Warren Mosler interview on Barry Armstrong’s Boston biz radio show
Posted by WARREN MOSLER on January 30th, 2012
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MMT: Taxes function to regulate aggregate demand, and not to raise revenue per se.
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January 30th, 2012 at 3:57 pm
I love the line about once you understand that the government can’t go broke, you can’t go back.
So true.
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Save America Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 12:15 pm
@Cris Ruebush, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093796/Emily-Bunting-Leigh-Van-Bryan-UK-tourists-arrested-destroy-America-Twitter-jokes.html
The government may not go “broke”, but at some point the people want to change the government because it is no longer working for them, Warren wants to change it. Be careful what you post here Citizen, you are being monitored and it may affect your travel plans ;)
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January 30th, 2012 at 10:43 pm
Nice!
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WARREN MOSLER Reply:
January 30th, 2012 at 11:35 pm
thanks!
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Tom Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 1:52 pm
@WARREN MOSLER,
Yeah, great interview.
I always wondered what you thought it was if it wasnt ignorance that so many economists and politicians dont “get it”…at least youre not a conspiracy theorist!
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January 31st, 2012 at 5:41 am
Keep up the good work Warren. I first learned about you and MMT from Mike Norman on business radio in Houston.
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January 31st, 2012 at 9:18 am
Great work Warren, your delivery for the medium is perfect. You sound even-handed, restrained and never exasperated which is exactly the way to sell an idea that at first listen can sound a little crazy. Well done!
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January 31st, 2012 at 12:54 pm
This interview was much better than when I heard you on CNBC with liesman, you sound more confident. But in playing devil’s advocate, you say unemployment is terrible, but from John Kerry talking about “the global test” in his presidential run, it seems the modern globalist masters of the universe have helped unemployment in places like china and india, and if the USA must suffer unemployment lines to help those countries, is that not acceptable? The needs of the many (2 billion Chindia) outweigh the needs of the few (300 million USA). People in spain where the youth have 50% unemployment (ages 16-24) Say it is a great thing, they can surf the internet and post on econ blogs all day instead of doing farm work like the asians do for them now.
Anyways you say you are not a conspiracy theorist in this interview, but Reed of Citigroup on that moyers interview says that wall street culture is definitely working against the people with an Evil Agenda, Sandy Weil worked against the people with an EVIL greedy agenda, so let me ask you this Warren, Honest Question, how many more people like REED do you need to come out and say there is an Agenda before you will say I can no longer give these people the benefit of the doubt that they are just ignorant, but instead these people are evil self serving sociopaths? I just want to know where is the turning point for warren mosler, how much more proof does he need? From Reed, to professor Black, to so many others, you are starting to look like the minority when you say they are just ignorant. Do most people here think they are just Ignorant or do they agree with former citigroup Chairman REED who says there are dark forces at play?
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Gary Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 3:59 pm
@Save America,
you can say that morality is ignorance too – because if people REALLY understood what they are doing – they would not do “evil” things.
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January 31st, 2012 at 12:58 pm
They never did post part 2 of the last one like they promised me, but a new interview is more than a consolation prize!
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January 31st, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Great delivery ..great wit …you certainly appear to enjoy them more and are less defensive than in your earlier interviews …
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January 31st, 2012 at 3:43 pm
Has anyone figured how to download the interview without iTunes?
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January 31st, 2012 at 8:03 pm
Warren,
Regarding Bill Moyers’ interview with former Citibank CEO, Reed, Reed assured Moyers that the bailouts were absolutely necessary, since the banks were–and are–too big to fail; that failure to bail them out would have had a catastrophic domino-like effect on the entire world economy, since all banks lend and invest with each other; that it would have toppled our economic system.
Do you agree? If not, could kindly point us to a good explanation that would counter Reed’s assertion–an explanation of yours or anyone else you could recommend? And would you kindly send Moyers that explanation? I think it would do a great deal of good.
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WARREN MOSLER Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 9:25 pm
what do you consider a bailout? I don’t consider liquidity provision a bailout
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January 31st, 2012 at 10:12 pm
Further on warren’s no conspiracy theory, I just got back from a talk in Oakland about Banking for dispenseries and cannabis collectives. According to the speakers, The treasury department has pressured banks in the area to not do business with anyone associated with the medical marijuana industry, doctors, dispeneraries, delivery services, collectives, etc etc They have been ordered to freeze accounts, etc.
Now Warren I know a renaissance man like you who has his own bank and has advocated for legalized marijuana will not stand for this goverenment oppression, so when are you going to offer banking services for these groups that are being turned away by other banks because of treasury department pressure? You won’t let the treasury department pressure your bank in this way will you? There are almost 600 dispenseries in this region alone, not to mention all the peripheral connected businesses and individuals, and 16 states are now marijuana legal. Who at enterprise bank wants to expand and become the nation and perhaps the worlds marijuana banker and provide a needed service to lots of sick and old people and war veterans who need the product? Or are you gonna just let this opportunity pass you by and be quiet about treasury manipulation?
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Robert Kelly Reply:
February 1st, 2012 at 9:27 am
@Save America,
Might be a good micro financing project for UC Berkley students.
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Save America Reply:
February 1st, 2012 at 2:12 pm
@Robert Kelly, That’s a great idea, but the students are so broke they are begging for student loan forgiveness and sleeping homeless next to the sick and old people in occupy oakland buildings.
Worse, their professors and teachers are worried about the state cutting back the school year and cutting thier salaries, so instead of staying in classrooms teaching, they are going to city/state political rallies/meetings.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/california-run-out-cash-one-month-controller-warns
I am telling everyone that California just needs to break off from the Union and be thier own nation, they consume more oil than china and are the 8th largest economy in the world, issue thier own currency and get Wash, DC and the fed and US treasury out of thier business. This seems like a very radical idea to some of the people I am talking too, but crisis is expanding thier horizons.
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February 1st, 2012 at 12:08 am
Warren,
I must say that sometimes your replies can be quite exasperating. It’s not so much what Sergio considers a bailout, but what the public has been told are the “bank bailouts” that go into trillions of dollars, beginning with the original one under Paulsen. John Carney recently published an article, “The Size of the Bank Bailout: $29 Trillion.” Are these not problematical? Bill Moyers pointedly asked Reed if the astronomical sum given the banks for “bailing them out” were necessary. He said they were. Everyone seems to be clear on the term bailout. If these need to be defined and important distinctions need to be made, kindly do so, we are ready and eager to learn. At any rate, the question was whether you agree that these were indeed necessary and if so why or if not why not. You don’t have to answer this, of course, but I imagine Sergio was just hoping for more than a one-liner for what appeared to be a serious and very important–in fact, crucial–question. I don’t understand the coyness, unless you are pressed for time.
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WARREN MOSLER Reply:
February 1st, 2012 at 7:27 am
29 trillion is mainly ‘liquidity provision’ and not a bailout in any sense.
the buying of bank capital was regulatory forbearance, and not govt. spending, but could be considered a bailout to the extent
shareholders and bondholders who were part of the capital structure of banks with capital deficiencies were allowed retain any equity at all.
some of the remaining funds were perhaps rightly considered ‘bailouts’ but you’d have to be specific for me to give you a good answer.
see http://www.moslereconomics.com/?p=8968
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February 1st, 2012 at 2:04 pm
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bill-gross-why-we-are-witnessing-death-abundance-and-why-gold-becoming-default-store-value
Bill Gross does not seem very happy with what has transpired.
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February 2nd, 2012 at 4:55 pm
Warren a few years back you brought up the judge in the private prison scandal who was throwin innocent teenagers in jail so the private prisons could make PROFIT and give kickback to the judge and asked for thier to be congressional investigations.
Well state senator Mike Fasano fought the privatization of prisons in florida (with ample evidence of thier failures to serve the people) and look what happened to him yesterday:
http://cltampa.com/dailyloaf/archives/2012/02/01/haridopolos-tells-fasano-hes-fired-from-subcommittee
It’s rare but not unprecedented for Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos to bring down the hammer, and he did so on Wednesday, stripping Pasco County state Senator Mike Fasano from his chairmanship of the Criminal and Civil Justice budget committee.
The move happened after Fasano, a critic of the Senate leadership’s plan to privatize state prisons, delayed for the second straight day a measure that would outsource all Department of Corrections operations in 18 counties in the southern portion of the state.
Sorry Warren, but even if good politicians try to do the right thing, they get the boot, but you want us to believe our system is working and the regulators and good people are in control? ;)
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Save America Reply:
February 2nd, 2012 at 5:00 pm
@Save America, PS citizens of florida, you guys are about to get the hammer slammed on you too, how many hedge fun guys are going to buy into these private prison companies now? Miami-Dade county alone should turn a pretty profit! Lots of disadvantaged unemployed youth to lock up, now if we just get the chain gangs coming back we will show CHINA a thing or 2 about slave labor – LOL!
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February 2nd, 2012 at 5:39 pm
Warren, I must say that I find your attitude regarding this question incredible, and it is no wonder that the entire subject is mired in continual obfuscation or else in an endless dotting of i’s and crossing of t’s. When the public is told that Wall St. has extorted trillions or billions (take your pick, apparently) they should be told: “it’s not really a bailout, “mainly ‘liquidity provision’ and not a bailout in any sense. It’s really a matter of ;regulatory forbearance; and not government spending, and only some of that money was really a bailout in the sense that it limited the losses of stockholders.”
Well, that clears it up. Looks like it was all legit and hunky-dory after all, just like Wall St. assures us. Besides, it was all necessary to “save the global economy.” I guess Carney is wrong to use the term ‘bailout’ so loosely, and Wray must also be at fault here when he says–sloppily, I guess– “That is a far better measure of the extent of the Fed’s efforts to bail out troubled banks—who should be expected to fund themselves in markets, not at the lender-of-last-resort!” Or who know what Moyers really meant–if anything intelligible–when he asked Reed if the ‘bailouts’ had been necessary, and Reed, doubtless making effort to keep a straight face, also uttered an unintelligible remark when he affirmed they were necessary. All this tempest over a cup of tea! I tell you, these “bailout terrorists” are as bad as the “deficit terrorists.” Nobody understands us!
Thanks, Warren.
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WARREN MOSLER Reply:
February 3rd, 2012 at 8:03 am
all out of context.
I was the first to call fraud when others were saying it was ‘lax lending standards’ well before the crash of 08.
I was the first to blame congress for failure to make a fiscal adjustment in q3 08.
I was the first to be blaming the FDIC and then Tsy for ‘bailouts’ when others were blaming the FED
I’m still the only one blaming the Fed for insufficient liquidity provision.
And I still blame the fed for lending to non member banks without wiping out shareholders and unsecured creditors.
I’m still the only one pointing out ‘too big to fail’ is about shareholders and unsecured creditors losing, and not bulldozing the building.
The Fed’s job is to provide liquidity to fdic blessed member banks, which it often failed to do.
The FDIC’s job is to determine which member banks are ‘solvent’ and deal immediately with those not in compliance.
with bankiing under a floating fx policy one way or another the govt supports the liability side of banking.
as i pointed out at the inception of the euro, the ecb would wind up funding their banking system, just like every other govt funds its banking system.
so I seee the 29 trillion compilation as ‘unteaching’ how banking works
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February 3rd, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Thanks, Warren, points well taken and much appreciated. I think you might consider an article summarizing and synthesizing this question of bank bailouts in layman’s terms, to the extent that is possible, and whether these were good or bad, necessary or otherwise, and why, sort of on the lines of your 7 book, which is very accessible–I don’t know a single person who is clear on this. It is a ripe topic for demagogues.
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WARREN MOSLER Reply:
February 4th, 2012 at 7:54 am
good idea!
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MamMoTh Reply:
February 5th, 2012 at 10:37 am
@WARREN MOSLER,
I second that!
Another suggestion I have is to make more clear in your proposals for reforms to the banking system, which problem does each proposal address. (There is something, but not always enough for non experts)
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