Comments on: Nonsense posing as wisdom

By: PotomacOracle

PotomacOracle — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:31:20 +0000

David,

Thanks for your helpful email response of 1/29/2012 Sub. Deficits Equal Savings.

I took your recommendation and read some, then skimmed other comments posted here, and must report that 99.9% have no clue about the operational, paradigm shift in monetary and fiscal accounting this nation experienced following the collapse of Bretton Woods in July, 1971.

The misinformed references to the government’s need for revenue, and the unfamiliarity with gov spending and net savings being mirror images for gov and non-government accounts. And the confusion over the function of taxation and borrowing not being needed for gov. to spend, all reflect an America hopelessly mired in gold standard and fixed exchange rate rubrics.

Someone needs to write a book about how America now pays for everything by marking Federal Reserve accounts up or down with currency values created by computer keystrokes.

And include a chapter on the post-1971 treatent of taxes. Don’t you think 99.9999% of Americans will simply deny the fact that their tax dollars don’t pay for anything in a fiat currency world where the gov. is sole issuer of the currency? But you can’t get many Americans to stop believing the lie in those road signs telling them “Your Tax Dollars at Work.”

By: frameofmind

frameofmind — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 03:45:31 +0000

I believe part of the solution is for us all to demand ….
Term Limits for all congress. It may go a long way in ending these comfy arrangements between politicos and the corporations. We need people in congress who want to make a difference, do a short stint, and get the hell out. The current status quo is for these people to make it a lifelong career. They are our version of royalty, once they’ve tasted the power and treatment they get in D.C., they never want to give it up.WE need a national movement to make term limits part of our constitution and re-invigorate our country.

By: JayNY

JayNY — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 23:36:44 +0000

So I certainly get your simplified view of Spending = Output = Income. But how do you account for debt? Specifically government debt that is never paid off? Gov just keeps rolling the bonds.

By: DavidCayJ

DavidCayJ — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:48:37 +0000

Columnist here:

@ ptiffany, thanks for the kind words, but it is important to keep the record clear that I am not an economist.

I have long written about, studied and taught economics issues. And in 1973 I studied at the Chicago School on a fellowship.

Before becoming a columnist I spent four decades as an investigative reporter at top newspapers and am now also an adjunct faculty member of the law and graduate business schools at Syracuse University, an author and lecturer and co-founder of a small lodging management company.

To posters here who suggest I should take an economics course:

I teach the principles and history of tax, property and regulation, all issues that are inherently economic.

I wrote two best-sellers on hidden and little known aspects of the economy (a third is nearly done), one of which was honored as Investigative Book of the Year by my peers. FREE LUNCH and PERFECTLY LEGAL were based partly on work for which I received many awards, some from accounting schools as well as a Pulitzer.

Several public finance economists sent me admiring private notes about the column you find lacking. How interesting that people who actually make a living in this area find my work not just accurate, but admirable, while others with no known track record, and using noms d’Internet, dismiss the same work out of hand.

By: Thrudd

Thrudd — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:45:24 +0000

Pulitzer called, they want their prize back.

By: Still22

Still22 — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:39:35 +0000

Spin it till its up, spin it till its down… Anytime you combine the words “Government” and “Money” in a sentence it only equals one thing… Middle-Class + Screwed. Glad to see that President Obama realizes that investing OUR money in tangible assets instead of vapor-value that our financial and insurance institutions provide us is a better choice. Still22 is waiting for the smart people to show us the whole painful plan to get America right again.

By: Biscayne

Biscayne — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:39:19 +0000

All those CEO’s who ran, and still run, America’s largest financial institutions have been very productive. Looking at the wealth they have accumulated is proof enough of that.
All one has to do now is convince Joe Bloe to work harder and accept less so that capitalism can flourish again.

By: ex-fungi

ex-fungi — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 03:50:30 +0000

This article reads as if there are parts of it missing. Kudos though.Simple logic seems hard to find these days. Reading the comments-I begin to think it has become impossible to remove politics from the workplace (separate economics and politics)

By: GSH10

GSH10 — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:54:43 +0000

Tax, borrow, and print is a failed business model. The 3/4 of a trillion dollars was the largest waste of money on the history of the world and you want to throw good money after that?

You contribute yours if you like, but my trust is in God
, not Congress.

By: GSH10

GSH10 — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:54:40 +0000

Tax, borrow, and print is a failed business model. The 3/4 of a trillion dollars was the largest waste of money on the history of the world and you want to throw good money after that?

You contribute yours if you like, but my trust is in God
, not Congress.