Is this guy rambling or is there some school of thought that thinks like this? Thanks!
http://moslerforsenate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/7DIF.pdf
"Federal government spending is in no case operationally constrained by revenues, meaning that there is no “solvency risk.” In other words, the federal government can always make any and all payments in its own currency, no matter how large the deficit is, or how few taxes it collects."
"My third proposal calls for a restoration of American prosperity through a federally-funded $8/hr. job for anyone willing and able to work."
"So why then does the federal government tax us, if it doesn’t actually get anything to spend or need to get anything to spend? (Hint: it’s the same reason that the parents demand 10 coupons a week from their children, when the parents don’t actually need the coupons for anything.) There is a very good reason it taxes us. Taxes create an ongoing need in the economy to get dollars, and therefore an ongoing need for people to sell their goods and services and labor to get dollars. With tax liabilities in place, the government can buy things with its otherwise-worthless dollars, because someone needs the dollars to pay taxes."
This sounds like a political theory, not an economic theory. Not much science in these claims.
Political Atheists Blog
It sounds awfully Keynesian to me:). After all, Keynesians need politicing for their policies to be enacted.
krazy kaju: This sounds like a political theory, not an economic theory. Not much science in these claims.
I think he is running for senate. But his political ideas are based on economics he says. (not on social justice etc)
I believe it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartalism
Anyone know about it?
Pay for a federally funded job for someone? Isn't that filling up the shallow end of the pool by taking water out of the deep end and losing some in the middle? But the underlying economic logic will have zero positive consequences and you would have a more efficient economy by just giving people the money insead of having the feds make busy work. At least with giving people money for nothing there is no crowding out private businesses hiring the people. But there is still a loss of capital in the private sector.
"Pay for a federally funded job for someone? "
Wow, yeah every time you walk on my street you pay for the other guy who made the street.
Yeah and how much waste is there in building roads and bridges? Are our roads and bridges so great and cheap that we want to extend this to other industries? How about running the internet? Government would be pumped to have their minions do that? What about build automobiles, GM is so much more competitive now that it gets to make profits by taking larger loans from the government with lower interest and paying off smaller loans from the government.
This is a fiscal policy platform for someone running as a progressive.
"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree." -James Madison
"If government were efficient, it would cease to exist."
Then why does he want:
Declare an Immediate ‘Payroll Tax Holiday’ — The U.S. Treasury will no longer deduct FICA, Medicare and other Federal payroll tax deductions from your paychecks, resulting in an immediate increase in take-home pay of roughly $650 per month for a couple with a combined income of $100,000 per year. That’s big money, and the extra cash will help you pay your mortgage and car payments, which helps the banks the right way, from the bottom up, and not through the top down bailouts of the recent past.
Bringing an end to taxes on income in this scenario will come to naught. As you stated in your original post, the Federal government can spend without constraint. Inflationary fiscal policy like this will make the currency worthless.