"This isn't done because Neoclassical economists are paid shrills or apologists for capitalism". Really Steve?
I have long believed that it is so intuitively obvious- even to the layman- that economic crises are caused by debt sucking the juice out of the economy of real goods and services that there is no other explanation for the behaviour of mainstream economists. 90% spin-doctor, 10% bad scholarship.
I’ve spent fifty years of my life with this lot, forty of those as an academic economist myself. The reason they’re so dangerous is that they actually think they’re doing good. So yes, really.
Private finance is a huge parasite that although it has integrated itself thoroughly into modern economies is almost entirely exterior to it because it is most often pre-production or post retail sale. Ideally banking would be a public utility. The current paradigm for creation and distribution of new money is Debt Only and the new paradigm is Direct and Reciprocal Monetary Gifting. New paradigms create new mental and temporal realities while resolving the anomalous aspects of the old paradigm in deep and continuing ways.
Paradigms being long acculturated concepts are mostly unconscious. Reformists like yourself, Michael Hudson, David Graeber, Warren Mosler/MMTers and Ellen Brown have completely surrounded the area of the the present paradigm (money, debt and banks), but not being completely conscious of the necessary and exact new paradigm concept you've not been able to visualize its benefits and most strategic points of implementation. For instance your insight that "economists can get their PhD in economics without ever having to take an elementary course in accounting" and that banks create money with accounting entries is spot on, but you fail to follow through with that insight by mimicing/applying that same accounting process with a 50% gift of price at retail sale all of which is rebated back to the merchant by the monetary authority...and hence it breaks up Finance's monopoly paradigm for the creation and distribution of new money, namely Debt ONLY (the word Only designates it as a monopoly paradigm concept). As retail sale is universally experienced and participated in a monetary policy using reciprocal accounting entries there would have immediate and macro-economic effect. The benefits of this single policy are 1) the end of inflation and the beginning of beneficial price and asset deflation, 2) a redressing of the lost purchasing power the middle class has endured since the 1970's because it would immediately double everyone's ability to purchase, 3) the integration of the self interests of the consumer and commercial agents because there is now a potential doubling of demand for every enterprise's goods and services which is the definition of good economic times and last but not least 5) as inflation would forever end it opens up the ability to run the kind of fiscal deficits necessary to fund the mega-projects necessary to confront climate change and research alternative sources of energy. Repeating the accounting process at the point of loan signing with a 25-50% debt jubilee policy further benefits everyone and further breaks up Finance's monopoly concept of Debt Only.
As you can see becoming completely conscious of a new paradigm better enables its visualization and application.
"there is now a potential doubling of demand for every enterprise's goods and services". I feel like you are missing the point here, which is that it's necessary to reduce consumption rather than increase it for ecological reasons. Steve K recently demonstrated w. Minsky/Ravel that (which we actually already knew from research around the promotion of "green consumerism" several years ago) GDP is tightly linked to energy consumption and thus resource depletion and ecological degradation.
" which is the definition of good economic times". This is measuring a new paradigm economy using an old paradigm yardstick, and not, in my opinion, a good representation of how future-world ought to be envisaged. Stability, security and cultural connectivity are immensely valuable (though non-financial) components of "good times" that were wantonly smashed to create an open field for the sale and consumption of for-profit goods and services and ought to be reclaimed as measures of a Good Life.
You'll notice I said "potential" doubling of demand. Number one not everyone is going to eat twice as much as they do now, nor will they buy twice as many pairs of shoes. The real point of doubling purchasing power is economic freedom and security not just additional consumption. And as that occurs you'll undoubtedly see much more saving and investment. To that end in my book I also recommend a sliding scale of required percentage of investment of gifted purchasing power increasing with income put into Eco-bonds at 5-6% to fund research for new energy sources and the following areas needing change. We absolutely do need to severely curb animal husbandry and the godawful amount of methane it contributes to climate change. We need restorative agriculture, the conversion of grass yards to organic gardening on a mass scale and a host of other initiatives for things like the under planeting and off planeting of production, mining the moon and solar system for resources as well as various other schemes to sequester carbon to the ocean depths and others to re-freeze the polar regions. The point is however, that none of these mega-projects will ever be done unless and until we break up Private Finance's monopolistic monetary paradigm with the new paradigm of Gifting strategically at retail sale and in so doing end inflation and enable the fiscal deficits necessary to fund these mega-projects. That and integrating debt jubilee directly and continuously into the economic process at point of loan signing in order to eliminate the civilization long inevitable build up of private debt. Cynicism is about 5 microns above total apathy so thats not an option, and palliative reforms won't cut it either. Only a paradigm change in economics and the money system.
"This isn't done because Neoclassical economists are paid shrills or apologists for capitalism". Really Steve?
I have long believed that it is so intuitively obvious- even to the layman- that economic crises are caused by debt sucking the juice out of the economy of real goods and services that there is no other explanation for the behaviour of mainstream economists. 90% spin-doctor, 10% bad scholarship.
I’ve spent fifty years of my life with this lot, forty of those as an academic economist myself. The reason they’re so dangerous is that they actually think they’re doing good. So yes, really.
Private finance is a huge parasite that although it has integrated itself thoroughly into modern economies is almost entirely exterior to it because it is most often pre-production or post retail sale. Ideally banking would be a public utility. The current paradigm for creation and distribution of new money is Debt Only and the new paradigm is Direct and Reciprocal Monetary Gifting. New paradigms create new mental and temporal realities while resolving the anomalous aspects of the old paradigm in deep and continuing ways.
Paradigms being long acculturated concepts are mostly unconscious. Reformists like yourself, Michael Hudson, David Graeber, Warren Mosler/MMTers and Ellen Brown have completely surrounded the area of the the present paradigm (money, debt and banks), but not being completely conscious of the necessary and exact new paradigm concept you've not been able to visualize its benefits and most strategic points of implementation. For instance your insight that "economists can get their PhD in economics without ever having to take an elementary course in accounting" and that banks create money with accounting entries is spot on, but you fail to follow through with that insight by mimicing/applying that same accounting process with a 50% gift of price at retail sale all of which is rebated back to the merchant by the monetary authority...and hence it breaks up Finance's monopoly paradigm for the creation and distribution of new money, namely Debt ONLY (the word Only designates it as a monopoly paradigm concept). As retail sale is universally experienced and participated in a monetary policy using reciprocal accounting entries there would have immediate and macro-economic effect. The benefits of this single policy are 1) the end of inflation and the beginning of beneficial price and asset deflation, 2) a redressing of the lost purchasing power the middle class has endured since the 1970's because it would immediately double everyone's ability to purchase, 3) the integration of the self interests of the consumer and commercial agents because there is now a potential doubling of demand for every enterprise's goods and services which is the definition of good economic times and last but not least 5) as inflation would forever end it opens up the ability to run the kind of fiscal deficits necessary to fund the mega-projects necessary to confront climate change and research alternative sources of energy. Repeating the accounting process at the point of loan signing with a 25-50% debt jubilee policy further benefits everyone and further breaks up Finance's monopoly concept of Debt Only.
As you can see becoming completely conscious of a new paradigm better enables its visualization and application.
"there is now a potential doubling of demand for every enterprise's goods and services". I feel like you are missing the point here, which is that it's necessary to reduce consumption rather than increase it for ecological reasons. Steve K recently demonstrated w. Minsky/Ravel that (which we actually already knew from research around the promotion of "green consumerism" several years ago) GDP is tightly linked to energy consumption and thus resource depletion and ecological degradation.
" which is the definition of good economic times". This is measuring a new paradigm economy using an old paradigm yardstick, and not, in my opinion, a good representation of how future-world ought to be envisaged. Stability, security and cultural connectivity are immensely valuable (though non-financial) components of "good times" that were wantonly smashed to create an open field for the sale and consumption of for-profit goods and services and ought to be reclaimed as measures of a Good Life.
You'll notice I said "potential" doubling of demand. Number one not everyone is going to eat twice as much as they do now, nor will they buy twice as many pairs of shoes. The real point of doubling purchasing power is economic freedom and security not just additional consumption. And as that occurs you'll undoubtedly see much more saving and investment. To that end in my book I also recommend a sliding scale of required percentage of investment of gifted purchasing power increasing with income put into Eco-bonds at 5-6% to fund research for new energy sources and the following areas needing change. We absolutely do need to severely curb animal husbandry and the godawful amount of methane it contributes to climate change. We need restorative agriculture, the conversion of grass yards to organic gardening on a mass scale and a host of other initiatives for things like the under planeting and off planeting of production, mining the moon and solar system for resources as well as various other schemes to sequester carbon to the ocean depths and others to re-freeze the polar regions. The point is however, that none of these mega-projects will ever be done unless and until we break up Private Finance's monopolistic monetary paradigm with the new paradigm of Gifting strategically at retail sale and in so doing end inflation and enable the fiscal deficits necessary to fund these mega-projects. That and integrating debt jubilee directly and continuously into the economic process at point of loan signing in order to eliminate the civilization long inevitable build up of private debt. Cynicism is about 5 microns above total apathy so thats not an option, and palliative reforms won't cut it either. Only a paradigm change in economics and the money system.