An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Monday, March 27, 2023
Here's the clip from my appearance on Fox Business today.
I was "debating" economist Joe Lavorgna regarding MMT. Lots of things we didn't have time to get into, but that's TV.
Great to see you back on network television, you looked great and did amazing. Have 2 days remaining in my Twitter suspension otherwise would be retweeting like a mad man!!
PS You have really leaned out from the old days when you used to clown that clown Schiff lol. Keep up the great work!!
Here's something no one said ever "Hey, the Japanese just attacked Pearl Harbor, but we're low on cash, so we won't respond."
Shall we go down to the Bureau of Weights and Measures and ask whether they're running out of inches?
Maybe we can go to the scorekeeper at the ballgame and tell him "Hey buddy, you're about to run out of points!" ... before security takes us away...😉
The perennial objection to MMT is "What about the inflation?) JFYI, in the Cato Institute study of 56 hyperinflationary episodes throughout history, here are the number initiated by a central bank "run amok" printing too much money: zero.
Even the classic examples of Zimbabwe and Weimar Germany began with resource shortages, not "too much printing."
The colonial Rhodesian farmers left Zimbabwe, and agriculture in Africa isn't a trivial task. If you're going to grow European livestock, for one example, you must have a tsetse fly eradication program, or your herds die of sleeping sickness. In any case, a country that previously fed itself had new farmers, and farming has a steep learning curve. They had to import food, and that's what began the inflation. A resource shortage and a balance of payments problem predated the "printing."
In Weimar Germany, the French were upset about a slow-to-arrive World War I reparations from Germany, so had their troops invade the German industrial heartland, the Ruhr, shutting down industrial production, leading to a shortage of goods that predated any money "printing."
The really big inflation in the U.S. in the '70s was kicked off because OPEC decided to use the "oil weapon" in 1973, after U.S. (pre-fracking) peak oil in 1971. The price of oil in 1971: $1.75/bbl. That price quadrupled virtually overnight once OPEC cut its exports, and peaked in 1982 at $42/bbl (about the current price after you adjust for inflation). Reagan lucked out because Alaska's North Slope came online in the '80s, and prices retreated to ~$10/bbl.
Always, always, always the inflation has a resource component. Milton Friedman's proclamation "Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon" is just bunk. As far as I can tell, Friedman just lied to keep in practice.
For a devastating take-down of Monetarism, see Friedman's student, Eldon Rayak's Not So Free to Choose...sorry, out of print, but still available on Amazon for $84(!)... Worth every penny.
To show you how much well-funded propaganda infests our economic discussions, Friedman's Free to Choose has many resources on its Amazon page. Not only is the book still in print, and about $12, there are videos, and PBS series, etc. It's a propaganda empire for that evil little munchkin, Friedman.
Again: good work! And what a surprise, Fox covers MMT! Of course Republicans have known MMT implicitly for a long time. "Reagan proved deficits don't matter" - Dick Cheney.
Hey Mike,
ReplyDeleteGreat to see you back on network television, you looked great and did amazing. Have 2 days remaining in my Twitter suspension otherwise would be retweeting like a mad man!!
PS You have really leaned out from the old days when you used to clown that clown Schiff lol. Keep up the great work!!
Kind regards,
Mailey
Good job Mike!
ReplyDeleteMMT has insight to offer on the whole "losing our reserve currency status".
ReplyDeleteNice job, Mike!
ReplyDeleteA few examples you might use:
Here's something no one said ever "Hey, the Japanese just attacked Pearl Harbor, but we're low on cash, so we won't respond."
Shall we go down to the Bureau of Weights and Measures and ask whether they're running out of inches?
Maybe we can go to the scorekeeper at the ballgame and tell him "Hey buddy, you're about to run out of points!" ... before security takes us away...😉
The perennial objection to MMT is "What about the inflation?) JFYI, in the Cato Institute study of 56 hyperinflationary episodes throughout history, here are the number initiated by a central bank "run amok" printing too much money: zero.
Even the classic examples of Zimbabwe and Weimar Germany began with resource shortages, not "too much printing."
The colonial Rhodesian farmers left Zimbabwe, and agriculture in Africa isn't a trivial task. If you're going to grow European livestock, for one example, you must have a tsetse fly eradication program, or your herds die of sleeping sickness. In any case, a country that previously fed itself had new farmers, and farming has a steep learning curve. They had to import food, and that's what began the inflation. A resource shortage and a balance of payments problem predated the "printing."
In Weimar Germany, the French were upset about a slow-to-arrive World War I reparations from Germany, so had their troops invade the German industrial heartland, the Ruhr, shutting down industrial production, leading to a shortage of goods that predated any money "printing."
The really big inflation in the U.S. in the '70s was kicked off because OPEC decided to use the "oil weapon" in 1973, after U.S. (pre-fracking) peak oil in 1971. The price of oil in 1971: $1.75/bbl. That price quadrupled virtually overnight once OPEC cut its exports, and peaked in 1982 at $42/bbl (about the current price after you adjust for inflation). Reagan lucked out because Alaska's North Slope came online in the '80s, and prices retreated to ~$10/bbl.
Always, always, always the inflation has a resource component. Milton Friedman's proclamation "Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon" is just bunk. As far as I can tell, Friedman just lied to keep in practice.
For a devastating take-down of Monetarism, see Friedman's student, Eldon Rayak's Not So Free to Choose...sorry, out of print, but still available on Amazon for $84(!)... Worth every penny.
To show you how much well-funded propaganda infests our economic discussions, Friedman's Free to Choose has many resources on its Amazon page. Not only is the book still in print, and about $12, there are videos, and PBS series, etc. It's a propaganda empire for that evil little munchkin, Friedman.
Again: good work! And what a surprise, Fox covers MMT! Of course Republicans have known MMT implicitly for a long time. "Reagan proved deficits don't matter" - Dick Cheney.
You can’t correct a reification error (monetarism) with another figure of speech.,,
ReplyDeleteThe United States used rationing during WW2. That's a fact, not a figure of speech.
ReplyDeleteI expect the response would be: You see, you see, that had to ration the munnie!
It’s an analogy which is figurative language..,
ReplyDeletehttps://languagetool.org/insights/post/style-define-analogy/
ReplyDelete“Analogies are a type of figurative language that helps enhance understanding by comparing an unfamiliar topic with a familiar one.“
Doesn’t work… obviously,,,
Transitory... not permanent.
ReplyDeleteSimilar:
temporary, transient, brief, short, short-lived, short-term, impermanent, ephemeral, evanescent, momentary, fleeting, flying, passing, fugitive, flitting, fading, mutable, unstable, volatile, here today and gone tomorrow, fly-by-night, fugacious
Opposite:
permanent perpetual lasting
See where Brandon went wrong?