Friday, June 7, 2019
Figurative Language
You can't correct someone making a reification error by employing additional figurative language... you have to use proper real or literal language..
Down-thread Bill for example is trying to correct a bunch of left-wing morons but here is his title: "...parties erect the plank and then walk it" ... nice pirate metaphor but sorry its not going to work... youre trying to correct people who are not understanding the abstraction of govt accounting and finance and are defaulting into reification, so more of the figurative isn't going to work... that is what these morons are already doing... they are thinking the complex abstractions are real and we can run out of them...
Here is a quick sampling of his use of even more figurative language in the post real quick: "critiques coming out of the woodwork ... immediate response is to assess it and to try to corral it within the mainstream straitjacket... Science advances one funeral at a time... we didn’t unambiguously choose the ‘high’ way.. the ‘truth sandwich’.. , the economists were ‘crying wolf’.... the ‘fiscal ratio’ smokescreen... It is a downward spiral ... the top-end-of-town... The usual tripe:.. 3. Printing money!... speculators dump our currency.... he was frothing a bit, building himself up to a lather... one-size fits all ..."
I might have missed a few... this is... NOT.... GOOD.
We are not writing a song lyric.
This MMT tactic of just using ever more figurative language ("it like points on a scoreboard!") in a dialectic exchange to try to correct a bunch of people who can't understand the scientific abstractions involved in government accounting and finance
HAS not worked...
IS not working..
and WILL not work in the future.
It doesn't work.
How about try making an adjustment; or just keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result next time.
FT - Google warns of US national security risks from Huawei ban
Google are asking Trump to lift the Android ban on Huawei saying that to not do so would increase the security risk. Google say Huawei will only further develop their own version of Android which may have more security issues. Huawei phones have a large world wide market share and so Google and the U.S. could lose their grip. Every action can have unintended consequences.
There's a paywall on the Financial Times site but the first time you go to an article there it usually let's you in. You get one chance.
FT
FT - Google warns of US national security risks from Huawei ban
There's a paywall on the Financial Times site but the first time you go to an article there it usually let's you in. You get one chance.
FT
FT - Google warns of US national security risks from Huawei ban
Philip Geraldi - Tulsi Gabbard Pushes No War Agenda – and the Media Is out to Kill Her Chances
They're saying she's a Putin puppet, but Tulsi Gabbard knows how to answer them back. The neocons are pretending to be pro-democracy while playing their dirty tricks again.
Strategic Culture
Philip Geraldi - Tulsi Gabbard Pushes No War Agenda – and the Media Is out to Kill Her Chances
Tulsi Gabbard could well be the only genuine antiwar candidate that might truly be electable in the past fifty years, and that is why the war party is out to get her. Two weeks ago, the Daily Beast displayed a headline: “Tulsi Gabbard’s Campaign Is Being Boosted by Putin Apologists.”
Tulsi responded “Stephanopoulos shamelessly implied that because I oppose going to war with Russia, I’m not a loyal American, but a Putin puppet. It just shows what absurd lengths warmongers in the media will go, to try to destroy the reputation of anyone who dares oppose their warmongering.”
Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept described how NBC news published a widely distributed story on February 1st, claiming that “experts who track websites and social media linked to Russia have seen stirrings of a possible campaign of support for Hawaii Democrat Tulsi Gabbard.
But the expert cited by NBC turned out to be a firm New Knowledge, which was exposed by no less than The New York Times for falsifying Russian troll accounts for the Democratic Party in the Alabama Senate race to suggest that the Kremlin was interfering in that election. According to Greenwald, the group ultimately behind this attack on Gabbard is The Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD), ....
ASD was set up in 2017 by the usual neocon crowd with funding from The Atlanticist and anti-Russian German Marshall Fund. It is loaded with a full complement of Zionists and interventionists/globalists, ...
Strategic Culture
Philip Geraldi - Tulsi Gabbard Pushes No War Agenda – and the Media Is out to Kill Her Chances
America Needs to Reexamine Its Wartime Relationships — John Quiggin
The National Interest
America Needs to Reexamine Its Wartime Relationships
John Quiggin | Professor and an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow at the University of Queensland, and a member of the Board of the Climate Change Authority of the Australian Government
Why Economics Must Go Digital — Diane Coyle
The Enlightened Economist
Why Economics Must Go Digital
Diane Coyle | freelance economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and is acting Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation
The paradigm is shifting – and MMT and the Green New Deal have to be understood in that context — Richard Murphy
Richard Murphy addresses specific issues raised questioning MMT.
"Paradigms" are overarching conceptual models of systems that create a framework in terms of which competing theories can be generated in response to issues, especially emergent ones at the frontier of knowledge. The paradigm that has been in force with respect to policy issues since the rise of the Chicago School and the replacement of John Maynard Keynes with Milton Friedman has been neoliberalism, the basis of which is various iterations of neoclassical economics.
Richard Murphy sees that paradigm changing in favor of the MMT-based world view, which is institutionalist and historical rather than formalistic and naturalistic.Moreover, it's foundation is solidly empirical, being ground on the availability of real resources. Real scarcity rather than scarcity of capital ("money) is the actual issue, and the challenge is to allocate real resources effectively to solving emergent issues as efficiently as possible. Effectiveness is about goals and priorities, while efficiency is about means the means for achieving these objectives. To paraphrase management überguru Peter F. Drucker in The Effective Executive (not "efficient executive"), efficiency is about doing things right and effectiveness is about doing the right things.
The basis of neoclassical economics is the assumption that leaving individuals left free to choose will result in spontaneous natural order and that "planning" will reduce both the efficiency and effectiveness of the "magic of free markets," which includes free trade and free capital flows. The basis of capitalism is that favoring capital over the other factors of production, labor (people) and land (environmental), will result in maximum growth.
The basis of institutional economics is that economics is one aspect of society, along with many others, including the social and political. Society is a system of embodied individuals making decisions based on self-interest, however, "rational" self-interest is not limited to the economic other than in rather trivial matters. Moreover self-interest and its pursuit is affected by many factors arising from social embeddedness. Society is a complex adaptive system adapting through coordination to changing circumstance, a large part of which is environmental.
Now, externalities have become an existential threat, and social dysfunction also threatens security and order as a result of increasing inequality of distribution that is being perceived as rising injustice. Consequently, humanity rising to the need to adapt to the new conditions, and this is bringing about a paradigm shift socially, politically, and economically.
Tax Research UK
The paradigm is shifting – and MMT and the Green New Deal have to be understood in that context
Richard Murphy | Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University, London; Director of Tax Research UK; non-executive director of Cambridge Econometrics, and a member of the Progressive Economy Forum
Tax Research UK
The paradigm is shifting – and MMT and the Green New Deal have to be understood in that context
Richard Murphy | Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University, London; Director of Tax Research UK; non-executive director of Cambridge Econometrics, and a member of the Progressive Economy Forum
How social democratic parties erect the plank and then walk it–Part 2 — Bill Mitchell
In Part I, I considered an Australian-based attack on MMT from a Labour Party stooge. In this Part, I shift to Britain to address the recent article by a Northern Labour MP – Jonathan Reynolds – who is apparently, if his arrogance is to be believed, the Labour Party spokesperson on matters economic.
For the title of his recent article (June 4, 2019) was – Why Labour doesn’t support Modern Monetary Theory – which begs the question as to who actually doesn’t support MMT – all of Labour? Party? Politicians? Members? Who?.
I know of hundreds if not thousands of Labour Party members that are fully supportive of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).So who is he talking about?….
How social democratic parties erect the plank and then walk it – Part 2
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Trump Trade Triggered China
More of the figurative "pumping!"...
China has “tremendous” room to adjust monetary policy if the trade war with the U.S. deepens, says People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang https://t.co/rFqYgqrX5a pic.twitter.com/J9RCJiegF9
— Bloomberg (@business) June 7, 2019
George Glover - Heath chiefs furious after giant ‘F**k Trump’ message is daubed on grass
'Vandalism on Hampstead Heath is completely unacceptable', says City of London
A MYSTERY sign writer has used the slopes of Parliament Hill to send a message to US President Donald Trump – currently visiting the UK on an official state visit.
Heath walkers were bemused this morning (Wednesday) to find someone had used a field near Highgate Road to daub a slogan in giant letters stating “‘F**k Trump.” Nearby, another protester had created a sign overlooking the Parliament Hill running Track which warned ‘Hands Off Our NHS’.
Camden News Journal
George Glover - Heath chiefs furious after giant ‘F**k Trump’ message is daubed on grass
Mike 3 years ago already
Mike from 2016, already way ahead on outreach back then... writing about "the debt!" doomsday fallacies years ago on RealMoney.com and getting top headlines on yahoo.com
Nothing has changed from this. U.S. (really the whole planet earth) is in the exact same knowledge. There has been no change.
Thursday, June 6, 2019
USA Today: Donald Trump, $22 trillion debt is no Laffer-ing matter
lol Trump Derangement Syndrome lefty USAToday unqualified journos on the loose...
Dialectic trained MMT people making no difference whatsoever... none... zero... zip.... nada.... and never will...
...some left-wing Democrats lately have begun pitching their own voodoo economics known as "modern monetary theory." This holds that deficits don’t matter because currencies — particularly reserve currencies like the dollar — are monopolies, and therefore institutional investors will have no choice but to keep lending money to the governments that issue them.
So where does money come from?????— WhoWhat (@WhoWhat89080269) June 7, 2019
Donald Trump, $22 trillion debt is no Laffer-ing matter https://t.co/7Maiea7KUs via @usatoday
CORE and Periphery in the Reform of Econ 101 — Peter Dorman
Peter Dorman critiques the CORE revision of Econ 101 and finds that it relies too much on rote and not enough on active learning. Rote may be more suitable for those going on in the study of economics, but most students taking Econ 101 don't. The introductory course should be designed to serve the needs of the many rather than the few.
Econospeak
CORE and Periphery in the Reform of Econ 101
Peter Dorman | Professor of Political Economy, The Evergreen State College
Why Trump now wants talks with Iran — Pepe Escobar
The Vineyard of the Saker
Why Trump now wants talks with Iran
Pepe Escobar
See also
Reminiscence of the Future
Pepe Escobar's Superb Segment On European Elections.
Andrei Martyanov
Robert Dugger - Modern Monetary Inevitabilities
For all the talk of Modern Monetary Theory representing a brave new frontier, it is easy to forget that the United States has gone down this road before, when the US Federal Reserve financed the war effort in the 1940s. Then, as now, the question is not about government debt, but about the debt’s purpose and justification.
An excellent, concise article on MMT.
In his book Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises, Dalio documents the steps that central banks have historically taken when faced with a booming economy that suddenly crumples under the weight of debt. The first step (Monetary Policy 1, or MP1) is to cut overnight official rates to stimulate credit and investment expansion. The second (MP2) is to buy government debt (quantitative easing) to support asset prices and prevent uncontrollable waves of deleveraging. If MP1 and MP2 are insufficient to halt a downturn, central banks take step three (MMT, which Dalio calls MP3) and proceed to finance the spending priorities that political leaders deem most essential. The priorities can range from financing major national projects to “helicopter money” transfers directly to consumers.
New Economic Thinking
Jonathon Aldred - ‘Socialism for the rich’: the evils of bad economics
The economic arguments adopted by Britain and the US in the 1980s led to vastly increased inequality – and gave the false impression that this outcome was not only inevitable, but good.
If you live in a harsh society and have to work as hard as you can just to stop yourself falling into hell, you may develop a harsh attitude to those that are poor seeing them as undeserving. Europeans tend not to live in such a harsh environment and so tend to be more generous towards the poor, besides, you never know when you may fall on hard times yourself and need the welfare state as well. Socialised medicine helps too, pooling risk, which lowers anxiety improving well-being. It's really nice and Europeans would never do without it.
Psychologists have shown that people have motivated beliefs: beliefs that they have chosen to hold because those beliefs meet a psychological need. Now, being poor in the US is extremely tough, given the meagre welfare benefits and high levels of post-tax inequality. So Americans have a greater need than Europeans to believe that you deserve what you get and you get what you deserve. These beliefs play a powerful role in motivating yourself and your children to work as hard as possible to avoid poverty. And these beliefs can help alleviate the guilt involved in ignoring a homeless person begging on your street.
Is tax really a burden? Without government, the law, and the regulations, business would never prosper, and so tax makes you rich. Since we have been lowering taxes most people never become poorer. The supply side economists said low taxes would boost business and so the government would end up collecting more revenue instead, and they also said the pie would get bigger and everyone would have more, but neither happened.
This is not just a US issue. Britain is an outlier within Europe, with relatively high inequality and low economic and social mobility. Its recent history fits the cause-and-effect relationship here. Following the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, inequality rose significantly. After inequality rose, British attitudes changed. More people became convinced that generous welfare benefits make poor people lazy and that high salaries are essential to motivate talented people. However, intergenerational mobility fell: your income in Britain today is closely correlated with your parents’ income.
If the American Dream and other narratives about everyone having a chance to be rich were true, we would expect the opposite relationship: high inequality (is fair because of) high intergenerational mobility. Instead, we see a very different narrative: people cope with high inequality by convincing themselves it is fair after all. We adopt narratives to justify inequality because society is highly unequal, not the other way round. So inequality may be self-perpetuating in a surprising way. Rather than resist and revolt, we just cope with it. Less Communist Manifesto, more self-help manual.
The Guardian
A long article, loads more here.
Jonathon Aldred - ‘Socialism for the rich’: the evils of bad economics
A long article, loads more here.
Jonathon Aldred - ‘Socialism for the rich’: the evils of bad economics
For MMT — Thomas Fazi and Bill Mitchell
Leading proponents of Modern Monetary Theory respond to Tribune's recent article on the topic, arguing that socialists should not be afraid to "seize the means of production of money."Tribune
For MMT
Thomas Fazi and Bill Mitchell
Daily Mail - Collapse of a city that's lost control
Shocking new pictures from downtown LA capture the huge problem it faces with trash and rats amid fear of typhoid fever outbreak among LAPD
China is going in the other direction.
Paul Craig Roberts describes it as Third World America.
Paul Craig Roberts describes it as Third World America.
In an op ed for The LA Times reporter Steve Lopez called it 'the collapse of a city that's lost control', writing: 'We've got thousands of people huddled on the streets, many of them withering away with physical and mental disease.
'Sidewalks have disappeared, hidden by tents and the kinds of makeshift shanties you see in Third World places.'
He called the city 'a giant trash receptacle'.
The police union has demanded better protective equipment for officers and called for the station to be regularly sanitized.
The Police Department said exposed areas of the Central Division were being disinfected and officials were reviewing the state's 'concerning' report that found health violations at the station.
The building lacked an effective extermination program and had 'rats/rodents, fleas, roaches, flies, gnats, mosquitoes and grasshoppers,' according to the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health's May 14 report.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says typhoid fever isn't common in the U.S. but affects 22 million people annually in other countries.
It is different from typhus, which can spread from infected fleas and caused an outbreak earlier this year that sickened homeless people who live near City Hall and a deputy city attorney.
Fixing Out-Of-Control Banking Systems? — Brian Romanchuk
This is just a short post-script to some points in the James Meadway article I discussed yesterday. What is to be done about financial sectors that are out-of-control, and endangering economic stability?...I would add one important thing that MMT contirubtes to this debate that Brian doesn't mention here. Warren Mosler has pounded on the need to regulate banks' asset side rather than their liability side as is current practice.
Brian does mention that MMT economists have criticized current banking practice and have offered recommendations for reform based on Minsky. Warren, who formerly owned a small bank, has been out front on this with his recommendations, including proposals at his place.
Bond Economics
Fixing Out-Of-Control Banking Systems?
Brian Romanchuk
Kult America - Why I left America for Poland
Less crime, less murder, less drug problems, more relaxed pace, better healthcare (state run).
People often ask me how could I chose to live in Poland instead of the US. What was the reason to move out from the ’american dream” and settle down in the East European country? On today’s episode of Kult America I will try to explain why I made that choice. It was not just my admiration for the culture, but involved some social, economic, and - nevertheless - personal reasons.
People often ask me how could I chose to live in Poland instead of the US. What was the reason to move out from the ’american dream” and settle down in the East European country? On today’s episode of Kult America I will try to explain why I made that choice. It was not just my admiration for the culture, but involved some social, economic, and - nevertheless - personal reasons.
TomoNews - Apple is charging $1,000 for a monitor stand
It's made in China!
We often complain about unfair Chinese competition from China, but Western companies get everything made in China anyway.
We often complain about unfair Chinese competition from China, but Western companies get everything made in China anyway.
China still pumping
Commie USD zombie hackers still "pumping!"... will this ever end? Will these morons ever be able to figure it out???
PBOC's Net Cash Injection Fails to Stem Rise in China's SHIBOR https://t.co/bF5hF2QI8H pic.twitter.com/d1JlLHEyKF— Yicai Global 第一财经 (@yicaichina) June 6, 2019
Shanghai breaks 2850...
CHINA: Shanghai down another -1.2% overnight making a fresh 3 month low and remains Bearish TREND @Hedgeye pic.twitter.com/QzqDIIUwKM— Keith McCullough (@KeithMcCullough) June 6, 2019
Oh well, in the mean time "Pump it up!"
Pump it up! when you don't really need it.
Pump it up! until you can feel it.
Jackson: A, Yankee or Angel?
Interesting question. One can argue that Reggie Jackson was all three- Oakland A, New York Yankee and California Angel at different times. But owing to his career slash line (.262/.356/.490), Jackson was fundamentally a power hitter, or in fans of the post-season playoffs terminology, "Mr. October." However, he was not always a one dimensional player and also had a sense of the game that made him open to situational hitting in some circumstances.
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Russia-China SitRep: Double Helix Strategic Coordination — Larchmonter445
The Vineyard of the Saker
Russia-China SitRep: Double Helix Strategic Coordination
Larchmonter445
Keynes: socialist, liberal or conservative? — Michael Roberts
Interesting post. Michael Roberts argues that Keynes was all three–socialist, liberal and conservative at different times. But owing to his social status, Keynes was fundamentally a British upper-class conservative, or in Marxian terminology, a "bourgeois liberal." However, he was not hidebound and also had a sense of reality that made him open to accommodate changing circumstances.
Michael Roberts Blog
Keynes: socialist, liberal or conservative?
Michael Roberts
See also
The Political Economy of Development
Keynes against capitalism
Nick Johnson
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Accuses Us And Allies Of Mh17 Fabrication, Violation Of Rule Of Law— John Helmer
Dances with Bears
MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER MAHATHIR ACCUSES US AND ALLIES OF MH17 FABRICATION, VIOLATION OF RULE OF LAW
John Helmer
Brad DeLong — What to Do About China?
By attempting to "get tough" with China, US President Donald Trump's administration is highlighting the extent to which America's star has fallen this century. If the US ever wants to reclaim the standing it once had in the world, it must become the country it would have been if Al Gore had won the 2000 presidential election....GOP smackdown.
Comments on Meadway's Criticisms of MMT— Brian Romanchuk
James Meadway recently published "Against MMT" (Modern Monetary Theory), in which he lays out a number of criticisms of the theory. Although it might have helped my readership numbers, I really did not want to get drawn into the mudslinging around MMT that erupted this January. One of the public relations problems MMT faces is that it seems that MMTists are in continued arguments with seemingly everyone. The negative tone of these arguments distract from the constructive aspects of the theory.
This latest Meadway article illustrates the problem. Although some of my contacts on Twitter believe that this article has interesting points to address, I do not find them particularly novel, nor where they given a fashion that is designed to get a polite response from MMTists.
For example, I do not know who is responsible for the article summary: "Modern Monetary Theory disorients the Left by peddling simplistic monetary solutions to complex problems of political power."; it could either be Meadway or an editor. Nevertheless, this is not a summary that is designed to invite a friendly response.…Polemic rather than inquiry.
Bond Economics
Comments on Meadway's Criticisms of MMT
Brian Romanchuk
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Randy Wray — JAPAN DOES MMT?
In recent days the international policy-making elite has tried to distance itself from MMT, often going to hysterical extremes to dismiss the approach as crazy. No one does this better than the Japanese.
As MMT began to gather momentum, its developers began to receive a flood of calls from reporters around the world enquiring whether Japan serves as the premier example of a country that follows MMT policy recommendations.
My answer is always the same: No. Japan is the perfect case to demonstrate that all of mainstream theory and policy is wrong. And that it is the best example of a country that always chooses the anti-MMT policy response to every ill that ails the country.
Reporters find that shocking. Biggest government fiscal deficits in the developed country world? Check. Highest government debt ratios in the developed country world? Check.
Isn’t that what MMT advises? No....
From the MMT perspective, what Japan needs is a good fiscal stimulus, albeit one that is targeted....Add the Wray Curve to the Laffer Curve, the Phillips Curve, the Kelton See-Saw and the Krugman Cross.
New Economic Perspectives
JAPAN DOES MMT?
L. Randall Wray | Professor of Economics, Bard College
GOP Fight Club
If these libertarian morons really wanted to help the USCoC they would raise the gd "Debt Ceiling!" straightaway....
The “Big Club” Fights Back Against Trump Tariffs – Senate Republicans, Paid by U.S. CoC, Prepare to Mount Assault… https://t.co/ezzJSIrXPG pic.twitter.com/6bBv7UBBAG
— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) June 5, 2019
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