Money supply

May 15th-19th has been designated “National Infrastructure Week” by the US Chambers of Commerce, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and over 150 affiliates. Their message: “It’s time to rebuild.” Ever since ASCE began issuing its “National Infrastructure Report Card” in 1998, the nation has gotten a dismal grade of D or D+. In the meantime, the estimated cost of fixing its infrastructure has gone up from $1.3 trillion to $4.6 trillion.

Earlier this week, I hooked up for a lunch with George Archer and Jonathan Nitzan, two friends of mine who also had previous stints working at BCA Research. I enjoyed our lunch and conversation. After we met, Jonathan sent me a paper he published along with Shimshon Bichler, “Can Capitalists Afford a Trumped Recovery?”:

During the 2016 US election period, Russia was accorded intense attention. Hillary Clinton took a belligerent stance vis-à-vis Russia, while Donald Trump took a more diplomatic stance.
Trump emerged victorious. Following his inauguration speech a choice became apparent for international relations and the direction a nation may pursue.

Demurrage
Demurrage is part of the wider system called EnMo economics. In this model the main business of the state is ensuring that people have enough of everything they need of essential goods and services. To this end the state ensures that anyone who wants to work is able to do so, helping to provide those essential goods and services.
There are a couple of basic concepts to understand before explaining a little detail about demurrage.

There are two main problems with existing monetary theory. The first is serious, the second is mainly a technical administrative issue.
The first and most serious problem with monetary theory, which is seldom directly addressed, is the fact that money supply is nearly always controlled by a super-rich and powerful minority and, more to the point, is nearly always controlled in such a way that suits the personal interests of the super-rich and powerful – not the interests of society as a whole.

Americans could save $1 trillion over 10 years by financing infrastructure through publicly-owned banks like the one that has long been operating in North Dakota.

It has been called “a bigger risk than Brexit”– the Italian banking crisis that could take down the eurozone. Handwringing officials say “there is no free lunch” and “no magic bullet.” But UK Prof. Richard Werner says the magic bullet is just being ignored.
*****

To stimulate the economy, create new jobs and generate new GDP requires an injection of new money. Borrowing from the bond markets or off-balance-sheet in public/private partnerships won’t do it. If Congress won’t issue money directly, it should borrow from banks, which create money on their books when they make loans.

Recently, I’ve been reading Overthrow Americas Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, a book by veteran New York Times correspondent Stephen Kinzer, which focuses on US-backed coups from 1893 (Hawaii) to Iraq (2003). In the book, Kinzer devotes only fourteen pages to Puerto Rico, a small island nation controlled by the murderous empire of the United States.

The theory of conceptual-commodity-value-management is a theory, which descends right down to the depths and to the core of post-industrial post-modern bourgeois-state-capitalism; i.e., its bourgeois economy and its bourgeois financial institutions. So much so that today, the theory of conceptual-commodity-value-management is foundational, to such a radical extent, that it is the logic by which the central banks of the world’s global financial superpowers function and operate.