Department of Analytical Tools

Paul Krugman, well-known for his opposition to the austerity concerns of the deficit terrorists and his advocacy of additional Government stimulus to lower unemployment and end the recession, just ignited a paradigm conflict which promises to clarify for many, the issues dividing “deficit doves” like Paul, from economists who take a Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) approach to economics, which holds Read below the fold...

In a thread entitled Goldman's Win (Felix Salmon), a DUer reminisces about her husband's gig there:

True story about Goldman-Sachs
Posted by LiberalEsto

My husband worked as a computer consultant Goldman-Sachs in Manhattan for 2 months back in 1990.

The first day, someone stole his new raincoat out of the office closet.

The second day, someone stole his umbrella.

The third day, someone stole MY umbrella, which he had borrowed.

It's a fucking den of thieves.

Read below the fold...

A radical look at the global recession. Read below the fold...

The power law is a very important analytical tool, and though Shirkey's article on it is from 2003, Brad DeLong links to it today, for some reason. Read below the fold...

Previously, I have quoted Lawrence Goodwyn's from his 1978 masterpiece, The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America about how unlikely are popular democratic uprisings in advanced industrial societies. Even in times of economic distress, it's very rarely that a democratic mass movement arises. Read below the fold...

By

Warren Mosler

With permission of the author

The G20 has dropped its support for fiscal expansion. The deficit hawks are prevailing. But why is that? We all either know or should know that operationally Federal spending is not constrained by revenues, as Chairman Bernanke stated last year, when asked on '60 Minutes' by Scott Pelley where the funds given to the banks came from:

"...we simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account that they have with the Fed."

We know that when the Fed spends on behalf of the Treasury it simply credits a member bank or foreign government's reserve account at the Fed. Read below the fold...

I’m on the road again, this time for the big artist-blacksmiths’ conference in Memphis, which is held only once every two years.

But there’s something I noticed on the tubez in the days and weeks just before I left that is really needling me. There are a number of otherwise very smart people, some whom I deeply admire, who have begun promoting the ideas of Karl Marx, and the application of Marxist critique to the current socio-politico-economic situation in the United States. Read below the fold...

At the very end of the Seminal/FireDogLake discussion of my last post, “How Are You Going To Pay For It”, two commenters, ironymeter and konst, offered some comments about the idea in Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) that fiat currency is, to a great extent, accepted, because the Government mandates its status as sole legal tender which can be used for paying taxes imposed by the Government. Read below the fold...

This is the third and last in a series of posts based on youtubes from a speech in Milford CT by Warren Mosler. Warren is running for the Senate in CT in the Independent Party primary. Unlike both the Democratic and Republican candidates Warren really understands economics and his forté is explaining it to people. Here's a youtube following on the last one I blogged about. My earlier post covered Warren's policy proposals. This one considers the question “How are you gonna pay for it?”” Read below the fold...

[I'm leaving this sticky for another day. Veblen is cool! --lambert] Read below the fold...

At last, at last! Sarah Palin has admitted she is not a feminist. She's a "conservative feminist." As you'll see, this is an important distinction indeed. Read below the fold...

By

Warren Mosler and Joseph M. Firestone

Paul Krugman agrees that “We're Not Greece.” But he only appears to have a glimmer of an understanding of the most important reason why this is so. We hope this commentary on his op-ed piece improves his understanding, and that of other deficit doves who appear to disagree with the deficit terrorists, but who in the end share their false basic assumptions about deficits, national debts, fiscal responsibility, and fiscal sustainability.

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and the crisis in Greece is making some people — people who opposed health care reform and are itching for an excuse to dismantle Social Security — very, very happy. Everywhere you look there are editorials and commentaries, some posing as objective reporting, asserting that Greece today will be America tomorrow unless we abandon all that nonsense about taking care of those in need.

Read below the fold...

The Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In Counter-Conference happened at The George Washington University's Marvin Center on Wednesday. It was held in the amphitheater at The Marvin Center and was sponsored and given strong support by the University's Department of Management and the wonderful Marvin Center Staff. Read below the fold...

For everyone who wasn't able to attend Wednesday's Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In and Counter-Conference at GWU, with help from the volunteers who made the recordings, I've posted each session's audio along with speaker slideshows for viewing (here). Hopefully transcripts will be added soon. And for anyone who is willing to make a contribution but has not yet done so, donations are still most welcome. Read below the fold...

(What with Vast Left on hiatus, the site is temporarily somewhat humor deficient. Here is my admittedly wooden attempt at filling the void. Comments and/or criticisms welcomed. And it's topical: deficits are on everyone's mind these days, after all.)

It's Time for . . . Liberation Lotto!

Today's New York Times finds the grey lady engaged in her usual gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over The Deficit, in this case, that of the State of New York which it describes as "alarming."

The sum occasioning the state of near panic? $9.2 billion.

Oddly, in the previous week, the Times business section reported on the bonus pool to be distributed among Goldman-Sachs employees.

The sum in question: $14 billion. Read below the fold...