Recent comments
ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World
Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Mark, money SHOULD represent wealth, but massive financialization has skewed that -- consider the housing derivatives, dotocm, and other bubbles where all the new money represented just speculative accounting.
Creating money does not cause inflation if it is invested in production or things of real value -- then money does represent real wealth. Demand pull inflation won't occur if aggrevate demand is high but production capacity is high too so that supply levels are also high. The rate of inflation is actually pretty low now, and without predictions of higher inflation, and in fact debt deflation is a serious concern now. The horror stories about inflation such as Zimbabwe or Weimar were entirely different situations and applicable. The big inflation I remember in the 70s was cost push from the price of oil, but even that was not catastrophic, and Nixon's price controls did much to limit the effects.
The federal budget is not, and can not be, revenue constrained; we can't run out of money unless the politicans choose to. And the dollar is not backed by real wealth so much now as political and military power, it place as internation reserve currency, and the petro dollar -- and these last two are under attack by other nations (Russia and CHina especially) and will change with the creation of new banking systems and trade currencies. It is that, not inflation, which could collapse the dollar.
Listen, this MMT stuff goes against all the propaganda and narrative we've been subjected to for years, even in the universities and text books, so It takes a bit of time and effort to wrap one's head around it, but MMT is real and sound -- and actually not modern at all. It's taken me a few years and seeing lots of lectures and writings to grasp the fundamentals after so many decades of conditioning (maybe like someone who 'knew' the Sun went around the Earth to realize it's the opposite). It was something like realizing that the US is the 'evil empire' and not the exceptional nation with a shining city on a hill. Check out Steve Keen, and Georgian economics too -- and all you can find from Michael Hudson.
The real problem, economically, is that we spend our resources on wars, and transfer wealth from the working class to the plutoctracy, while the tangible economy is negelected and falls into ruin, and wealth gap rises to incredible levels. If inflation is a wory, then worry about cost push inflation as our productive capacity falls and goods become more expensive from scarcity - the free lunch of cheap labor from the rest of the world won't last forever. But we can hit a situation of both 'relative inflation' and 'deflation' where even with falling prices not enough people will get money to buy things, and they will stop being produced, putting even more people out of work. It will be like a body where the blood stops circulating.
But really -- look at these videos and writings. and think about what they say. and break through the conditioning and myths. Some of this is complicated -- the financiers and banksters have made it over complicated, but it is possible to cut through it if one keeps looking at the real economy, production, and consumption.
Bluepilgrim, at some point money represents wealth produced or it would be toilet paper. Printing more money in times of crisis, for this reason, causes inflation.
Bluepilgrim, I wasn't talking about the Federal Reserve Bank, I was talking about the Federal budget. The Fed, anyway, should be renationalized.
Yeah, call Hillary & Bill - they will fix that. Jesus, how can any self-respecting African American be so gullible to believe that.
Max Keiser: I am blacker than Bill Clinton!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyi9wiL9mM0
Why Do African-Americans Support The Clintons? The Young Turks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rM156wa780
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k4nmRZx9nc
Why Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote. From the crime bill to welfare reform, policies Bill Clinton enacted—and Hillary Clinton supported—decimated black America. By Michelle Alexander:
http://www.thenation.com/article/hillary-clinton-does-not-deserve-black-...
Was glad to see this interview. I was, however, very surprised that Thom did not ask about returning bankruptcy protections for student loans. His recent interviews and writings on this critically important topic have been hugely important. Thom is one of the few good guys out there currently on this issue, and it is SO important that this get into the presidential race discussions!
I hope that he will put Bernie on the spot about this critically important question in the near future. There are 27 million people in the country right now who are unable to make payments on their student loans, and by standing up to the lending system by championing the return of (constitutionally mandated) bankruptcy protections to student loans, Bernie would be endearing himself strongly to these people.
This really should happen sooner rather than later- Bernie needs these people for the primaries!!!
Thanks again to Thom for his longstanding efforts in this area. We are lucky he is fighting this fight!
Bernie is going to need convention insurance only his supporters can provide by taking the Bernie or bust pledge.
Trump gets a Writ
{… a limerick and an image …}
World-wide, the journalists transmit
that The Donald is wholly unfit
in the White House to sit.
Let’s write him a writ
to stop his campaign, to quit.
. . . .
IMAGE: - Trump at court for the
“Breve relinquere cultus solius”
{“Writ to leave civilization alone”}:
http://cdnph.upi.com/collection/fp/upi/9413/7e5347930976d125d802e09e311a1627/Donald-Trump-arrives-for-Jury-Duty_5_1.jpg
===========================
I want to recast this from 'spending taxes' into 'using our resources' (such as labor, machines, materials), for war and corporate welfare instead of for the people in the US -- the working class who actually produce the wealth. This talking about the tangible, real economy instead of abstaction of money which is so easily manipulated by the banksters and politicians. Every plane, missile and soldier we pay for could be used to help our working class citizens and rebuild our education, health, and other infrastructure.
And BTW -- if you look at http://mmtincanada.jimdo.com/videos-ppt/videos/ you will links to some of Thom's older shows which delve into this subject of MMT, with the same experts I've linked to above.
@ Mark J. Saulys
http://mmtincanada.jimdo.com/essential-quotes/
Q: Is that tax money that the Fed is spending?
A: Bernanke replied, reflecting a good understanding of what we call central bank operations (the way the Fed interacts with the member banks):
It’s not tax money. The banks have accounts with the Fed, much the same way that you have an account in a commercial bank. So, to lend to a bank, we simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account that they have with the Fed.
Sole manufacturer of dollars
St Louis Federal Reserve:
http://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/re/articles/?id=2157
"As the sole manufacturer of dollars, whose
debt is denominated in dollars, the U.S. government can
never become insolvent, i.e., unable to pay its bills. In this
sense, the government is not dependent on credit markets
to remain operational. Moreover, there will always be a
market for U.S. government debt at home because the U.S.
government has the only means of creating risk-
free dollar-denominated assets..."
It's important to understand this: the money is created from nothing, the same way as points by a scorekeeper at a basketball game, grades from a teacher, or inches on the plans for building a house. Money may or may not have reflect tangible wealth, materials, or labor -- and very now has nothing to do with real, tangible wealth or production -- certainly not under financialization and derivatives. Often money is now made in the private sector not by creating real wealth but by destoying it, or by increasing production but reducing it.
The constraints on government spending is not dollars, but what is available for sale. the effects it might have on competing buyers in the private sector, or demand-pull inflation if the productive capacity of the country gets tapped out (shortage of labor, materials, or production infrastructure -- which is not an issue at this time). The government does not need tax dollars since it is the only source of dollars, not a user of them.
See the videos I linked to above.
Trump would win by many people just not voting, the Clintons are not liked by many people because of them being disengenuous,Bill lied his ass off to get elected.
Right on, guys!
Roland
Excellent commentary, Thom. In fact I posted it on my Facebook page.
Ginico, Why would you vote for a Republican, a DINO like Hillary? Is the revolution gonna come faster with the more of the same, this incremental shifting of the spectrum to the right with each election cycle through this "good cop, bad cop" routine of the corporatist, DLC Democrats and hard line Republicans that Clinton represents?
It's still better to have someone who wants to return genuine democracy in the White House. Obama was NEVER about that. If he was he wouldn't have appointed Rahm Emmanuel and Lawrence Summers and the rest of the cabal to the top positions of his administration.
It's not free, of course, taxes pay for it. What emploIyers don't pay in wages they pay in taxes. Their taxes are part of our (working people's) just compensation.
If employers refuse to do either - as they are now - you get what's happening now, the destruction of the middle class and the pauperization of working people.
Whoops.
Right on, Thom! The hell it's "free", using OUR tax dollars for OUR benefit. Gee what a novel concept.
There is an alternative. Achieving it requires understanding the dynamics at work and distinguishing between earned and unearned income, between productive and unproductive means of gaining wealth. That is the antidote to the neo-rentier power grab.
Trump could not win a general, against either Dem candidate.
Below is an email I sent out to various people the other day which is very relevant to this issue. Everyone needs to understand the principles of 'modern monetary theory' (MMT). Money for social necessities doesn not have to come from taxes: the US is now using sovereign fiat currency, and taes are not used to finance expenditures. All the details are in the videos below -- Stephanie Kelton's in particular. These people are well established, associated with University of Missouri, K.C. among other major institutions, and are top experts.
Please, everyone, don't fall for the myths or lies of the neoclassical and right wing money men and politicians, but learn how the economy and national finance actually works. With current unemployment and underutilization there is no valid reason not see to the needs of the country and its citizens.
----------
This links to a series of videos (sessions / speakers) and transcripts. A little old, but still very relevant and not outdated.
http://www.netrootsmass.net/fiscal-sustainability-teach-in-and-counter-conference/
Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In and Counter-Conference
April 28th, 2010 by selise
related links:
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/
(The rest via Randy Wray's series on debt free money and http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2016/02/value-redemption-debt-free-money-part-3.html
Interesting aside bout fair value of bit coins
)
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2010/04/paul-samuelson-on-deficit-myths.html
(Link to MIT teach-in videos)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lynn-parramore/the-deficit-nine-myths-we_b_553527.html
Various other links and side trips are interesting, as well as the main MMT site which has various material, but my purpose is to lin to the videos, which are excellent. The speakers also have their blogs and writings worth following.
After all the corruption in banking, there should be a JUBILEE on all debt for those living on less than 300000 a year or so! We've been robbed!
Obviously, their interpretation of free stuff doesn't include campaign contributions, grossly excessive speaking fees, huge amounts of paid time off, medical coverage, generous pensions, first in line for do nothing civilian jobs,, etc.... Mind's going blank.
One is astonished, - that Trump-ism {or at least Trump’s persona} is applauded in so many demographics-groups, - many of which haven’t-’til-recently featured such mentality. … Maybe it’s our fast-degenerating culture {which includes lots of “authoritarian personalities” discombobulated that their life-styles are disappearing}. … Many political-philosophers have o’er-eons puzzled over how-to-govern degeneracy. No pleasant ways to do’t. Most of the suggested ways involve governing-methods which violate Americana severely. {I’d think that some such bad stuff is in America’s pretty-soon-upcoming future.} {For more information, call 1-[area code]-555-1212.}
The whole idea of "socialism" being a bad word actually goes back to the days long before Joe McCarthy and the HUAC days. Legendary adventure writer Jack London wrote about the back breaking experiences he had when he was trying to make a living as he was also trying to submit stories for publication. It's in a book called The Iron Heel. It tells how he worked 12 hour days 6 days a week in a steam laundry, and got so exhausted that on Sundays, when he wanted to do his writing, he was so exhausted he could do little more than sleep and rest up for another week.
By the 1920's or so, Minnesota political hero Floyd B. Olson helped in the LaFollette populist movement, and later, in order to gain political viability, began the Democratic Farmer Labor party, after "sociaiism" was being defined as a bad word by, you guessed it, the GOP. Why should THEY get to define our vocabulary??? That sounds like the NuSpeak of the novel 1984, where everything takes on its opposite meaning! That is simply doubleplus ungood.
Recently, with the death of my older sister and brother, and of the dreams they had, I have had a lot of occasion to wonder, what is this life all about, anyway? Shouldn't this earth be a place where a person can reasonably expect to have an enjoyable life, no matter what kind of life they pursue? Or is this earth just for a few lucky wealthy people to live off the sweat and blood of billions of hapless servant/slaves who have to live struggling lives in poverty and misery? Why can't we all get decent health care? Why do some people think they deserve it when others do not? It beggars the imagination. I remember when it was a lot better, during the mid-20th century. At least for this caucasian.
This is why I am a Bernie supporter, because I don't see any personal characteristics in Hillary that seem to show a lot of compassion for others, or empathy for others. If she were a kind person, she would not be resorting to personal attacks on Bernie that may bring the whole party down to defeat. It's as though she'd rather see the Dems defeated than for Bernie to possibly be the one that wins in November. Why not just let the best candidate win in a fair contest? There are a lot of states yet that haven't voted, and polls themselves are too often used to influence voters toward Hillary.
Or can it be that a sort of gradual coup has taken place since the assassination of JFK, RFK and MLK, and that nobody but billionaires and transnational corporations are going to be allowed to run the USA from now on?
Indeed! Well said! # 11
I agree full heartedly with your article. Take into consideration this: with the outrageous interest rates and exorbitant fees we pay to many banking and financial institutions along with their innate disregard for all working class Americans, who are being ripped off by all corporate and big business executives, these fees that make them richer and fatten their pockets could be kicked back to us, their clients. After all, we put them in business and we sustain their livelihood! As a nation, there is more than enough money in this corrupt system to offer our citizens "free" and reasonable services such as school, healthcare and affordable food and housing!