New Economic Perspectives

By L. Randall Wray In Part Three I argued that the government issues currency as its liability and imposes tax liabilities on its subjects/citizens that can be paid in that currency. When taxes are paid, both the government and its taxpayers are “redeemed”. I cited Innes’s argument that the universal law of credit is that the issuer of a debt must take it back. This is the fundamental notion behind redemption of debts. To be sure, debt is much older than money. No human has ever...

Treasury and Central Bank Interactions This post concludes our study of central banking matters (there would be a lot more to cover…maybe another time). The post studies how the Fed is involved in fiscal operations and how the U.S. Treasury is involved in monetary-policy operations. The extensive interaction between these two branches of the U.S. government is necessary for fiscal and monetary policies to work properly. Once again the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve provides a simple...

Sorry that it has taken me a while to get back to my multi-part series on debt-free money. This is the third part of the current series, although I had previously written several other blogs on the related topics of debt-free money, positive money, and 100% money. See links at the bottom. This post will focus on the concept of “redemption” as the most fundamental requirement of indebtedness. This seems to confuse readers. For example, Eric Lonergan calls this a “fantastic linguistic...

William K. Black February 12, 2016     Bloomington, MN The Bank Whistleblowers United announce the inaugural Financial Fraud Lemons of the Week award.  There can be no more fitting recipient than the ironically named Department of Justice (DOJ).  The “lemon” is used in the economics and criminology literature to refer to a car of surpassingly terrible quality.  The quality is so bad that the car can only be sold through fraud.  We will award it each week to an example of dishonesty or...

The New York Times has taken notice of Bank Whistleblowers United (BWU). You can read it here. [Translate]

William K. Black February 10, 2016     Bloomington, MN I am writing as one of the four founding members of Bank Whistleblowers United.  We came together recently to create a detailed plan that could restore the rule of law to Wall Street and dramatically reduce the risk and damage of future financial crises.  We crafted it so that it could be implemented without any new legislation or regulation.  We offered our aid in the implementation process to any candidate who wins the election – and...

Bill appeared on CCTV America discussing the American economy with Rachelle Akuffo. You can view it here. [Translate]

Randy Wray and Bill Black appear on “Clearing the Fog.” You can listen to the podcast here. Bill, of the newly formed Bank Whistleblowers United, speaks about the plan they have outlined to instill the rule of law on Wall Street and end fraud with the hope of mitigating the effects of the next financial crisis. Randy, an expert in financial instability and macroeconomics, speaks about alternatives to the current financial system that would bring greater stability. [Translate]

Bill Black reviews the highlights and holes of the film The Big Short in 2 parts on The Real News. You can view part 1 here and part 2 is here. Both have transcripts. “Any request for loan level tapes is TOTALLY UNREASONABLE!!! Most investors don’t have it and can’t provide it. [W]e MUST produce a credit estimate. It is your responsibility to provide those credit estimates and your responsibility to devise some method for doing so.” [S&P 2001] [emphasis in original] [Translate]

William K. Black February 8, 2016     Bloomington, MN This is second article in my series on the AEI and Brookings report on how to fight poverty.  In my first article I dealt with their plan to oppose any material increase in the minimum wage being hyped by Eduardo Porter in the New York Times as a “bipartisan” plan to “champion an increase in the minimum wage.”  Indeed, Michael Strain, an AEI member of the group continues to attack the minimum wage on the AEI web pages after the release...