Peterson Foundation


Joseph M. Firestone's picture

A Counter Narrative to Peterson's

Stephanie Kelton writes:

The US is broke. Government deficits are de facto evidence of a government gone wild. We’re careening toward Greece. Entitlements are the root cause of our fiscal woes, and the Chinese are coming for our grandchildren. more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

The Fiscal Summit Counter-Narrative: Pt 8, Narrative and Counter-Narrative

(Author's Note: This is the concluding post in an eight part series on the counter-narrative to the austerian/deficit hawk/long-term deficit reduction approach to fiscal policy that is dominant in Washington, DC today. At the end of this post I list and link the seven earlier posts in the series. more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

The Fiscal Summit Counter-Narrative: Pt 7 Fiscal Sustainability Polices Q&A

My last post covered the Session 5 presentations of Professors L. more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

The Fiscal Summit Counter-Narrative: Pt 6, Policy Proposals

The way we designed the program of the Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In Counter-Conference, was to introduce the fundamental ideas of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) in the f more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

The Fiscal Summit Counter-Narrative: Pt. 5, Inflation and Hyperinflation

One of the raps on deficit spending in neoliberal circles is that it will trigger substantial inflation or hyper-inflation. Even when mainstream economists grant the MMT point about the impossibility of the US becoming involuntarily insolvent, they will still insist that sustained deficit spending is a bad idea because it will inevitably lead to unmanageable inflation. more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

The Fiscal Summit Counter-Narrative: Part Four, The Deficit, the Debt, etc.

(Author's Note: The full title of this peace is: "The Fiscal Summit Counter-Narrative: Part Four, The Deficit, the Debt, the Debt-To-GDP Ratio, the Grandchildren, and Government Economic Policy")
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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

The Fiscal Summit Counter-Narrative: Pt 3, Are There Spending Constraints?

An issue at the core of all the fuss about fiscal sustainability is Government solvency. The deficit hawks and doves believe that Governments sovereign in their own currency can run out of money if they keep deficit spending, and keep borrowing to do it. more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

The Fiscal Summit Counter-Narrative: Pt. 2, Defining Fiscal Sustainability

One of the most irritating things about the deficit hawk/austerity literature, is that it uses the ideas of “fiscal sustainability” and “fiscal responsibility” in an ideological way, without ever really analyzing or explaining these labels. more »

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Richard Eskow's picture

Bill Clinton, Boehner, and Some Other Rich White Guys Had a "Summit" and Agreed: It's Your Fault

Today a bunch of rich white guys held a "Fiscal Summit" and agreed that:

1. Despite the fact that unemployment is causing untold suffering for millions of people, it's not very important.
2. Despite the fact that wage stagnation is destroying the middle class, that's not important either. more »

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Joseph M. Firestone's picture

The Fiscal Summit Counter-Narrative: Part One

Well, it's Springtime in DC. Time for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's annual event. more »

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