tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post3359369750449843099..comments2024-03-27T05:23:48.855-04:00Comments on Krugman-in-Wonderland: The Forgotten "Millions" (and Billions and Trillions) of Government SpendingWilliam L. Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01802990642236807359noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post-40157420934492842762012-12-10T06:53:17.578-05:002012-12-10T06:53:17.578-05:00"Money and monetary economies and markets cam..."Money and monetary economies and markets came from the state. Money & "the market" worshiped by the pious is a government intervention,"<br /><br />Whatever-Keynesians are mind-blowingly hilarious. The proof lies just above.Balanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post-78612018663427009592012-12-10T05:22:26.314-05:002012-12-10T05:22:26.314-05:00would the helicopter cash dump not distort the eco...would the helicopter cash dump not distort the economy some what Dineronoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post-65836883613910248222012-12-09T14:33:25.937-05:002012-12-09T14:33:25.937-05:00And your free market is really just anarchy by ano...<i>And your free market is really just anarchy by another name.</i><br /><br />Wouldn't want too much of that freedom stuff, like freedom of speech, for instance. Who knows what logical concepts the plebs might embrace without state guidance? Or religion, anarchy in the spiritual world could cause all kinds of problems, better to just forget about it.Pulverized Conceptshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14860274211446159849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post-61438814571495086182012-12-09T10:26:32.923-05:002012-12-09T10:26:32.923-05:00Anonymous
“…huge tax breaks for the corporation”
...Anonymous<br /><br />“…huge tax breaks for the corporation”<br /><br />Corporations don’t pay taxes, people do. Corporate taxes are a cost of doing business and paid for by either consumers, shareholders, employees or a combination thereof.<br /><br />“What about the commons?”<br /><br />The faulty premise in your statement is that it assumes that only government can provide the whole list of commons.<br />Mikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post-18134892810153968112012-12-09T00:32:26.300-05:002012-12-09T00:32:26.300-05:00It's all redistribution of wealth. One side gi...It's all redistribution of wealth. One side gives it to corporations such as GM, cities and states creating subsidies and huge tax breaks for the corporation effectively buying jobs--hell, it might be cheaper to hand out money directly to the people. I don't really see how your argument is all that different.<br /><br />And your free market is really just anarchy by another name. Money equals speech and all that. Roads, schools, parks all privatized to the highest bidder. <br /><br />What about the commons? There has to be common goals that benefit society, otherwise government breaks down and we have the current system of obstructionism. But hey, all for the mighty dollar, right?<br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post-35630401259057763152012-12-08T17:06:52.055-05:002012-12-08T17:06:52.055-05:00A "real economy" isn't hamstrung by ...A "real economy" isn't hamstrung by thousands of pages of government regulations, the US is very remote from any kind of free market system and proposing to remedy its problems with even more regulations is an example of insanity, if the goal is prosperity. Bertrand de Jouevenel points out in his "The Art of Conjecture" that attempting to predict the future when the plans of authorities can't be discerned means that investments won't be made and people won't be hired. The deeper the government digs into the economy, the worse things will get. Look at Spain.Pulverized Conceptshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14860274211446159849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post-53774315015816591132012-12-08T15:22:35.385-05:002012-12-08T15:22:35.385-05:00If only there was a wise central banker in charge ...<i> If only there was a wise central banker in charge in the 1300’s. He could have printed and spent to combat the human tragedy of the Bubonic Plague.</i> Well, if there had been the knowledge to combat the Bubonic Plague back then, it would have been crazy for governments back then to not combat it. And they did, do the best of their meager abilities.<br /><br />It's a pretty good parallel. Do-nothingers like some Austrians are much like those during the Plague who argued that it was divine punishement and that any effort to combat it was impious evasion of the divine punishment. <br /><br />It stems from a religious belief, which makes most religions look sensible. That governments cannot produce, cannot organize or guide the production of, cannot increase the production of wealth. <br /><br />That human beings organized together calling themselves "the government" cannot work to benefit these same human beings. Only human beings organized together calling themselves "profit-making business" can work to produce and benefit. <br /><br />But where did these profits come from? Partly from businesses and banks lending, spending, producing and trading with each other. But where did this "money" that measures the profits come from? Money and monetary economies and markets came from the state. Money & "the market" worshiped by the pious is a government intervention, the same government that pious do-nothingers insist cannot do anything (good). Calgacushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06031818010224747000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post-34269095230824900992012-12-08T14:58:30.321-05:002012-12-08T14:58:30.321-05:00Professor Anderson,
I am starting to read Joseph S...Professor Anderson,<br />I am starting to read Joseph Stiglitz's book The Price of Inequality. It seems simple to Joe: Since any economic system is a social (and legal) construct, then we can re-distribute, regulate, to our hearts content to obtain egalitarian outcomes. Kill the rent seekers!Josephnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post-87821784217683469762012-12-08T13:10:16.657-05:002012-12-08T13:10:16.657-05:00"Not that bureaucrats produce anything, but I..."Not that bureaucrats produce anything, but I guess they can spend and spend. So, if this is going to be our "employment" future, why not just print a bunch of money, load it into helicopters and dump it. The effect on the economy would be about the same as "creating" fake government occupations."<br /><br />That's the thing. Helicopter money is a one shot deal, But make work jobs last forever. When the worker retires and new employee can step right in and line up for his "paycheck."<br /><br />(My plan was for FEDGOV to print up 300 million credit cards with unlimited limits and give them to every man and woman in the nation. There, that'll stimulate things!)<br /><br />Ah Krugman, the man that looked at the North Dakota oil boom and said oil had little to do with it. <br /><br />A US industry finally finds a way to create lots of high paying/low qualification jobs and the first thing he yells is "Stop!"<br /><br />This is the guy who is going to get people back to work?<br /><br />I wonder Keynes ever factored in industrial suppression into his models. Sure you can hand out cash to boost spending, but what if there is nothing to buy? (Example: USSR) <br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post-14598716426906050292012-12-08T02:50:05.616-05:002012-12-08T02:50:05.616-05:00What Krugman wants is to sell his books and keep p...What Krugman wants is to sell his books and keep people reading his columns and blogs. <br /><br />Krugman makes a great living peddling his nonsense. <br /><br />If he stopped telling his cult-like followers what they want to hear, they would simply stop buying his books and find someone else to tell them what they want to hear.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post-38028272140328958132012-12-07T16:07:31.917-05:002012-12-07T16:07:31.917-05:00I try my best to understand what Krugman is talkin...I try my best to understand what Krugman is talking about, but I come up empty-handed. I think your reductio ad absurdum is correct: he's really suggesting that the Federal Reserve should simply "quantitatively ease" all Americans to prosperity by electronic transfer of "money" to their bank accounts. But he thinks what he's saying is different from that. In some way that he never articulates, Krugman has uncoupled the idea of "money" from its representational form (standing in for underlying true wealth) and sees simply the electronic form of Fed money creation as equivalent in all respects to representational money. It doesn't matter which it is, and that's why the Treasury cannot "run out of cash." It's a little like the redneck joke about being broke; how can I be broke if I still have checks in my checkbook? I think Krugman, in his extreme way, has gone the MMT people one better and is now a firm believer in "virtual money" and its power to command goods and services in the real world. They were too kind on CNBC when they called him a "unicorn." He's a fabulist.ayassosnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276561747841568697.post-38358160599007836502012-12-07T15:29:14.984-05:002012-12-07T15:29:14.984-05:00So now Krugman has evolved his argument for printi...So now Krugman has evolved his argument for printing and spending to combat “millions of human tragedies.” If only there was a wise central banker in charge in the 1300’s. He could have printed and spent to combat the human tragedy of the Bubonic Plague.Mikenoreply@blogger.com