Jump to content

500 Million Americans will lose their jobs


Jason

Recommended Posts

[quote]Persuaded, as the Secretary is, that the proper funding of the present debt will render it a national blessing, yet he is so far from acceding to the position, in the latitude in which it is some times laid down, that "public debts are public benefits" a position inviting to prodigality, and liable to dangerous abuse that he ardently wishes to see it incorporated, as a fundamental maxim, in the system of public credit of the United States, that the creation of debt should always be accompanied with the means of extinguishment. This he regards as the true secret for rendering public credit immortal. And he presumes that it is difficult to conceive a situation in which there may not be an adherence to the maxim. At least, he feels an unfeigned solicitude that this may be attempted by the United States, and that they may commence their measures for the establishment of credit with the observance of it.[/quote]

It's pretty clear that Pelosi was misoverestimating her numbers. I wish she would get more acquainted with the author of the above quote.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Bunghole' post='744803' date='Feb 5 2009, 10:45 PM']That quote hurts my head, not a little but a LOT!

/Alan Cutler[/quote]
You could always take out a $10 bill and spit on it. The source is Hamilton's 1st Report on Public Credit. Even if difficult to read, it really does touch on many of the issues currently on topic now.

The trick to reading "old-timey" stuff is the punctuation. Read it aloud in your mind, pausing where and how indicated. Once upon a time literate writing meant writing as though one were talking.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote]I learned the reality a few years ago in London, talking to a commercial banker. “We’ve had an intellectual breakthrough,” he said. “It’s changed our credit philosophy.”

“What is it?” I asked, imagining that he was about to come out with yet a new magical mathematics formula?

“The poor are honest,” he said, accompanying his words with his jaw dropping open as if to say, “Who would have guessed?”[/quote]

[url="http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson02122009.html"]Obama's Awful Financial Recovery Plan[/url]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Homer_Rice' post='746271' date='Feb 13 2009, 01:27 AM'][url="http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson02122009.html"]Obama's Awful Financial Recovery Plan[/url][/quote]

So I read that...and understood roughly 4% of it. I have 0 background in finance and business

Is the jist:

A. the current "economic plans" seem geared to restore the doomed economy (the bubble) that existed for the past 16ish years and not fix it from actually failing again?

B. the better solution is essentially telling the banks "oh well" and just eliminating a vast majority of the people's debt and dooming the banks into folding?

Seems like B is a good plan to me. Are there any politicians lobbying for something similar or is everyone trying to get the version of A. that better suits them? What would our world look like if they essentially told all the banks in trouble that they were shit out of luck and they were siding with the people? My gut tells me that things would collapse if peoples credit cards were no longer valid.

I'm interested in your take on this situation as a whole as your clearly educated in the subject.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Squirrlnutz' post='746433' date='Feb 13 2009, 09:15 PM']So I read that...and understood roughly 4% of it. I have 0 background in finance and business

Is the jist:

A. the current "economic plans" seem geared to restore the doomed economy (the bubble) that existed for the past 16ish years and not fix it from actually failing again?

B. the better solution is essentially telling the banks "oh well" and just eliminating a vast majority of the people's debt and dooming the banks into folding?

Seems like B is a good plan to me. Are there any politicians lobbying for something similar or is everyone trying to get the version of A. that better suits them? What would our world look like if they essentially told all the banks in trouble that they were shit out of luck and they were siding with the people? My gut tells me that things would collapse if peoples credit cards were no longer valid.

I'm interested in your take on this situation as a whole as your clearly educated in the subject.[/quote]
Pretty close, but not quite.

re A: I think Hudson is arguing more or less as you describe. It certainly seems so to me, too. I wouldn't say policy-makers are intent on restoring the bubble (though some may be) as much as they seem content to implement solutions that jibe with the so-called maninstream of economic behavior of the past few decades. Few are reluctant, or have yet been persuaded, that the jig is up--it's a global breakdown, not a recession--or in other words, world finance is essentially bankrupt and therefore requires...

re B: ...bankruptcy proceedings. Historically, the closest example to examine is the banking holiday implemented by FDR in 1933. In a bankruptcy, you sort out the good debt from the bad debt, restructure the fomer so it will actually be repaid, write off the latter, and dissolve the institution if insolvent or reopen when it is stabilized. In this scenario, people might have a few days inconvenience, but in general, after a bit of a rough ride, there would be some chance at restoring stability.


The problem is that most large banks, and many small ones are technically insolvent. That's why all the wishy-washiness on the "mark to market" rule with respect to some of the esoteric financial instruments. So, merely doing a bankruptcy proceeding really isn't enough--it's like half a haircut. Accompanying any reorganization ought to be some legislation regulating derivatives, as well as general impostion of rules which served us well in the recent past: Glass-Steagal is one example; regs which separated banks from Savings and loans are another.

Hudson's point is that policy is no longer oriented towards the well-being of the people in general and tend to serve an oligarchy.

People in general aren't aware of just how close we came "to the edge" last fall. Nor do they understand just how close we still are. It wouldn't take very much for an Iceland-like scenario to develop here, were the right sequence of dominos to fall. Better to take our lumps in a controlled fashion, than to do so Helter-Skelter.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read that whole thing. I'd like to know what the author means by "debt write-down." Does that mean bringing China, Japan, and whomever else holds U.S. Treasury debt to a table and somehow getting them agree to take less than they are owed? If that's the only solution to the overhanging and smothering costs of our national debt, I can't say I'm terribly optimistic. I know little about economics but this doesn't seem plausible. The rest of the "solutions" involve stricter regulation, criminal prosecutions, punitive fines, land taxes, and wealth taxes. While accomplishing a great deal of wealth redistribution, I'm not really convinced that further "bubbles" would be prevented by such an approach.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Inigo Montoya' post='746440' date='Feb 13 2009, 10:28 PM']I read that whole thing. I'd like to know what the author means by "debt write-down." Does that mean bringing China, Japan, and whomever else holds U.S. Treasury debt to a table and somehow getting them agree to take less than they are owed? If that's the only solution to the overhanging and smothering costs of our national debt, I can't say I'm terribly optimistic. I know little about economics but this doesn't seem plausible. The rest of the "solutions" involve stricter regulation, criminal prosecutions, punitive fines, land taxes, and wealth taxes. While accomplishing a great deal of wealth redistribution, I'm not really convinced that further "bubbles" would be prevented by such an approach.[/quote]
I've followed Hudson for years and was first introduced to his thinking while studying ancient economies. So, while I think he is pretty clear on this in other of his writings, the first thought that came to me was that he must have had the example of Solon in mind, among others.

Or, probably in much more intelligent terms than I cited above, some form of bankruptcy and debt forgiveness/moratorium program.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok its getting clearer...so again is there anyone you know of lobbying for what seems to be these necessary changes (reform that allows for re-payment and abosolution as well as re-structuring the banking institutions as a whole)?

Popular media is a horrible gauge of this very question but its all I have to go on and I haven't even heard anything that seems as remotely revolutionary as this appears. Do the decision makers know how much reform needs to happen?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...