Various people are vying for the key positions in the European structures (EC President, ECB head, and a range of other positions) at the moment. The presence of French and German interests typically dominate these outcomes, although as a result of the Treaty of Lisbon changes, more weight was given to the jockeying of the various political coalitions that find their way into the European Parliament. But that process has new been compromised by the decline of the traditional parties as other political forces (Greens, En Marche, Liberal Democrats etc) have gained ground. So Europe is back to its Franco-German rivalry and emerging out of that process is the unthinkable – Bundesbank President, Jens Weidmann – becoming a front-runner to take over the ECB role. He is a man with a past and his current ‘political’ statements, as he lobbies for the position he clearly covets, appear to contradict that past. A leopard never changes its spots. Beware....Bill Mitchell – billy blog
A leopard never changes its spots – Jens Weidmann, ECB President aspirant
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
MMT: The communicative war on budget-balancers
ReplyDeleteComment on Bill Mitchell on ‘A leopard never changes its spots ― Jens Weidmann, ECB President aspirant’
The MMT policy of deficit-spending/money-creation clearly benefits the Oligarchy because it increases macroeconomic profit according to the Profit Law which entails Public Deficit = Private Profit. Thus the Oligarchy’s financial wealth and public debt (currently $22 trillion in the U.S. alone#1) grow in lockstep. MMT policy is disastrous for distribution.
It is MMT’s global mission to keep this business going. The three communicative tools are (i) false solidarity with and false promises for WeThePeople, (ii) belittlement of future negative consequences, and (iii), slandering the budget-balancers.
Some days ago it was the Labour leadership who even dares to speak of a relative reduction of public debt: “at the end of every Parliament, Government debt as a proportion of trend GDP is lower than it was at the start.”#2
This is absolutely antithetical to MMT as a joint venture of Academia and Wall Street.#3 In order to get the Central Bank, i.e. the Means of Production of Currency, into the Oligarchy’s hands, the fake scientists/useful idiots of MMT incite Populism: “If there’s anything the establishment fears more than the working classes seizing the means of production, it’s the working classes seizing the means of production of currency. You would think that socialists would understand that.”
But undermining UK Labour leadership is merely a finger exercise compared to undermining the ECB leadership: “So Europe is back to its Franco-German rivalry and emerging out of that process is the unthinkable ― Bundesbank President, Jens Weidmann ― becoming a front-runner to take over the ECB role. He is a man with a past and his current ‘political’ statements, as he lobbies for the position he clearly covets, appear to contradict that past. A leopard never changes its spots. Beware.”
What provokes the ire of the MMT loudspeaker Bill Mitchell more than anything else is Mr. Weidmann’s statement: “Central bank funding must not become entrenched as a catch-all solution to all our woes.” because this is exactly the fundamental tenet of MMT which has ONE solution for ALL economic/social problems: deficit-spending/money-creation.#4 In the eyes of MMT agenda pushers, Mr. Weidmann disqualifies himself by declaring that he intends to respect the law that defines the ECB’s mandate: “… we have to ensure that the prohibition of monetary financing is respected.”
This impertinence kicks Bill Mitchell into hyperventilation: “That is all on the public record.” Accordingly, “Jens Weidmann should be forced to explain to all and sundry why he is a suitable ECB President given his past claims about ECB policy, which, as he admits, remains ‘current’, and which he would be responsible for.”
It should be obvious that Mr. Weidmann will NOT get MMT’s approval even if he admits that he was wrong then but has now converted to MMT: “The reality is that he was wrong in the first place and his predictions and resistance were reflecting the German inflation angst and the application of flawed mainstream macroeconomics.”
Because “… that doesn’t alter the point.” The point being, once a Swabian Hausfrau ― always a Swabian Hausfrau. Those folks are worst enemies of the deficit-spenders/money-creators of MMT and other useful idiots of the Oligarchy.#5
Note well that MMT macroeconomics is refuted on all counts#6 and that Bill Mitchell is a scientifically incompetent academic.#7
Egmont Kakarot-Handtke
References
https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2019/06/mmt-communicative-war-on-budget.html