deficit hawkism

(Author's Note: This post updates Part Three of a series reviewing Warren Mosler's book: The 7 Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy. The updating is prompted by a post by Hannah at DailyKos offering a “. . . a Review Sort of” of Warren's book. Read below the fold...

(Author's Note: This post updates Part Two of a series reviewing Warren Mosler's book: The 7 Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy. The updating is prompted by a post by Hannah at DailyKos offering a “. . . a Review Sort of” of Warren's book. Read below the fold...

In the big budget fight going on right now in Congress, the Tea Party conservatives rightly point out that $61 Billion in spending cuts is just a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.6 Trillion predicted deficit, and they react with a great deal of moral fervor to the suggestion that they ought to compromise on $33 Billion in cuts in order to avoid shutting down the Government. That moral fervor sounds perfectly reasonable to me as long as one agrees that Government spending causes inflation, that we now have a huge deficit, debt problem in the United States that we must solve, or face national insolvency in the not too distant future, and also if the people afire with moral fervor would also apply that to the issue of the wealthy paying their fair share of taxes. Read below the fold...

By
Warren Mosler
(Reprinted from Moslereconomics.com with the Express Permission of the Author)

Unsustainable Budget Threatens Nation

March 24 (Politico) — Repeated battles over the 2011 budget are taking attention from a more dire problem—the long-run budget deficit.

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Tuesday night, I thought I'd attend The National Journal's Debate on "Our Fiscal Future" between John Podesta and Douglas Holtz-Eakin with Jim Tankersley moderating at The George Washington University's Marvin Center. I was interested because Podesta is often thought to be on the left-wing of “mainstream” opinion, and also it is said that he is one of the leading possibilities to succeed Rahm Emanuel as the President's Chief of Staff. So, I wanted to see if I could find some glimmer of novelty in the point of view he expressed; some indication that he might bring some new thinking into The White House beyond what Obama has been hearing from say, Austan Goolsbee. Read below the fold...

In my previous three posts analyzing the June 26th AmericaSpeaks Community Conversation event I attended in Falls Church, VA, I presented the steps in the decision process used for the event, and discussed the pre-conference phase and the first four steps. Read below the fold...

In early December, I asked whether President Obama would choose to be more like Hoover, or more like FDR. Well, I guess it's definitely Hoover. Read below the fold...

James K. Galbraith's short piece in The Washington Post Outlook section proposed that we ought to toss the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). I couldn't agree more. This post is a commentary intended to amplify the argument.

Jamie begins with: Read below the fold...

[Selise on Fiscal Sustainability at Down with Tyranny. Read and comment! -- lambert]

[James Galbraith on the Fiscal Sustainability Counter-conference:

The Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In Counter Conference will be the important
event in Washington on April 28. Unlike the other meeting, this one will
feature important work by honest scholars. It deserves at least equal
attention, and very much more respect.

James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin

Alrighty, then. --lambert]

Background

Fiscal sustainability is very much in the News these days because of the activities of the President's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, The Peterson Foundation's very vigorous efforts to present a point of view on fiscal sustainability that reinforces and expands the outlook of the National Commission's statement of purpose, The Washington Post's continuing expression of the deficit hawkism point of view, and CNN's “news alliance” with The Peterson Foundation. All this and more is part of a steamroller being formed to ensure that only one point of view on fiscal sustainability, namely a neo-liberal point of view dominates the landscape of public discussion. Read below the fold...

A little more than a week ago, I proposed a Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In and Counter-Conference to be held in Washington, DC as a response to the First Meeting of the Administration's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, sardonically called by some the “steal Read below the fold...

In my last post I discussed the Washington Post's Hooverite anti-deficit campaign and Fred Hiatt's recent piece in the deficit hysteria genre. Read below the fold...

Last weekend that so-called epitome of liberal media bias called The Washington Post continued its on-going war on economic recovery and the American people with two salvos on the “crisis” in Government finances created by our “unsustainable” deficits, written by Fred Hiatt and Robert Read below the fold...

It looks like we're approaching an inflection point of great danger in working through problems in creating Economic Recovery. The inflection point is coming because there has been little economic recovery both internationally and domestically, with some nations continuing to run large deficits, and a growing chorus from many, calling for austerity and Governmental budget balancing even though it's well known that the consequences of these policies will be economic contraction and further hardship for all of us but the rich. Read below the fold...

The corporatist-centrist politicians, such as Judd Gregg, Kent Conrad, Evan Bayh, no longer afraid of a total collapse of the world economy, are using deadly innocent frauds, scare, myths, and lies about the deficit and the national debt to undermine the possibilities of progressive change in the United States. Read below the fold...

Read below the fold...