Steven Hill — The 7 Biggest Myths and Lies About Social Security

Anti-Peterson ammunition.

Naked Capitalism
The 7 Biggest Myths and Lies About Social Security
Steven Hill, a senior fellow with the New America Foundation

Said Milani — Donald Trump’s Pledge to Defend Spending for Old and Poor Belied by Staff Picks

The odor of bullshit is in the air. Trump is sending contradictory signals, and actions speak louder than words.

Trump’s hiring of two staunch retirement hawks into top policy jobs is not something to take lightly. “Personnel is policy. A candidate’s campaign staff is a useful clue to how that candidate will govern,” political scientist and Bloomberg View columnist Jonathan Bernstein wrote last year. “Including which party groups he or she is close to, which policies the administration would likely embrace, and which party factions may be frozen out.”

The Intercept

Donald Trump’s Pledge to Defend Spending for Old and Poor Belied by Staff Picks
Zaid Jilani

Thom Hartmann — Why Is Obama Taking Orders From A Secretive Billionaire?

Peter Peterson, founder and chairman of Peter G. Peterson Foundation. (Photo: Lingjing Bao / Talk Radio News)

Truth-Out
Why Is Obama Taking Orders From A Secretive Billionaire?
Thom Hartmann, The Thom Hartmann Show | Op-Ed

Ryan Grim — Bill Clinton At Deficit Summit: 'Paul Krugman Is Right In The Short Run'

Former President Bill Clinton began his appearance at Pete Peterson's annual fiscal summit Tuesday by approvingly invoking the name of the movement's arch ideological enemy.

Paul Krugman, The New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist, has been the leading opponent of deficit hysteria and austerity, while Peterson has spent some $500 million since 2007 encouraging deficit reduction.Clinton, interviewed on a keynote panel by MSNBC's Tamron Hall, began by saying he wanted to address "one factual dispute."

"I think everybody in this debate has an obligation to say what they believe," said Clinton. "I think Paul Krugman's right in the short run, and Pete Peterson and Simpson-Bowles and all those guys, everybody's right in the long run. And the question is timing." 

By raising the specter of Krugman, the bane of the deficit-hawk movement, Clinton is sending another signal that the politics of austerity are waning. "It's obvious that if you overdo austerity, you get Europe," he said, noting 12 percent unemployment on the continent.

Clinton's very appearance at the summit, however, testifies to the movement's enduring strength. Clinton was sure to speak out Tuesday against the problem of long-term debt. He warned that if interest rates spiked unexpectedly, the resulting increase in debt costs would "make the sequester look like a Sunday afternoon walk in the park."

The Huffington Post

Bill Clinton At Deficit Summit: 'Paul Krugman Is Right In The Short Run'

Ryan Grim

OK, Clinton is either a moron or subversive of public interest, being in the pocket of the elite. But, to come out in favor of Paul Krugman at a Pete Peterson event is a huge step forward. Count it a win for MMT to the degree it influenced Krugman.

Clinton was sure to speak out Tuesday against the problem of long-term debt. He warned that if interest rates spiked unexpectedly, the resulting increase in debt costs would "make the sequester look like a Sunday afternoon walk in the park."

Now that insolvency has been buried, inflation, interest rates, and the yield curve is the next area that needs to be tackled. This is where the push back is coming from. While Scott Fullwiler dealt with this issue in Interest Rates and Fiscal Sustainability, it needs to be broken down so that non-economists can easily grasp it and repeated widely. There's already a lot of work done on this, for example, the MMT Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In and Counter-Conference.

But apparently word hasn't spread sufficiently yet.

Paul Krugman — Assimilated by the Peterson Borg

Another smack down. Even Paul Volker takes a whack. Professor Krugman is hot today.

The New York Times | The Conscience of a Liberal
Assimilated by the Peterson Borg
Paul Krugman | Professor of Economics, Princeton University