In his book, “Debt: The First 5000 Years”, David Graeber levels the accusation against the Left, that it lacks imagination to see beyond present society. I think Graeber’s accusation is accurate and can be seen in his own antistatist (i.e., anti-political and anti-economic) argument. Contrary to Graeber’s argument that money [...]

Based on what I have described of Bernanke’s policy failure so far, is it possible to predict anything about the future results of an open ended purchase of financial assets under QE3? I think so, and I share why in this last part of this series. Author: Jehu Eaves Visit [...]

I stopped my examination of Bernanke’s approach to this crisis and the problem of deflation after looking at his 1991 paper and his speech in 2002. I now want to return to that series, examining two of his speeches this to discuss the problems confronting bourgeois monetary policy in the [...]

The world market had been shaken by a series of financial crises, and the economy of Japan had fallen into a persistent deflationary state, When Ben Bernanke gave his 2002 speech before the National Economists Club, “Deflation: Making Sure “It” Doesn’t Happen Here”. Bernanke was going to explain to his [...]

So I am spending a week or so trying to understand Ben Bernanke’s approach to this crisis based on three sources from his works. In this part, the source is an essay published in 1991: “The Gold Standard, Deflation, and Financial Crisis in the Great Depression: An International Comparison”. In [...]

5. The recovery of capitalism is no longer possible Kurz’s overall analysis of the crisis that emerged full blown in 2008 consists of four fundamental bullet points: First, in the course of capitalist development Marx’s theory states there is a rising composition of constant capital to variable capital; this rising [...]

4. The Necessary Parasitism of Fascist State In a recent interview, Saint Paul Krugman gave us this gem of bourgeois economic theory: SPIEGEL: More stimulus also means more debt. Many European nations, as well as the US, are already drowning in debt. Krugman: I’m not saying that I don’t ever [...]

My fellow Americans, Now more than ever our government needs our help.  For centuries we have believed democracy to be the best form of government, without ever experiencing true democracy.  Greed and corruption have infiltrated our government, and now Democrats and Republicans have become so hopelessly opposed and unwilling to [...]

This is very geeky, sorry. I posting it because I intend to revisit it sometime in the near future in the context of a review of the Euro-zone crisis. My post on Moseley’s MELT paper (pdf) argues the so-called “price of gold” is actually the standard of price for a [...]

Nothing wakes you up quicker than a letter from the debt collector. These bastards don’t mess around. If you don’t cough up the cash they will take everything you own and kick you out on the street. Some tend to miraculously find the exact amount owed before a debt is sold to [...]

FOFOA’s argument against modern money theory can be summarized as follows: A staggeringly massive hyperinflationary event is already latent in the global economy. The dollars currently in circulation only retain their purchasing power because of the function of money as medium for the circulation of commodities. Modern money theory, which [...]

Toward the end of his case against the modern money school, FOFOA offers this insight into Wiemar Republic hyperinflation, and what he argues is the basis for the coming hyperinflation set to be unleashed in the dollar system: As the German Mark fell, there was “not enough money” to pay [...]

It turns out my first reaction to FOFOA’s post, Moneyness, was the correct one: the Moneyness of the dollar is to Money what Stephen Colbert’s Truthiness is to Truth, i.e., NOT. To really understand the significance of FOFOA’s pure concept of money, I will compare it to Karl Marx’s and [...]

I am now reading FOFOA’s Moneyness, an epic length blog on the history of money. I was lured into reading it by the title, which I stupidly misinterpreted as tongue in cheek on the order of Colbert’s Truthiness. In fact, it is an attempt to bring his view on money [...]

I apologize for this part of the series, because it is hopelessly geeky. Unfortunately, I see no way to move forward without getting into the weeds of Marx’s unique contribution to the theory of money at this point. Please bear with me on this. As I really need to explain [...]