I don’t often reproduce replies and commentaries on my postings but I’m doing so here. David Baker has just commented on my INFLATION radio show audio of Nov. 12, succinctly summarizing the show’s key messages and how surging Inflation today fits in the broader economic evolution underway. I couldn’t have said it better, so here it is:
David Baker’s Commentary on ‘INFLATION’ posting of Nov. 12 here:
David Baker
My take away from this post is that we are watching a series of negative feedback systems push the economy further down. The response to the broken supply chain precipitated by covid has created the cover for businesses to price gouge and allowed commodity speculators to gain traction by gaming critical components of the economy such as energy. This in turn produces inflation which diminishes demand which means a further push downward of the economy since the economy is driven primarily by consumer demand. The only way to break this downward spiral is major intervention by the government such as fiscal spending on the level of current monetary spending, say $5 Trillion but Biden clearly has capitulated on his many campaign promises which means he will be a one term President. So the job crisis and climate crisis deepen which in turn means we should start thinking of Biden not simply as a rerun of that has been Jimmy Carter but the end game role of Brezhnev.
Comment by David Baker on ‘INFLATION’ audio posted
November 14, 2021 by jackrasmus
2 Responses
Leave a Reply
Dr. Rasmus on Twitter
Jack’s Weekly Radio Show, ALTERNATIVE VISIONS
NEW BOOK
While the capitalist system has undergone numerous restructurings throughout its history, capitalist elites purpose in restructuring has remained the same: to restore and/or extend their hegemony. The current restructuring, operative since 1978, is called Neoliberalism. The book examines Neoliberalism as both an Idea and an historical practice composed of a particular mix of fiscal-monetary-trade-industrial policies that began with the latest US capitalist restructuring in the late 1970s, continuing to evolve to this day. The book further explains the deeper material forces giving rise to - as well as now undermining - the Neoliberal policy regime, with special focus given to the crisis of Neoliberalism in the wake of the 2008-09 global crash, Obama's failure to resurrect it, and Trump's current doomed effort to restore it in a new, more aggressive form. Evidence why Neoliberalism is destroying US Democracy concludes the book's analysis.
NEW BOOK
Describes how US federal governments, often in cooperation with the largest US private banks, introduced and expanded central banking functions from 1781 through the creation of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Based on an analysis of the evolution of the US banking system - from pre-1781, through the 1787 US Constitutional Convention, Congressional debates on Hamilton's reports to Congress, the rise and fall of the 1st and 2nd Banks of the United States, and through the long period of the National Banking System form 1862-1913, the book shows how central banking in the US evolved out of the private banking system, and how following the financial crash of 1907 big New York banks pushed through Congress the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, creating a central bank which they then managed for their interests.
BOOK
(Click on image) CENTRAL BANKERS is a comprehensive critique of central banks’ policies in the 21st century, explaining why the massive injections of free money to the banking system since the 1970s enabled the creation of excess corporate debt that has led to financial bubbles and repeated crises. The book addresses the growing contradictions of central banking, why they are failing in their functions, targets and tools, and proposes a radical democratization and restructuring to transform them to serve the public interest and not the private banks.
Book:
(Click on image) LOOTING GREECE, A New Financial Imperialism Emerges. This book - Reveals clearly who calls the shots in the Eurozone—the hardliners, not the remnants and political residue of what was once European social democracy, - Follows the negotiations in their excruciating detail as the Troika tightens the screws from 2009 to the present, - Shows how Europe’s financial elite enriches itself on Greek debt, privatizations and financial manipulations, turning Greece into an Economic Protectorate.
Book:
(Click on image): This book offers a new approach to explaining why mainstream economic analyses have repeatedly failed and why fiscal and monetary policies have been incapable of producing a sustained recovery. It explains why the global economy is slowing long term and becoming more unstable, why policies to date have largely failed the trend, and why the next crisis may therefore prove even worse than that of 2008-09.
Book plus DVD and Powerpoint slideshow
(Click on image) Obama's Economy: Recovery for the Few, explains how the weakest and most lopsided economic recovery since 1947 has been the direct outcome of failed economic policies of the Obama administration and US Federal Reserve bank since February 2009. Includes a detailed 'alternative program' in the final chapter. Includes the book, a video DVD presentation, and 66-slide PPT slideshow.
Book
(Click on image) Obama's Economy: Recovery for the Few, explains how the weakest and most lopsided economic recovery since 1947 has been the direct outcome of failed economic policies of the Obama administration and US Federal Reserve bank since February 2009. Includes a detailed 'alternative program' in the final chapter.
Book
(Click on image) A theoretical analysis, with historical case examples, of origins, causes and future evolution of the recent--and continuing--economic crisis in the U.S. and global economy. Includes predictions in 2009 of the inevitable failure of Obama policies and more serious crisis to come, 2013-15.
Book
(Click on image) Seven specific reasons why economic recovery under Obama since 2009 has failed for all but the wealthiest few and largest corporations. The book spells out eight specific areas as an Alternative Economic Recovery Program.
Book
(Click on image) The War At Home: The Corporate Offensive From Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, is a 534 page, extensively researched, nonfiction book that describes the evolution of corporate-government policies from 1980 to 2005 that have shifted more than a $1 trillion dollars a year, every year, from 90 million American middle and working class households to the wealthiest 10% and corporations.
Search
-
Join 439 other subscribers
Jack Rasmus Site: KYKLOS PRODUCTIONS
Dr. Jack Rasmus @drjackrasmus
Jack Rasmus 
I looked at the Job Quality Index (dot com) it shows for Sept. 2021, 102 million nonsupervisory workers average incomes from Sept 2020 to Sept 2021 are up 0.31%, barely moving, CPI adjusted for inflation. But the year before they had risen 8.6%, adjusted for inflation, yet 9 million fewer workers. And I looked at Corporate Profits after Taxes at the Fed’s FRED graphs (St. Louis Fed), shows profits way up for the year, up 37% in 18 months since pre-pandemic Q4 2019. In 2019, Q4, they were 1.963 trillion, then 6 months later dropped by $0.4 tr, then 6 months later up by $0.6 tr., then 6 months later up by $0.47 tr. From Q4 2019 to Q2 2020 they are up 37% in 18 months, to $2.69 tr — from 1.96 tr to 2.69 tr in 18 months. What could be pushing up prices? Not wages, must be commodities. Here’s how I account for it: a surge in consumer spending. Income is hugely unequal — the top earning 8.0% of taxpayers take in 41% of all income (all with incomes above $200,000 with average income of $487,000) says the Joint Committee on Taxation, Overview. And 75% of taxpayers take in 32% of income (all with incomes below $100,000, average income $40,160). When the consumer surge hit consumers with savings cleared the shelves and pumped up prices. The lower income workers had no reserves, in fact they had spent down their reserves; the Robert Wood Johnson Fdtn. survey found in August 2021, just a few months ago, 38% of adults said they had no savings (or liquid assets) up from 19% before the pandemic. Mad, mad world we live in. And, financial assets? In 12 months total “household net worth” says Fed’s Flow of Funds (page 2 and Table B.101) increased by $23.1 tr., from $118 to 141 tr., wealth grew by $23.1 tr, but total personal savings for 12 months was less, $20.4 tr. (BEA.gov, Table 2.1) Since I’m not an economist I may be a little wrong, but having savings increase by more than income is — I’m searching for word — not a good sign, I would say. Mad world literally — angry, crazy, not creating harmony.
Thanks for the excellent post again, Bl8. Especially points re. real wages, income shares, and 100% increase of households without any savings or liquid assets. Btw, the research you bother to do is better than that which most ‘economists’ bother to undertake.