Read it at heteconomist
My concern here is with the position of the Monetary Realists on full employment as such. Sometimes they seem to suggest that full employment should not be a policy objective on the grounds that unemployment and, by implication, slack labor markets are conducive to efficiency and high productivity. At other times, they instead make the claim that full employment could be achieved through means other than a Job Guarantee, or even that full employment would occur as a matter of course once other objectives (e.g. “Full Productivity”) were met. In my view, both these claims are unfounded. The latter, in particular, has no legitimate basis in economic theory.
Monetary Realism and Guaranteed Employment
by Peter Cooper
(n/t Clonal)
(n/t Clonal)
Bookmark Peter's post. I have a feeling that in the ensuing discussions about Monetary Realism's development, the points that Peter makes about the challenges existing economic theory presents will be highly relevant.
Saw your comments over there Tom...
ReplyDeleteMainstream view of what these external countries are doing wrt their trade policies is either:
1. Sustaining their domestic output;
2. Exhibiting savings desires in USDs
3. USD is somehow the "reserve currency" (this one makes NO sense to me at all)
4. "competitiveness"
I look at it as neither: Their elites are running their whole countries as massive control frauds.
Their elites seek to gain access to large accounts of the premier western financial assets in a zombie like manner. Whether USDs, Euros, Pounds, they dont care. This is true of both Asia and MENA. Then they establish large "slush funds" and fraud accounts offshore that they can tap and skim from and put balances away for their own personal and crony use out in the world. (see Egypt, OPEC, etc..)
This is at the expense of their own people.
So for the US to say "let's take them up on this" is I'm afraid to say as I look at it, becoming party to this global injustice.
Not to mention then that our morons look at it as a race (unknowingly to the bottom) and want us to get in that race...
The only way out seems to be what Ram brings up ie nations should seek trade balance as a rule, or dont do the deals.
Resp,
Matt, that's the name of the game alright. What you left out is that the Western financial institutions — you know who they are — are helping these corrupt elites engineer this fiasco. This is all part of the global 0.01% looting the global economy, which they see as their territory to do with as they please. The really believe they are the masters of the universe and feel they need to prove it. Most of neoliberalism is just a cover for this. Whatever works.
ReplyDeleteThat has to change for anything else to change. The reason what I suggested over there is not happening is that the 0.01 % don't want it to happen. They don't see it as in their interests, and they don't really care if they crash the world, since they will just pick up the pieces.