RE: Three Extremely Important Taboo Questions (And The Answers)
I downloaded Mosler thanks - not perused it all, but an entertaining read indeed, confirming especially my perception that, with rare exception, economists at large suffer a fatal disconnect from reality.
And where I stand now, I am not even vaguely interested in finding remedies for any of the ailments of the current economic model - it is fundamentally flawed, not only in terms of the misconceptions you bring to our attention, but in terms of its premises, and needs to be replaced in toto.
Forgive me for being so brief, but I need to get some sleep. I agree with you 100% that the world needs everything but austerity - and with all else you say in conclusion. Maybe pressing a magic reset button can give the current system a new life, that could deliver prosperity for a while, but in the end the same ailments are likely to set in as before - also compounding the irreparable damage already done to the world in the previous cycle.
Hope we can work out something sensible here!
Plenty of sensible things in your comment. Hitting the reset button might work, but it might be easier to point out to the status quo how the system they have right now could work if they used it properly and educated them on the things that used to be done that worked before. Mentioning a reset button would scare the knickers off of them.
The only reason I say this is because I talk to economists who work for government departments, etc., and they become terrified as soon as you mention policy. That's why I focus on talking about the mechanics.
Thanks for the acknowledgement. In the current South African scenario talking sense to government simply has no effect for two major reasons - too much at stake for the ones in power positions and too little understood by everyone.
We have had two Ministers of Finance attempting to curb corruption swapped out within months by a corrupt government. Re-educating intelligent economists is challenging enough. Getting their influence behind the doors of parliament may require a bloody revolution.
Is it much different elsewhere?
South Africa has a very interesting employment guarantee program, so I commend the government for trying to address the issue of unemployment.
Here in Australia, our politicians make their corruption so plain that they publicly request industries whose lobbyists fund them to remember how so-and-so helped them. The public simply turn a blind eye.
Fascist government capture has become more visible lately, with the president and his cronies being exposed to be extensively involved with a Gupta-McKinsey alliance, the latter association apparently featuring internationally from the early '90s, starting in India and somewhere in-between having a showdown in American courts as well. They seem to have a taste for taking control of energy resources.