Thursday, December 12, 2013

A new bankster scam: negative interest

Larry Summers and Paul Krugman say the Fed’s near-zero interest rates have failed to revive the U.S. economy. Therefore they recommend that banks switch to negative interest rates (in which ordinary depositors are charged for giving their money to banks) and that society become cashless, so that ordinary depositors have no choice but to use banks, as opposed to storing their money in their bed mattresses. This capture and extortion will supposedly create more financial bubbles, which will supposedly create jobs. (!!!)
Yes, the solution to Wall Street theft is more theft, just as the solution to austerity is more austerity.
I shall cite details below, but my overriding point will be that NO ONE MENTIONS THE ROLE OF GRATUITOUS FISCAL AUSTERITY IN MANTAINING THE DEPRESSION.
Not even Summers’ detractors mention it. For everyone on all sides, permanent austerity is the “new normal.” Austerity forever. Amen.
On November 8, Larry Summers gave a speech at the IMF headquarters in Washington DC. Summers claimed that during recessions over the past 50 years, the Federal Reserve has cut short-term interest rates (overnight rates) to spur economic growth. However the Fed has a “new problem,” in that short-term rates have effectively been cut to zero, and yet still have had a slow recovery.
Right away Summers spouts the standard lie that only the Fed can create jobs, and that QE and zero-interest overnight rates are a “stimulus” for the real economy. In reality these Fed gimmicks are designed to stimulate the financial economy (the “markets”) at the expense of the real economy. They are designed to KILL jobs, since lower labor costs means higher profits. They are designed to widen the gap between the rich and the rest.
Summers also claimed that what he calls the “natural interest rate” (where investment and savings supposedly bring about full employment) is now negative. But, he said, if banks charge depositors to hold their money, then depositors will put their money in mattresses. Summers called this problem the “zero lower bound,” which he said has reduced the power of Fed policy to create jobs. He claimed that the purpose of QE is to offset this factor (as though QE is intended to create jobs!).
For Summers, the solution is to have a totally cashless society in which depositors cannot store their money anywhere except in banks. This, he said, will force depositors to spend more -- and voila -- we will have a recovery! Never mind the extreme unemployment and underemployment and personal debt (such as student loans). Summers’ scam will bring mass prosperity by forcing ordinary people to spend money they don’t have. Whoopie!
Paul Krugman loves it. He too pretends that only the Fed can create jobs, and that the Fed has lost this power, since short-term interest rates are effectively zero. Therefore Krugman favors the Summers scam, saying it would create more financial bubbles, which will supposedly create jobs. Krugman also wants negative interest rates, plus a cashless society.
Why can’t the government create jobs via stimulus spending? SSHHHH! Austerity is a good thing, remember?
Some people (e.g. Ellen Brown and her disciples) say the solution is not the Summers-Krugman scam, but publicly owned banks, plus a melding of the US Treasury with the Fed.
But can’t the government create jobs via stimulus spending? No, this can’t work since, according to Ellen Brown and her disciples, the US government borrows all its spending money from banks and investors. (In reality the US government has infinite money. For the purpose of spending, it borrows from no one.)
What about lowering federal taxes across the board (e. g. eliminating the FICA tax)? No, Ellen Brown says that can’t work either, since (according to her) the federal government needs tax revenue. (In reality the US government creates it spending money out of thin air, simply by crediting bank accounts. Therefore the US government does not need or use tax revenue, and actually destroys tax revenue upon receipt by removing it from the money supply. This is not the case with state, county, and municipal governments in the USA, who actually do need tax revenue.)
Summers, Krugman and Brown ignore fiscal austerity. They do not attack or defend it. They simply do not mention it. In this way austerity will keep going forever.
In the past, leeches (austerity) were applied to cure anemia (the current depression). Now leeches are still applied, but the prescription no longer mentions them.
Granted, we cannot recover by simply ending austerity. We must also reform the processes by which stimulus money is spent. But neither can we recover by ignoring the role of fiscal austerity, as everyone now wants to do.
Business Insider praises Summers’ speech, and has a video of it…
http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-summers-imf-speech-on-the-zero-lower-bound-2013-11
Slate also praises it…
http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/11/18/larry_summers_speech_the_fed_s_biggest_problem_is_the_zero_lower_bound.html
Paul Krugman also praises it…
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/secular-stagnation-coalmines-bubbles-and-larry-summers/
Some right-wing blogs have attacked the Summers / Krugman scam for ignoring the role of taxes.
Of course, federal taxation is austerity, but right-wing blogs cannot mention austerity, lest they expose their own lies. Instead, right-wing blogs say they want lower taxes on the rich (i.e. less austerity), and higher taxes on the not-rich, plus the privatization of all social programs (i.e. more austerity).
For right-wing blogs, the endless trillions in government hand-outs to the rich are the
“free market.”  Meanwhile, the meager government support for the elderly and disabled are condemned as “unsustainable entitlements.”
Cheer up. It can only get worse.

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