Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Bill Black — Hillary’s Threat to Wage Continuous War on the Working Class via Austerity Proved Fatal


Not to mention waging continuous war through regime change.

New Economic Perspectives
Hillary’s Threat to Wage Continuous War on the Working Class via Austerity Proved Fatal
William K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC

10 comments:

Matt Franko said...

"The Clinton/Gore administration was absolutely dedicated toward austerity. The administration was the lucky beneficiary of the two massive modern U.S. bubbles – tech stocks and housing – that eventually produced high employment. Indeed, when the tech bubble popped the economy was saved by the hyper-inflation of the housing bubble. "

There was no housing bubble under Clinton... and the Clinton admin made massive investments in IT for Y2K and so did industry... trade deficits had not started yet so they balanced the budget and some years went into surplus due to private sector IT financed investments putting the non-govt into deficit...

Then Bush 2 increased flows in GWOT, Medicare Rx, No Child Left Behind, DHS stand up, Interest Income as Fed kept raising, OFHEO cap increases, etc...

Here "saved by the hyper-inflation of the housing bubble" is like saying "saved by the hyper inflation of the hyper inflation"... it doesnt even make logical sense....

The highest annual trade deficit we had during Clinton's admin was about 30B right at the end as China hadnt gotten started yet and Japan moved a lot of production into the US....

If we had a 30B trade deficit this year we probably run a balanced budget too.... or close enough...

Salsabob said...

Wow, what trash. I like a lot of other Black's articles but this is pure Clinton Hate Derangement Syndrome. Upfront, he trashes her as a neoliberal and then drones on and on about other people - 1990s Bill Clinton, Rubin, Bush, Obama, you name it. BUT not one line on any actual Hillary Clinton proposal or Dem 2016 platform statement that supports his rant.

Contrast Clinton's tax proposals to that of Bernie Sanders - guess which one felt the need to raise both payroll taxes on employees and employers (guess who that would be past on to).

The one silver lining to Trump's ascendency is that the Clinton Hate Derangment Syndrome people would finally move on. I mean even The Donald has moved on from his promise to prosecute. I guess old habits are hard to kill. I think it will come when Trump stops fullfilling these all-things-to-all-people and stomps the economic wellbeing out of everyone. Gee, another silver lining!

MRW said...

OFHEO = Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight?

MRW said...

trade deficits had not started yet so they balanced the budget and some years went into surplus due to private sector IT financed investments putting the non-govt into deficit...

What are talking about, Matt?

Gordon Platt, “1998 Trade Deficit Predicted to Reach $250 Billion—The Highest Ever,” Journal of Commerce, December 4, 1997.
John Maggs, “1997 Trade Deficit Hits 9-Year High,” [record of $198.7 billion set in 1997] Journal of Commerce, February 20, 1998.

MRW said...

The highest annual trade deficit we had during Clinton's admin was about 30B right at the end as China hadnt gotten started yet and Japan moved a lot of production into the US...

Not true.

If we had a 30B trade deficit this year we probably run a balanced budget too

?????

January 2016 Trade Gap is $45.7 Billion
April 2016 Trade Gap is $37.4 Billion
From: BEA News , Bureau of Economic Analysis , Trade Deficit , Trade in Goods and Services , U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis , U.S. Census Bureau
https://blog.bea.gov/category/trade-deficit/

Further: from U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce

"The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of
Commerce, announced today that the goods and services deficit was $36.4 billion in September,
down $4.0 billion from $40.5 billion in August, revised. September exports were $189.2 billion,
$1.0 billion more than August exports. September imports were $225.6 billion, $3.0 billion less
than August imports."

MRW said...

There was no housing bubble under Clinton.

That's exactly when it started. Greenspan told everyone in 1999 to take out second mortgages to make ends meet--don't you remember?--and started the upward drive in asset prices.

MRW said...

Forgot to add the last link in November 22, 2016 at 9:27 PM aboiut trade deficits for September 2016.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EDT, Friday, November 4, 2016
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/international/trade/tradnewsrelease.htm

Matt Franko said...

Last FY, deficit was $587B.... trade deficit (12 months) is about $40B/mo or call it 500B... mostly disgraced trapeze net around the factory slave dormitory China USD zombies who never saw a USD they didnt like...

So without the foreigners saving USDs, defict would be about 100B or so and no one would care.... domestically, in US right now we have boomers dis-saving and youngers saving so there is an intergenerational xfer of savings going on right now... domestic deficit is only about 100B which is probably about right...

Clinton left office 2000 and real estate didnt go up under Clinton... I remember because I had some I bought in the S&L crash in early 90s and it wouldnt go up..... meanwhile people were doubling their munnie in one day in DrKoop.com I felt like a sap for being in real estate going nowhere....

Real estate didnt start going up until all the spending coming in under Bush 2 you can see the uptrend here:

https://www.chartsninja.com/charts/single/6956

Rummy's DoD came in and started bidding up building materials for war-zone construction and shipping it over there (plywood over $40, drywall over $18, yards wiped out of inventory, etc) which raised the prices of property and the OFHEO (FNMA/Freddie) just kept raising the ceiling on conforming mortgages so you had DoD in a bidding war with OFHEO for US building materials.... so prices kept going up until DoD removed its bid and it eventually rolled over...

Matt Franko said...

PS, If you need it in rote then here: "its about price not quantity"...

Matt Franko said...

Further, you have to break it up into 3 separate time intervals for analysis:

8 years Clinton
8 years Bush 2
8 years Obama

those 3 intervals of time are characterized by differing conditions... so its best to analyze them separately....