The U.S. economy

[geerussell]

Great moments in self defense.

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[geerussell]

A ray of reality-based description of the monetary system breaks into the mainstream media:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45402737

One of the key insights of the MMT school is that government’s that control their own currency do not fund their operations with tax dollars. All government spending is really done with newly created dollars. Dollars collected in taxes are not spent, they are destroyed in order to prevent too many dollars from circulating.

This idea is a bit confusing at first so I’ll expand on it a bit.

Well worth reading the whole thing.

[Uncle Mxy]

A Gallup poll released on Thursday found that, after rising rather steadily for the past two decades, the percentage of Americans who said that the country is divided into “haves” and “have-nots” took the largest drop since the question was asked.

This happened even as the percentage of Americans who grouped themselves under either label stayed relatively constant. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans still see themselves as the haves, while only about a third see themselves as the have-nots. The numbers have been in that range for a decade.

This is the new American delusion. The facts point to a very different reality.

An Associated Press report this week on census data found that “a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.” The report said that the data “depict a middle class that’s shrinking.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/17/op...lity.html?_r=1

[geerussell]

For the holidays: Supply side Jesus

[geerussell]

The next time someone claims that federal debt and deficits are going to raise borrowing costs, ask them to explain how the government can auction $30 billion in debt at zero percent and get enough bids to cover seven times that amount.

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit...20111228_1.pdf

[Uncle Mxy]

Drill baby drill?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...0,366760.story

[Vinny]

[Uncle Mxy]

[Uncle Mxy]

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/...ment-cuts-7-1/

If there were as many people working in government as there were in December 2008, the unemployment rate in April would have been 7.1%, not 8.1%.

[Fool]

Aside from Alaska, do we even want states 1-9 on Vinny's list?