Monday, November 18, 2024

Tariffs As A Fiscal Tool? — Brian Romanchuk

Has Trump thought his tariff proposal through? Brian gives reasons to doubt that this move would be successful in replacing the income tax or substantially affecting it.

BTW, Brian has migrated from X to Bluesky along with many others in the fields of economics and finance. Links provided at the end of the post.

Bond Economics

Friday, November 15, 2024

Class

 

Whoa!… hold up!…  was Marx correct? πŸ€”



Thursday, November 14, 2024

Episode 8 (S2) of the Smith Family Manga is now available — Bill Mitchell

Today (November 15, 2024), MMTed releases Episode 8 in the Second Season of our Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money. Have a bit of fun with it while learning Modern Monetary Theory….
William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
Episode 8 (S2) of the Smith Family Manga is now available
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Oh no...Eva Langoria leaving the U.S.!!!

Oh no, what will we do? "Privileged" (her words) Eva Langoria is leaving the U.S.!! What a loss.  Here's Eva, lamenting for all the rest of us who will be left behind.

“Most Americans” are “going to be stuck in this dystopian country, and my anxiety and sadness is for them."

Thank you, Eva, for your fake concern. We'll try to get by in this terrible country as best as possible. But before you go, can you please take all of your Hollywood asshole friends, too? America can't stand you and your privileged elitist sanctimonious jerks from Tinseltown. Get lost. Go!! 

Hopefully, this is not an empty threat by Eva, as we hear regularly from people like Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, and Robert De Niro. They should take the lying, terrorist-loving, woke, anti-American mainstream media with them.

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Wishful Thinking

 

More wishful thinking from Democrat left:





Friday, November 8, 2024

Trump v Iran

 

Reports Iran conspired to assassinate Trump…



6 of these m-fers just deployed to Qatar plus boomers to the region…




Maybe Trump will demand the surrender of the Iranian regime…or finally incinerate that whole goat f-ing rats nest…

Volatility premiums increasing 2 months out…


Trump v Fed ?

 

This guy a MAGA Trump insider perhaps in line for AG (probably too much to hope he gets it πŸ™πŸ») but it’s revealing that he mentions the bankruptcy first…



Biden 2022 rate increases were unprecedented… so you can see what they did they put the rates way up to squeeze him, then they get commie kangaroos in NYC to impose half a billion dollars civil judgement in attempt to to bankrupt him…  flushing the US CRE market down the toilet bowl in the process causing mini banking crisis in March 2023 … hoping Trump somehow got caught up in the whirlpool…

So his first mission (he will never say that it is) will be to reverse all this ..  which would start with quick reversal of Biden rate rate increases to benefit his position and a lot of others like him who also have been being squeezed… which means policy rate down at least to 2% pronto.. will cover it politically by saying he’s getting mortgage rates down for young households which will be an added political benefit…

Going to be interesting to see if the Fed commie deep state Monetarists are going to be the first to fight him on this part of his agenda..,






Thursday, November 7, 2024

Functional finance — Lars P. Syll

What monetarists. deficit hawks, and debt phobes don't get. Quotes by Abba Lerner and John Maynard Keynes.

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
Functional finance
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

On Sraffa and Keynes — Lars P. Syll

Minsky quote that underlies not only Keynes but also MMT.

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
On Sraffa and Keynes
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Escobar: The Roadblocks Ahead For The Sovereign Harmonious Multi-Nodal World — Pepe Escobar

We will need weeks, months, years to fully grasp the enormity of what took place in Kazan during the annual BRICS summit under the Russian presidency.

For the moment let’s cherish arguably the most appropriate definition of BRICS as a laboratory of the future: this lab, against nearly insurmountable odds, is actively engaged in creating a Sovereign Harmonious Multi-Nodal World.
My take is that there were two tracks leading up to the meeting of BRICS+ in Kazan. 

The first track was widely reported in the Alt-Media and was wildly optimistic about the outcome since it focused almost exclusively on the "key players" none of whom had any political clout. It was even speculated that a new monetary system based on a BRICS+ currency would be announced. This turned out to be pie-in-the-sky.

The second track that was taking place behind the scenes and was not reported on or factored in by most of the Alt-Media. This group emerged into view immediately prior to Kazan as a meeting of the heads of the central banks of the the BRICS+ nations. This was a tip off that "the grown-ups" would be managing the proceeding and outcomes, which is what happened. 

The boat did not rock as many had anticipated.  It has now become clear that BRICS+ intends to work within the existing system to reform it rather than to revise it drastically or to shape a new system or to radically "de-dollarize."

In other words, practicality won the day rather than confrontation. Change is likely to be gradual rather than dramatic. The task at hand is to develop alternative means of settlement for international accounts that avoids sanctions and that is already taking place through binary agreements to settle in the currencies of the respective partners.

Monday, November 4, 2024

Government job creation programs deliver significant (net) long-term benefits — Bill Mitchell

On April 5, 1933, US President Roosevelt made an executive decision to create the – Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) – which was a component of the suite of government programs referred to as the – New Deal – that defined the Federal government’s solution to the mass unemployment that arose during the early years of the – Great Depression. These programs have been heavily criticised by the free market set as being unnecessary, wasteful and ineffective. Critics assert that no long-term benefits are forthcoming from such programs. However, those assertions are never backed by valid empirical evidence. A recent study by US academics has provided the first solid piece of evidence that the CCC delivered massive long-term benefits to the individuals who participated in it. And these benefits considerably outweigh the dollars outlaid by the government. I discuss that research today. The results also point to the effectiveness of a Job Guarantee program....
William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
Government job creation programs deliver significant (net) long-term benefits
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

MMT — debunking the deficit — Lars P. Syll

Lars comments on a quote from Stephanie Kelton's The Deficit Myth showing the loanable funds theory being inconsistent with stock-flow accounting.

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
MMT — debunking the deficit
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

Sunday, November 3, 2024

24 per cent annual interest on time deposits: St Petersburg Travel Notes, installment three — Gilbert Doctorow

Not much happening regarding MMT these days.

Herer is an anecdotal report on Russian banking. And, yes, you read that right. You get 24% not the bank.

Doctorow is an American residing in Brussels who spends a good deal of time in Russia. His wife is Russian and he is fluent in Russian. A "Russianist," he has a a PhD in history (Harvard) and is a retired business person. His reporting does not conform to the narrative.

Gilbert Doctorow—International relations, Russian affairs
24 per cent annual interest on time deposits: St Petersburg Travel Notes, installment three
Gilbert Doctorow

Saturday, November 2, 2024

Did The Latest BRICS Summit Achieve Anything Of Tangible Significance At All? — Andrew Korybko

The conclusion is that it’s a lot easier to talk about creating truly alternative institutions than actually doing so, which means that BRICS will likely just remain a talking club, or a “multitasking laboratory of global governance” as Kortunov diplomatically described it. That’s not to downplay the group’s role since it’s important for major and developing non-Western countries to discuss pressing issues of the evolving world order, especially economic-financial ones, but that’s not the same as what enthusiasts expected.
A dose of reality. The Alt-Media got a quite a bit ahead of reality with respect to their expectations of the initial outcome.
The Kazan Summit therefore wasn’t a failure, and in fact, it succeeded in its only realistic goal all along of gathering its members and partners together to discuss ways to voluntarily accelerate financial multipolarity processes such as through the increased use of national currencies. The outcome was always going to be more symbolic than tangible due to the group’s purely voluntary nature, though some observers had false expectations and thus feel bitter, but now they know what BRICS is really about.  
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Rate policy

 

Democrat rate policy still has US overnight risk free IOR rate at 4.9% so what is so bad about a 10yr risk free UST rate of 4.2%?  

It’s still significantly inverted over time …  usual Art degree moron suspects going apoplectic meanwhile a significantly inverted yield curve… hard to understand how these peoples brains work… πŸ€”







Monday, October 21, 2024

Pepe Escobar —Date With Destiny–BRICS Offers Hope in a Time of War

Pepe Escobar summarizes the state of play at the outset of the BRICS conference as it begans in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, Russian Federation. The heads of the central banks have already met in Moscow in preparation for discussing initial steps in an overhaul of the post WWII Bretton Woods monetary system and associated institutions established by and controlled by the West, the US in particular. Expectations had begun to exceed reality and now they are more modest but still positive.

Sputnik International
Pepe Escobar: Date With Destiny - BRICS Offers Hope in a Time of War

Sunday, October 20, 2024

BRICS plans ‘multi-currency system’ to challenge US dollar dominance: Understanding Russia’s proposal — Ben Norton

The BRICS Cross-Border Payment Initiative (BCBPI) will use national currencies, instead of the US dollar. Russia’s finance ministry and central bank released a report detailing plans to transform the international monetary and financial system.
Geopolitical Economy

BRICS—facts and figures — Peter Hanseler/Denis Dobrin

Introduction

In the first part of this year’s BRICS series, we described the geopolitical environment in which BRICS is currently operating and trying to evolve. This environment has changed for the worse since the last BRICS summit in South Africa last August.

The consequence is that BRICS cannot develop freely, because on the one hand, the decisions – especially those of the USA – regarding the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the situation in the financial markets and finally the elections in the USA will have serious consequences for the whole world. On the other hand, the decisions of the BRICS regarding the admission of new members and the introduction of a currency (unlikely) or a payment and settlement system (likely) will also have a major impact on the overall geopolitical situation.

This article deals with the facts and figures of the current state of this organization, the figures including candidates for admission (BRICS+) and an outlook with figures including interested countries (BRICS++). In a subsequent article, we will cover the topic of a new currency and a new payment and settlement system.

Voice from Russia — The trilingual blog about geopolitics and geoeconomics written by a Swiss living in Moscow
BRICS – facts and figures
Peter Hanseler/Denis Dobrin 

Thursday, October 17, 2024

The Boy Who Cried Wolf About Government Debt —Yeva Nersisyan, L. Randall Wray

In a New York Times editorial, David Leonhardt recounts Aesop’s apocryphal story about the boy and the wolf, warning that while deficit hawks have so far been wrong, the growing government debt will eventually bite. He reports the economic plans of both presidential candidates would add to the debt that will soon exceed GDP and grow to 130 percent of annual output under a President Harris, or 140 percent with a Trump presidency.

The story of the boy and the wolf was a fable, although it was within the realm of possibility. The fable of the debt wolf is not. While there are real world wolves—Leonhardt mentions climate catastrophe and autocratic leaders, and the authors would add rising inequality and the concentration of economic and political power in the hands of billionaires.
Levy Economics Istitute
Policy Note 2024/1 | October 2024
The Boy Who Cried Wolf About Government Debt
Yeva Nersisyan, L. Randall Wray

Improvement Of The International Monetary And Financial System — The Ministry Of Finance Of The Russian Federation, Bank of Russia, Yakov and Partners

This is what will be presented at the upcoming BRICS + meeting. Download report at link below.

Description on X here. (It's nothing like the cheerleaders have been projecting.)

BRICS Chairmanship Research
Improvement Of The International Monetary And Financial System
The Ministry Of Finance Of The Russian Federation, Bank of Russia, Yakov and Partners

Episode 7 (S2) of the Smith Family Manga is now available–A revealing Zoom session — Bill Mitchell

Today (October 18, 2024), MMTed releases Episode 7 in the Second Season of our Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money. Have a bit of fun with it while learning Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and circulate it to those who you think will benefit.…
William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
Episode 7 (S2) of the Smith Family Manga is now available – A revealing Zoom session
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

How Australian Monetary System Favours the Powerful — Denis Hay

MMT to the rescue (from neoliberalism). This applies similarly to other countries running under neoliberalism, which can be broadly characterized as policy formulation based on state capture by elites in a plutocracy masquerading as a democracy. 

Social Justice Australia
How Australian Monetary System Favours the Powerful
Denis Hay

Friday, October 11, 2024

LA Woman


Great breakdown of a great song (by The Doors) by these 2 Millennial black bros… never understood the song as a metaphor for the city of Los Angeles but yeah I get it now… makes it even better…





Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Episode 6 of the Smith Family Manga (Season 2) is now available— Bill Mitchell

Today (October 3, 2024), MMTed releases Episode 6 in the Second Season of our Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money. Have a bit of fun with it while learning Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and circulate it to those who you think will benefit. Episode 6 was delayed by two weeks…
William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
Episode 6 of the Smith Family Manga (Season 2) is now available
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Modern Monetary Theory film proves finding the cash isn't the problem — William Thomson

As we have been writing for over a year in this newsletter, the UK Government, as the issuer of the UK pound, can never run out of money. They can afford whatever is priced in pounds. There is never a problem finding the money. This leads to a natural and painful conclusion: Continuing austerity policies is a political choice....
The National (Scotland)

Monday, September 30, 2024

Class origins matter – but who are the agents of change? — Bill Mitchell

Not MMT or economics as such but it is interesting in that Bill is an MMT founder so his stance on economic sociology is relevant. 

There was an interesting article in the UK Guardian the other day September 26, 2024) – Take it from me (and Keir Starmer) – you should never pretend to be more working class than you are. I don’t usually agree with the journalist but this article made me reflect on a lot of things.…

 Aside:

The scrutiny arises because many of these “Labour people” appear to have accumulated wealth (real estate etc), have come from well-paid jobs and network with the elites in society.

For that they are referred to, in a pejorative way, as ‘champagne socialists’.
In the US, they (affected Democrats) are called "limousine liberals" and "lattΓ© liberals." A lot of the formerly faithful are fed up with this posturing, but even more so with the corruption that flows from it.

The way the system works is when a person from an ordinary background gains celebrity of whatever sort and can afford a more bountiful lifestyle, then they enter "the bubble." Gradually or swiftly, they lose touch with their humbler roots among "the little people" as characterized by former Sen. Allen Simpson. It's also very American to pretend to a humble background after achieving status when that is not the case. 

In the age of the Internet that hypocrisy is usually quickly exposed.

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory 
Class origins matter – but who are the agents of change?
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

The ball is now in Finance Ministry's court, Chinese economists say — Zichen Wang

Apparently many influential Chinese economists are old-style Keynesians. There is no indication that they understand the basic principle of MMT —  a sovereign currency issuer that doesn't create financial obligation in currency it does not issue has a monopoly on its currency. 
This is especially important considering that China faces deflation rather than inflation.

It's up to the Finance Ministry now. 
The Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China (Chinese: δΈ­εŽδΊΊζ°‘ε…±ε’Œε›½θ΄’ζ”Ώιƒ¨; pinyin: ZhōnghuΓ‘ RΓ©nmΓ­n GΓ²nghΓ©guΓ³ CΓ‘izhΓ¨ngbΓΉ) is the constituent department of the State Council of the People's Republic of China which administers macroeconomic policies and the annual budget. It also handles fiscal policy, economic regulations and government expenditure for the state.

The ministry also records and publishes annual macroeconomic data on China's economy. This includes information such as previous economic growth rates in China, central government debt and borrowing and many other indicators regarding the economy of mainland China.

The Ministry of Finance's remit is smaller than its counterparts in many other states. Macroeconomic management is primarily handled by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). State-owned industries are the responsibility of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and there are separate regulators for banking, insurance and securities. It also does not handle regulation of the money markets or interest rates. These, together with other aspects of monetary policy, are governed by the People's Bank of China (PBC), mainland China's central bank. The Ministry, NDRC and PBC are equal in status, with their political heads all sitting on the State Council.
Pekingnology - CCG
The ball is now in Finance Ministry's court, Chinese economists say
Zichen Wang | Research Fellow & Director for Int'l Comms at Center for China and Globalization (CCG), after 11 years at Xinhua News Agency. Founder & Editor: Pekingnology & The East is Read. Salzburg Global Fellow (2024-)

See also

Strategic Culture Foundation (sanctioned by the US Treasury Department)
Pepe Escobar

Saturday, September 21, 2024

How I came to MMT — Robert Cauneau

 The discovery of a monetary approach, which, in this case, not only relates to a field that I was not familiar with, but also constitutes a total challenge to my own knowledge of public finance management, which I have practiced throughout my career, is not something trivial. So I decided to tell my own story.

Interesting personal story.

MMT France
How I came to MMT
Robert Cauneau

The article is available in French here.

Friday, September 20, 2024

China shit market

 

Commies dilute their productive capital with unproductive commie bullshit = 0…