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Buiter: Only "Helicopter Money" Can Save The World From The Next Recession

Tyler Durden's picture




 

It is to be expected that economists – even economists working for the same team – have different views about the likelihood of different future outcomes. Economics isn’t rocket science, and even rockets frequently land in the wrong place or explode in mid-air.

That rather hilarious characterization of the pseudoscience that is economics comes from the desk of Citi’s Chief Economist Willem Buiter and it’s apparently evidence that even if you don’t think too much of his views on “pet rocks” (gold is a 6,000 year-old bubble) or on the efficacy and/or utility of physical banknotes (ban cash), you’d be hard pressed to disagree with him when it comes to critiquing his profession. Of course we don’t want to give Buiter too much credit here because the quote shown above could simply be an attempt to stamp a caveat emptor on his latest prediction in case, like his predictions on when Greece would ultimately leave the euro, it turns out to be wrong. 

As tipped by comments made at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York late last month, Buiter is out with a damning look at the global economy which he says will be drug kicking and screaming into a recession by the turmoil in China and the unfolding chaos in EM. Here’s the call: 

In the Global Economics team, however, we believe that a moderate global recession scenario has become the most likely global macroeconomic scenario for the next two years or so. To clarify further, the most likely scenario, in our view, for the next few years is that global real GDP growth at market exchange rates will decline steadily from here on and reach or fall below 2%.

More specifically, Buiter says the odds of some kind of recession (either mild or terrifying) are 55%. Not 54%, or 56% mind you, but exactly 55%, because as indicated by the introductory excerpt above, economic outcomes are very amenable to precise forecasting:

In our view, the probability of some kind of recession, moderate or severe, is therefore 55%. A global recession of some kind is our modal forecast. A moderate recession is our modal forecast if we decompose recession outcomes into moderate and severe ones and assign separate probabilities to them.

The culprit, as mentioned above, is China (where Citi says real GDP growth is actually somewhere in the neighborhood of 4%) and EMs more broadly which are suffering mightily in the face of sluggish Chinese demand, slumping commodity prices, and, most recently, the devaluation of the yuan:

Should China enter a recession – and with Russia and Brazil already in recession – we believe that many other EMs, already weakened, will follow, driven in part by the effects of China’s downturn on the demand for their exports and, for the commodity exporters, on commodity prices. 

 

The main driver of global underperformance during the past two years has been EM weakness. No EM of any significant size is outperforming our forecasts since the beginning of the year or earlier; most are underperforming. Even the success stories, like India, central and eastern Europe, and to a certain extent Mexico, are not outperforming our forecasts. Brazil and Russia are in recession, and GDP growth there has turned negative. South Africa is in a recession, with output below potential and output growth below potential output growth. The most significant underperformer is China. For reasons explained earlier, we don’t think there is much point in forecasting official GDP growth. We therefore focus on our best guess as to the ‘true’ growth rate of real GDP, which, as noted earlier, is probably somewhere around 4% now.

Evidence of weakness, Buiter continues, is everywhere:

The evidence for a global slowdown is everywhere. Global growth is weakening since 2010 as is evident from Figure 6, which shows global real GDP growth since 1980 at both market and PPP exchange rates, as well as EM and DM real GDP growth at PPP exchange rates. A modest pickup in GDP growth in the DMs since 2012 is swamped by a sharp decline in EM growth. There are other informative indicators of global weakness, notably the very weak – indeed negative - world trade growth in the first half of 2015, the continued weakening of (real) commodity prices, the weakness of the global inflation rate (measured by the GDP deflator), the recent decline in global stock prices, measured by the MSCI ACWI, plus indications that corporate earnings growth is slowing down in most countries, and the unprecedented decline in nominal interest rates, shown in Figure 7 – Figure 11. 

 


And China - the epicenter of it all - is ill-equipped to cope because, as we’ve discussed at length, the country’s many spinning plates have elicited an eye-watering array of conflicting directives and policies which are now tripping over each other at nearly every turn:

The policy response to the weakening of domestic (and external) demand in China is likely to be too little and too late. China is not a command economy or a centrally planned economy – indeed, unlike the former Soviet Union, it never was. Like most real-world economies today, it is a messy market economy of the state-capitalist/crony-capitalist variety, where policy ambitions are not matched with effective policy instruments and where macroeconomic management and financial crisis prevention and mitigation competence are in short supply.

 

The mishandling of the housing boom, bubble and bust, and of the latest stock market boom, bubble and bust together with the recent RMB kerfuffle don’t inspire confidence in the ability of the authorities to prevent a cyclical hard landing for China.

Finally, DM central planners are in no shape to combat the China/EM contagion because - and this will come as no surprise - they are simply out of ammunition having thrown everything in the Keynesian toolbox at their respective economies in the post-crisis years with limited (and swiftly diminishing) returns:

Most advanced economies are, as regards countercyclical policy ammunition, in the position that either they don’t have very much of it or are unwilling and/or unable (because of domestic or external political constraints) to use what ammunition they have.

 

Expansionary monetary policy in the US, the UK, the Eurozone, Japan and most smaller advanced economies is operating in the zone of severely diminishing returns.

As you might have guessed, Buiter thinks there’s only one way out of this: helicopter money.

And not just in the US, but in Europe (against the protestations of what Buiter calls the “Teutonic fringe”) and indeed across all DMs and also in China. 

Helicopter money drops would be the best instrument to tackle a downturn in all DMs. 

In the Eurozone, a significant Teutonic fringe believe that a fiscal stimulus is contractionary and that monetization of public debt and deficits is a sure road to hyperinflation. It is a widely held view that Article 123 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union forbids monetization of public debt and thus makes a helicopter money drop in the Eurozone impossible. Debt-financed (non-monetised) fiscal expansions run into the twin obstacles of an already excessive public debt in most Eurozone member states and the pro-cyclical nature of the constraints imposed by the Stability and Growth Pact and its myriad offspring, operated out of Brussels.

In the US, the fiscal stance is, from a cyclical perspective, not unlike a clock that is halted and points at the right time only twice a day. Fortunately, today is one of these times. Should the country need a fiscal stimulus (or indeed a fiscal contraction), it is in our view highly unlikely that the Congressional gridlock could be overcome sufficiently to do what is necessary when it is necessary. So as regards countercyclical policy, the US, like the Eurozone, has to rely on progressively less effective monetary stimulus alone.

 

The fiscal position of the Japanese sovereign is by far the worst of any large advanced country, despite its large stock of foreign exchange reserves and the positive net foreign investment position of Japan as a whole. Only a permanently monetised fiscal stimulus would be feasible if the markets were to wake from their decades-long slumber and wonder whether, and how, the Japanese sovereign can reach the shores of solvency without inflating its debt away.

 

Fiscal policy can undoubtedly come to the rescue and prevent a recession in China. But what is needed is not another dose of the familiar post-2008 fiscal medicine: heavy-lifting capital expenditure on infrastructure with dubious financial and social returns, and capital expenditure by SOEs that are already struggling with excess capacity, all funded, as if these were commercially viable ventures, through the banking or shadow banking sectors. As regards funding the fiscal stimulus, only the central government has the deep pockets to do this on any significant scale. The first-best would be for the central government to issue bonds to fund this fiscal stimulus and for the PBOC to buy them and either hold them forever or cancel them, with the PBOC monetizing these Treasury bond purchases. Such a ‘helicopter money drop’ is fiscally, financially and macro-economically prudent in current circumstances, with inflation well below target and likely to fall further.

So basically, these central banks which Buiter just admitted are already “operating in the zone of severely diminishing returns,” should not only do more of the same, but a lot more of the same and in fact, they should all dive head first into the Keynesian abyss by simultaneously cranking the knob on their respective printing presses to the max:

We expect to see QE #N, where N could become a large integer, as part of the monetary policy response in the US and the UK, and QEE2 in Japan. The ECB will likely have to continue its asset purchases beyond September 2016 and it may cut its policy rates further. All this will not be enough to prevent most advanced economies from performing worse in 2016 and 2017 than in 2015, and worse than our current forecasts for the next two years.

There you have it. "QE#N where N could become a large integer", and paradoxically, by not normalizing policy when it had the chance, the Fed has now made this inevitable because as we've shown, tightening into an EM FX reserve drawdown will only exacerbate said drawdown making an embarrassing about-face by the FOMC a foregone conclusion. In other words, this is game over. We've entered the monetary Twilight Zone where the only way to keep the increasingly wobbly house of cards standing is to continue to monetize everything that's monetizable and when we hit the limit we must then move to issue more debt for the sole purpose of monetizing it and immediately canceling it.

But as Buiter noted at the outset, these are all just the musings of a pseudo-scientist, who, by the very nature of his profession, is prone to making predictions that, much like the Fed's "liftoff", are just as likely to "explode in mid-air" as not. 

 

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Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:11 | 6525940 venturen
venturen's picture

better breakup the criminal mega banks....and capitialism would work again

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:17 | 6525957 Troy Ounce
Troy Ounce's picture

 

 

Buiter is panicking....hahaha

Everybody knows helicopter money is the last resort...after that it is nuclear war.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:30 | 6525974 Stackers
Stackers's picture

"global real GDP growth at market exchange rates"

WTF does that even mean ? 

 

Had to do some googling on that. Makes sense they would have 2 ways of adding up the same thing ..... when don't they ?

https://priyensavla.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/difference-between-gdp-at-m...


Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:33 | 6526011 negative rates
negative rates's picture

It means politicians are about to face an ugly default.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:35 | 6526017 AE911Truth
AE911Truth's picture

The bankers must repay us; and helicopter money will work.

The "Network of Global Corporate Control" stole "many thousands of trillions" of dollars from us, which amounts to millions of dollars each for every person on the planet.

http://divinecosmos.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lyXi1efbYrk#t=863

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:44 | 6526046 pods
pods's picture

Exactly who is going to borrow all this helicopter money they are going to drop?

Because it won't be dropped unless someone borrows it.

Unless they actually do print raw currency and drop it. Of course, that will implode the money supply like nobody's business and exacerbate the problem.

pods

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:12 | 6526117 exi1ed0ne
exi1ed0ne's picture

No way anyone can borrow it with debt loads past 100% for the developed countries, and under the radar cash creations like currency swaps have to have a transmission mechanism to escape the central banks.  It will have to be helicopter money, but they don't really mean dropping money to the masses or debt forgiveness.  All this is drumming up the case for more QE to dump ever increasing sour loans onto the public books.  Disgusting.

The only way out of the debt money trap is to forgive or explode.  Since they are printing they are opting for the explode hoping they have enough to cushion the fall and stay a bit ahead of the proles.

God damn I want off this planet.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:34 | 6526195 pods
pods's picture

It's enough to drive you mad when you come to grips with it.

There is always the "helicopter" threat too.  Wise posted years ago taught me that it is never going to come.

The problem is debt creation has stopped the exponential rise with people tapped out.  And dropping free money will do the opposite of what they need.

But, they huff and puff that they can do just that, and blow their own heads off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_JOGmXpe5I

"Do what he say, do what he say!"

pods

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:05 | 6526294 Pinto Currency
Pinto Currency's picture

 

Because helicopter money is a wise and successful strategy.

Buiter is a monetary Goebels.

 

On a seperate note, Robert McHugh is calling for a massive equity market crash starting imminently.

4,000+ points as a warmup.

Remember Cramer though.  Don't you dare sell FANG.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:05 | 6526300 Shocker
Shocker's picture

We have throwin money at the problem... hasn't worked

Layoff List: http://www.dailyjobcuts.com

-

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:07 | 6526311 VinceFostersGhost
VinceFostersGhost's picture

 

 

That helicopter never comes over my house......

 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:28 | 6526348 Oh regional Indian
Oh regional Indian's picture

The real fucking problem is that the solution is really simple.

But some folks have managed to segment/divide/gap up society so well that no one is really listening to anyone anymore...

It ought to be easy enough to unite globally against war, social media and all that.

But...

Nuffin...

Bob Marley, No woman, no cry...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGqrvn3q1oo

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:54 | 6526516 WillyGroper
WillyGroper's picture

Yes, ORI...very simple.

Look how many here engage in s/d/g.

Might as well be Hellen Keller.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:05 | 6526299 Uchtdorf
Uchtdorf's picture

Isn't calling the Germans the "Teutonic fringe" the same level of insult as calling the Japanese "kamikaze pilots?" Buiter is butter...on the wrong side of a piece of toast as it hits the dirty, green shag carpet of a "van down by the river."

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:35 | 6526198 Dick Buttkiss
Dick Buttkiss's picture

If it happens, it will be a fiscal drop, not a monetary one, i.e., income and payroll taxes will be cut, thereby increasing take-home pay without printing money.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:04 | 6526288 NihilistZero
NihilistZero's picture

Exactly who is going to borrow all this helicopter money they are going to drop?

THISThe problem with QE is it is just more issuance of debt.  It is not a helicopter drop in any real way so the money only goes to speculative endeavors and never reaches consumers/producers.  The tax and first time home buyer credits of 2009-2011 actually worked rather well.  Their was a notable spike in consumption and with the banks having no choice but to liquidate housing inventory, an orderly and much needed deflation in residential RE was taking place.  Once the GOP congress took over and allowed those credits to expire, housing went from a high volume market that was starting to stabilize to a low volume market of continuing deflation.  Once the FED ramped up the next rounds of QE Congress was gridlocked and all they could buy was government and mortgage debt that was far removed from the mainstream consumer, so inflation ran rampant in everything speculative.

I'm not making value judgements, but the math says the above is exactly what transpired. There is an argument for money creation in the face of the type of capital destruction that was seen in 2008 and the initial response of tax/home buyer credits and infrastructure spending was reasonable.  But almost immediately QE turned into largess for the oligarchy and their sycophants.  The bill for that stupidity is coming due as we speak.

 


Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:24 | 6526375 Joe Sichs Pach
Joe Sichs Pach's picture

The answer is rather simple:

 

.GOV creates the United States Peoples Fund (USPF) for the benefit of the plebs

 

The USPF is then funded by QE X

 

Virtu is tasked with managing the USPF for "aggressive growth"

 

We alls gets checks every Thursday ad infinitum

 

Problem Solved.

 

And we save gas from keeping the helicopters on the ground 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:31 | 6526410 sschu
sschu's picture

a low volume market of continuing deflation.

Perhaps. What we see in Seattle is a real estate market where prices are getting stupid again, houses going for 10% above list with multiple offers, large scale building of fancy condos and million $ developments underway.

So deflation in real estate will take a while here.

sschu

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 14:43 | 6527739 NihilistZero
NihilistZero's picture

I mis-typed.  Should have been low volume market of continuing inflation.  That's what we've had since 2012.

The deflation is coming though...

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:36 | 6526201 ZH Snob
ZH Snob's picture

get your nets ready.  

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:00 | 6526282 2handband
2handband's picture

Dream on. Material wealth == oligarchy. There has never been an exception to the rule. 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:11 | 6525941 Chuck Knoblauch
Chuck Knoblauch's picture

More debt will not save you.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:17 | 6525965 101 years and c...
101 years and counting's picture

its matter not. its what they do.  its all they have. so, get ready for those fiscal tax rebate checks (i expect $2500/family) to start going out in Q4, financed.....i mean money that will be printed by the Fed.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:21 | 6525972 Chuck Knoblauch
Chuck Knoblauch's picture

Enjoy your orgasm, as long as it lasts.

It never lasts long enough.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:57 | 6526073 Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights's picture

$2500? I spent that on my way to work this morning, make it more like $25,000...$2500 stop thinking small, shit a dozen eggs are $3 bucks.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:06 | 6526101 bamawatson
bamawatson's picture

you work? wow, what a novel concept

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:16 | 6526129 Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights's picture

Welfare couldn't  afford me.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:12 | 6525942 Budnacho
Budnacho's picture

So....the economy ISN'T strong?....

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:14 | 6525946 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture

The US has been a recession/depression since the financial crisis of 2008 if you use accurate inflation data such as the Chapwood Index. 

All the new helicopter money will go to the 0.1% - just like the old helicopter money.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:58 | 6526083 Kolchak
Kolchak's picture

And why not, it's designed that way. Love how some "investors" at ZH rag on these tards but wish they were the very tards salivating at wealth. This is why it's (market) collapsing and will not be rebuilt.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:15 | 6525949 Jason T
Jason T's picture

forget helicopter money 

let nature takes its course.  Nature .. have faith in the invisibal hand.  

Just as Keynes said on his death bed,  that he "hoped Adam Smith's invislbe hand could save britain" after all his work on Govt' interfearing. 

 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:23 | 6526155 indygo55
indygo55's picture

And President Wilson on his deathbed said, "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country.

A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit.
Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation,
therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men.
We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely
controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world.
No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by
conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by
the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:14 | 6526330 moonshadow
moonshadow's picture

"no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority". Oh it's still by vote- it's just that 'they' (mostly dems and libs but increasingly repubs also) have learned how to use the sugar cubes and carrots to lead the majority around to do 'their' bidding

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:15 | 6525951 silverer
silverer's picture

The  problem I see with helicopter money is that for most people they will be handing it right back to the banks to pay off debt.  Anyone with half a brain would make paying off debt a priority with "free" money.  Once that's done, any additional money might hit the streets, but very little.  I can't see it working.  Just another kick to the can with the left foot rather than with the right foot.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:21 | 6525977 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

Back to the banks - that is the whole point!

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:23 | 6525983 Global Hunter
Global Hunter's picture

To your point, if our household received free money whatever didn't go towards debt would go towards a one time purchas, re-insulating the house, any leftover would go towards new windows in our house.  The net effect after our one time spend (or two time spend) would be less monthly expenditures on heating. 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:24 | 6525987 NoPension
NoPension's picture

Paying off debt destroys an equal amount of money.
All money is created by a debt instrument, somewhere.

Paying off debt just shifts the instrument .

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:27 | 6526141 exi1ed0ne
exi1ed0ne's picture

That all depends on how the money is brought into existence.  The current mechanism will not work, and it will by necessity have be outright printing "unencumbered money" in order to have any effect.  Reduction of the debt load is the only thing that can save the system as a whole, even though saving it will most likely blow it up.

Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:28 | 6525997 tarsubil
tarsubil's picture

This is what I thought too but this is ZH. Most people here would probably do the smart thing as you said. Most people in the rest of the US? My thought is a lot would spend it on an iPhone or even use it as a down payment to get more in debt. Hard to gauge where the average person is and what the majority would do.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:41 | 6526040 foodstampbarry
foodstampbarry's picture

I'd use mine for hookers and blow.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:48 | 6526245 tarsubil
tarsubil's picture

Yes, some would do the same, others would waste it.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 21:11 | 6529427 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

So, $2500 could be used to purchase around 2Toz of AU.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:20 | 6526143 MachoMan
MachoMan's picture

This is exactly what happened with the economic stimulus act of 2008...  they floated a trial balloon and it lead to an immaterial increase in spending, at best.  Many simply paid down debt.  Following its failure, they just bailed out the banks directly, rather than indirectly through helicopter drops to the general populace.  

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 21:12 | 6529430 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

Most of that "Stimulus" ended up paying down Public Pension debt(s).

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:28 | 6526165 indygo55
indygo55's picture

Of course it will never work. But stupid people will see it as a god send. The debt must be reputiated, defaulted on, removed and cancelled. A system of sound money issued by the Treasury per the contstitution backed by gold and silver should be put in place. Give that 100 years and lets see how that works. 

The nation will become the most prosperous country in the world. But our masters are in control now. Either throw them out or watch our lives be destroyed on the very land out forefathers fought for and died to protect. 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:07 | 6526313 2handband
2handband's picture

Don't believe the propaganda. Your forefathers built an oligarchy. If they saw what it's turned into they wouldn't be appalled... they'd pop a boner.

As for the rest of it, a gold backed currency won't fix shit. We had that in the 1800s... and the men with the money were still running things. 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:50 | 6526485 unitwar
unitwar's picture

Exactly!  Most true comment I have ever seen posted on ZH.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:16 | 6525952 Troy Ounce
Troy Ounce's picture

 

 

.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:15 | 6525953 NoPension
NoPension's picture

Mike Maloney laid the script for this years ago.
He explained it, in a way I could understand.
Explained money creation. Debt=Money creation/destruction.
Deflation. How it destroys debt/screws the mechanisms/ destroys "money".
I don't know if he coined the term, but he says it all ends with a massive "helicopter" drop of money, and then a great unwind.

So far, it's all playing out as he predicted. He doesn't give timelines. TPTB are very good at kicking the can. But, ultimately, it's out of their control.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:34 | 6525955 cowdiddly
cowdiddly's picture

Then how come when I stand in my front yard with my dip net waiting, the only helicopters I see flying around my house are olive drab or black? Im confused.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:22 | 6526154 Scooby Doo
Scooby Doo's picture

They missed my house too. All I ever see is the helicopter that is going to the hospital.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:08 | 6526314 pods
pods's picture

We have Apache Longbows.  I zig zag to get the garbage cans.  

Hey, you never know.

pods

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:16 | 6526339 Miffed Microbio...
Miffed Microbiologist's picture

Watch those pesky power lines. One of them buzzing us looking for weed last year came to an untimely end. Started a damn fire too. I'm sure someone was mightily pissed.

Miffed;-)

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:22 | 6526364 pods
pods's picture

You had it hidden well right?

:)

(cut to Cheech and Chong scene where Cheech is pretend swimming on the ladder in their pool)

pods

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:17 | 6525958 goose3
goose3's picture

QE forever!

 

 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:18 | 6526137 yogibear
yogibear's picture

Already planned. Japan is the Federal Reserve's preview of the US.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:17 | 6525960 konputa
konputa's picture

Helicopter money would definitely get inflation going in the US. And the FSA rejoiced! Cadillac Escalades for everyone!

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:22 | 6525979 d edwards
d edwards's picture

'copter cash-maybe that's the G-20 plan that has all the markets soaring.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:23 | 6526369 cheech_wizard
cheech_wizard's picture

I was thinking along the lines of a Reichswehreid...

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:20 | 6525967 seandoughlas
seandoughlas's picture

With a weakening economy, government expenditures are going to grow, and revenues are going to fall. The only way to balance the budget is to cut current expenditures. Pulling money from a spluttering economy makes things worse, leads to more unemployment, and worsens public finances forcing people to apply for extra loans online. And it cannot prevent a deficit. Is this really what the NDP has in mind?

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:20 | 6525969 Raoul_Luke
Raoul_Luke's picture

This isn't rocket science - more like schoolyard bullying.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:20 | 6525970 NoPension
NoPension's picture

QE, Cash for Clunkers, massive SS disability, unemployment payments, welfare, corporate welfare and subsidies, Military Industrial spending, easy college loans, and the Bush infrastructure program ( can't recall the acronym).

All forms of helicopter money.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:23 | 6525985 Usurious
Usurious's picture

exactly.........all functions of a nearly dead debt-money system.........

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:29 | 6526001 NoPension
NoPension's picture

Mathematics matters.

I think we are in the handle of the hockey stick.

I remember searching for information. And all the tutorials showed a graph of the exponential function. It would be dscribed as " here is what happens, in the future, if we don't change course". Then that graph goes straight up.

I think we are close to the future.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:04 | 6526091 MSimon
MSimon's picture

Any small segment of an exponential looks linear. Doubling every 10 years? Fine. Doubling every 5 years? Not too bad until we get to doubling every day. Holy shit.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:15 | 6526335 The Wampum
The Wampum's picture

Humans have a tough time comprehending the exponential function.  

You can't taper a PONZI scheme.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:20 | 6525971 Batman11
Batman11's picture

The Euro-zone can always change the rules.

Imagine a referendum asking "Do you want free money?"

I am sure it would go through without a hitch.

 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:37 | 6526029 Global Hunter
Global Hunter's picture

hell if they get a no vote the politicians will just do what they want anyway or declare the vote "invalid".

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:23 | 6525982 atthelake
atthelake's picture

A gradual crash as opposed to a flash crash.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:24 | 6525988 antiximik_RU
antiximik_RU's picture

I vote for Quasipermanent Easing everywhere!!

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:27 | 6525992 madcows
madcows's picture

So, TARP and QEn and MBS purchases weren't helicopter money?

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:32 | 6526009 cpnscarlet
cpnscarlet's picture

Yes - for the banks that were holding TOXIC instruments of financial destruction. Now they're ticking away in the Fed's vault.

Helicopter money for the masses bypasses the FED's  friends. That's why they don't like it.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:33 | 6525999 gmak
gmak's picture

Right. LIke money raining from the nether regions of hell will somehow increase production of goods and services.  We are what we produce. If most of us are sitting on our collective @sses getting disability and food stamps and god-knows-what-else with no incentive to work, then those individuals can only consume and not produce.

Eventually, those producing will stop doing so because they are being "A-shrugged" by the drones. It won't matter to the 1% because they will have all the good assets anyway. then, it is just biding time, finding ways to limit population growth and their freedoms until the level of great-unwashed in the world is where they can be handled by hired thugs and automated protection.  Just need to solve that pesky robot farming and clean water source issue first and then the great unwashed can just implode. (reality projection or script for a sci-fi movie. *shrug*)

 

If you pick up that money, then the real terrorists have won.  (as if it's needed -> rolls eyes)

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:11 | 6526113 MSimon
MSimon's picture

Our current problem is overproduction. Mexicans/Syrians/etc. on welfare help with that problem.

 

Go back and look at farm labor/production from 1900 to 1940. The same thing is happening to industrial production.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:29 | 6526000 rwe2late
rwe2late's picture

 It is Obamanomics

working not just the "recovery" miracle in the USA,

but a same "recovery" miracle for the world!

 

I sense another Nobel prize soon,

next time in economics.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:29 | 6526002 Gothic Optimism
Gothic Optimism's picture

Haven't seen any helicopters in my area yet.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:35 | 6526012 Michigander
Michigander's picture

I have and they ain't dropping money. They are practicing low altiltiude flight maneuvers so they can easily pop a cap in our ass whent the time is right.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:03 | 6526292 J Jason Djfmam
J Jason Djfmam's picture

Project arclight?

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:37 | 6526014 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

LOL, money otta thin air, you dick heads still don't get it. there is no debt, just understand there is no debt.

the game of who gets the fiat first has resulted in mega wealth transfers to the elite.

debt is just a number in some .gov book, folks it's as real as the fiat backing it.

all the qe in both usa and eu, went to the .1% and to refresh international banks balance sheets ..2008 saw record bonus money on wall st.

pay off student debt, forgive consumer loans, and get money to small business has yet to be done, but that may not make for profits for the mega rich,

all those insolvent banks and ins co's should have gone under. they got saved the common man got zilch. er I mean zirp..gandpa got screwed.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:36 | 6526026 GFORCE
GFORCE's picture

Could you imagine this horrible, consumer-junkie economy going wild with helicopter money? A desperate short fix. Extend and pretend once more.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:38 | 6526031 fromthinair
fromthinair's picture

sorry to break the heart of the author. Economics is not a pseudoscience. It is the simplest science of all, only the most difficult to believe. People with vested interests will keep it a pseudoscience as long as it they can. One day everyone will realize the folly.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:54 | 6526512 Flankspeed60
Flankspeed60's picture

Disagree. Mathematics and physics are sciences. All the participants basically agree upon the rules, proofs and methodologies. No one has to vote on whether 2+2=4. Disagreements are relatively rare and confined by comparison.

Economics, like psychology, are not sciences. Entire schools spring up with irreconcilable differences. Truth becomes fiat - it is whatever the current fashion and those in power deem it to be. Defending the 'discipline' as a science is understandable among its practioners, considering the expense of acquiring a degree and accumulating bonafides. Nonetheless, in the rational world, considering economics to be 'science' is delusional.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:38 | 6526032 AE911Truth
AE911Truth's picture

The bankers must repay us; and helicopter money do the job.

The "Network of Global Corporate Control" stole "many thousands of trillions" of dollars from us, which amounts to millions of dollars each for every person on the planet.

http://divinecosmos.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lyXi1efbYrk#t=863

Then turn in your worthless helicopter script for real money.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:37 | 6526086 rwe2late
rwe2late's picture

 The banksters never actually

"stole many thousands of trillions".

What they did do was to create trillions of debt based on trillions of imagined monopoly money,

which they in turn used to monopolize their ownership of land, resources,

and political power.

That purportedly makes the rest of us and our descendants

into debt slaves for eternity,

paying off the imagined worth of the banksters' imaginary debts

of monopoly money.

 

 

 

 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 18:25 | 6528911 AE911Truth
AE911Truth's picture

They issued "many thousands of trillions" of these:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41001366/JP_Morgan_Gold_Certificate.jpg

... then refused to redeem them.

Looks like theft to me.

 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:47 | 6526054 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

If govenments worldwide had engaged Quantitative Easing in massive amounts early on in 2008, they may have had a chance at recovery, but they decided to fuck-the-pooch instead. Moreover, Buiter is living in a pseudoscientific fantasy land if he thinks a similar plan will work now.

The only solution that I can see is to fork over my $30 trillion in physical gold bullion before the entire superstructure disintegrates completely and the 1% finds themselves onboard Extraordinary Rendition Airlines for their next island getaway permanent stay-cation.

 

Pay Up, motherfuckers!

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:48 | 6526246 commoncourtesy
commoncourtesy's picture

The world seems to be getting smaller. I doubt there is any island left unscathed for the SYSTEM rats to run to for safety. I guess that is why they have built deep, underground bunkers and are desperate to get to Mars.

I had a dream... ALL banking computers were 'systematically' disabled and all back-up systems across the globe were automatically deleted. Global debts and banked fortunes were all wiped clear (except mine, I had already diverted my very limited wealth elsewhere). Peace on earth ensued. A new beginning evolved. A system was created for all real, living and breathing human beings to share in equally without corporate control. No Lawyers, no Bankers, no Governments.

Then I woke-up and remembered I am supposed to be a dead, fictitious, ALL CAPS entity to fully function in the current commercial system, run by corrupt, lying, evil toe-rags.    

By the way, I refuse to go paperless! just in case things are easily wiped out. 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:48 | 6526056 Batman11
Batman11's picture

There is an inherent trickle up in the current system that allows the rich to take from the poor:

a) Those with excess capital invest it and collect interest, dividends and rent.

b) Those with insufficient capital borrow money and pay interest and rent.

This is the mechanism within Capitalism that looks after the idle rich.

The Duke of Westminster can inherit a vast fortune, get an investment banker to invest it wisely, live a life of luxury and leisure and leave an even greater fortune to the next generation, all thanks to Capitalism itself with no work whatsoever.

Capitalism is the benefit system of the wealthy.

To combat the massive trickle up inherent within Capitalism you need the following:

1) Those at the bottom have to be paid enough to keep the whole food chain above going.

2) There is a redistribution from the rich to the poor via taxes.

3) Helicopter money fed in at the bottom.

With none of the above currently sufficient to curb the trickle up, the system is dying through lack of demand.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:32 | 6526186 Beam Me Up Scotty
Beam Me Up Scotty's picture

We don't have a capitalist system. Get that through your thick skull.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:54 | 6526261 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

I have been away from the green suit place for a while, but doesn't that Dukey guy hail from Windsor?

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:51 | 6526061 Zwelgje
Zwelgje's picture

Why clean toilets when money falls out of the air? Literally or figuratively. 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:43 | 6526437 J Jason Djfmam
J Jason Djfmam's picture

They should just refund all of the income tax we have ever paid. All of it.

Start with me. ... It's what all of you are thinking.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 18:38 | 6528962 AE911Truth
AE911Truth's picture

Plus every penny we ever paid for any form of energy, and its embedded price in everything we have ever purchased, from food to housing...

...'cause they stole cheap clean energy from us too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lyXi1efbYrk#t=863

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:52 | 6526065 All is chosen
All is chosen's picture

OK - the allocation details are slowly coming in:

1) The 'money' has to be spent on 'stuff' & not debt payment, (even if that kind of debt is a fiction).

2) She/he/it who gets the most will be she/he/it who promises to buy the fastest depreciating crap of all.

... checks yacht values when one week old ....

3) ....... wait

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:55 | 6526068 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Whatever goes on the helocopters should come directly out of the coffers of the Banksters.

That might have the double effect:

1) Enabling the FSA to a larger % of the population

2) Taking the banksters down a notch and return them to their earlier role of making loans rather than investment speculators.  Personally, I think they should all be broken into single state banks and CUs, but that is a different post.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 08:57 | 6526077 skipjack
skipjack's picture

People ar slowly but surely waking up to the fact that paying taxes is a mug's game when they can just print/issue/hide debt at will. A shell game, in fact.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:11 | 6526110 madcows
madcows's picture

If the People will not borrow, We'll borrow for them!

I think for Christmas this year I'll buy a bunch of shit for the kids that they don't want, and also give them the visa bill, and say, "This is how your government works. This is how they think they'll make things much much much better-er."

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:13 | 6526120 madcows
madcows's picture

Seriously, is this not just another scheme for the corporate elite / politician-purchasers?

Borrow money from the FED, hand money to proles, force proles to spend money on shit, hand bill to prole's children.  Bankers make out.  Corpratists make out.  Proles get shafted.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:19 | 6526140 ramgold2206
ramgold2206's picture

@madcows... that pretty much sums it up....

 

www.teamramgold.com/about-us

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:29 | 6526128 ramgold2206
ramgold2206's picture

"Helicopter money" is a tool way down at the bottom of the current financial engineers tool box and its akin to putting in a panel pin with a 14lb sledge hammer..its going to wreck more than it fixes but its all that they have left...

Will it happen? If you're in paper only you better pray it doesn't. If your debt financed hard assets, it may help in the short term but ultimately will have the same effect to rob you blind.  

 

In Ireland, we had a government based savings programme in the early noughties called the SSIA (helicopter money). Essentially for every 4 euros saved per month the .gov topped it up with another euro over a 5 year term. These began to mature around 2005/06 and it provided the fuel to the afterburner of the Celtic tiger ... and boy did we love it!!  the price of everything, particularly property went hypersonic and everyone (bar a few prudes) jumped on board... great life for 2 or 3 years... the rest is history. We gained €5k from .gov and lost €500k to .bank

 

so be careful of black hawks bearing gifts...

 

 

www.teamramgold.com/about-us

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:18 | 6526136 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

Anything less than $50,000 don't even bother gasing up the helicopter. 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 19:09 | 6529087 AE911Truth
AE911Truth's picture

... or $3,000.00 per month for life for everyone... solves the extreme poverty problem with clean water, food, energy and health care for the poor. The rich won't even notice.

The economy would have fuel to run.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:19 | 6526139 Lio
Lio's picture

Economics is not pseudoscience. There is only good economics (economists) and bad economics (economists). 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:43 | 6526231 withglee
withglee's picture

There is only good economics (economists) and bad economics (economists).

Name a good one!

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:35 | 6526417 Spiritof42
Spiritof42's picture

Name a good one!

Mises, Rothbard, Hayek to name a few. If you haven't heard of them, this is a good time to visit mises.org. They've been ignored by the mainstream BECAUSE they are good.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:25 | 6526161 brushhog
brushhog's picture

Funny how those helicopters only fly over the wealthiest corporate headquaters.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:50 | 6526256 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

It's all good because companies are people too.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:38 | 6526210 withglee
withglee's picture

Helicopter money drops would be the best instrument to tackle a downturn in all DMs.

It's not even a solution, let alone the best one.

Dummheit überall

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:26 | 6526381 ZIRPY
ZIRPY's picture

It's no more a solution that QE's 1 thru 3, but it is the logical conclusion to all of this money printing insanity. Low interest rates results in more borrowed money used to speculate in stocks and commodities; checks made directly to the peasants means more money in the real economy, even if it does add to the price of drugs and hookers along with everything else.

When it happens, and I'm confident it will, you can rest assure that the end of the dollar is near.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 09:46 | 6526221 savagegoose
savagegoose's picture

when the USD is around for 6000 years come back and draw your comparisons  to gold for bubbles. how many  years do we have to wait, only 5950 years.

 

oh and on helicopter drops, DROP it on the lowest %50 of income earners, and see if that boosts the economy. cant be any worse than the last 7 years of money drops into bankers pockets.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:08 | 6526310 ThrowAwayYourTV
ThrowAwayYourTV's picture

The average american cant make enough money working their new waitress of bartender job to pay the huge cost of living so Yes, the fed will have to give money away, just to get paid back.

The greedy bastards shot themseves in the foot so their new way out is to shoot themselves in the other foot.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:24 | 6526320 RopeADope
RopeADope's picture

Yes Buiter, because everyone knows when you create anti-property and mix it with property something wonderful happens.

Wait, you economists have not even designed a proper reaction chamber?

To think I thought humans were advanced or something with all their talk of helicopter money.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:15 | 6526329 khakuda
khakuda's picture

I hate these economists.  I know it is heresy to say it, but recessions are actually great and shouldn't be avoided.  They are an important part of a free market system.  Humans make real progress during times of adversity.  Having been been unemployed and poor, there is nothing like adversity and scarce resources to get the creative juices flowing and get someone motivated.  Fat, ingorant and comfortable are over rated.  No one said life had to be fun and easy all the time and the hard times can ultimately set one up for much better times.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:43 | 6526423 Tinky
Tinky's picture

You are absolutely correct, and it is an important point that is predictably missed by those who also believe – ignorantly – that illnesses are "bad". Illnesses are symptoms, and very valuable educational tools. Those who know their bodies and understand this choose to learn from them and try to find and address the causes, rather than seeking symptom relief (e.g. morphine, QE, etc.).

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:21 | 6526357 Flankspeed60
Flankspeed60's picture

What I find so remarkable is the stampeding, condescending, self-righteous hubris of these cretins. He refers to skeptical Germans as the “Teutonic fringe,” as though they had no experience or history to draw from with regard to debt and hyperinflation. Their ideology never wavers, mountains of evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. Why is it that Austrian School alumnae abound, but seemingly never in positions of power?

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:25 | 6526379 GRDguy
GRDguy's picture

Funny that when liars are caught lying, they just lie some more. Don't do business with them, or get snake bit again.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:26 | 6526391 Panafrican Funk...
Panafrican Funktron Robot's picture

Funny how he called for a recession, but then in the same breath indicated a slightly less than 2%-ish global GDP growth rate.  So, is sub-2% growth now considered a recession?  Stupid fucking economists can't even get their definitions straight.  

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 11:19 | 6526667 RopeADope
RopeADope's picture

The problem with manipulated GDP growth rates is when you want your free sacks of money you have to point at the rate and say, "If you take away all of our fudging there is really a recession there"

Boy...wolf...crying...free...money...not...appearing...

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:31 | 6526405 moneybots
moneybots's picture
Buiter: Only "Helicopter Money" Can Save The World From The Next Recession

 

That is a flat out lie.

Math says that no one can prevent the final collapse of a debt fueled boom.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:33 | 6526414 moneybots
moneybots's picture

Buiter should take a look at Venezuela.  Helicopter money doesn't work.  Venezuela is collapsing.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:31 | 6526408 Gab Timov
Gab Timov's picture

Give me some funny money. Don't give it to the banks this time.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:36 | 6526415 fowlerja
fowlerja's picture

Dropping money from a helicopter is too messy, uses too much aviation fuel, with so many helicopters in the air...they would probably crash into each other, and people would get back problems, probably fights would break out, printing presses would probably break under the strain of 24 hour operation, then you need to figure out whether to drop $100 bills or some other denomination, yep...too many problems...better way is to just cancel all debts in the world and just start over...

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:48 | 6526473 Jethro
Jethro's picture

And relinquish control? Perish the thought....

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:34 | 6526416 Debugas
Debugas's picture

why would anyone continue to go to work if government would drop funny money on everybody ?

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:47 | 6526466 Jethro
Jethro's picture

Because about 25% of the total population would be out of money again in 6 months, quite possibly less.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:56 | 6526528 Vlad the Inhaler
Vlad the Inhaler's picture

Here's a brilliant idea.  You give people helicopter money in exchange for working.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:43 | 6526449 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

Since when is the Feds job to prevent any further recession?

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:46 | 6526462 Jethro
Jethro's picture

No mention of a cash distribution to the public (possibly for fear of at least a portion of the population paying off their debts), but instead to the banks once again---because they did such a great job in the last several fiscal schemes. Fucking brilliant. Economics PHD degrees should be randomly placed in Cracker Jacks boxes.

Imagine a cash disbursement to the general public. You'd never see such a clear cultural delineation. First hint of such an occurrence might tempt me to buy stock in whatever entities own FUBU, Popeyes, Cadillac, donk rims manufacturers and KOOL. I'd sell everything in under six months.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:50 | 6526482 J Jason Djfmam
J Jason Djfmam's picture

This is where an income tax refund may be a little more better.

Never had an income? No helo money.

Made all your money in stocks? No Helo money.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:49 | 6526475 Nobody For President
Nobody For President's picture

+1000 for 'Tutonic Fringe'

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:49 | 6526476 outlaw.guru
outlaw.guru's picture

I actualy believe that helicopter money would save the day. Of course it depends on the exact mechanism used.

The mechanism where this money is created by the treasury, debt free money, would erase much of the debt making it manageble. Imagine all those debts which require further credit expansion to be payed off, actualy being paid off with debt free money. It is almost a system reset.

Also the dilution of money, although not good due to possible hyperinflation and definetly not good for savers, would create more equality. This in turn allows the trickle up wealth to resume a steadier path where the pyramid of trickle up is not as skewed (due to QE) as today causing the falls in P/E (QE again). Savers on the other side shouldn't fare too bad unless they have millions in their safes as helicopter money would cover most of the losses of middle and low class. At equal distribution $20k wouldn't mean anything to Warren Buffets and Blankfeins. These guys would worry about inflation eating their stocks, but not real assets like Heinz or their gold stashes.

And then the world. USD losing value would not affect US imports for a while due to helicopter money. USD losing value would cause a debt reset for many economies as well as most world debt is in USD. For one Brazil and Argenitna would jump back on the world stage. Price of commodities would go up.

Sustainability at last. Would USD lose its reserve currency status? Possibly, but that will happen either way down the road. However it would not happen instantly. Let's say for every round of helicopter money, FED increases the rates by 1%. With reserve currency status and a few tens of trillions of USD around the world the inflation effects should be modest for a while. The money will circulate the economy thereby increasing money velocity. One of the issues could be that many would want to cash out with only 1.2 tr USD in circulation. But as many are in debt, a large part of this money could go to repaying auto loans and mortgages. Maybe even student debt (not really :D). And money can always be printed or issued in higher denominations.

I do not believe that money printing brings prosperity. However I do believe that greater equality brings more health to capitalism, reseting the capitalism age from old to young. Market crash creative destruction may bring it on as well, but only if the governments don't interfere which just does not happen in old capitalism system. Another issue with creative destruction after so much market distortion is that it would take time to unwind everything causing much pain in the process. Maybe even revolutions. I would prefer the last can kick, simply because I believe it would unwind many positions allowing for an easier creative destruction along the path.

 

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 10:54 | 6526518 Vlad the Inhaler
Vlad the Inhaler's picture

Helicopter money is what should have happened in the first place instead of QE.  When your car won't start, you need to jump start the battery, not pour 500 gallons of gas into the tank.  Who will borrow the money?  Nobody needs to borrow the money, you create government works projects like fixing our crumbling infrastructure, and it goes directly into the consumer's pocket, then into business's pockets, and also back to the treasury in the form of taxes that can be used to pay down the debt.  And at the same time reduces the need for welfare, improves our infrastructure, and gives regular people confidence.  Yes government spending is not a good thing in the long run, and the size of government needs to be reduced not expanded.  But in the short term, creating government sponsored jobs beats the heck out of printing money for the 1%.  Why has this not happened?  Partly due to the crony capitalists, but partly due to a certain group of crotchety obstructionists who continue to vote against their own self interest.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 11:03 | 6526579 Spiritof42
Spiritof42's picture

Economic collapses have the same root cause. The more government tries to manage a market economy, the more they mismanage it. Government is not the cure; it is the disease. History repeats because governments cannot be reformed.

These economists with academic degrees are paid shills on par with theologians. Politics is better seen as a secular religion.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 11:22 | 6526682 Bunga Bunga
Bunga Bunga's picture

"Economics isn’t rocket science", but ironically economists are always wrong.

Wed, 09/09/2015 - 11:36 | 6526741 RabbitOne
RabbitOne's picture

After years of these articles we are all burnt out with the financial systems elite and their constant system “fixes”. I know the money elite will pump printed money as fast as they can to keep the crooked world system alive.

 What I would like to read are intelligent articles that outline the possible types of future black swans. These articles should include how to trade or avoid, if possible, their calamities… 

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