16 Responses to MMT Movie: Economics for Dummiez

OK, at 6:32 she spills it for me. We DO have a sovereign currency, BUT only that which is BORROWED from a private entity, the federal reserve, which is not only morally wrong to not honor the work ethic or other earned assets, but goes against the Constitution; art. 1, sec. 8, par. 6, which Wilson the weak gave away for payment of his election debts to JPM and co. who control the fed with their private banks, which is totally unAmerican as well as unConstitutional. The fed can rot IMO. We need JFK’s sovereign US dollars again so that we never have any long term deficits or national debt AND it should be only for public benefit projects, not wars without end that do not truly threaten the nation in fact. A war on terror is only a policing action, meant to intimidate that area of the world under internment/occupation as world powers clash for world control.

I think this particular, frequently voiced obsession with the Fed, constitutional interpretations that most scholars disagree with, this particular take on JFK and the national debt really misses the mark.

In terms of the Fed, the most important problems that people can actually argue come from the governance of that entity, its structure and its mandate.

Regarding the constitutionality of a central bank, you’re either going to have one – like we’ve had in the past – or you’re going to have the Treasury taking over the role of the central bank for all practical purposes. When it has been around for one hundred years and the courts haven’t agreed with you means that it is, by common consent, perfectly legal.

Regardless of what you want to call deficits and the debt, some form of injecting new financial assets from the government to the private sector will have to take place: brand new greenbacks coming from the government may not look or smell like debt to most people, but they constitute deficit spending that is “operationally” (to use a favorite MMT phrase) identical to deficit spending today if we decided not to issue Treasurys or if they are QE’d away.

I take issue with your position on the Federal Reserve Bank. I think that under the current law, Ben Bernanke does the best job possible in the circumstances. He is a decent and very smart guy, who is operating under adverse conditions caused by forces outside his control.

The real problem is that the US monetary system was privatized in 1913 ensuring that all money is created as interest bearing debt by a private banks.
No debts = no money.
In order to pay the interest, more money must be created (as debt) to pay the interest, which results in an exponential growth of the money supply, which is untenable. Since median incomes have been falling and wealth and income being increasingly concentrated to a wealthy elite, there have been more defaults by borrowers, whose incomes have been shrinking. The economy contracts further and unemployment rises to a real level of 18% of the workforce or 33 million people out of work.

This reduces overall productivity and leads to US Treasury deficits, since fewer taxes are being paid. The death spiral will continue until the US Treasury is able to create its own money debt free. The Federal Reserve Bank has had its day in the sun and is now obsolete. The banking industry has become a parasite on the American public sucking its lifeblood and needs to be gotten rid of, Lloyd Blankfein in particular.

The problem is simply stated. The more the private sector makes the more they put into overseas banks.( See the recent Republic presidential candidate.) For the government to issue more money (QA) is simply to send more US money into foreign banks.Better to give money to the poor.That way it stays in the US economy