The debt hawks are to economics as the creationists are to biology. Those, who do not understand Monetary Sovereignty, do not understand economics. If you understand the following, simple statement, you are ahead of most economists, politicians and media writers in America: Our government, being Monetarily Sovereign, has the unlimited ability to create the dollars to pay its bills.
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I have been erased! Not just banned, but erased! Yes, it’s true. I have been erased by Barry Ritholtz. Here is the Email I just received from him:
Buh ByeFrom: The Big Picture thebigpicture@optionline.net
To: rmmadvertising@yahoo.com
Date: May 15, 2011WE ARE OFFICIALLY DONE
YOU ARE ERASED
My erasure apparently came as a result of an article Barry wrote titled, “When should you fire your fund manager?” My response was, “When he repeatedly demonstrates he doesn’t understand the difference between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty.”
Think of it. Here is a man who has promoted himself into world fame, but if my “erasure” means what I assume it does, he seemingly cannot tolerate differences from his opinions. On many occasions I have challenged him to debate his philosophy (whatever that may be) vs Monetary Sovereignty, and he never has taken me up on it. And now, he has, in effect, done the childish act of clamping his hands over his his ears, stamping his feet and screaming “I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you.”
To give you an idea of Barry’s thinking, this is the paragraph he puts at the top of every article in his blog:
”Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.”
Hmmm. Detect any irony, there? Anyway, by contrast, one always can come to my blog, and feel free to disagree with me. We’ll have a nice discussion, and perhaps we each will learn something. I have learned a great deal from my blog readers. Could it be that Barry is not interested in that kind of learning?
Hey Barry, you always can come to my blog and tell me I’m wrong and why. Perhaps we’ll have that nice debate you’ve managed to miss. And by the way, Barry, you aren’t the first to ban (or as you say, “erase”) me. Years ago, I was banned by the Concord Coalition, that notorious debt-hawk group. So you’re in good company.
As for my “erasure,” I feel honored.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com
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No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. It’s been 40 years since the U.S. became Monetary Sovereign, , and neither Congress, nor the President, nor the Fed, nor the vast majority of economists and economics bloggers, nor the preponderance of the media, nor the most famous educational institutions, nor the Nobel committee, nor the International Monetary Fund have yet acquired even the slightest notion of what that means.
Remember that the next time you’re tempted to ask a dopey teenager, “What were you thinking?” He’s liable to respond, “Pretty much what your generation was thinking when it screwed up my future.”
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
To me that is a sign of effectiveness. Good job.
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. . . but not forgotten.
Warren Mosler
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At my age, when someone says, “You are erased,” I look around for an old guy, with a long, white beard, carrying a sythe. But I just had breakfast with my wife, and she said, “Who is Barry Ritholtz; I can see you so you’re not erased; take out the garbage.”
So nothing has changed, and Barry must be wrong — again.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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I’ve always felt Ritholtz is extremely intolerant of views other than his own. It’s a sort of arrogance on display. Wear the banning as a badge of honour.
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A badge of honor? Hardly. More like being excommunicated from a cult, as Barry will not only not debate the issues, he won’t even allow your posts to be visible to his readership, who can make up their own minds.
What is it that makes otherwise highly intelligent people close their minds to new thought? Religion! Maybe, with Barry, it is also a matter of control. After all, he makes his living by espousing a particular line of thinking. Ditto for most economists, politicians, academics, et al., with giant size egos that can never admit error.
I only became familiar with the term MMT a couple of months ago, reading comments from a minuscule number of advocates who post responses to economic blog commentary. I even had to Google the acronym MMT to make sense of what I was reading. What took my fancy was the word: “Modern”. Hmm.
I followed through with this heretofore-unknown concept when I found your blog via your comment on John Mauldin’s site. Read your summary, and the light bulb went on. More like being hit across the side of my head with a 2×4.
What struck me was, “How could I be so blind?” For more than thirty years, rather than observing how the monetary system ACTUALLY works, I held strong belief to how I thought it SHOULD work.
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Thanks Vincent,
After Barry, it’s refreshing to “meet” someone willing to learn.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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Rodger, don’t take people like Barry too seriously. The spectacular efflorescence of stupidity called orthodox/mainstream economics is dying. Its power to cloud minds, even ones that try to rebel against it, is waning.
Soon enough, you will be explaining to skeptical kids about how yes, people really believed in it, just like they once believed in human sacrifice, witches and cannibalism. That there actually were names like “modern monetary theory” or “monetary sovereignty” for people who did not believe in witches, goblins and an omnipotent invisible bond market monster. They’ll walk away and say: That old guy is telling tall tales. Nobody could have been that dumb.
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Roger,
An obvious sign you had overcome your assigned ‘anonymous’ nature in his environs.
I personally am not sure what ‘erasure’ is but I had the distinction of being banned from Karl Denninger’s Ticker-ama with the private message that my comments were beyond the breadth of his average reader to comprehend.
And, who is Barry Ritholtz, again?
Ever upward.
joe
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Roger,
I erased “The Big Picture” from my bookmarks some time ago. “Market Ticker” and “Zero Hedge” were erased too.
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Jeff,
Actually, I enjoy The Big Picture. It combines a great deal of material I can use to demonstrate how uninformed the majority is.
As for Barry, he is so taken with himself, it makes me laugh. I think he makes Donald Trump look modest — and wise.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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I had a situation on Forbes where I wrote a not to flattering comment about the difference between the Greek and US monetary systems (seems the author thought we were like Greece). The author emailed me and wanted to know if I was a government employee.
We had an interesting exchange. And no I am not a government employee.
Dan
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Dan,
He should have known you’re not a government employee, if you know the difference between the Greek and U.S. monetary systems.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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What took him so long? You’ve obviously been a real pain in the neck to him for quite some time. Please keep sending him emails and post his replies here, I enjoy reading his hilarious answers to your questions.
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Are kings monetarily sovereign? If so, why do they tax their subjects?
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Lauren,
Most kings in history presided over monetarily non-sovereign nations, as they were on some form of a standard (gold, silver, etc.) They taxed their subjects to obtain whatever physical substance was being used as money.
Today, some monarchies are Monetarily Sovereign (i.e. U.K.) and some are monetarily non-sovereign (i.e. Spain).
The irony is that even Monetarily Sovereign nations levy taxes, a useless exercise, that continues probably because the world has not yet understood the realities of Monetary Sovereignty. That is one of the primary subjects of this blog.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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