Credit Writedowns Sat 2010-05-22 20:38 EDT

Out of control US deficit spending [MMT introduction]

Regular readers know that, while I have a little of what Marshall Auerback calls deficit terrorism in my DNA, I fully support fiscal stimulus as a means to arrest a deep downturn...the US economy will not be able to sustain recovery for long without stimulus. The likely result of withdrawing stimulus is a recession that is deeper than the last one aka a major depression...a lot of talking heads are trying to bamboozle people with tales of woe about hyperinflation and sovereign bankruptcy in the US to support specific claims about what deficit spending can and can't do. Deficit hawks, in particular, are on the warpath...I am throwing in the towel on policy makers because it's clear that Obama has been captured by the deficit hawks and we are headed for a painful recession within the next two years...The policy debates aren't working because the actual mechanics of a fiat monetary system are being obscured by ideological political debates. So, what I want to do is lay the foundations of modern money with you so we can strip away the politics and ideology from the economics...

control; credit writedowns; deficit-spending; MMT introduction.

naked capitalism Fri 2010-01-08 19:29 EST

Limiting the destruction wrought by irrational exuberance in a one-party state

Edward Harrison

I wanted to highlight a piece [Matt Taibbi] wrote yesterday called Fannie, Freddie, and the New Red and Blue. The crux of his argument is this: The partisan rhetoric is on full display in the dust-up over the unlimited liabilities coming from Fannie and Freddie thrust upon taxpayers on Christmas Eve. This rhetoric is not just beside the point, it is specifically designed to obscure the point, namely that both Democrats and Republicans, private industry and the government are culpable in the shambles our economic system has become...We effectively have a one-party system when it comes to investment in the present economic, power, and wealth structure.

destruction Wrought; irrational exuberance; limit; naked capitalism; party state.

Thu 2009-07-30 00:00 EDT

Hussman Funds - The Destructive Implications of the Bailout - Understanding Equilibrium - May 18, 2009

-- ``The Treasury has issued an enormous volume of debt into the frightened hands of investors seeking default-free securities. This has allowed the Treasury to finance a massive and largely needless transfer of wealth to bank bondholders so easily over the short-term that the longer-term cost has been almost completely obscured...transferring wealth from those who did not finance reckless loans to those who did... the Treasury and Federal Reserve have crowded out more than a trillion dollars of gross investment that would have otherwise have been made by responsible people in the coming years, shifted assets to the control of those who have proven themselves to be irresponsible destroyers of capital, and have planted the seeds of inflation that will cut short any emerging recovery.''

18; 2009; Bailout; Destructive Implications; Hussman Funds; Understanding Equilibrium.

Mon 2008-08-04 00:00 EDT

Debt and Delusion

by Robert Blumen; Peter Warburton's undeservedly obscure "Debt and Delusion: Central Bank Follies that Threaten Economic Disaster"

debt; delusion.