Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Operational Realities Monetarists Ignore

2 comments:

Robert Owens said...

There are some excellent resources on Functional Finance at:

http://www.netrootsmass.net/fiscal-sustainability-teach-in-and-counter-conference/

Warren Mosler was one of the presenters. The Mosler book "The Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy" is very good. It can be read at:

http://moslerforsenate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/7DIF.pdf

Warren's comment about taxes being the thermostat for the economy is interesting. Federal Reserve Chairmen since Paul Volcker (and probably before) have gotten this wrong, and instead have tinkered with interest rates.

In January 1946, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Chairman Beardsley Ruml pointed out that (at the federal gov't level) "Taxes for Revenue Are Obsolete".
http://www.constitution.org/tax/us-ic/cmt/ruml_obsolete.pdf

This piece supports what Warren Mosler is saying in the video, that federal tax payments are not needed to operate the government. Payments that the gov't receives in cash are put through a shreader at the point of collection.

Dr. Stephanie Kelton (UMKC Economics Prof) wrote an excellent paper explaining why taxes and even bonds are not needed to operate the government:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=115128

(Click one-click download)

"After carefully considering the complexities of reserve accounting, it is argued that the proceeds from taxation and bond sales are technically incapable of financing government spending and that modern governments actually finance all of their spending through the direct creation of high-powered money. The analysis carries significant implications for fiscal as well as monetary policy."

Interesting reading. Are the deficit hawks willing to keep an open mind about any of this? Probably not ....

MortgageAngel said...

Robert, Thank you for sharing these excellent resources!