Meanwhile, I was forced to comment on this clueless, old school article in the Washington Post, by Robert Samuelson. [snark]Samuelson has the same last name as a famous economist.[/snark] Note, I have an electronic subscription to the Washington Post, the article may be behind a paywall.
Wow, after just having finished reading "Monetary Money Theory" by Wray, this article comes across as totally clueless. Why does he think the debt is bad? Public debt === private savings.He mentions 100% of GDP with a possible inference that that is bad, with no mention of Japan running at 200% of GDP for decades. He worries about "borrowing" to finance the debt. The US doesn't have to borrow, the Fed can just print the money. That's where all our money comes from anyway.
The basic premise of MMT is simple: inflation and other problems only come about when there are real shortages of real resources. Money is just points, meaningless in the long run. The distracting and ultimately stupid question, who will pay for it? Answer, the Fed. Just roll the presses. Easy peasy. It's how Baranke "financed" QE in 2009.
If he's really worried about debt, let's go back to 94% top income tax rates, like during the golden age of the 1950s under Ike. Let's set capital gain and dividend taxes at 3-4x those on wages - or even higher, if we eliminate corporate taxes to stop the current international race to the bottom as Wray suggests. Let's institute a 3% wealth tax on fortunes over $10M. Let's implement a micro-tax on all financial transactions, the amount to be determined by how much would eliminate day trading and other forms of parasitism in our economy.
Oh wait, our oligarchs wouldn't like any of those much. I have a much better idea: [sarcasm]let's cut Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and privatize the USPS because .. our oligarchs hate those.[/sarcasm]
Time for an economic system that works for everyone, not just the 0.01%.
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