A clever take-off on Plato using the Socratic method called elenchus (which became the template for the tradition of free inquiry and open debate as a foundation of Western liberalism).
Global Inequality
Athenian dialogues on global income inequality
Branko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality, senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist in the World Bank's research department and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Oh brother..,, Yeah this is going to really help….
ReplyDeleteAthenian dialogues on global out of money - Matt Franko
ReplyDeleteMoronicus: I say! We are out of money!
Scientificus: yo, we cannot run out of scientific abstractions ..,
Moronicus: yes we can!
Scientificus: ah no, we can’t…
Moronicus: yes,we can!
Scientificus: no, we can’t..,,
etc.,,,
Ruling Classicus: Can't have a job guarantee.
ReplyDeletePunditus: Agreed. Plebs will refuse to work hard.
Consensus: Here! here! We have reached consensus.
Maximus Flavious Delicius: What's for brunch?
Brandonus: Ukrainian meat pie.
Anthony Blinkus: With a side dish of European cooked goose.
Brandonus: I'm having ice cream.
I'll throw this out there for a bit of fun starting from the perspective the upper class knows fine we'll how money works.
ReplyDeleteMonetary policy might be as simple as inflate it all away.
They can't just come out and say we are going to destroy everybody's savings because we built that much up during the pandemic which scared the government to death.
So to reduce wage earners savings, disposable income and spending power how do they do it ? Inflate it away ?
If Warren is right then it is possible some governments are deliberately causing inflation using interest rate hikes while slashing budget deficits at the same time. Thus running budget surpluses out of view. MMT knows what budget surpluses do.
Each country has to do it differently because of their own individual sectoral balances.
What they are actually trying to do is reduce workers savings / disposable income / spending power by inflating it all away by running budget surpluses in a different way using high inflation rates and cutting deficits.
Very few households hold bonds apart from pensions and these are locked in for years anyway.
Which means, the system has been set up to reward bondholders the upper class as they hike rates to make inflation worse as they cut the deficit and run budget surpluses to inflate the lower classes spending power away. Class war par excellence and genius if you ask me.
A cynic would say explains the government actions perfectly.
Starting from the perspective the upper class knows fine we'll how money works and have done for centuries . Rather than call them idiots who haven't got a clue.
ReplyDeleteCan always make you see things differently. In many number of different ways.
I'm off to Portugal for a couple of months. I will test myself in the local museums in and around the Algarve look at the coin section of museums and try and work out the history of the place just by looking at coins then walk through the museum to see if I am right.
Taking a trip to Lisbon from the Algarve and they have an actual money museum.
https://www.visitlisboa.com/en/places/money-museum
I will do really well not to get locked up and spend a few days in a prison cell. As I know before I go this institution will be built on the foundation of monetary silencing. That will be its core message to lie about the past.
Because if the money museum actually told the historical truth. The Portuguese would be out on the streets demanding to leave the Euro.
ReplyDeleteThis museum will take monetary silencing to a whole different level.
The weather in July doesn't look great
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/RobertPBalan1/status/1674164476256350209?cxt=HHwWgsCz7ZLu6bsuAAAA
We'll see how Canadian provincial governments deal with the unaffordable housing crisis.
ReplyDelete“ by running budget surpluses in a different way using high inflation rates and cutting deficits.”
ReplyDeleteThey’re not “cutting deficits” people are saving less and taxes are increasing…
So you can see GDP increasing as people save less and we get closer to “people can buy all they produce” which is the ideal scenario…
“ MMT knows what budget surpluses do.”
ReplyDeleteThey may not… I’ve never seen them explain what surpluses do other than some generalizations that the non govt is not saving … which then at the same time they say saving is bad because “if someone saves then we can’t buy all of our output”…
It’s hypocritical…
A more robust economy in terms of output would be a situation resulting in a balanced fiscal result as nobody would be saving…
A surplus would be even more robust as the non govt would be reducing prior savings and creating credit in non govt…
Like US in late 90s…
Yeah, and we all seen how that turned out in 2008. Just as Minsky explained how it would.
ReplyDeleteThe example I threw out there for fun. Would also explain in a way why every time they do this. They have to attack social security or increase the pension age in many countries.
The UK were planning to increase the pension age again but out it on hold while France is burning.
The bank lending austerity model they/ you love so much, will never be productive enough to supply the goods and services for all. As pensions have been rewarded along with the upper class pensions are something they can deal with after the crises.
Crises = increase pension age or slash pensions- are like death and taxes.
Watched every video from this conference at Harvard.Everybody who attended this conference went back centuries and understands money.
ReplyDeletehttps://justmoney.org/conf-archive-mdm-2018-page/
May I suggest you watch the first panel - Monetary Sovereignty, Democracy, and Economic Development
Listen to Katharina Pistor input – Columbia Law School who describes neoliberalism beautifully - “Capital Rules by Law”
“ Yeah, and we all seen how that turned out in 2008. Just as Minsky explained how it would.”
ReplyDeleteYeah like Peter schiff did too…
Just predict doom for decades then eventually when the monetarist morons in control fuck up you say you predicted it…
Where can I get that job…
I was very interested in the 3rd panel the history of complimentary currencies living in Scotland as I do.
ReplyDeleteHow Scotland could actually win some independence by just deciding to launch a parallel currency.
It was interesting that Helmut Siekmann – Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability, Goethe Univ brought with him some local regional parallel currencies that are still in use today.
You don't need that job Matt.
ReplyDeleteJust pick up a history book so much easier.
Your bank lending austerity model you love so much gets a pounding over the centuries because it doesn't work. Been tried many, many, many times.
Revolution, revolution after revolution. Only people who liked the idea and implemented it was the upper class. Your American colonial "money users" ancestors would be turning in their graves Matt. If they heard you talk like that.
Your ancestors knew exactly what money scarcity meant when left to a bunch of bankers and rent seekers Matt. Who then decided who got access to money and who didn't. It tried to hide the racism I suppose after they released the slaves.
So did the people of the Isle of Skye in Scotland. They know that bank lending austerity model very well.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-50124192
Tolls, tolls, tolls,
" We don’t want the government to fund public infrastructure. We want it to be privatized in a way that will generate profits for the new owners, along with interest for the bondholders and the banks that fund it; and also, management fees. Most of all, the privatized enterprises should generate capital gains for the stockholders as they jack up prices for public services.”
And crossing the Skye bridge.
“ Who then decided who got access to money and who didn't.”
ReplyDeleteThe government does that every day… Brandon trying to give munnie to people with student debt right now… sending bazillions to Ukraine every week.., etc…
Your whole conspiracy theory is NOT contrarian… that’s the thesis 99.9% of people believe from monetarists reifying the accounting abstractions to even gold bug libertarians…
Nobody looks at this as a problem with the dominant academic methodology being imposed in macroeconomics … which is the main problem..
“ We don’t want the government to fund public infrastructure. We want it to be privatized in a way that will generate profits ”
ReplyDeleteCommies are always concerned with who gets the munnie not real outcomes…
Which institutional arrangement produces the higher quality of result?
All the PPP toll roads I’ve ever driven on are smooth as glass with no trash …. Regular public roads full of potholes and cracks with rebar sticking out..
Else equal the PPP institutions produce a much higher quality of real outcomes..,
The private sector cannot build or maintain infrastructure. They're only interested in the small subset that can make them money. And even there, they want the public to absorb all the risk.
ReplyDeleteSocialism for the .1%.
In US all infrastructure is constructed by private sector firms…
ReplyDeleteSubcontractors don't own what they build or charge tolls for subsequent usage.
ReplyDeleteWhat a libertarian mess that would be...
The PPP roads and bridges are better maintained and operated … the munnie paid in tolls has to stay in the deal…. Can’t be robbed out by Democrats…
ReplyDeletePPP is a scam.
ReplyDeleteEither go full private or accept that some things should remain under public control.
There's no excuse for piss poor management of public works projects.
Of course, nowadays there's no accountability for higher ups.
“ There's no excuse for piss poor management of public works projects.”
ReplyDeleteThe munnie is robbed out by leftists in government… it’s not poor management…
The munnie is redirected to leftist social priorities…
With a PPP the toll revenues are collected and have to stay in the deal…. There is a contract… Can’t be robbed out ..,
ReplyDeleteThe munnie is redirected to the MIC thru overwhelming bipartisan support.
ReplyDeleteAnd if rebuilding contracts are secured, it will be redirected to Ukraine.