Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Warren Mosler — Border tax comments, Redbook retail sales, International trade, Consumer confidence


Warren presents a simple model of international trade and taxation to illustrate Trumponomics.

The Center of the Universe
Border tax comments, Redbook retail sales, International trade, Consumer confidence
Warren Mosler

5 comments:

mike norman said...

It's probably right to be bearish now, but this guy has been bearish for four years now. I don't know how he ever made the money he made. Must have been his partners. I tried to educate him on flows. He never wanted to hear about it. Stuck with a very simple and bad model--the deficit--never understanding that it a) has nothing to do with the deficit and, b) the deficit is the second derivative of the flows anyhow. I can't believe it. I really can't. He's supposed to be so smart.

Dan Lynch said...

I like Warren but his trade story is messed up.

Warren likes to design & build cars and boats. Many guys do. Using tools to make stuff is in our DNA. Yet all that Warren has to offer the laid-off manufacturing worker is services we’d like to have done as far as the eye can see. What, tending bar? Waiting tables? Does Warren want to tend bar or wait tables?

The service economy is built on inequality -- the lower classes perform services for the upper classes. It's a symptom of an unhealthy society.

what we accomplished is that we are working more to be left with the same amount for ourselves.

So more people would be working and the distribution would be more equitable?. Sounds like a good thing to me.

Warren's story assumes that GDP = well being, but actually equality = well being. GDP does not matter beyond a subsistence level. When manufacturing is outsourced, workers lose and the business class wins. It's class war.

GLH said...

I started reading this article but soon stopped. It is the old bullshit that it doesn't matter if we produce computer chips or potato chips. The man is full of bullchips. Does anyone here really accept the idea that it doesn't matter if we sell trees or build cars? Now I understand why I stopped reading Mosler's blog when he stopped the comments. I guess he couldn't take criticism.

NeilW said...

"Does anyone here really accept the idea that it doesn't matter if we sell trees or build cars?"

Do you accept that everywhere within a country has to build cars. If you don't then you are being inconsistent with your beliefs.

The issue is why does it matter between countries but not within a country. What is so special about the physical borders that changes everything?

The answer is that there is no difference at all. Entities within a country oversave in precisely the same way as those overseas.

GLH said...

Neal Wilson: Your answer has exposed more about you than you know.