Comments on: MR Transcript: Modern Money Theory and Private Banks

By: Mandy

Mandy — Sat, 26 May 2012 12:52:04 +0000

This, of course, also does not speak at all to the unemmdeployrent situation in which many of those formerly-fully employed now find themselves. Typically (and this has been true, until 2009, for roughly 25 years at least), I would be working full-time, on average, at least 9 10 months of each year, with periodic one- or two-month intervals of unemployment as I complete a long-term contract job and have to spend time finding another similar contract position. During the last 2-1/2 years, though, I have been averaging only about 6 8 months working per calendar year, as the intervals between contracts have greatly lengthened.In addition, rates of pay for contract work have been going down, generally, for almost 4 years now my current contract only pays about what I was getting per hour roughly 10 12 years ago, even though both my skills and work experience levels have both gone up. That is about a 20 to 25 percent cut in rates and, based upon what recruiters have been telling me, that is quite typical and, of course, with no allowance being made for over a decade of inflation. Effectively, I am making about 50 to 60 percent (in real, spendable terms) per year what I was earning about 10 years ago, and my marginal tax rates have not decreased from where they were 5 or 6 years ago.I have to believe that this is pretty typical, and not just in my own field of contract engineering work. Therefore, even a lot of the employed aren’t making enough to even maintain life-style they’re slowly sliding closer and closer to that working poor/poverty line.I’m better off than most, since I have enough qualifications and experience to be well above-average in rate of pay even now but the number of younger, less-experienced workers, coupled with those who have had to change over to doing something else altogether, must, I think, be a pretty sizeable part of those who are slowly sliding backwards like that.

By: DANIEL BUCKLEY

DANIEL BUCKLEY — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:03:14 +0000

Great stuff, enjoyed it so much , Michael Hudson pulls no punches and sees it as it is, a take-over of Democracy and debt peonage of the citizen.

By: behaviorist-socialist

behaviorist-socialist — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 06:26:48 +0000

Dear Bonny,
Please tell Michael Hudson to post at his web site ALL his talks IN WRITING or at least as mp3 audio. (Now it is his talk in Berlin which is posted as a video only…

Many thanks for all!

By: William

William — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:26:59 +0000

@crystal sunshine

Knowledge of Modern Monetary Theory is essential to understand these lectures.

Briefly,

1) Taxes do not fund Federal Spending, they function to regulate aggregate demand and to create demand for a nations currency.
2) The Federal Government spends by crediting bank accounts.
3) The Federal Government issues debt not to raise money for spending, but to drain bank reserves in order to hit its target overnight interest rate.
4) Banks are given a legal privilege to create credit, but cannot create net financial assets.
5) Net financial assets are created by Federal deficit spending.
6) The public sector’s deficit is equal to the private sector’s surplus and vice versa. Therefore, in order for the private sector to net save the federal government must run a budget deficit.
7) This applies to governments who are the monopoly issuers of their currency with debts denominated in this currency.
8) Such a nation can never be forced to involuntarily default as they can create any amount of currency needed to meet their obligations.
9) Such nations can voluntarily default and may also place voluntary constraints upon their monetary system.

See: neweconomicperspectives.org/p/modern-monetary-theory-primer.html

Sincerely,

William.

By: mikaela

mikaela — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:55:10 +0000

thank you Bonnie it was nice to meet all of you in Rimini