Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which leads to civil disorder.
●Cutting the deficit is the government’s method for taking dollars from the middle class and giving them to the rich.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
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Never believe your opponent is ignorant. It’s what he wants you to believe.
The man stands accused of murdering his wife.
He claims he loved his wife and had no reason to murder her. He was not in an affair, nor was his wife; he was not known for fits of temper; they never had fought in public; there was no financial benefit to her death. By every available measure, he had no reason to kill her.
Despite the evidence – finger prints, DNA, his purchase of the murder weapon, his proximity at the time of the murder – the jury refuses to believe he could do it. Why? He had no motive.
Now change one fact: He was in an affair. Now it all adds up. The jury believes the accusation, and convicts.
The difference between belief and non-belief was the motive.
Background: For months, I have advised that economic facts alone will not change the federal government’s suicidal mission to reduce the deficit. I discussed this most recently in Why MMT frustrates the hell out of me and in Some blowback from MMT.
The public has been misled by the words “debt” and “deficit.” When applied to personal finances, these words flash danger signals. Who wouldn’t want their personal debt reduced and not to run a deficit?
The politicians and the media take advantage of this confusion, by brainwashing the public into wrongly believing the same danger signal applies to the federal government, the sole Monetarily Sovereign entity in America – the sole entity having the unlimited ability to create the dollars that grow the economy — the sole entity that cannot unwillingly run short of dollars.
Then, in those rare cases, where a member of the public begins to understand that federal deficits are absolutely necessary for economic growth, we are met with the other myth: Money printing causes inflation.
This too makes superficial sense, in that increasing the supply of something generally reduces its value. The fact that this can be true only if demand does not rise proportionately and in fact, has not happened since the U.S. went off the gold standard, seldom is mentioned by politicians or the media.
So the question becomes, “Why have the politicians and the media lied to the American public? Is it a matter of ignorance or malevolence?
My complaint with MMT is that they act as though it were ignorance, so continually try to explain the economy in simpler terms – terms even a politician could understand, while being loath, for lack of evidence, to accuse the politicians of intentional, bought-and-paid for deceit.
MMT shows flashes of anger, but it is anger at the misunderstanding of what is obvious. This anger never seems to transition into direct accusations of intentional malfeasance. Implicit in this is the notion that politicians – the President, Congress et al – really do want what is best for America, but are ignorant about economics and are neither intelligent enough nor motivated enough to learn. “So let’s make it simpler for them.”
Or at worst, the politicians merely are “playing politics,” that is, the Democrats are trying to make the Republicans look bad and the Republicans are trying to make the Democrats look bad.
But, evidence indicates neither ignorance nor “playing politics” is the problem, and barring ignorance and politics, the sole conclusion is that our politicians do understand the facts, but intentionally are voting to injure America. In short, the President et al are committing treason.
Here is the evidence: As I have stated in other posts, neither the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of Treasury, the Chairman of the Fed, nor the 435 members of Congress ever has admitted that federal deficits are necessary to grow the economy. Not one of them. Not ever. That is a too-great-to-believe number of people all sharing the same “ignorance” and the same “politics.”
Additionally, we have the Council of Economic Advisers, to greater or lesser degree, all experts in economics:
Chair: Alan Krueger; Members: Katharine Abraham; Chief Economist: Jim Stock; Director of Macroeconomic Forecasting: Steven N. Braun; Senior Economists: Bevin Ashenmiller: Energy and the environment; Benjamin Harris: Tax, budget, and retirement saving policy; Sue Helper: Manufacturing policy; Chinhui Juhn: Labor policy; Paul Lengermann: Macroeconomics; Emily Lin: Tax policy; Rodney Ludema: International economics; James Williamson: Public finance issues in agricultural and resource economics; Wes Yin: Health economics and policy; Staff Economists: Jeff Borowitz, Colleen Carey, David Cho, Judd Cramer, Reid Stevens, Research Economists: Pedro Spivakovsky-Gonzalez; Research Assistants; Matt Aks, Sandra Levy, Carter Mundell, Seth Werfel; Statistical Office: Adrienne T. Pilot; Director
Statistical Office Analysts: Brian Amorosi & Lindsay Kuberka
To my knowledge, none of the above has stepped forward and correctly said, “Cutting the deficit hurts America by reducing three of the four elements that constitute Gross Domestic Product: Personal Consumption Expenditures, Gross Private Domestic Investment and Government Consumption Expenditures & Gross Investment.”
Then we have the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, which according to its own web site:
“Economic research at the Federal Reserve Board is conducted primarily within the Division of Research and Statistics, the Division of Monetary Affairs, and the Division of International Finance. Together, the three divisions have approximately 450 staff members, about half of whom are Ph.D. economists.
The Division of Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems, the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, and the Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation also conduct economic research and employ Ph.D. economists.
Board economists produce numerous working papers and are among the leading contributors at professional meetings and in major journals. Board economists also produce a wide variety of economic analyses and forecasts for the Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee.
Have you seen or heard of any of these Ph.D. economists writing or saying that austerity, i.e. deficit cutting, injures the American economy, just as it has injured the European economy, and in fact, every economy in which it is tried?
I could go on and on, adding the thousands of Ph.D.s floating about in all the colleges and universities, but the point is clear. Is it truly possible that these thousands of people, all of whom have devoted their lives to studying economics, do not understand basic economics?
No, not possible.
So, either Monetary Sovereignty is wrong, and by some miracle of arithmetic, taking dollars out of the public’s pockets actually spurs economic growth or – or something more insidious is happening. I vote for the later.
Belief flows downhill. If your boss says “Pigs fly,” and he pays you quite well to say, “Pigs fly,” and will fire you if you don’t agree, you probably will agree – not just agree, but actively promulgate the notion that pigs fly. And if everyone around you also is saying that pigs fly, you may come to believe that despite all evidence to the contrary, pigs actually do fly.
So if anyone shows you evidence that pigs are too heavy to fly and they don’t have wings, and no one ever has seen pigs fly, you will ignore the evidence and perhaps even ridicule it, with comments like, “There’s always a first time,” or “Why do you know this and no one else does,” or “Heavy animals have flown, and flying squirrels don’t have wings, so pigs can fly.”
And that, I suggest, is what is happening. Not ignorance. Not party vs. party politics. But slavish devotion to the hand that feeds you.
And that, I suggest, is why every criticism of the austerity policy should – no, must – include the motive, which is this: The rich have bought the obedience of the politicians via campaign contributions, the obedience of the media via ownership, and the obedience of the universities via charitable contributions.
And because the rich want the gap between them and the rest to widen, and austerity widens this gap, the politicians, the media and the economists toe the line, and spread the myth that a Monetarily Sovereign nation must “live within its means.”
The leaders and the economists will not respond to education. They are paid not to. The public will not respond to education. They are predisposed not to.
But the public will respond to a scandal, and that is what we must provide them. Every article should follow the format: “Deficit cutting is paid for by the rich. Here is how. The motive is to widen the gap between them and you. Here is how.”
The politicians, the media and the mainstream economists commit treason by accepting money intentionally to injure America.
But, it’s hard for the public to accept the crime, without knowing the motive.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
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Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%
No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports
#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
“Here is the evidence: As I have stated in other posts, neither the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of Treasury, the Chairman of the Fed, nor the 435 members of Congress ever has admitted that federal deficits are necessary to grow the economy. Not one of them. Not ever. That is a too-great-to-believe number of people all sharing the same “ignorance” and the same “politics.””
Rodger,
This is evidence that they DONT know what they are talking about… NOT that they DO know…
And you are being tremendously unfair to yourself here:
“So, either Monetary Sovereignty is wrong, and by some miracle of arithmetic, taking dollars out of the public’s pockets actually spurs economic growth…”
No. YOU are right, and THEY are simply wrong… rsp, Matt
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The above reader claims that, “This is evidence that they DON’T know what they are talking about… NOT that they DO know…”
Logically then, this is evidence that politicians do not lie. Politicians do not serve the plutocracy. Politicians are innocent. They simply “do not know what they are talking about.”
When Congress and the Treasury create trillions out of nothing each year, and spend it into existence, but they falsely claim that it was borrowed from China, and hence the poor must have austerity, then they are not lying, huh?
Wow.
If politicians don’t lie, then why stop with national finances? When W. Bush deliberately lied about WMDs in Iraq, then this is evidence that Bush “didn’t know what he was talking about.” When politicians deliberately lie about 9-11, this is evidence that politicians “don’t know what they are talking about.”
Amazing.
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“Slavish devotion to the hand that feeds you.”
Yes, this applies to government bureaucrats, media talking heads, politicians, and academicians.
Academicians include MMT people at the Univ. of Missouri, KC, who obviously fear they will lose their jobs if they speak too plainly about motive.
They use their academic credentials to get speaking engagements, and they protect those credentials by not speaking too plainly.
And since they dare not mention motive, they cannot reach more than a handful of devotees.
In their own way, they are “deficit doves.” (They love Paul Krugman.) In their own way they participate in the conspiracy of lies that is shared by politicians, government bureaucrats, and media talking heads.
The most they offer are insults, e.g. their claim that the 1%, plus the Pete Petersons, the “Fix The Debt” crowd, the 435 members of the House, plus 100 Senators, plus the President, plus countless Treasury and Fed bureaucrats – all of them “misunderstand” national finances, and there is “no evidence” for any other conclusion.
MMT types are as cement-headed as the mainstream population.
Reason: Slavish devotion to the hand that feeds you.
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RMM,”Then, in those rare cases, where a member of the public begins to understand that federal deficits are absolutely necessary for economic growth, we are met with the other myth: Money printing causes inflation. ”
Rodger,may I make a foolish attempt to explain where you are “misdirecting” and maybe,maybe,perhaps lose a little credibility.
Fact:”Under the present system” federal deficits are absolutely necessary for growth. (Justaluckyfool calls for a different method -QE that is asset purchasing insted of deficit spending.)
However even when stated in that manner, it does not make “Money printing causes inflation a nother myth”
Fact : money printing may, could cause harmful inflation. All inflation is not harmful, perhaps even necessary when there is an increase in goods and services greater than those goods and services which are already accounted for by the “printed” money in existence.
The fact is “Money printing” ( and credit expansion) uncontrolled may cause hyperinflation. Perhaps too much “NOTHING” that we get from “SOMETHING” being asked to be redeemed for any particular “ANYTHING” (Justaluckyfool’s opinion of “The Role of Money” by Noble Laureate Frederick Soddy).
Please continue ,please as your message “for the people” are of the utmost importance.
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even the motive, when laid bare, is still stupid & ignorant
so what’s the difference?
We always have 2 tasks:
1) fighting the Innocent Treason of ignorance, by maintaining an informed electorate,
2) fighting the active augmentation of Innocent by Complicit Treason, by maintaining a doubly-active as well as informed electorate
It’s always been this way. Main difference is that we need to do that now with 312 million people, not just 7 million. Methods drive results, and the operational details count. As does tempo.
We’re failing to scale methods, operations & policy-agility as fast as population growth. If we don’t face that fact, we’ll always be a situation late and a paradigm short.
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Group-think is as old as the hills, based in fear of survival; political-economics/organized religion/bureaucrats are at the top of the heap.
People who make money with money HAVE to keep it scarce. They know no other way. MMT and MS represents bountiful success, and threatens their status and way of life. The idea of everyone being successful sickens them. They want the free stuff for themselves, not anyone else. They operate from the centuries old paradigm of scarcity, fundamental inadequacy and survival of the fittest. Modern Money Mechanics is not for them.
We need a design that incorporates MMT into the general system without causing the 1% panic. Keep thinking.
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Put your theory where your mouth is.
Japan will soon create their own currency to ‘grow’ their economy. Why have you conviniently missed this?
How about France? If not because they are in the Euro, they’ve been handing out paper to the lazy bums.
Why do you MMTers conviniently forget to mention Japan in your speeches? Are you afraid that they will collapse into oblivion taking your theory with it?
I will put my money where my mouth is. Japan leads the pack into destruction, followed by Spain (mama marxista) or Germany (idiots for shaking hands with communists), followed by France and the US.
I’d like to see what excuse you will make when shit hits the fan.
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Flash, Japan has pursued conflicted fiscal policies over the years. While they deficit spent, they also raised taxes many times counteracting that spending (put money in, and took it right out). So they never collapsed, nor did they “boom”. So please tell me exactly how Japan will destruct – what exactly will happen?
Spain, Germany and France are in a unique scenario that is nothing like the U.S. nor Japan – they do not control their currency. They will only change once the social unrest becomes too much to handle – and it will because 25+% will tend to do that.
I will tell you what will happen in the U.S. We will muddle along with unacceptable unemployment (more than 5%), low interest rates as far as the eyes can see, political gridlock because of the ignorance on how our monetary system works, deflation, and low GDP growth.
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Shinzo Abe promised he will print to support full employment, defeat deflation and ‘grow’ the economy.
What difference does it make how they collapse?
Why dont you try this. Create a machine that can take any rock and turn it into gold. Than take the machine and convert them to gold. Finally, go try buying something with it.
That is what will happen to Japan.
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I dont like calling out names, but how can you blame the high unemployment on lack of spending when we’ve spent 7 trillion in 4 years. I’m not sure where the ignorance is but it’s not definately on the ones proposing spending cuts.
Amazing…
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It seems, flash in the pan, you have started your New Year’s Eve celebration prematurely. Your arguments are moronic and you are a moron.
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I am often amused when people try to use Japan to make some point or other. Especially when bankers, politicians, and media shills claim that without more austerity, the USA is doomed to have a “lost decade” like Japan.
Actually the “lost decade” is a myth sustained by the Japanese government, and designed to stroke the American ego. During the 1980s, Americans panicked that Japan had such a booming export trade in automobiles and other products. Ridley Scott’s 1982 film “Bladerunner” depicted a USA ruled by Japanese financiers, as did Michael Crichton’s 1992 novel “Rising Sun,” plus the 1993 movie adaptation.
It was all a lie. So says Irish author Eamonn Fingleton in his 2008 book “In the Jaws of the Dragon.”
According to Fingleton, during the so-called “lost decade,” the Japanese Finance Ministry issued false statistics, saying that Japan was “insolvent,” even though foreign assets increased, Japanese exports increased by 73%, and electricity use increased by 30%, a tell-tale indicator of a flourishing industrial sector. By 2006, Japan’s exports were three times what they were in 1989.
In 2010, Japan’s GDP per capita was more than that of France, Germany, the U.K. and Italy. And while China’s overall economy is now larger than Japan’s (because China’s population is 10 times larger than Japan’s) China’s $5,414 GDP per capita is only 12 percent of Japan’s $45,920.
Despite this, US bankers, politicians, and media shills say that USA must have austerity because the USA is as “broke” as is Japan. This despite the fact neither the USA nor Japan can never go “broke,” since both are monetarily sovereign.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Japan’s economy contracted for the two quarters through September, meeting the textbook definition of a recession. This happened because of the global depression (i.e. global austerity-mania), and because of slumping sales to China after a diplomatic row over disputed isles.
Japan’s new right-wing prime Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has responded via a so-called “stimulus” in the form of “asset purchases” by the Bank of Japan.
“Asset purchases” mean QE, which is only a stimulus for the financial economy. QE does nothing for the real economy. Hence Mr. Abe’s “stimulus” is not a stimulus at all for Japanese industry.
Naturally, many economists claim that Japan needs “structural reforms” (i.e. austerity). They claim that an actual increase in government spending would “worsen Japan’s bloated public debt, the worst among the industrial nations.”
Total garbage, of course. Japan’s national debt, like the US national debt, simply refers to the value of outstanding T-securities, and has no relation to the Japanese government’s ability to spend money.
BY THE WAY…
The average American claims to hate the federal government, but his ears perk up when he hears that the government might increase spending, thereby creating jobs.
Media pundits know this. They know that the public wants true stimulus spending.
Therefore the pundits LIE.
They falsely claim that “stimulus” consists of quantitative easing…
“The Fed is now spending tens of billions in stimulus money into the economy every month. Therefore if you can’t find a job, it’s YOUR fault!”
This is not a stimulus at all. If it were, then the media pundits would denounce it hysterically.
Put it this way…
Q: How do we know if a stimulus is actually a stimulus?
A: If Republicans and the corporate media speak of it in neutral terms, then it is not a stimulus. If Republicans and the corporate media claim that the spending will destroy the world, then it’s a real stimulus.
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Mark,
Go read my comments. Am i the one calling names? Look and see who sounds desperate…
Do as i did, put your theory where your mouth is. Japan is about to go on spending spree with printed money. If MMT is correct, they will prosper and you can laugh at me.
If not, i will be the one asking you and Roger for an explanation, which, you won’t have. I know you both aren’t naive. Some dont have the spine to bite the hands that feeds them. And perhaps that should be the approach, that’s not an issue, but dont try to sell me a theft as a gift.
MMT and MS are nothing but government spending excuses and lies.
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Also,
Stop going around the question above. I’m not talking past, i’m talking future. If they print as you want and every mmter wants, than they show prosper based on your argument.
If instead they crash mmt is a joke. I dont need this to prove anyway, but you shouldn’t be running in circles.
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Flash,
Please read people’s comments before you respond to them. Then perhaps you will be less irrational.
As noted above, Bank of Japan “asset purchases” are a form of QE. They do not comprise a “spending spree” as you claim. On the contrary, the right-wing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe leans toward austerity with regard to government spending. “Asset purchases” are a way to bolster Japan’s financial economy. Like the Fed’s QE, it is not “government spending.”
Evidently you hate government spending. You want only private banks to have the power to create money as loans. Such blather makes me wonder why you visit this blog.
You claim that Rodger and I “go in circles” and that we “have no explanations.” You claim that Japan will “crash,” whatever that means.
Please calm down. In your present state you are confused and overwrought.
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Mark,
I read your comment but evidently you didnt read mine. Your thought of QE is misplaced. QE does new credit/debt which is than used and spent like new dollars. Except that it’s used for the stuff you mmters love, controlling things. He fed buys assets because people like to see high stock and home prices. Why? I dont know, maybe it gives them a rush.
Anyway, your still going in circles. Abe has given the JCB an ultimatum to spur inflation, growth and provide full employment. He is about to take the MMT bull by the horn and print money, give it to people if he has to. Ifhehe does this, do you agree his strategy will work or do you not. That’swhat i’m asking and what you keep ignoring.
Yes, Japan will crash because they’ve lost their ability to control their money, they are now at the mercy of the market. When the market decide they will pull out, they go on a tailspin, destroying the value of the yen to it’s intrinsic value.
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During the last 2 decades, Japan has maintained:
1. An unemployment rate averaging about three percent and about half that of the US unemployment rate over the same period.
2. Universal healthcare.
3. Less income inequality than the US.
4. The highest life expectancy among the advanced nations.
5. Very low rates of infant mortality, crime and incarceration.
The obvious conclusion is that Americans should be so lucky as to experience a Japanese-style lost decade.
6.Second language “difficulties” aside flash, start using spell check-your moron quotient on that alone, puts you off the charts.
7. flash,learn the difference between currency issuers and currency users
8. Notice how Rodger IGNORES you? get a clue dude.
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Stop acting naive Steve.
I respect Roger’s position in ignoring.
But you fail to mention how Japan squandered the biggest stockpile of savings to do what you are outlining. And guess what? The savings were the people’s, not the government. They also have traded all the savings for 230% debt to gdp. What a great tradeoff isnt it?
Today, they are close to hitting the wall, very close.
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Focus on the formula for GDP:
GDP = Personal Consumption Expenditures + Gross Private Domestic Investment + Government Consumption Expenditures & Gross Investment – Net Imports.
Focus on what happens to each factor as deficit spending (i.e. the difference between federal spending and taxes) is decreased.
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Gotcha,
Japan went from a huge stockpile of savings to 230% debt to GDP using that argument to maintain a growing GDP. Note i said growing GDP, not economy. Also, the last time i checked politicians are voted in by the people who rely on the economy, not GDP. Wow have they been conned. At this stage of the game it’s surprising that so many can’t figure it out even when they go hungry and cold.
Are you saying there is no concern over Japanese finances?
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Flash, this is a charity comment to you, since you seem to be new here.
You write, “Japan went from a huge stockpile of savings to 230% debt to GDP using that argument to maintain a growing GDP.”
The debt-to-GDP ratio is meaningless, as Rodger has explained countless times. It tells us nothing about a nation’s economy. A nation’s GDP is the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time (usually one year). By contrast, the national debt is outside time. It refers to the dollar value (or yen value, or whatever) of all outstanding Treasury securities (or their equivalent in foreign nations) which have maturity cycles ranging from 30 days to 30 years. A high debt-to-GDP ratio means that a nation’s government and central bank like to sell a lot of T-securities, for varying reasons. It has nothing to do with the strength of a nation’s economy. Japan has a very high debt-to-GDP ratio, and Russia has a far lower ratio. Yet Japan’s GDP is much larger than Russia’s (i.e. Japan’s economy is much stronger). This despite the fact that Russia is loaded with natural resources, and Japan has almost nothing. And despite the fact that Japan has a smaller population than Russia’s. (Actually Japan’s population is shrinking by almost 1 million per year.)
Since you have no understanding of national finances, you believe the corporate media when they lie that the USA and Japan have a “debt crisis” and a “deficit crisis.” They do this in order to justify austerity and neo-liberalism, which favors the rich at the expense of the rest. You believe the talking heads, plus countless idiot bloggers, when they spout nonsense about debt-to-GDP ratios (a topic that has no place in serious economic discussions). And since you don’t wish to learn, you run around in circles claiming that everyone but you is wrong, and that the sky is falling. In your blind frenzy, you mentally project your illness onto others, claiming it is THEY who run in circles.
You are raving. Your comments make no sense. Please calm down. For example, you think that GDP and the economy are unrelated.
You close with a question: “Are you saying there is no concern over Japanese finances?”
Yes there is concern. The concern is that the recently re-installed Shinzo Abe and his right-wing henchmen will imposed austerity on the Japanese people. That is, they will serve only the financial economy, while they cut government spending to the real economy. This at a time when Japan is still radioactive, and its exports are down because of the global austerity mania.
You should be happy about this. You LOVE austerity.
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I love stability.
I know you will never understand. We have a crisis in the world. Those who were adults between 1940 and 1970 are all gone now. We are now working out way through generations of individuals who lived through the 70s, and 80s.
Go look and see what marked those generations and you will go from heros of war to hippies high on meth. You can probably tell which generation is in charge today.
No concept for reality, no basic understanding of economics, beautiful shades of strawberry fields, happy happy, joy joy.
We will get through these times and reality will return. As we all know 1+1=2 and nothing else. I can scream, shout, jump, stump, and it will always be the same answer. Hopefully, it won’t last long. And thankfully we did not shake hands with the commies, like Germany, who will likely end up having to flatten another European union to cut the cord.
Japan will lead the pack in the crash and you know, but are afraid of backing because you know it. I am as calmed as can be.
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Your last comment also shows how MMTers conviniently dismiss dependency on other countries to support their economy, yet it’s other country’s fault this time. You mean printing won’t help?
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Flash is as wrong as it’s possible to be, unless you are an Austerian (not Austrian, though these two “schools” are closely aligned). Also, he hasn’t explained why the Yen, supposedly over-produced in a supposedly under-performing economy, according to him, is so popular that it is currently the strongest currency in the world, or for that matter, our dollar is so strong too. Come to think of it, on a per capita basis, Japan is a larger economy than China’s and maybe even ours (they have half the population we do). Some stagnation…. We should be so lucky.
It’s the Austerians who will kill the Japanese economy, or ours, if allowed to. BTW, Japan is actually slightly more monetarily sovereign than us, because their citizens invest in the government via the Japan Post Bank, where they can buy bonds, and do. This makes their debt something they owe themselves. We have the Central Bank in that staring role here (when China and others don’t pick up the slack), a less People’s oriented approach.
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