The real existential threat to the United States isn’t what’s in the bill or anything else we’ve discussed. The real threat arises if we DO NOT crumble as a result. If the American spirit, our drive to recover, and the Grace of God allows us to make it through all of these bailouts without tangible repercussions, then Modern Monetary Theory will have been falsely proven to be effective. At that point, the end of America will begin.
Say what?
Modern Monetary Theory: The little-known consequence of the massive coronavirus bills
JD Rucker
Rucker typifies the intellectual zombie. His big "gotcha" moment is:
ReplyDelete"Regarding Pelosi's $3 trillion coronavirus bill... If you started paying it off on July 4, 1776, writing a check to pay the balance (without interest) every day until today, those checks would need to be $33,681,752.34 each."
Ohhhhhh, so scary. Here's a question for Rucker: USA money supply in the year 1800 was $30 million [see "The Growth of Debt and Money in the United States, 1800-1950: A Suggested Interpretation" by John G. Gurley and E. S. Shaw, The Review of Economics and Statistics
Vol. 39, No. 3 (Aug., 1957]. USA M2 money supply in April 2020 was $17.176 trillion [see https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/united-states/money-supply-m2]. That means that around $190 million in new money was created every day since 1800. Makes Rucker's $33,681,752.34 daily check a bit less frightening ya think? But let Rucker answer: where did that $190 million in new money each day come from? And from whom?
In fact, you should go and read Gurley and Shaw: they give you - in 1957 - the basics of sectoral balances that is key to MMT today. I'll save you wading through the algebra and point you direct to the left side of page 254. So, MMT really ain't that new. It was just lost knowledge - knowledge lost the zombie time wormhole of Austrian economic cranks and deficit scolds. von Measles and von Hayek had Mont Pelerin, the U of Chicago and a bunch of reactionary moneybags backing them; Gurley and Shaw didn't, so their knowledge was lost and supplanted by Austrian inanities.
Here's the key passage from Rucker: "If we don not collapse from the huge coronavirus bailouts, the far-left will call for more of the same. They’ll say that if we can spend the money on the coronavirus without completely destroying ourselves, why aren’t we doing the same thing to end homelessness? Why are there still people living in poverty? Why are children going hungry?"
That's what Rucker is really all about. He's just a selfish prick freaked out at the prospect that in a few years there might not be any poor people for him to piss down on.
Perhaps the article didn't display properly on your screen. But trillions was spelled in ALL CAPS. That doesn't freak you the fuck out?
ReplyDeleteWhen people aren't listening, sometimes YOU HAVE TO SHOUT.
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