An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Peter Schiff's job creation proposals
For the past three years Warren Mosler has been putting out a very rational and easily achievable plan to restore output and employment. His ideas are intelligent, cogent and based 100% on the operational realities of our monetary system. Warren's ideas would lead to an elimination of poverty and a restoration of prosperity both in America and abroad.
Has Warren been asked to testify before Congress?
No.
But Peter Schiff has. And here is what he said yesterday before the
House of Representatives Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending. Here were his proposals for job creation. (Totally serious.)
1. Fed should hike interest rates significantly
2. Balance the budget immediately with huge spending cuts
3. Abolish the minimum wage
4. Repeal all Federal workplace anti-discrimination laws
5. Repeal all laws governing workplace conditions, overtime, benefits, leave, medical benefits, etc.
6. Abolish unemployment benefits
Please read Schiff's entire testimony here.
I don't know about you, but this has just made me sick to my stomach. I am literally ill. In a country where we have thoughtful, educated, intelligent, rational people like Warren Mosler, our representatives in Congress prefer to listen to the ravings of this depraved idiot, Schiff.
We are surely doomed. Surely as the sun comes up.
The proposal is a lunacy. But for political reasons it will not be voted for in Congress.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, it is awful that Shiff testifies and Mosler does not.
Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.
ReplyDelete("Anonymous ancient proverb, wrongly attributed to Euripides."
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Euripides)
If the proverb is right, then things will be better than they look.
... Only it seems that the "making mad phase" is taking quite a time...
Mike, Bob Murphy is after you. :)
ReplyDeleteMore MMT Wisdom on How Debt Works
But be warned. They are delusional over there.
Schiff is obviously long on bootstraps. What do you expect from a "human action" guy?
ReplyDeleteHard to believe he'd get an audience with Congress.
Bob Murphy is another one. It's religion with them.
I see it, Tom. But I'm not going over there.
ReplyDeleteMike he probably made a significant contribution to the GOP Chair of the House committee, with some funds he had left over from his US Senate primary bid.... pay for play.... sucks.
ReplyDeleteResp,
Unfortunately most of his points line up neatly with the current DC zeitgeist. I'm sure there were more than a few bloated heads nodding with agreement as he spoke. I'm sure Schiff has made donations to a few of the committee members to get his mug an appearance.
ReplyDeleteSchiff is cheap; I know this for a fact. He also believes no one is smarter than him and, therefore, I don't think he donated to anyone or "paid anyone off." The sad part (truth) is that many of these committee members agree with his delusional ideas. This is the current belief system at play in this country, not just among idiot lawmakers, but much of the electorate as well.
ReplyDeleteThe proposal is a lunacy. But for political reasons it will not be voted for in Congress.
ReplyDeletethe more I see how "politics" is becoming a literal circus show the more I question how accurate your claim is.
Never underestimate the power of mass delusion and hypnotizing.
Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
wise powerful words for (us?) the weary.
ReplyDeleteEven if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
Even if Warren Mosler never speaks before Congress....it should be illegal to allow Peter Schiff to speak before our reps.
ReplyDeleteMight as well have Buffalo Bill advise the President!!! Dear Lord the cat is chasing its tail!!!
last post I swear....but I think this quote is really most fitting in this scenario.
ReplyDeleteWhen I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.
- H. G. Wells
Mario:
ReplyDeleteAmen brother!!!
No protections, no minimum pay, no rights of any kind...let's call it what it is--slavery. Schiff's proposal to end the jobs crisis is slavery.
ReplyDeleteOff subject, but I'm sure it'll get read in this thread and I'll get an answer.
ReplyDeleteMany, many times I have heard Mike state that the government needs to run deficits for private savings to increase.
Today Swiss citizens have been recognized as the richest people in the world with an average net worth roughly double that of the average US citizen. Yet Switzerland has been running budget surpluses for many years. What gives?
Canada has also been running budget surpluses for many years, yet they are doing rather well. It's actually quite expensive to go to Canada now, their money having appreciated so much with respect to our poor flimsy US$.
How does MMT explain all that?
Will the answer be that Mike and MMT were referring to World Government spending in aggregate? :-) If so, it looks like the government (countries) that run surpluses have richer citizens at the expense of those governments that do not...
Mike:
ReplyDeleteThis is the core of neo-liberalism. This is the heart and core of how mainstream economics views "labor." They see labor as an expense and therefore they view people (laborers) as mere objects--a means to an profitable end. This implies then that owners see themselves as "lords" in more ways than one. They don't just own their company/idea/property/etc....they also actually think they "own" their workers too! I guess the term "owner" is more accurate than we first thought! Yikes! Cutting "costs" spent on laborers is therefore a major goal particularly b/c of the high variable costs associated with it. It's capitalism at its best...literally. And this is a major contributor to the alienation that Marx speaks of inherent in capitalism. One man is literally pitted against the other while at the same time they are both dependent on each other. It's like a really bad marriage!!! Can't live with them, can't live without them. LOL
This is the real underbelly of neo-liberalism rearing its ugly racist, classist, controlling, greedy head for one final undulating effort to stay alive in the face of our economic crisis. And it's now doing it all under the guise of intelligent "rationalizations" and charts and graphs and the fact that we have high unemployment (which essentially they created and have promoted!!!).
Slice, dice, and pitch it however you want, but slavery (or lordship/ownership) will always be just that.
If people believe these false rationalizations then it's only going to get worse before it gets better. If however people realize how fucking stupid these "ideas" are then the next logical place their thoughts will go is to fundamental questions about how things really do work and that will ultimately lead them to an understanding of MMT. And we plan to be there when that time comes just chugging right along as we are now, ready to pitch in and get to work on helping the economy. I just hope the timeline is shorter on this puppy than history seems to be prone to.
and I firmly believe that businesses shouldn't be expected to pay for health care, pensions, FICA, UE, disability, etc., etc. either. Businesses should only have to pay for the variable and fixed costs related to their business operations and nothing more.
ReplyDeleteBut in order for that to ever happen people need to wake up and realize that the Federal Government cannot go broke and therefore can and should provide those social services instead of businesses.
It's hilarious how neo-liberalism traps itself into its own corner by hating to pay for health care, FICA, etc. and yet at the same time refuses to ever accept the fact that the government can pay for it instead and not go broke. Since they refuse to accept that fact, and they of course still want to lower their variable costs the ONLY OTHER PLACE to go is to a near slave-like labor setting. It's just so dysfunctional it's criminal to think that this stuff is actually "taught" in our schools and universities.
"Schiff's proposal to end the jobs crisis is slavery."
ReplyDeleteThat's the neoliberal objective — a eturn to subsistence wages with no benefits and no protections.
Marx called subsistence for what it is. Slavery. If one has to accept any job offer to stay alive and keep one's family alive, one is without choice. A person without choice is not free.
" If however people realize how fucking stupid these "ideas" are then the next logical place their thoughts will go is to fundamental questions about how things really do work and that will ultimately lead them to an understanding of MMT."
ReplyDeleteMaybe. Even Mark Thoma is now saying that he sees the possibility of a worker revolt. In the end, Marx may still turn out to be prescient about the end state of capitalism due to its internal contradictions.
Marx held that capitalism and liberal democracy are ultimately incompatible, for the very reasons we are now seeing in action.
What the resolution will be in unclear. It will probably end in either a revolt with an uncertain outcome or a democratic return to a mixed economy with a more socialistic orientation, i.e., more government deficit expenditure, which would favor an MMT paradigm.
Right now, things are beginning to spin out of control globally. Uncertainty is rising with instability.
Severus,
ReplyDeleteThe Swiss and Canadians would have to be net exporters- adding money to their balance- in order to come out ahead when their governments run surpluses.
The United States is a net importer- draining dollars from our balance.
Government spending and exports add dollars. Taxes and imports take away dollars. The only way for the private sector balance to be positive and the government sector to be positive is for the foreign sector to be negative, ie net export.
@Tom -
ReplyDeleteI liken it more to serfdom than slavery. With so many mortgages underwater and those who are lucky enough to have jobs needing to stay at those jobs sometimes more for health coverage than even the pay, I really feel like we're all tied to our land. There's no room for the freedom to set-out for an entrepreneurial endeavored when I have to sit tight and shut up.
exactly Broll. exactly.
ReplyDeletesomeone is still butthurt about being on "Peter Schiff was right"
ReplyDeleteCant wait for the bond bubble to burst and you have egg on your face again.
How many people you employ Mikey?
I guess the quants discovered this post and have now decided to send "anonymous" bloggers to troll our site once again.
ReplyDeleteLike barnacles on the side of a whale...all come into the Truth together.
Carry on Anonymous carry on!!!
For the past three years Warren Mosler has been putting out a very rational and easily achievable plan to restore output and employment. His ideas are intelligent, cogent and based 100% on the operational realities of our monetary system. Warren's ideas would lead to an elimination of poverty and a restoration of prosperity both in America and abroad.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else laugh hysterically?
The difference between serfdom and slavery is slight economically. Both receive the basics to stay alive and nothing more. The difference is that the serf is free to go but can't afford it. Another difference is that the bonds of slaves are ownership, while the bonds of serfs are debt to the ownership class.
ReplyDeleteThe "primitive" Native Americans that operated on the gift economy considered selling one's labor for wages was in effect selling oneself into slavery no matter how attractive the wage. A real man would never do such a thing and a real man would never ask a fellow man to do it either. Same in Africa. The colonists imposed a head tax to force the wage system on people.
Same with land ownership, which is the basis of feudalism and capitalism. The so-called primitive people regarded this as nothing short of sacrilegious.
that's totally true Tom and speaks volumes of profundity. However it is also true that those tribes and cultures did not progress or invent or advance very quickly either. They were basically living the same way in the 18th century as they were 1,000 years earlier. Although sustainable that's not exactly ideal.
ReplyDeleteIt is also important to remember that those cultures were incredibly violent and war-torn in ways not too dissimilar to the "gold" wars on the other side of the atlantic. For one culture property was paid in scalps while for another it was shiny metal things with a stamp on them. Six of one, half a dozen of the other in my eyes.
pay the great white father a tax for land or kill other tribes every hunting season for land. That situation seems like a recapitulation of MMT fiat versus Austrian gold standard.
Did anyone else laugh hysterically?
ReplyDeleteno
It's a matter of preference, Mario. Some would rather live free, even if it is tougher and less opulent. Very often professional military people are of this mindset. For them, the tougher things get the better they like it. People like this wake up and say every morning, "It's a good day to die." I have known a few, and they are awesome.
ReplyDeletethat's interesting b/c I see all the Mexicans coming over here to work...I wonder why?!?! If they really loved to rough it wouldn't they just stay in their own messed up countries?!??
ReplyDeleteAnd just you wait my man...it's already happening...latinos (rightfully so) want their workers' rights too my man...check out the farmers movement in California and you'll see what I mean. It's only a matter of time buddy...just you wait.
And I'm all about roughing it and going into survival mode, etc. You just don't need to do that in the workplace commander. You do it in the wilderness. And yeah they are awesome people...in a weird wiley kind of way. ;)
Mario, I had a friend that did landscaping and yard work. He wanted to teach and employ his 2 young daughters 6 and 9 in this profession. When his ex-wife found out and got DFACS involved, things got really ugly and ultimately he lost his business. Now 2 mexicans serve the customers he used to serve, he is in jail for non payment of child support (how can he - he has no business anymore) and the daughters are in some state school in GA learning how to be good citizens in a 1984 esque way. They will hit 30 years old as wards of the state who the state will finally say ENOUGH, no more free drugs and food and partays and college, time for you to PRODUCE citizen, and they will say screw you suckas! I could have learned young how to work hard like my daddy wanted, but instead all I know how to do is SUCK a free ride, and I am too old now to learn something new, I see this happening all over the USA. You think that is a good thing?
ReplyDeleteno definitely. Good work ethic is a good thing for sure. Always good to stay hungry. I hate spoiled people. I've worked in just about every major industry you can think of and I think it's good that way.
ReplyDeleteThis is not the same at all to:
3. Abolish the minimum wage
4. Repeal all Federal workplace anti-discrimination laws
5. Repeal all laws governing workplace conditions, overtime, benefits, leave, medical benefits, etc.
6. Abolish unemployment benefits
Please keep it real. You may agree to working hard but you always need to work smart too!!! ;)
Cheers
3. Abolish the minimum wage
ReplyDeleteMinimum wage laws was what I did some of my college papers on decades ago. Getting back to the work ethic meme, many kids could work for much cheaper than other types of workers, they usually are living with family and have housing and other expenses paid for. But if thier is a minimum wage for Opie from Andy Griffith to have to make 20 an hour to cut your grass, he will not be hired, and he therefore will NEVER learn a good work ethic young when it is required, you disagree? I understand back at college they were always talking about "living wages" but I see too many people Mario that never learn about JOB or WORK until they are 30's years old and its too late then, they have been spoiled.
4. Repeal all Federal workplace anti-discrimination laws
I used to work at IBM, and I want a star trek future, with aliens working hand in hand with humans I am so liberal, like spock working with a scotsman and a russian and african Uhuru, but I saw a lot of people get jobs because of quotas to meet some harrison bergeron type federal equality laws, and I saw it was gonna take a LOT longer to get to a star trek future than I believed because of this state intervention.
5. Repeal all laws governing workplace conditions, overtime, benefits, leave, medical benefits, etc.
Certainly if we do this, we go down to chinese levels of things, but many chinese tell me they had no hope if all those rules and regulation had preceeded them getting a factory job, they say they might have starved to death first.
6. Abolish unemployment benefits
Hungary is talking about doing this, and giving you a job with a salary, no more free money for nothing for those SPOILED people you say you hate. http://www.businessinsider.com/hungary-unemployment-2011-9
This is like MMT jobs program, the state give you a job, you work, your hands are not idle, and you dont get your money for nothin, or your chicks for free (like the famous song) LOL! Mario, a good scientist always challenges his own memes, and is very receptive to criticism of them from his peers, don't fall into the groupthink trap that Warren has went down :( Maybe he will turn it around....
ok DCE
ReplyDeleteMike, the fact that some stockbroker, and worse yet, this Austrian clown, is testifying before Congress as an expert on the economy is a sign this country might not make it.
ReplyDeleteWhy have someone like you or Krugman testify, you know, real economists, when Republicans can just let a feel good liquidationist fool drone on for 12 minutes, offering little or nothing but fallacy?
This makes me physically ill.
By the way, for anyone who wants to view video of the testimony, SchittReport posted it today.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVlIUnuUvNY
Anti,
ReplyDeleteI think you could be right. This country might NOT make it.
and if you really listen to his argument about how his company would create jobs he actually inadvertently implies that he operates in less than efficient ways when hiring people. In other words he contradicts his own premise about the market being naturally "efficient" in regards to labor expense.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, Buffalo Bill might as well be advising the President.
The cat is chasing its own tail these days. Politicians have NO interest in objective data or empirical evidence. They ONLY care about their POV, their position, their beliefs, and they will therefore ONLY listen to or respect those people that agree with them and think like they do REGARDLESS of the data points, the figures, the stocks/flows, operational realities, etc., etc., etc.
Anti you could be right. I just say that things could get worse before they get better. That's a really nondescript statement with no timeline attached to it...purposefully mind you.
"They ONLY care about their POV, their position, their beliefs, and they will therefore ONLY listen to or respect those people that agree with them and think like they do REGARDLESS of the data points, the figures, the stocks/flows, operational realities, etc., etc., etc."
ReplyDeleteCognitive types call it confirmation bias.
Peter of course wasn't there to give advice at all. He was there because he would predictably parrot the radical right's fascist agenda. To place it once again in the Congressional Register, to be referred to from there as if somehow its placement in the register provided authority, and washed from it the stinking smell of the human corpses it would pile up.
ReplyDeleteFor the right, you see, Congress is not there to exchange ideas and construct solutions to problems. It is there to implement an ideology held so closely by its believers as to be indistinguishable from a religious cult. And just as dangerous.
"God, who the fuck is this guy anyway, why would anyone hear him? Has he vested interests in creating a depression?"
ReplyDeleteIn layman terms, its called "Loser Syndrome" - meaning losers wish for others to fail (with them) to alleviate the stigma of their own failure.
"Either he is an idiot, delusional or has vested interests."
Concurrently he also has "Napoleon Syndrome" in which he has delusions of grandeur about how he is always right and the rest of the world is wrong.
Vested interests - he doesn't have the IQ for that.
"Fuck this shit."
Exactly my sentiments (...and no, this country is not going to make it in its current form. The Romans watched clowns and gladiators while Rome burned - it looks like history is about to repeat itself in the US.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVTrIJPEALs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHNLc3mxHek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVlIUnuUvNY