for it! We've loosed WhiteBeard the pirate prosecuter to scour the scoundrels from the high fees. Now he needs a fast ship and a doughty crew.

When Will Robert Rubin and Larry Summers Come Clean, and Admit 1% Use of PEPs?

Commentary by Roger Erickson

Brauny guys have come clean about PED*, and Weilly guys have admitted that PEP** was a mistake. So how long can Rubin and Summers shirk morality and continue operating a virtual LieStrong Self-Charitable Foundation?

Never heard of PEP? Surely you had to wonder how skinny-moral guys suddenly end up flexing so much fiat?

You surely can't argue that an entire nation's fiat was in their gene tree, no matter where they landed, or which tree they fell out of.

And what is it all for? Why do we exalt myosin blobs and megalomania sacs? Does the group intelligence of a nation really circle striated muscle tissue, or even hoarded public initiative? Both could be put to work on a greater variety of desired public outcomes. What happened to our sense of NEW adventure and BIGGER vistas to conquer? Forget "Land Ahoy!" We're on to "Dynamic Group Options Ahoy!!!"

Seriously. How dumb do WE think that WE are? Why even bother deluding ourselves? There are many things that feel briefly enticing, but don't remain so for long. It's clearly more productive to be far more selective about our choices - both physical and social. We're easily smart enough to do that, and only need to put in more time and effort on the democracy training field.

So. Was Ruinomics all dependent upon PEP, even if only used by ~1% of the electorate?

*physical performance-enhancing-drugs

** fiat perp-enhancing-policies; aka, Control Fraud

Conveniently Late Probe Finds Whole Nation Rigged at Expense of Middle Class - You Don't Say!

Commentary by Roger Erickson

This was known - and publicized - by many the day it started, and is just one of many TBTJ bankster schemes. Bill Black, et al? Whistleblowers? Cowed DAs? Brooksley Born?

Our current & prior administrations ORDERED that such things not be officially "discovered" until the statute of limitations had conveniently run out on many of the transgressions. And, all that AT the specific request of the lobbies working specifically FOR the TBTF banksters!

Plus, they argued and even arranged that we simply couldn't afford to stop the biggest thefts! (WTF? Can we just stop the stupid?)

That and the pace of making many financial thefts no longer illegal.

For Pete's sake, people!

A foolish, complacent electorate and it's options are soon parted? Already were. Nothing left but the yellen.

And even that may regress back to another summers of greater discontent, with even more fraud and looting of the US Middle Class.

Just how dumb IS this electorate?

Is this how the latest conversation went, among Bob Rubin, et al?

[Hmmm. They haven't arrested Larry Summers yet? Or Alan Greenspan? Not even Geithner??? Damn! Then they certainly ain't coming after me. Look, the opportunity is still there, boys, so let's shoot for double or nothing and make our new boy Fed Chief too. Then we can cash in 100x! How much do we need? Who cares! Take as much as we can, for as long as we can. That's our motto! It's what we do. Might get in the record books yet.

 The Grand Banks never ran out, right? Nor the Bison? Not even the Passenger Pigeon? Can't deplete the US Middle Class either! Now let's get to work. Hut, hut, hut. We got pensions to pilfer!

psst, Alan, if these bozos are dumb enough to swallow this, why can't I just make myself the next president instead of another flunky from Chicago or Arkansas ... or even the oil guys? It'll be like taking FICA from those stupid labor classes. Just how hard do you have to kick these people before they respond? You know, in a way, this is actually for their own good. Teach 'em not to be complacent. That's it, you know :)  I'm stealing their lunch for their own good. (chuckles .. ) Stupid @#$%!s. God how I despise 'em. Makes me wanna kick 'em even harder. Just to see how dumb these %$#'s really are.]

Gaius Publius — Did Obama deliberately lie in 2008 about his Social Security plans?

Yep. Neoliberal to the core.

America Blog
Did Obama deliberately lie in 2008 about his Social Security plans?
Gaius Publius

Marshall Auerback — Another Rubinite to the White House?

First, we had Treasury Secretary Jack Lew (whom Rubin made a very wealthy man at Citigroup). And now we find out that President Obama has nominated Walmart’s philanthropic head Sylvia Mathews Burwell to become director of the White House budget office. She touches all of the right bases: a McKinsey alumnus, and served as Rubin’s chief of staff from 1995 to 1997, when she moved back to the White House to serve as one of Clinton’s two deputy chief of staffs, the other being future Center for American Progress founder John Podesta. Podesta and Burwell worked under chief of staff Erskine Bowles, he of Bowles-Simpson fame.

So what’s wrong with having people in the White House who are familiar with the way the capital markets work? Well, yes, they are all “markets people”, who just happened to be around during the time of one of the greatest private sector debt bubbles in history and still fail to recognize the destructive dynamics unleashed by that. It’s as if I went a surgeon who amputates the wrong limb. Should I therefore go back to him for a 2nd procedure on the grounds that he might be more familiar with my body than other doctors?

Macrobits
Another Rubinite to the White House?
Marshall Auerback

(h/t Kevin Fathi via emial)

Robert Waldmann — On DeLong V Krugman

Monetary authorities using tight money to punish elected officials for violating Austerian doctrine strikes me as totally obviously what regularly happens (note your discussion of episodes of alleged expansionary austerity, in any case deficit reduction followed by high growth and speculate as to why Alesina claims that spending cuts work better than tax increases).

Basically the story that we have to do what Greenspan says or he will make US workers suffer makes a whole lot of sense to me.

Angry Bear
On DeLong V Krugman
Robert Waldmann

Robert Rubin, the Puppeteer, still running economic policy.

Geithner, Summers, Orzag, Daly, Jack Lew...the list goes on and on. Robert Rubin puppets, all.

No single individual has had an imprint on American economic policy over the past 20 years more than Robert Rubin. And the man put together an unblemished record of blowing up everything he touched: From Citigroup to the US economy with his late 1990s surpluses (which we're still trying to recover from) and as an encore, the entire global economy with his single minded pursuit of financial deregulation and derivatives.

Rubin is still with us, behind the scenes perhaps, but very active nonetheless by way of his puppets who continue to press for deregulation and "fiscal responsibility."

I recently saw the Puppeteer himself at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, having lunch with none other than Pete Peterson (another financial robber barron who's been gunning for an end to Social Security for decades and is likely to get it) and--you guessed it--Timmy Geithner, who looked like he was obediently taking orders from his two masters.

But it's the President who has become Rubin's main act. The Puppeteer has taken Obama's message of change and deftly crafted it to Wall Street's interests.