Wednesday, March 25, 2020

One small step for economic recovery, avoiding one giant leap toward Putinism

One small step for economic recovery, avoiding one giant leap toward Putinism
This is not a Putin economy. It is a Brezhnev economy. Money is not a real thing. It is a social construct used to exchange labor. When no one can or will work real jobs, they work on side jobs under the table. This causes the official economy to break down, leading to inflation and shortages. It is why I can get food, but not delivery. To get anything done, you have to know someone and pay a premium for their services

The stimulus currently being passed will go to pay bills. It will not be able to buy labor. Households will be able to pay their rent and credit card bills. Unemployment will be used to buy food. Mnuchin and his friends made their bones flipping these properties, which were then securitized. To really understand Mnuchin and his cronies did it, read Homewreckers by Aaron Glantz.

The reason the bailout got done is that the demand to have the Fed distribute loans (it was longer Mnuchin) is that they issued credit and started buying mortgage backed (and probably credit card) debt securities. To understand why central banks issuing credit does nothing for Main Street, read Collusion by Nomi Prins.

 We must learn from Obama's mistakes and have the Fed forgive the credit card debt (eliminating the money) and writing down the mortgage debt if sold to the renters or the prior residential owners or their heirs (not flippers). This also destroys the money. Keeping that money in the finance sector as monopoly money is harmless. Letting it circulate in the real economy is hyperinflation.

Trump is right. We cannot stay idle. Those who won't get sick or who will recover (almost all workers) should go back to work. Isolate those who are likely to die, give them pneumonia shots and only let them have contact with people who have gotten sick and recovered. Trump may babble like an old man, but he understands the risks and benefits of inflation. It may be the entire sum of his useful knowledge.

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