Please, let's mobilize to get Caroline Baum kicked off of Bloomberg. Her economic commentaries are some of the most ignorant out there and her rudeness and arrogance is reason enough for Bloomberg LLP to fire her.
Here is her latest misguided missive, where she again conflates the U.S. with Greece and Portugal. This woman has a degree in cinema, yet she is pontificating on economics!. For god sakes, this is Bloomberg, they're supposed to be a little more sophisticated than let's say, CNBC.
Please send an email to Bloomberg LLP CEO Dan Doctoroff asking him to get rid of her.
-Mike Norman
you mean the same type of e-mail that I sent to get you kicked off of Fox?
ReplyDeleteYou da man Mike!
I resigned from Fox. I told them I did not want to renew my contract.
ReplyDeleteLOL!!! Listen, I quit Fox. You want to see the email that I sent, dates, etc, and their reply? Furthermore, they renewed my contract without hesitation every year for 10 years, so your claim that everyone hated me there is assinine. Moreover, it doesn't matter what everyone thought, it mattered what Neil thought and I was very close to him.
ReplyDeleteSounds like John was short treasuries...
ReplyDeleteHe must be listening to Schiff and Rogers.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he's long gold!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you were buying housing in 2006! And working feverishly since to make people forget about that!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like that's close to the bottom of the channel. Perhaps a quick oscillation there then a trip back up to the top of the channel?
ReplyDeleteOr do you think it's in for a swan dive from here?
Actually, John, I missed the end of the run up, calling it early for myself. But some of my friends had still not closed out by late summer 2006, and I warned them to forget their target and to mark down if necessary to get out. One friend who got caught holding a lot actually offered to give it to me "free" recently (back taxes owed), and I turned him down.
ReplyDeleteMost pundits on tv and radio in the UK think that bond markets can do the same thing to UK government gilt yields that they've done to eurozone countries' bond yields.
ReplyDeleteThis is despite the fact that the BOE has pushed bond yields to 300 year lows through QE. People can't see what's happening in front of their faces.
I want to write a letter to the Bank of England (they're quite good at responding), simply asking them to clarify whether a) they can control gilt yields, b) they can stop the bond market from forcing up rates if they want to. I also want to ask them why they allow gilt yields to be pushed up by the the bond market on occasion, and why they don't just set yields in the same way that they set the base interest rate.
I'm a total amateur on all this though, so I'd like some help with text of the letter, or some suggestions. It only has to be very short. Anyone?
The article makes the statement that during the 50s and 60s US policy was to keep more balanced budgets. From the MMT perspective, if greater deficits were run during those years would the economy have been "fed" a steady amount of the extra necessary dollars all along the way? Perhaps creating more advancement and growth and mitigating the huge deficits we've been experiencing these past few years?
ReplyDeleteThe US didn't have a current account deficit in the 50s and 60s, hence a much much smaller need for deficit spending. Sectoral balances - if the country has a current account deficit growth and employment is sustained by either the domestic private sector (as a whole) going into debt or the government going into deficit, or a combination of the two.
ReplyDeleteY,
ReplyDeleteThis is from the article by Baum:
"The Federal Reserve did just that during and after the war, pegging interest rates to help ease the government’s debt burden...."
She is so incapacitated at present that she cannot discern the contradiction between her statement here, which specifically states that the Fed directly controls the interest rates, and her statement here:
"Those waiting for financial markets to send the warning signal through higher interest rates ..."
Where she states that "financial markets" set interest rates.
This is I believe what is known as a logical inconsistency.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consistency_proof
And a violation of the Law of NonContradiction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_noncontradiction
Her brain right now does not seem to be functioning correctly. Complete shutdown of the Neocortex:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocortex
"In humans, it is involved in higher functions such as sensory perception, generation of motor commands, spatial reasoning, conscious thought and language."
She might be able to get out of this if she would be able to understand what Mike has been trying to tell her.... but that does not look likely as this looks like it is a pretty severe condition she is in.
Resp,
For those who are scared about the debt, the only realistic solution is to reduce the current account deficit, assuming you still want growth and low unemployment.
ReplyDeleteMatt:
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's how they taught it in cinema class.
She must have skipped "logic 101" class!
ReplyDeleteLOL Mike!
The other option is for the private sector to stop saving and start spending. That's what the monetarist people are trying to achieve through monetary policy. If the private sector could be convinced somehow to stop saving it could work as there is a wall of corporate money sitting idle which could be brought back into the economy. However, medium-long term a growth model based on private sector deficit is unsustainable, as it eventually leads back to 2008. Right now its unrealistic as so many people are just trying to pay down debt and confidence has gone. So fiscal stimulus now (lower taxes/more spending) could get money flowing again. Medium-long term government deficits have to offset the demand leakage via the current account deficit and ensure the private sector isn't forced into unsustainable deficit, or else the current account deficit has to be reduced (if the goal is growth and low unemployment).
ReplyDeleteLogic wasn't a prerequisite.
ReplyDeleteWhat has Japanese biz been doing with their hoards these past decades?
ReplyDeleteUnforgiven,
ReplyDeleteNot buying mobile back up power generators and heavy lift helicopter transports for them...
Resp,
I can't believe you guys are dogging Baum. Better watch your back, she is one tough broad. She will come out swinging and cold clock you with some tough banter of her own.
ReplyDelete"…The other option is for the private sector to stop saving and start spending…"
ReplyDeleteStart spending what? Quit making loan payments and use the money to buy stuff?
Government Debt is a myth! Why does a country that issues its own money need to borrow money in order to fund itself? Government Debt is a dead-weight loss, a burden placed upon the system.
ReplyDeleteWhy aren't we teaching our children the basics of any monetary system? Such education should be mandatory. Most children will ask the most basic questions - Where does money come from? Who creates the money? Can money run-out? Why can't the adult population give simple answers to simple questions?
Teach the Children!
Mike - your boss is a GOP fundraiser. Why are you going after some lady on low ratings Bloomberg.
ReplyDeleteShaun,
ReplyDeleteLooks like it is starting:
http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2012/05/12-year-old-victoria-grant-explains-why.html
Resp,
Adam,
ReplyDelete"low ratings" : do they discuss economic policy on "America's Got Talent" ?
Resp,
@Matt
ReplyDeleteYes hopefully :)
PS Adam,
ReplyDeleteIf the GOP gets the WH back, that will likely be the last you hear of "fiscal responsibility" from them.
Moron Paul Ryan will probably be tasked to spearhead the tax cut package and a big supplementary for Iran operations will be passed.
Moron David Walker actually sued Dick Cheney when Walker was 'Beancounter-in-Chief', Walker will be told to 'get lost moron'.
http://www.lawandfreedom.com/site/constitutional/WalkervCheney.pdf
Resp,
I am just wondering why is Mike Norman working with a huge GOP fundraiser. Aren't their nonpartisan Financial Company CEOs to work with?
ReplyDelete"Start spending what? Quit making loan payments and use the money to buy stuff?"
ReplyDeletePaul, if you look at the sectoral balance charts you'll see that (as of 2010) the domestic private sector as a whole is in surplus. Who actually has that money, I don't know, but someone does (it would be extremely useful to have a more detailed sectoral analysis which incorporated distribution of wealth and income, instead of just bunching everyone together).
According to most, the corps have huge funds stashed away, waiting for a good opportunity. They need to see some demand before they break ranks and put that money to work. That's where fiscal stimulus comes in - get the flow going again.
Monetarists think they can dislodge that money by creating 'inflation expectations'. Weird idea, which is being roundly disproven with each day that passes. But you never know, eventually it might work.
Fiscal is more direct, and we don't have time to waste - people need to get back to work.
HOWEVER, given the current account deficit, it could be that more fiscal will just result in a larger CAD, and corp cash piles will remain unmoved. So growth will entail more and more govt deficits, or as before, more Joe Bloggs indebtedness. In that case the money has to be taxed away from the corps, along with serious financial reform to divert money away from paper games and into productive activity.
My humble view - I'm no Godley.
Adam,
ReplyDelete"I am just wondering why is Mike Norman working with a huge GOP fundraiser."
FD: I myself assist in GOP fundraising (tho of course not "huge" ;) ... I have never voted Democrat in my life and dont intend to.
Both parties are way out of paradigm so I dont see how partisanship can come into play on economic policy options revealed via MMT.
No Libertarian am I. I am to the right of GITMO. Gross should have been picked up and brought in for questioning for his "who's going to buy them now?" tweet last summer. Rogers should be looked at too as he does a lot of travel in China, while bad mouthing US treasury credit.
The authoritative/monopolist/fiat nature of MMT is very appealing to me.
Resp,
"Paul, if you look at the sectoral balance charts you'll see that (as of 2010) the domestic private sector as a whole is in surplus…"
ReplyDeleteSure, the private sector can be in surplus but because of the huge debt overhang the economy as a whole can still be losing money because of debt service.
Not sure why fiscal stimulus might lead to higher CAD, though. CAD has been lower than it's highs despite large deficits the past few years.
Much of any increased fiscal spending would likely go to debt service.
Seems like we don't disagree on much though.
Taxing the bejabbers out of the money-hoarders would reduce the need for a lot of the deficit.