Forget pots, kettles and black. We're in a whole new league now.
From @wonkmonk_
"International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde criticized the U.S. government's budget policies as too tight on Tuesday, in an appearance in Amsterdam that was interrupted by student protestors.
Lagarde defended reforms the IMF had recommended be carried out in Greece, but admitted they had caused a greater economic decline than expected.
"What we underestimated is the consequences, that's clear," she said."
My mind is reeling! Where do they FIND these sociopathic dinosaurs???
This is equivalent to saying you underestimated the consequences of waterboarding an entire economy!
Ow! Now searching the floor for my jaw! This beats both "let them eat cake" and "no one could have predicted this" COMBINED. Cheney only shot ONE domestic lawyer in the face. Lagarde mowed down entire economies IN HER OWN EUROPEAN UNION!!!! AND ... said it was the victims own fault, and demanded an apology when they yelled "ow" and demonstrated. ?? Apology for what? Listening to her? Has the world gone mad? It's disorienting.
She has got to go.
The entire 1% does. They're guilty of hiding weapons of mass distortion, and applying whuppings of mass distortion. Ought to be tried for Class War Crimes.
We need to convene our own Blurr'emberg Trials, and NOT in Geneva. This has gone too far. We can't let anyone keep exemptions from Articles of Sanity locked in their Swiss bank accounts. Every country needs it's own, domestic "WE ARE'" CONFERENCE (screw Geneva), to reset our own cultural guidelines. Central Planning by the 1% has once again flopped badly enough that 99% of adults have to re-engage ... again. Our grandparents had to do this. We can too, and must.
My mind is reeling! Where do they FIND these sociopathic dinosaurs???
This is equivalent to saying you underestimated the consequences of waterboarding an entire economy!
Ow! Now searching the floor for my jaw! This beats both "let them eat cake" and "no one could have predicted this" COMBINED. Cheney only shot ONE domestic lawyer in the face. Lagarde mowed down entire economies IN HER OWN EUROPEAN UNION!!!! AND ... said it was the victims own fault, and demanded an apology when they yelled "ow" and demonstrated. ?? Apology for what? Listening to her? Has the world gone mad? It's disorienting.
She has got to go.
The entire 1% does. They're guilty of hiding weapons of mass distortion, and applying whuppings of mass distortion. Ought to be tried for Class War Crimes.
We need to convene our own Blurr'emberg Trials, and NOT in Geneva. This has gone too far. We can't let anyone keep exemptions from Articles of Sanity locked in their Swiss bank accounts. Every country needs it's own, domestic "WE ARE'" CONFERENCE (screw Geneva), to reset our own cultural guidelines. Central Planning by the 1% has once again flopped badly enough that 99% of adults have to re-engage ... again. Our grandparents had to do this. We can too, and must.
They've all somehow lost the use of the stick Roger:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.globalanimal.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Apes-Found-To-Use-Tools.jpg
Someone has to show them how to use the stick again...
rsp,
Why politicians, 'technocrats' and other scum do not have civil responsibility?
ReplyDeleteAll the IMF directors should probably be prosecuted by an international court ala Nuremberg trials. Same for a lot of national politicians over the world.
As the economy is a man-made thing, as long as problems are not of exogenous nature (like shortage of resources or natural catastrophes), as long as there is a single person suffering hunger, lack of healthcare or homelessness politicians should be pursued by justice in any civilized country for treason and anti-social behaviour.
A lot of problems would be rapidly solved, I can tell!
I suppose Lagarde is still stuck in 20th Century thinking. Insisting on austerity for Europe and non-austerity for the U.S. can only mean a desire for America to remain the buyer of last resort while the eurozone continues its internal devaluation.
ReplyDeleteSo she recognizes internal trade imbalances are the current problem in the eurozone and her goal is to see them shifted to the outside world and the U.S. in particular.
"She said economic reforms work better in countries with less income inequality, and the IMF tries to include that in its advice — which is not always heeded by governments."
ReplyDeleteIs that the ultimate cop-out, or what? You could use that as plausible deniability for anything.
Translation: "We advise fools everywhere to accept looting. Only some are dumb enough to submit."
Great comments, Roger! One of the big problems with "official speak" is that these folks always seem to have to say one thing and its opposite at the same time. One of the merits of a school like MMT is its consistency in terms of diagnostic and prescription. It doesn't try to be two things at once.
ReplyDeleteGreat comments, Roger! Keep it up.
One would like to say that these people are incompetent. But when smart people make stupid "mistakes" that favor their position, suspect malign or subversive intent.
ReplyDelete"Expansionary fiscal austerity" translates to suppress labor compensation, bargaining power, and social benefits and decrease taxes on the elite, and favor creditors over debtors.
Meanwhile, we have our own charades here at home, although we can't seem to compete with French cloaked daggers.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really odd, coming from Lew, even bizarre. More politics.
US Treasury chief blames Washington for slow growth
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/07/usa-economy-lew-idUSL2N0DO2JT20130507
What? The Grand Bargain his boss REQUESTED is a bad idea? What is going on?
I thought Warren Mosler had ruined my life 2 years ago, by opening this door. Now it feels like they won't stop the merry-go-round even after 99% of us start puking.
And China not turning out to be the place Jim Rodgers hoped for?
ReplyDeleteWith China's high net worth individuals moving from wealth creation to wealth preservation, a Bain study shows the siren call of overseas investments is stronger than ever.
http://www.reuters.com/video/2099/01/01?videoId=242652766
That can't be occurring without it being a policy of the CCCP.
What if all the 1% come meekly back "home" to the USA, dragging their tails behind them ... and ask our 99% for protection?
Tariffs?
A nice display of strong language and hyperbole above. But none of the above commentators get the basic problem in the Eurozone, which is lack of periphery competitiveness. And that cannot be cured by devaluation: completely different to poor competitiveness of monetary sovereigns which CAN BE cured by devaluation.
ReplyDeleteIn particular, the Euro authorities are not imposing the “expansionary fiscal austerity” theory on Greece, as suggested by Tom. They’re trying to get periphery costs down by imposing deflation: i.e. bring about internal devaluation. And that’s proving much more costly in social and other terms than was originally though.
Advocates of “expansionary fiscal austerity” are just nutters. In contrast, the Euro authorities though a bit of mild deflaltion in uncompetitive countries would bring down their costs and cure the problem in a year or two. In fact, even severe doses of deflation are only bringing costs down slowly. The Euro authorities should have heeded Keynes’s point that “wages are sticky downwards”. I.e imposing deflation has little effect on wage demands, and hence little effect on costs and prices.
In that connection, and unlike the above commentators, I’ll suggest a solution: impose a 5 or 10%pa wage, profit and price cut in periphery countries. That would be difficult to do, but compared to the current disaster, it strikes me as almost nirvana.
But Ralph, just based on the geography, it seems much harder to operate in the Med region than the north over there.
ReplyDeleteWhich in a relative measure of cost of "production" or "productivity" is going to put you in second place by definition...
I think perhaps the Med countries should consider to RAISE some of their prices...
rsp,
"none of the above commentators get the basic problem in the Eurozone, which is lack of periphery competitiveness. "
ReplyDeleteOf course they get it. It doesn't have to be repeated at the beginning of every discussion on the subject.
In the US West Virginia receives $4B in tax transfers while Connecticut loses $3B each year...because West Virginia isn't "competitive". West Virginia gets free money for failure to "compete".
All of the states get their funds through government spending, there's nothing unfair about it.
The Eurozone doesn't have this transfer mechanism and that's why it was/is doomed to fail...it isn't a real union...it's a straightjacket bound with false promises.
Not only that but the north already operates with a competitive advantage over the south in almost every area (to start with, access to financial capital, which has only aggravated with the current policies).
ReplyDeleteNeoliberal doctrine (IMF) always targets labour first because: 1) it does not go against business interests; 2) it's apparently the easiest (fastest) way to do it, regardless of real costs.
But you can't fix an economy with wage deflation when there is not enough external demand. Demand intra-europe, with the ongoing wage repression (including in Germany) for years is not happening in sufficient quantity (see, a lot of periphery countries have SURPLUS with the core, contrary to propaganda around). Also, per definition, in this deflationary environment, euro depreciation to increase surplus with the rest of the world, is hard if not impossible to achieve.
The deflation in the periphery is holding up inflation in the core and keeping up supply of euros tight at aggregate international level. So the answer from the IMF is to say USA has to increase their public deficit AND CAD, and act as an 'importer of last resort', the contrary thing they are asking the periphery to do?
What sort of idiots and schizophrenics are in charge.
"The ones WE keep electing. Gotta talk to your neighbors."
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it seems our only choices are the candidates with the most money behind them…pre co-opted…in this case our only choice is to not vote.
The game is rigged before we even get the chance to play.
"The ones WE keep electing. Gotta talk to your neighbors."
ReplyDeleteWell, this is an other problem. I didn't vote Lagarde, neither I gave any power to the IMF to decide national policies. But they still do. Same for ECB and Draghi, or all the idiots in Brussels.
Most citizens around the world could say similar things, in a world full of 'shadow' international institutions, policy-makers, misleading trade agreements, etc.
With this current trend of 'externalizing' decision-making outside of the scope of democracy and the rule of law, and concentrating power into oligarchic hands, we are the verge of the irrelevancy of nation-states and the democratic process (which soon won't need to even be rigged).
it seems our only choices are the candidates with the most money behind them
ReplyDeleteThis is the chief selector. So the choice are between the candidates that are able to raise the most bribes.
All true. Yet ya gotta start anyway. Never again cast a vote for ANY organized gang .. er .. political party.
ReplyDeleteAs you say, that approach is useless, no matter what THEY say, or how YOU try to rationalize it.