Thanks for this, Ross. I agree with most of your analysis here; however, you seem to nod to MMT in your discussion of sovereign debt (and the lack of limits thereto). While I'm all for massive Keynesian spending, a Green New Deal or something like it, etc., I worry that MMTers mistake the "exorbitant privilege" the US enjoys as the adminstrator of the global reserve currency for a sound foundation for all sovereign monetary policy. I thought Doug Henwood's 2019 Jacobin piece "Modern Monetary Theory Isn’t Helping" was excellent on this front.
Ross, you give the Rs waaay more credit than they deserve. Their one-and-done giving of crumbs to the masses — a $1,200 one-shot payment and realistic unemployment for a few months is nothing in the greater scheme of things. The support for small businesses is a joke, an unforced error forcing urban small businesses to go through big banks too big to care about them so getting desperately needed loans is a huge problem.
And having been responsible once, the Rs refuse to act, with the Senate Republicans first refusing to negotiate with the House and now breaking so the earliest anything can get done will be September. You have a Republican POTUS who instead of leading or just compel McConnell to negotiate issues an EO and meaningless “memoranda”, grandstanding and nothing of substance other than an attempt to cripple Social Security and Medicare. That one shot of crumbs for the masses in the CARES Act was the price they had to pay to ensure that their special interests to whom they’re beholden could benefit from the crisis. As for Obama, he got his pittance of a stimulus because that’s all the get given the politics. The Rs were more generous this time because they were feeding their pigs.
As the Daily News put it at the time, Ford told the City to drop dead. And that’s what the Rs are saying now, literally, to the entire nation. They are nothing to give any credit to. Thanks to them, we’ll have 200-250,000 official COVID deaths by the election and anyone who thinks the 3Q economy will be better than 2Q was, well, I wouldn’t bet on it.
I seem to recall that a study of the Dept. of Investigation found that NYC's deficit in the 1970s was just about exactly matched by losses of municipal funds through theft & corruption. Imagine addressing that instead of punishing the people ...
Kim Phillips Fein Fear City is an excellent book on this topic. She argues that the city should have defaulted on its debts and then negotiated more favorable terms with its creditors. Raising taxes was obviously an option as well, as were the spending cuts that were ultimately put into place. But unlike a federal government that controls the printing of money and can run up deficits by selling more bonds to willing buyers, the city had no such power. Endless deficits are not an option if you don’t have a printing press and can’t find people to lend you money. Enjoying the thoughtful posts even when I don’t agree with them.
Thanks for this, Ross. I agree with most of your analysis here; however, you seem to nod to MMT in your discussion of sovereign debt (and the lack of limits thereto). While I'm all for massive Keynesian spending, a Green New Deal or something like it, etc., I worry that MMTers mistake the "exorbitant privilege" the US enjoys as the adminstrator of the global reserve currency for a sound foundation for all sovereign monetary policy. I thought Doug Henwood's 2019 Jacobin piece "Modern Monetary Theory Isn’t Helping" was excellent on this front.
Ross, you give the Rs waaay more credit than they deserve. Their one-and-done giving of crumbs to the masses — a $1,200 one-shot payment and realistic unemployment for a few months is nothing in the greater scheme of things. The support for small businesses is a joke, an unforced error forcing urban small businesses to go through big banks too big to care about them so getting desperately needed loans is a huge problem.
And having been responsible once, the Rs refuse to act, with the Senate Republicans first refusing to negotiate with the House and now breaking so the earliest anything can get done will be September. You have a Republican POTUS who instead of leading or just compel McConnell to negotiate issues an EO and meaningless “memoranda”, grandstanding and nothing of substance other than an attempt to cripple Social Security and Medicare. That one shot of crumbs for the masses in the CARES Act was the price they had to pay to ensure that their special interests to whom they’re beholden could benefit from the crisis. As for Obama, he got his pittance of a stimulus because that’s all the get given the politics. The Rs were more generous this time because they were feeding their pigs.
As the Daily News put it at the time, Ford told the City to drop dead. And that’s what the Rs are saying now, literally, to the entire nation. They are nothing to give any credit to. Thanks to them, we’ll have 200-250,000 official COVID deaths by the election and anyone who thinks the 3Q economy will be better than 2Q was, well, I wouldn’t bet on it.
I seem to recall that a study of the Dept. of Investigation found that NYC's deficit in the 1970s was just about exactly matched by losses of municipal funds through theft & corruption. Imagine addressing that instead of punishing the people ...
Kim Phillips Fein Fear City is an excellent book on this topic. She argues that the city should have defaulted on its debts and then negotiated more favorable terms with its creditors. Raising taxes was obviously an option as well, as were the spending cuts that were ultimately put into place. But unlike a federal government that controls the printing of money and can run up deficits by selling more bonds to willing buyers, the city had no such power. Endless deficits are not an option if you don’t have a printing press and can’t find people to lend you money. Enjoying the thoughtful posts even when I don’t agree with them.
As a former New York resident, thoroughly enjoyed reading this.
As always, Ross beautifully written.
Thank you.