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The Debt Ceiling Limit is Destructive, Duplicative, and Dumb — Stephanie Kelton

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-debt-ceiling-limit-is-destr…
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 12:18

When the limit is reached, it forces Congress to reaffirm its willingness to spend what it is already legally obligated to spend.

In my view (I am not a constitutional lawyer), the president should just ignore the debt ceiling as contradictory. Now, the president is assuming that one horn of the dilemma prevails when there is no logical reason for doing so. A constitutional argument can be made that the debt ceiling is in violation of the Constitution, specifically the Fourteenth Amendment, Section Four, and therefore, it doesn't stand. 

The Lens
The Debt Ceiling Limit is Destructive, Duplicative, and Dumb
Stephanie Kelton | Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Stony Brook University, formerly Democrats' chief economist on the staff of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and an economic adviser to the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders

Zero Hedge — India Overtakes China As World's Most Populous Nation

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/01/zero-hedge-india-overtakes-chin…
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 12:06
Mixed blessing, especially with the level of disorganization and divisiveness in India. 

Demographics leads to opportunities and challenges and population increase can increase growth but it can also present emergent challenges that are difficult to meet without high-level organization, which India has not demonstrated so far.

In contrast, China recognized its demographic challenges decades ago, which was the purpose of the one-child policy. Now China growth has stabilized and even begun to shrink. While this is positive overall, it also presents challenges such as an aging population for a while. But China's major issue at the time of the institution of the policy was not being able to feed its growing population. That spelt political trouble down the line so the government acted to preempt it. China also instituted a development program that has paid off.

Zero Hedge
India Overtakes China As World's Most Populous Nation
Tyler Durden

This Byrd has flown: RIP David Crosby

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/21/this-byrd-has-flown-rip-david-crosby/
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 12:00
In his Jeff Beck tribute last week, music industry maven Bob Lefsetz observed: And [Beck’s] death was so sudden. At 78. May sound old to you, but then you’re probably not a baby boomer. I mean the end is always looming, but you always believe it’s at some distant point in the future, when in truth it’s closer than you think. But it’s even weirder than that. The giants are falling. The building blocks of not only the British Invasion, but classic rock, are passing. The icons and the secondary players. But they were all major players to us, music was everything. Not only was it soul-fulfilling, it told you which way the wind blew. And the hits were not all the same and new ones popped up all the time, it was a veritable smorgasbord of greatness. Falling like dominoes. To paraphrase The Giant in Twin Peaks: “It is happening again.” “Difficult and gifted” would be a fitting epitaph. But with Crosby, the “gift” far out-trumped the “difficult”. No matter how bad things got for him, that heavenly, crystalline voice never faltered.

What was Trump doing with all those documents?

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/21/what-was-trump-doing-with-all-those-documents/
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 11:00
It couldn’t have something to do with the Russia investigation, could it? Many people have wondered if Trump’s document haul had to do with his desire to publish classified information about the Russia investigation. After all, he said he was going to do it. Here’s a scoop from Murray Waas about the Special Counsel investigation: On the eve of Donald Trump’s last day in office as President, Trump sent a memo to his attorney general, and also the directors of National Intelligence and the CIA, directing them to declassify thousands of pages of highly classified government papers pertaining to the FBI’s investigation into the Russian Federation’s covert intervention into the 2016 US presidential election to help elect Trump and defeat Hillary Clinton. But Trump was stymied in his efforts to make the records public, leading the outgoing president to rage to aides that the documents would never see the light of day.

Extending Capital to Nature, Reducing Nature to Capital— Peter Dorman

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/01/capitalizing-commons.html
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 08:27

Capitalizing the commons. Peter Dorman explains why this should not be done.

Basically, actual value lies real resources ("stuff"), not in nominal terms ("money"). For example, this is suggested by the distinction between nominal (market price) and real (inflation-adjusted price). The value of stuff is based on availability and utility. The most "valuable" real resources are are vital resources. On this scale, air and water are the most valuable, although owing to their availability, they are considered free goods.

“Golden ruble 3.0” –How Russia can change the infrastructure of foreign trade — Sergey Glazyev and Dmitry Mityaev

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/01/golden-ruble-30-how-russia-can-…
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 08:05
Trade is settled either by barter, including using commodities, mostly precious metals historically, or a "safe currency" that countries are willing to hold. The USD, GBP, and EUR are considered safe currencies. Thus, an issue arises with "de-dollarization," which includes all currencies that Western powers control the use of. These currencies are considered "safe," that is, are not only default free but also relatively stable, but being subject to Western control, they put users at a disadvantage in that they can be "weaponized." So the question arises, how to settle trade without using currency or settlement systems of "unfriendly" states.

One solution is two-party trade settled either by exchange of commodities that the respective partners to the trade desire, or by using their own currencies. Both alternatives are coming to be used now. 

You never know with Special Counsels

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/21/you-never-know-with-special-counsels/
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 08:00
This is why it’s not something you should want. We don’t know anything a out the Special Counsel in the Biden case except that Trump appointed him as US Attorney. And this is not reassuring: At the Justice Department, Hur worked with Rosenstein on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the former deputy attorney general told CNN. Hur “was my point person and he had biweekly meetings with Mueller’s team and then briefed me on the progress of the Russian special counsel investigation,” Rosenstein said. “So he has seen that firsthand and he knows that you need not to be influenced by politics and make decisions based on fact and the law and the Department of Justice policy, and I think we can count on Rob to do that.” Rosenstein added: “Rob, like a lot of people I worked with at DOJ, believes it is important to engage in public service and feels a sense of responsibility.

“The smell of freedom”

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/21/the-smell-of-freedom/
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 06:00
Earlier this week, Tucker Carlson cheered on the House Republicans’ decision to allow smoking in the Capitol again, as you can see above. I know he’s just trying to be cutesy transgressive and own the libs but it’s sick anyway. It appears that this is going to be a new crusade: That’s not just about “freedom” to kill yourself with cancer. He’s portraying it as good for you. Even the vaccine and mask deniers don’t suggest that getting COVID is fun. But hey, why not get everyone using meth or cocaine.? Of course they don’t give other people cancer which I guess Tucker thinks must be one of the “fun” aspects of it. Enjoy your cancer folks! Is it just me or is he sounding crazier and crazier? I honestly think that the number of people who want to re-introduce smoking cigarettes into our culture is pretty small. Only 12% of population smokes now. Way more people use cannabis. WTH is this??

The Fed's Sole Mandate — Lev Menand

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-feds-sole-mandate-lev-menan…
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 05:14

 This is an important post by a law professor. Hat tip to Adam Tooze for pointing me toward it. Here is a key excerpt. According to Professor Menand, the Fed's sole mandate is promoting full capacity utilization and not chiefly managing inflation or running a command economy based on monetary policy decisions. The Fed has only a contributory role. Presently, it is widely assumed that the Fed has a mandate to manage the economy using monetary policy either as a replacement to fiscal policy or as a counter to it using the central bank "reaction function."

Here is a key excerpt:

“We don’t do that here”

https://digbysblog.net/2023/01/21/we-dont-do-that-here/
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 05:00
This piece in the NY Times discussing the abortion bans is depressingly predictable. Even where there are exceptions written into the law they won’t perform abortions: Last summer, a Mississippi woman sought an abortion after, she said, a friend had raped her. Her state prohibits most abortions but allows them for rape victims. Yet she could not find a doctor to provide one. In September, an Indiana woman learned that a fetal defect meant her baby would die shortly after birth, if not sooner. Her state’s abortion ban included an exception for such cases, but she was referred to Illinois or Michigan. An Ohio woman carrying triplets faced a high risk of dangerous complications, including delivering too early. When she tried to get an abortion in September through Ohio’s exception for patients with a medical need, she was turned away. The abortion bans enacted in about half the states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June do not prohibit abortion entirely. Most make exceptions in certain circumstances, commonly to protect the health or life of the patient, or in the case of rape or incest.

Environment: Guterres: ‘the ecosystem meltdown is cold, hard scientific fact’

https://johnmenadue.com/environment-guterres-the-ecosystem-meltdown-is-cold-har…
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 04:58
Tell it like it is, António: ‘climate disaster, death sentence, insanity, inconsistent with human survival’. Thank goodness for chocolate and birds. Was any progress made at the last COP meeting in Egypt? Were there game-changing, climate-action breakthroughs or was it simply more talk culminating in yet another failure (Greta Thunberg’s ‘Blah, blah, blah’)? Tom Athanasiou, Continue reading »

Japan is not the most warlike nation in history

https://johnmenadue.com/japan-is-not-the-most-warlike-nation-in-history/
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 04:56
Jimmy Carter called the US ‘the most warlike nation in the history of the world,’ and said that ‘peaceful’ China is ‘ahead of us in almost every way’. Japan bashing, depicting atrocities committed by the Japanese empire, serves to further shift public opinion to support Australia’s military alliance with the US, preparing for war against Continue reading »

The eerie parallels between Vietnam and Ukraine

https://johnmenadue.com/rationalisation-vs-reality-in-vietnam-and-ukraine/
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 04:55
Ukrainians have become cannon fodder for the US geopolitical goals, just as the South Vietnamese were. In April 1965, U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) explained why he was escalating US involvement in Vietnam. With an Orwellian touch, he titled the speech “Peace without Conquest” as he announced the beginning of US air attacks on Continue reading »

George Pell: the Faith vs the Institution

https://johnmenadue.com/george-pell-the-faith-vs-the-institution/
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 04:54
Cardinal George Pell’s vision of a church beyond criticism, its edicts to be slavishly followed, and governed almost exclusively by elderly men sits very uncomfortably with Christ’s proclamation of the Kingdom of God and our contemporary world. The death of Cardinal George Pell has dominated the news cycle over several days. Understandably the focus has Continue reading »

West just cannot decide whether it actually wants China to fail

https://johnmenadue.com/west-just-cannot-decide-whether-it-actually-wants-china…
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 04:50
With Western ‘unity’ enabled by Iran’s nuclear scheme and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China must not oblige with ruinous cross-strait war. Now and then I wish I could ask the same piercing question raised by a fellow journalist to an audience. These two were apparently asked by a Financial Times commentator of a group of Continue reading »

(Doctor) Who’s at the Playhouse in February

https://www.blogtorwho.com/doctor-whos-at-the-playhouse-in-february/
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 04:00

Who’s at the Playhouse brings an impressive line-up of Doctor Who stars to Surrey in February Doctor Who convention Who’s at the Playhouse returns to the Epsom Playhouse next month. Boasting two Doctors, seven companions, and seven other actors from the world of Doctor Who the event on the 12th of February will arguably one […]

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