Hayes: We Are No Longer Able To Tax The Very Rich In Our Country

[Lefty Thinker]

23. Ugh...the credit card

metaphor. I have to speak out against this. In 1971, when Nixon (yes, the Republican) took the US off the gold standard, he changed all the rules in ways most economists refuse to recognize. Because the US government has, since then, had the power to create and destroy US dollars as they see fit there is, in fact, no "credit card"...at least not one you and I would recognize. Yes, with government debt there is an obligation to pay the lender, but with what? With money the government has every right (and sometimes a duty) to create. And, as with anything you can create at will, there is no point in keeping a box/tub/vault full of it -- just destroy whatever you receive and create it again when you want to give it to someone else. (This is, of course, done digitally not with physical bills or coins.)

In reality, Modern Monetary Theory proves that government debt is just a way to put a lower bound on the overnight interbank reserve interest rate; no bank is going to lend money to another bank for a lower rate than that at which they can lend to the government. In fact, the net government spending "financed" by the borrowing actually has to happen first to produce the excess reserves soaked up by the Treasuries. The government is not obligated to borrow in order to net spend at all (see Article II, Section 8 of the Constitution about coining money).

The whole "credit card" metaphor is just as broken as the government finances being run like a "family budget." What family does anyone know that can legally print US dollars? These are just 1%er fallacies to confuse the public into supporting the wrong actions of Congress. That's why I hate them so much.