It seems that this just reinforces how far off economists are.
“The debate about the long-run challenge posed by the federal budget deficit has also become divorced from economic reality. The same panel of economists was almost unanimous in agreeing that “long run fiscal sustainability in the U.S. will require cuts in currently promised Medicare and Medicaid benefits and/or tax increases that include higher taxes on households with incomes below $250,000. Only one in 10 was uncertain. None objected.”
These who read your blog are mostly socialists, a few bare-foot tree huggers busy growing pot plants in the toilet (the best place for hydroponics), there is an artificial intelligence script run by NSA, one odd employee of the Chinese Ministry of Information and possibly a part-time troll assigned by von Mises Institute.
None of these will either buy the company or one of the cars from you. The closest thing would be the employee of the Chinese Ministry of Information but you would need to show that these cars you make can be converted into lightweight tanks to be used against the American troops at a latter time possibly when Taiwan or anything else like Japan or South Korea is to be liberated. Just like the catamarans they bought from Australia. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/china/houbei.htm
“The ability to print money, officially known as quantitative easing (QE), has allowed the U.S., British and Japanese governments to run whatever deficits they wanted and to offer their banks unlimited support without suffering the sky-high interest rates that are now driving the Club Med countries toward bankruptcy. Instead of raising money from private investors, these governments finance their public spending and deficits by borrowing from their own central banks. This means that the U.S., British and Japanese governments are actually much more solvent than their huge deficits suggest, because much of their debt does not really exist. They are an accounting fiction – an IOU from one branch of government, the treasury, to another, the central bank. The Bank of England, for example, is lending £375 billion to the British government in 2009-12, out of a total planned deficit of around £450 billion. The Fed’s $3 trillion balance sheet effectively reduces the U.S. government’s total debt by 20 percent, from $16 trillion to $13 trillion.”
what k and the rest miss is that as monopoly supplier of clearing balances, gov’s are necessarily price setters for the term structure structure of rates. and that nor does it matter if the US debt is 16 or 13 t
@Adam (ak), Mr. Mosler, why are our democratic politicians intentionally going to raise taxes to keep social security solvent? I thought greenspan said they could print all the dollars congress wants.
@Willie Lomax,
In my opinion the issue has nothing to do with “keeping the social security solvent”. Some of the Democrats have been brainwashed to believe that currency is a pre-existing commodity which must be acquired by the Government before it is spent. Some of them want to restore the progressive taxation structure from pre-Reagan era in the disguise of fiscal urgency.
Here in Australia we have a “progressive”, Labor Prime Minister who until recently was obsessed with restoring budget surpluses. If you read what Ed Miliband stands for you will quickly discover that he stands for nothing except for a few empty slogans. The main argument given to people to convince them to vote for him is that he is not a Cameron. The main argument why Gillard wants to cling to power is to prevent Tony Abbott from being a PM. Who cares? Ooh and there is an ongoing debate about gay marriages and carbon tax – the most important topics for the survival of the Western civilisation.
Not the prevailing decadence, stagnation and decay of the current socio-economic model. We have no problem, Houston. Everything is normal. “The euro is “irreversible” and not in danger, says Draghi” Just like being infected by a HIV virus – you can’t get rid once you get it.
These people have a clear progressive vision of success – in the case of Julia Gillard the PM of Australia it is keeping the current structure intact:
Keeping housing 3 times more expensive than in the US – this will ensure that migrants and young people will be kept in perpetual state of serfdom because they will never accumulate any assets. This is also very good for the banks.
Everything regulated and perks directed towards blue collar trade union apparatchiks (it is illegal for me to wire a switch at home because only a tradie can legally do that). Red tape everywhere “out of concern for our environment”.
Our hi-tech future in the hands of Senator Conroy the proponent of Internet Censorship and state-owned NBN that is a broadband network – what for? To give work to a few dozens of unionised technicians? I already have a broadband connection, thank you very much Senator Conroy, without your effort. What about the IT sector though? The overpriced Australian Dollar has effectively killed it. So what? We don’t need the IT, we don’t need to be another Singapore, mining and agriculture is the future of Australia – until all land is either destroyed or sold off to sovereign Chinese investment funds.
Time to switch off the TV. The system may self-regulate itself but it may take a few more decades to get rid of the neoliberal progressives for good and replace their ideology based on nothing, on the illusion of liberty and equity for the chosen.
The “progressives” are useless and they don’t add any value, they should cease to exist as a political force. Sorry to say that but they are hogging space on the political scene with their fat bums. I thought that grass-root movements like Occupy Wall Street can at least inject new memes to the ongoing debate. I was wrong. The main technique used by the keepers of the status quo is to drawn any voice in the information noise of irrelevant pseudo-events and factoids. It was the invention of radio and printed press what enabled mass movements and revolutions of the first half of the 20th century (the most of them quickly morphed into totalitarian regimes mass-murdering people). It was the invention of the Internet what disabled any flow of relevant ideas in the Western culture. Everyone can say everything therefore nothing is relevant any more. This instantly gives the Asians (specifically – the Chinese, where flow of information is tightly controlled), a leading edge.
The policies should be about achieving strategic goals not just implementing marketing techniques. What is the strategic vision of American leadership in 50 years time proposed by a leading Democratic strategist? I read Zbigniew Brzezinski’s “Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power”. This is a vision of strategic capitulation of a geriatric spent super-power. A vision full of statements about running out of money and fiscal crisis facing America.
There is an alternative – to rebuild scientific and technological supremacy of America and the West by launching not one but several advanced programs like “Apollo”. As long as America is 10-20 years ahead of China in terms of science and technology – there is no risk to “Global Power”. Warren Mosler knows how to finance this project. No need to raise more taxes.
I sincerely hope that the West will find again its “mojo”. In this case destruction of the “progressive” side of politics is a precondition of any change. Obama and current Democrats (or Labour/Labor in the UK/Australia) belong to the same category of people as Chamberlain or Carter.
The worst possibility is the lack of any change, the preservation of the status quo. 10 more years of the current stagnation and the dream of Paul Keating the former Labor PM of Australia will come true – Australia will be an Asian nation or rather an Asian semi-colony. And you guys in the US will have to repay all the debt to China with corn and other products – printing will not be accepted any more…
This article talks about some future “potential” scenarios you may like on globalization and the rise of totalitarian regimes worldwide. You wanted some 50 year projections right?
Interestingly, the foundation supports the authoritarian regime in china for one of thier virus control scenarios. How can you argue with thier logic? They were able to save more human beings from the outbreaks?
PS regarding chinese influence:
China can now bypass Wall Street when buying U.S. government debt and go straight to the U.S. Treasury, in what is the Treasury’s first-ever direct relationship with a foreign government, according to documents viewed by Reuters.
The relationship means the People’s Bank of China buys U.S. debt using a different method than any other central bank in the world.
Adam (ak) Reply: July 21st, 2012 at 7:51 pm
Willie Lomax,
Globalisation is at the centre of the debate. From the Western power elites point of view except for short-term and medium-term gains (cheap cargo arriving from China) the main strategic goal was to engineer a global social transition combined with the weakening of nation-states. They wanted the Russian and Chinese upper classes to join Western economic elites in running similar policies everywhere in the world. The utopia would be a neoliberal order everywhere.
That plan failed because in China money doesn’t give power. Power gives money. The vehicle for expressing common interests is called Chinese Communist Party not land or share ownership by the bourgeois. In Russia the power of oligarchs and cleptocrats of Jelcyn’s era were curtailed by V. Putin. The oligarchs are still there but they are not loyal to British Petroleum. They are loyal to the Putin’s inner circle which distributes powers and gives them the licence to plunder the country without the fear of prosecution. This is a small price to be paid for a smoothly functioning state capitalism. Now Putin wants to rebuild the Russian empire by restoring the Army as the backbone of the Nation. If only the Russians started breeding again…
The institution of state has therefore survived the experiment. In the long run the globalised West ruled more by corporations, interest groups and finance industry than statesmen is no match to a centralised behemoth called China Inc and its allays like Russia Inc.
This is the strategic mistake Western elites have to admit: they fed the monster which has turned its head against them.
Planting “democracy” and “Western model of capitalism” in China has failed. The rich and aspiring to be rich in China did not develop class solidarity with the Western “1%”. They are still loyal to the state they have a license to plunder. The Chinese have developed their own state capitalism “Made in China” which is far more efficient because of the full capacity utilisation and emphasis on investment and technological progress. At the same time the West has stagnated due to Great Recession and austerity.
I consider the rise of right-wing libertarianism in the US as one of the most severe threats to Western civilisation, an element of the same global strategy aiming at destruction of nation-states and any remains of the so-called “democracy”. Historians may write in 50 years time (if the censorship allows for that) how much of this effort was inspired by the Chinese and Russian operatives.
Why do Austrians and “deflationists” (and Julian Assange) spew their propaganda using “Russia Today” channel? When I was a kid this institution was called “Radio Moskva”. They were telling us about eternal friendship between the Soviet overlords and Polish serfs. The same institution is telling you that you need to go and destroy your own state in the name of “liberty”.
There is no risk of the totalitarian state in the US. I see a risk of corporations controlling every aspect of life of lower-class people by brainwashing and aggressive marketing. And if current global imbalances persist, these corporations will be owned by the Chinese Communist Party, this is just a matter of time. Just look at the evolution of the political thinking of mining magnates here in Australia. Look at Clive Palmer, the best friend of the Chinese, trying to inject himself to the political scene and sever the strategic ties between America and Australia. http://www.theage.com.au/national/magnate-lashes-out-20111122-1nsxa.html
Don’t worry, they will come after you as well. The old elite, all these immensely wealthy Rockefellers will be like the old gentry in the UK. They still own a lot of assets but they are a passive stakeholder. The same logic they wanted to introduce to China applies to them, their loyalty will be bought out by the Chinese. The “1%” of the West will be serving the interests of CCP, not the members of CCP will join the “1%”.
The Chinese have effectively hacked globalisation.
It’s a bummer to win that way, but the fact that the F430 driver focused as much blame on his car as he did the Mosler driver tells me he got ambitious in his defensive line and knows it.
It sounds like a great race with Morcillo running from 7th up to 1st.
Warren,
This article makes me depressed….especially this part.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-23/the-u-s-economic-policy-debate-is-a-sham.html
It seems that this just reinforces how far off economists are.
“The debate about the long-run challenge posed by the federal budget deficit has also become divorced from economic reality. The same panel of economists was almost unanimous in agreeing that “long run fiscal sustainability in the U.S. will require cuts in currently promised Medicare and Medicaid benefits and/or tax increases that include higher taxes on households with incomes below $250,000. Only one in 10 was uncertain. None objected.”
Reply
WARREN MOSLER Reply:
July 26th, 2012 at 1:30 am
:(
Reply
Warren,
These who read your blog are mostly socialists, a few bare-foot tree huggers busy growing pot plants in the toilet (the best place for hydroponics), there is an artificial intelligence script run by NSA, one odd employee of the Chinese Ministry of Information and possibly a part-time troll assigned by von Mises Institute.
None of these will either buy the company or one of the cars from you. The closest thing would be the employee of the Chinese Ministry of Information but you would need to show that these cars you make can be converted into lightweight tanks to be used against the American troops at a latter time possibly when Taiwan or anything else like Japan or South Korea is to be liberated. Just like the catamarans they bought from Australia.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/china/houbei.htm
On a lighter note – Anatole Kaletsky explains Kaleckian economics to the unwashed capitalist masses using the mainstream (not Chartalist) reference frame:
http://blogs.reuters.com/anatole-kaletsky/2012/07/19/can-a-real-central-bank-save-europe/
“The ability to print money, officially known as quantitative easing (QE), has allowed the U.S., British and Japanese governments to run whatever deficits they wanted and to offer their banks unlimited support without suffering the sky-high interest rates that are now driving the Club Med countries toward bankruptcy. Instead of raising money from private investors, these governments finance their public spending and deficits by borrowing from their own central banks. This means that the U.S., British and Japanese governments are actually much more solvent than their huge deficits suggest, because much of their debt does not really exist. They are an accounting fiction – an IOU from one branch of government, the treasury, to another, the central bank. The Bank of England, for example, is lending £375 billion to the British government in 2009-12, out of a total planned deficit of around £450 billion. The Fed’s $3 trillion balance sheet effectively reduces the U.S. government’s total debt by 20 percent, from $16 trillion to $13 trillion.”
Reply
WARREN MOSLER Reply:
July 21st, 2012 at 7:30 am
what k and the rest miss is that as monopoly supplier of clearing balances, gov’s are necessarily price setters for the term structure structure of rates. and that nor does it matter if the US debt is 16 or 13 t
Reply
Willie Lomax Reply:
July 21st, 2012 at 2:25 pm
@Adam (ak), Mr. Mosler, why are our democratic politicians intentionally going to raise taxes to keep social security solvent? I thought greenspan said they could print all the dollars congress wants.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/239111-senate-democrats-not-in-favor-of-extending-payroll-tax-holiday-because-of-social-security-concerns
Democratic lawmakers say they do not expect President Obama to call for another extension of the payroll tax.
“The president has indicated that he has no intention of extending it and I will support him on that,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
“The way it was funded created concerns about Social Security that I think are very serious ones,” he added.
Reply
Adam (ak) Reply:
July 21st, 2012 at 6:16 pm
@Willie Lomax,
In my opinion the issue has nothing to do with “keeping the social security solvent”. Some of the Democrats have been brainwashed to believe that currency is a pre-existing commodity which must be acquired by the Government before it is spent. Some of them want to restore the progressive taxation structure from pre-Reagan era in the disguise of fiscal urgency.
Here in Australia we have a “progressive”, Labor Prime Minister who until recently was obsessed with restoring budget surpluses. If you read what Ed Miliband stands for you will quickly discover that he stands for nothing except for a few empty slogans. The main argument given to people to convince them to vote for him is that he is not a Cameron. The main argument why Gillard wants to cling to power is to prevent Tony Abbott from being a PM. Who cares? Ooh and there is an ongoing debate about gay marriages and carbon tax – the most important topics for the survival of the Western civilisation.
Not the prevailing decadence, stagnation and decay of the current socio-economic model. We have no problem, Houston. Everything is normal. “The euro is “irreversible” and not in danger, says Draghi” Just like being infected by a HIV virus – you can’t get rid once you get it.
These people have a clear progressive vision of success – in the case of Julia Gillard the PM of Australia it is keeping the current structure intact:
Keeping housing 3 times more expensive than in the US – this will ensure that migrants and young people will be kept in perpetual state of serfdom because they will never accumulate any assets. This is also very good for the banks.
Everything regulated and perks directed towards blue collar trade union apparatchiks (it is illegal for me to wire a switch at home because only a tradie can legally do that). Red tape everywhere “out of concern for our environment”.
Our hi-tech future in the hands of Senator Conroy the proponent of Internet Censorship and state-owned NBN that is a broadband network – what for? To give work to a few dozens of unionised technicians? I already have a broadband connection, thank you very much Senator Conroy, without your effort. What about the IT sector though? The overpriced Australian Dollar has effectively killed it. So what? We don’t need the IT, we don’t need to be another Singapore, mining and agriculture is the future of Australia – until all land is either destroyed or sold off to sovereign Chinese investment funds.
Time to switch off the TV. The system may self-regulate itself but it may take a few more decades to get rid of the neoliberal progressives for good and replace their ideology based on nothing, on the illusion of liberty and equity for the chosen.
The “progressives” are useless and they don’t add any value, they should cease to exist as a political force. Sorry to say that but they are hogging space on the political scene with their fat bums. I thought that grass-root movements like Occupy Wall Street can at least inject new memes to the ongoing debate. I was wrong. The main technique used by the keepers of the status quo is to drawn any voice in the information noise of irrelevant pseudo-events and factoids. It was the invention of radio and printed press what enabled mass movements and revolutions of the first half of the 20th century (the most of them quickly morphed into totalitarian regimes mass-murdering people). It was the invention of the Internet what disabled any flow of relevant ideas in the Western culture. Everyone can say everything therefore nothing is relevant any more. This instantly gives the Asians (specifically – the Chinese, where flow of information is tightly controlled), a leading edge.
The policies should be about achieving strategic goals not just implementing marketing techniques. What is the strategic vision of American leadership in 50 years time proposed by a leading Democratic strategist? I read Zbigniew Brzezinski’s “Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power”. This is a vision of strategic capitulation of a geriatric spent super-power. A vision full of statements about running out of money and fiscal crisis facing America.
There is an alternative – to rebuild scientific and technological supremacy of America and the West by launching not one but several advanced programs like “Apollo”. As long as America is 10-20 years ahead of China in terms of science and technology – there is no risk to “Global Power”. Warren Mosler knows how to finance this project. No need to raise more taxes.
I sincerely hope that the West will find again its “mojo”. In this case destruction of the “progressive” side of politics is a precondition of any change. Obama and current Democrats (or Labour/Labor in the UK/Australia) belong to the same category of people as Chamberlain or Carter.
The worst possibility is the lack of any change, the preservation of the status quo. 10 more years of the current stagnation and the dream of Paul Keating the former Labor PM of Australia will come true – Australia will be an Asian nation or rather an Asian semi-colony. And you guys in the US will have to repay all the debt to China with corn and other products – printing will not be accepted any more…
Reply
Willie Lomax Reply:
July 21st, 2012 at 6:54 pm
@Adam (ak),
Since you bring up Brzezenski: The comments to this post mention him and rockefeller and his work “the technotronic age”
http://theintelhub.com/2012/07/19/rockefellers-depopulation-dreams-published-by-foundation-link-to-mass-graves/
This article talks about some future “potential” scenarios you may like on globalization and the rise of totalitarian regimes worldwide. You wanted some 50 year projections right?
Interestingly, the foundation supports the authoritarian regime in china for one of thier virus control scenarios. How can you argue with thier logic? They were able to save more human beings from the outbreaks?
PS regarding chinese influence:
China can now bypass Wall Street when buying U.S. government debt and go straight to the U.S. Treasury, in what is the Treasury’s first-ever direct relationship with a foreign government, according to documents viewed by Reuters.
The relationship means the People’s Bank of China buys U.S. debt using a different method than any other central bank in the world.
Adam (ak) Reply:
July 21st, 2012 at 7:51 pm
Willie Lomax,
Globalisation is at the centre of the debate. From the Western power elites point of view except for short-term and medium-term gains (cheap cargo arriving from China) the main strategic goal was to engineer a global social transition combined with the weakening of nation-states. They wanted the Russian and Chinese upper classes to join Western economic elites in running similar policies everywhere in the world. The utopia would be a neoliberal order everywhere.
That plan failed because in China money doesn’t give power. Power gives money. The vehicle for expressing common interests is called Chinese Communist Party not land or share ownership by the bourgeois. In Russia the power of oligarchs and cleptocrats of Jelcyn’s era were curtailed by V. Putin. The oligarchs are still there but they are not loyal to British Petroleum. They are loyal to the Putin’s inner circle which distributes powers and gives them the licence to plunder the country without the fear of prosecution. This is a small price to be paid for a smoothly functioning state capitalism. Now Putin wants to rebuild the Russian empire by restoring the Army as the backbone of the Nation. If only the Russians started breeding again…
The institution of state has therefore survived the experiment. In the long run the globalised West ruled more by corporations, interest groups and finance industry than statesmen is no match to a centralised behemoth called China Inc and its allays like Russia Inc.
This is the strategic mistake Western elites have to admit: they fed the monster which has turned its head against them.
Planting “democracy” and “Western model of capitalism” in China has failed. The rich and aspiring to be rich in China did not develop class solidarity with the Western “1%”. They are still loyal to the state they have a license to plunder. The Chinese have developed their own state capitalism “Made in China” which is far more efficient because of the full capacity utilisation and emphasis on investment and technological progress. At the same time the West has stagnated due to Great Recession and austerity.
I consider the rise of right-wing libertarianism in the US as one of the most severe threats to Western civilisation, an element of the same global strategy aiming at destruction of nation-states and any remains of the so-called “democracy”. Historians may write in 50 years time (if the censorship allows for that) how much of this effort was inspired by the Chinese and Russian operatives.
Why do Austrians and “deflationists” (and Julian Assange) spew their propaganda using “Russia Today” channel? When I was a kid this institution was called “Radio Moskva”. They were telling us about eternal friendship between the Soviet overlords and Polish serfs. The same institution is telling you that you need to go and destroy your own state in the name of “liberty”.
There is no risk of the totalitarian state in the US. I see a risk of corporations controlling every aspect of life of lower-class people by brainwashing and aggressive marketing. And if current global imbalances persist, these corporations will be owned by the Chinese Communist Party, this is just a matter of time. Just look at the evolution of the political thinking of mining magnates here in Australia. Look at Clive Palmer, the best friend of the Chinese, trying to inject himself to the political scene and sever the strategic ties between America and Australia.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/magnate-lashes-out-20111122-1nsxa.html
Don’t worry, they will come after you as well. The old elite, all these immensely wealthy Rockefellers will be like the old gentry in the UK. They still own a lot of assets but they are a passive stakeholder. The same logic they wanted to introduce to China applies to them, their loyalty will be bought out by the Chinese. The “1%” of the West will be serving the interests of CCP, not the members of CCP will join the “1%”.
The Chinese have effectively hacked globalisation.
—
Conservatives of all the nations, unite!
WARREN MOSLER Reply:
July 26th, 2012 at 1:20 am
sad but true. and the point of this website
Reply
Very fascinating – Mosler car beating Ferrari left and right.
These 3 employees do a great job!
Reply
It’s a bummer to win that way, but the fact that the F430 driver focused as much blame on his car as he did the Mosler driver tells me he got ambitious in his defensive line and knows it.
It sounds like a great race with Morcillo running from 7th up to 1st.
Reply