Category: money

–Punish bank executives for being too rich

An alternative to popular faith

         Here is the key sentence from an article by Jackie Calmes, Published: January 11, 2010 in the The New York Times:
        “With popular anger building as big banks show profits and pay sizable bonuses while unemployment remains high, the Obama administration has come under pressure at home and abroad to support a financial transactions tax on institutions and to heavily tax their executive compensation.”
        What an amazing sentence.
         First, consider the popular anger that “big banks show profits . . .” Would the citizenry prefer bank losses caused by bad bank management? What’s the approved size for profits?
         Second, consider the “sizable bonuses.” Banks are businesses. What should they do with profits aside from pay employees and shareholders? Are other businesses held to that standard?
         Third, consider “unemployment remains high.” What is the relationship here? Should banks hire millions of people, to get the employment rate down? Or, should banks engage in less than optimal business strategies, like lending to bad risks, to get the profits down?
         Fourth, consider the “financial transactions tax on institutions.” Get real. Any tax on a business is passed along to its customers. Ultimately, you and I will pay that tax.
         Fifth, consider “heavily tax their executive compensation.” A special tax created just for bank executives? What about a special tax just for Walmart executives? What about a special tax just for executives who live in New York, preferably Long Island?
         Nothing could better demonstrate the financial ignorance of the Obama administration. Or if it’s not ignorance, then it’s worse: pure pandering to populist, class-warfare motives. Oh, it temporarily might make you feel good to “get those rich jerks,” until you realize (if ever) that you are the one getting the shaft.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

-Richard Koo–If you don’t believe me, believe him

An alternative to popular faith
Listen to Richard Koo’s tape at http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/11/richard-koo-great-recessions-lessons-learned-from-japan/comment-page-1/#comment-233008. He says some of what I have been saying for the past 15 years. Federal deficit spending is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth.

I hope our government leaders listen to him, though I doubt they will. They sure haven’t listened to me. The reason: The debt hawks have the nation worried, because they equate federal debt with personal debt. So you hear that your grandchildren will have to pay the debt, and large deficits cause inflation, and surpluses are more prudent than deficits — none of which are true.

So, we struggle with trying to provide universal health care, which the government can and should provide, while debt fear negatively impacts the physical and financial health of millions.

Deficit spending grows the economy and can provide health care, too — and it never needs to be paid back. Never. But Congress, the President and most of the economists simply don’t get it. They don’t even look at our economic history, which repeatedly shows long-term deficit spending is necessary for long-term economic growth.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

–Deficits: The Possible vs. the Certain

An alternative to popular faith

Human beings have difficulty distinguishing threat levels. Despite the absolute fact that airline travel is safer per mile than auto travel, some people drive, even long distances, because they fear the safer air travel more than the dangerous auto travel.

Then think of the people who won’t vaccinate their children against the H1N1 flue, because they fear any unknown, possible adverse effects of vaccination more than they fear the known, deadly effects of the flue.

I was reminded of this human failing when I read an article in which the author claimed the economic recovery was not “real,” because it relied on government funding rather than on private funding. The author seemed to feel government funding was, in some way, artificial – as though we were using saccharine, rather than sugar, to sweeten our coffee.

Of course, money is money, and federal money is indistinguishable in effect from private money. But I suspect the author had something more than artificiality in the back of his mind. He probably understands that the federal government has the unique and unlimited ability to create money from thin air, and repeatedly has proved it never can run out of money. So, what is his concern? He must fear two things: Federal deficit spending might cause inflation and our grandchildren might have to pay for deficits.

As for inflation: Despite current, massive deficit spending we do not now experience an unacceptable level of inflation, and are unlikely to soon. Moreover, in the thirty-five years since we went off the gold standard, large deficits never have caused inflation. Clearly, something is askew with the deficits-cause-inflation hypothesis.

Even if deficits did cause inflation, private spending is identical with public spending; both add money to the economy. So the author should fear the supposed inflationary effects of private and public spending, equally.

As for grandchildren, I am a grandchild of the adults who saw the gigantic deficits of WWII and of President Reagan. Yet, because tax rates have gone down, I never have paid one penny toward those monster deficits. Similarly, if tax rates continue to stay level or decline, as they should, my grandchildren will not pay a penny toward today’s deficits.

What has this to do with the human difficulty distinguishing threat levels? The debt hawks know with certainty, that many millions of people now suffer the devastating effects of unemployment and loss of homes and lifestyle. People are dying, financially, emotionally and yes, even physically.

These same debt hawks believe that at some unknown time in the future, their children, grandchildren or great grandchildren may have to pay some unknown amount toward today’s debt. Yet they fear unknown future damage more than the certainty of today’s. That is why you see people rail against deficits. In essence, they are so afraid they one day may run short of water, they will let a home burn to the ground rather than allowing the fire fighters to save it.

The shame is that many professional economists, who should know better, foster these misguided fears, leading to misguided actions.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com/

–Fool’s gold

An alternative to popular faith

I always am puzzled by the mystical faith in gold.

First, gold has minimal utility. Yes, some is used for jewelry and a bit for dentistry and electronics, but essentially gold is useless. At one time, its value was based on the same faith that supports the dollar bill. Today, its value is based on less faith than that, because the dollar at least, is supported by the U.S. government’s full faith and credit. Gold is backed by nothing.

Second, the Great Depression occurred while we were on a 100% gold standard. Some have argued that was one cause of the Depression. In any event, gold did not prevent that Depression, nor did it prevent any of the prior depressions.

Third, the current recession is being cured by the government’s unlimited ability to pump money into the economy, something that would be impossible if we were on a gold standard or on any other standard based on a physical product or “basket of products” as has been suggested.

Fourth, the U.S. government can control both the supply of, and the demand (interest rates) for, the dollar. That control over supply and demand gives the U.S. complete control over the value of the dollar. The U.S. would have little to no control over the value of gold, a serious problem when trying to control our economy.

In short, gold is one of those commodities, the value of which is based solely on faith. Just as there have been real estate bubbles, stock market bubbles, oil bubbles, tulip bulb bubbles, sugar bubbles, coffee bubbles and diamond bubbles, there have been gold bubbles, the biggest coming in 1980 and perhaps again, today.

Gold Price Chart 75-09
                        Is this the picture of another gold bubble?

The fact that people traditionally have coveted gold is irrelevant to today’s world economy. It also is irrelevant to the future safety of gold, which could disappear with the discovery of, for instance, a massive undersea or antarctic gold vein.

Because gold is supported by no nation, it is less safe than the dollar. Worse yet, it is expensive to own. While saving a dollar will earn you interest, saving gold will cost you for storage, insurance and shipping. In essence it is a wasting asset, the value of which is based on the “greater fool” theory (“A fool buys it because he expects to sell it to a greater fool.”).

We finally went off the gold standard in 1971 for a good reason: A growing economy requires a growing supply of money, and basing money on gold prevents that money growth. Had we stayed on the gold standard, the U.S. today would be bankrupt – unable to pay its bills.

Those who yearn for the good, old, gold standard days, should be careful what they wish for.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com