Slow learner?

AMY GOODMAN: Where do you get the money [to stimulate jobs]?

PAUL KRUGMAN: [Nobel winning economist] Borrow it, and then repay it later in better times, which is not at all --- that may sound funny, but that's exactly what we've done in the past. --"End This Depression Now": Paul Krugman Urges Public Spending, Not Deficit Hysteria, to Save Economy

So, Mr. Krugman, what about the ~$16 trillion or so "national" debt that has NOT been "repaid later" -- and has increased every year since the Eisenhower Administration -- not to mention the approximately $100 trillion in Social Security and Medicare owed to old folks since they paid in advance?

And you think Uncle Sam knows better what people want than they do themselves as determined by their voluntary buying decisions in markets? And so Uncle will spend that money -- removed from those voluntary markets by coercive taxes and borrowing -- on products and services that folks will prefer to buy instead? And Uncle will provide these products and services at reasonable prices from lasting enterprises? Solyndra for example? And the borrowing -- called "extortion futures" by some because it will be paid by extorting taxes from the kids, grand kids and the yet unborn -- isn't wasting our money, let alone the lives of the kids, grand kids and the yet unborn?

Really Mr. Krugman? OK. I have this bridge in Brooklyn for sale - - -

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A Golden Future??

In a commentary published in Monday's Financial Times, World Bank President Robert Zoellick wrote that an updated gold standard could help retool the world economy amid tensions over currencies and the United States' monetary policy... --World Bank chief calls on G-20 to reconsider gold standard | Business | Deutsche Welle | 08.11.2010

NEWYORK (CNNMoney) -- A growing number of states are seeking shiny new currencies made of silver and gold. Worried that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. dollar are on the brink of collapse, lawmakers from 13 states, including Minnesota, Tennessee, Iowa, South Carolina and Georgia, are
seeking approval from their state governments to either issue their own alternative currency or explore it as an option.... --States consider alternative currencies of gold and silver - Feb. 3, 2012

--Gingrich: U.S. should look at return to gold standard, money.cnn.com - Jan. 18, 2012

India is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of the US dollar... sources expect China to follow suit. India and China take about one million barrels per day, or 40 percent of Iran's total exports of 2.5 million bpd. Both are superpowers in terms of gold assets. India to pay gold instead of dollars for Iranian oil. Oil and gold markets stunned

C:\USR\WP_DOCS\TROLLEY\BLURBS\BLURBS01.WP6 A Golden Future??

ECONOMICS IN ONE EASY LESSON

Economics is simpler than you think -- if you're an Austrian Economist (Hayek, Mises, etc.) rather than a Keynesian Economist (J.M. Keynes), monetarist (Milton Friedman), neo-Keynesian economist (Bernanke, Krugman, etc.).

1. The "law of supply and demand" applies to "money."

2. An increase in the "money" supply greater than the increase in production -- because of the law of supply and demand -- causes a general price inflation across the boards.

3. Credit (I.O.U.s of various types, including stock certificates, bonds, etc. -- that note on the back of granddad's cigarette pack), as Daniel Webster put it, is equivalent to "money" and has all the effects of "money."

3A. Most I.O.U.s start out as limited circulation I.O.U.s -- and stay that way unless a market is established which allows them to be traded, that is, makes them "liquid."

4. A sudden change in the amount of either "money" or credit -- in either direction -- disrupts trade and thus the advantages of specialization and division of labor -- which ultimately determine the physical level of well-being of the human race -- and make the "modern" large populations possible.

5. Without the advantages of trade (and thus division of labor), extremely large numbers of men, women and children would die.

6. Barring the crash of a solid gold or silver asteroid, a sudden change in the supply of gold and silver (transactional hard money) are highly unlikely.

7. Because their value depends on psychology rather on a directly perceived value of a strictly limited physical commodity, the effective supply of both credit and paper/megabyte money can change suddenly.

8. The supply of both credit and paper/megabyte money CAN change with extreme rapidity, paper/megabyte because it's easy to create, credit because it completely depends on confidence that the debtor can and will pay, and without that confidence, a credit vehicle becomes devalued or even worthless. That is, because people can lose confidence in an I.O.U. and so don't want it, it becomes less, or even completely, "illiquid." That is, "people don't want it" = "illiquid" = "devalued" or even "worthless."

9. Since most people hold money for later use, at least partially, it's important that people have confidence it will hold its trade value and NOT devalue. Thus, the main "psychology" that determines whether or not people will hold a particular I.O.U. is their expectation as to its future value. If they expect its value to drop -- or equivalently, expect prices to rise -- they will spend it quickly. That is, if they expect a general price inflation, they will lose confidence in their money and spend it quickly.

10. Once people in general start to spend quickly, this puts more money into circulation quickly, thus increasing its effective supply, which causes more inflation, more inflationary expectations, destroys more confidence, and so forth. The Austrian School of economics calls the rapid spiral that results a "crack-up boom" or "catastrophenhause." Others call it "hyperinflation." Which is why U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Bernanke and the FED are so concerned by peoples' "inflationary expectations." This is, of course, not a problem with transactional hard money -- which, barring that solid-gold asteroid, can't suddenly inflate -- or suddenly deflate.

Deadbeats?

There's always a discount on an I.O.U.  The amount depends on its
perceived likely-hood of being paid.  The dollar is, in essence, such an
I.O.U.  The perception of repayment is dropping and you can follow it
by watching the value of dollars on the market. --L. Reichard White, Tuesday, November 09, 2010 11:04 AM

Learning curve

~"There is a test of Keynesian economics going on all around the world.  In the U.S., in Europe, even China.  The idea is that you can spend yourself out of an economic downturn.  This is an experiment that has never been tried before."--Dan Hertzberg, Editor Wall Street Journal, BBC WORLD NEWS, February 9, 2009, ~06:37:06

"We're all Keynesians now." --U.S. President Richard Milhous Nixon, 1971

"It is astonishing what foolish things one can temporarily believe if one thinks too long alone, particularly in economics ...where it is often impossible to bring one's ideas to a conclusive test either formal or experimental." --The original Keynesian, John Maynard Keynes, December 13, 1935 from introduction to his "THE GENERAL THEORY of EMPLOYMENT, AND MONEY"

The Keynesian Dead End, Spending our way to prosperity is going out of style --http://online.wsj.com, JUNE 26, 2010

Your comedian wasn't funny.

After recording the  Peter Schiff vs James Galbraith interview on CNBC 4/26/10 , it seemed appropriate to post the following email to CNBC:

Subject: 4% interest rates for 20 years???? Your comedian wasn't funny.

Hi CNBC!

It doesn't matter whether Prof. Galbraith is right about interest rates remaining at 4% for 20 years (like drawing 10 blackjacks in a row in Vegas. -- OK, 20), it's the "off balance sheet" unfunded liabilities that everyone so glibly dismisses with a single sentence.

The minimum estimates of the cost of those (Social "Security" and Medicare -- before Obamacare) was somewhere around $66 trillion.

The debt clock currently shows them at about $108 trillion.

Health, happiness, & long life,
L. Reichard White

P.S. OK, like drawing 100 blackjacks in a row. And as Prof. Galbraith suggested in a backhanded manner with his "U.S. controls its currency" comment, inflation is the nearly inevitable outcome.