Last week (February 8, 2018), we witnessed the US Senate spectacle with Rand Paul embarrassing himself with his lack of economic knowledge but also embarrassing both major parties – the Republicans for their gross hypocrisy and the Democrats for their gross idiocy. The – Congressional Record – of Paul’s speech (starting S817) is a classic. Also, last week, the stables were stirring apparently, as the ‘bond vigilantes’ were strapping on their saddles and getting ready to make the US government suffer for its so-called fiscal ‘ill discipline’. These characters apparently emerge out of the darkness of fiscal profligacy to defend our interests and force the government to run surpluses. Fantasy stuff all round. In fact, Rand Paul should resign and get a job he is more suited for (which would be?) and the bond vigilantes should make sure their Shetland ponies are not to wild for them. These bond traders play this elaborate game of bluff and pretend they have the power over the government. In fact, they are mendicants queuing up for their daily dollop of corporate welfare and the government could play them out of the game anytime it chose to. The problem is that the bluff works because governments are captive to the neoliberal nonsense that my professsion preaches.Amazing that anyone still believes the "bond vigilante" nonsense after "Bond king" Bill Gross was ignominiously humbled.
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The bond vigilantes saddle up their Shetland ponies – apparently
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
3 comments:
We have been hearing of these bond vigilantes for about 10 years now.
To believe that these bond vigilantes exist you would have to believe that they have been engaged in 10 years of charity work. They COULD punish the US govt for their profligacy and demand higher interest rates but they haven't...... yet!
I guess these guys are so big hearted they just dont use the strength they have cuz it might cost the little guys more on their mortgages and students more on their loans.
"Where fiscal positions are implicated the events occur during or just after the US government has tried to or has been running fiscal surpluses."
Correlation is not causation....
Bill is having trouble with his own objectification figure of speech where "taxes destroy money"...
""Where fiscal positions are implicated the events occur during or just after the US government has tried to or has been running fiscal surpluses."
"Correlation is not causation....
Which is what Bill also made clear, that is if you knew how to read.
Here's the whole snip:
"Conclusion: none of these events are associated with rising fiscal deficits or the level of outstanding US government debt. Where fiscal positions are implicated the events occur during or just after the US government has tried to or has been running fiscal surpluses."
That is, the economic crises he listed beforehand occurred despite the surpluses which should have "saved" the economy if the neoclassics were right.
"Bill is having trouble with his own objectification figure of speech where "taxes destroy money"..."
No he doesn't. You are accusing him based on your misleading cut and paste and that's due to your political bias which makes you not qualified to comment in these matters.
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