Earlier this week, former Barack Obama adviser Larry Summers called Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s spending proposals “dangerous.”
Obama Adviser Summers: Ocasio-Cortez Plan ‘Dangerous’ for US Economy
Summers, who was once the chief economist at the World Bank, told CNBC that advocating to run up the national debt – as Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have – and let the Federal Reserve endlessly monetize the debt by “printing” more money to acquire Treasury securities is not a “realistic calculus.”
He also called “Modern Monetary Theory” (MMT) grotesque:
“It takes ideas that have a little bit of validity and extends them to a grotesque point where they defy the laws of arithmetic. So I believe MMT is very much misguided, the premise that somehow you can always print enough money to cover all of your debts.”
“Countries all over South America have tried it with disastrous results,” added Summers.
Yeah, a country all over North America called the U.S.A. has also tried it with disastrous results. And Larry Summers was one of the economic architects behind the big monetary swindle.
Larry Summers Was a Modern Monetary Theory Pro
Larry Summers really shouldn’t be criticizing AOC, even if her economic plan is “dangerous.” | Source: AFP PHOTO / Paul J. Richards
From January 2009 when Barack Obama was inaugurated onward, Larry Summers was a top economic decision-maker in the Obama administration.
Check out how much funny money that administration borrowed from the Federal Reserve:
The total face value of U.S. Treasury securities held by the Federal Reserve ballooned during the Obama administration. | Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
The results have absolutely been disastrous.
To be clear, we’re doing very well in America and worldwide in 2019, but we could be doing a lot better if the Federal Reserve and Washington politicians hadn’t taken so much from us.
American millennials are notoriously behind their parents. By the time earlier generations were their age, more of them had moved out of their own parents’ house, bought a house of their own, earned higher salaries (in real wages, of course), and had saved more for retirement.
Maybe that’s because over the decade that millennials became adults the Federal Reserve created more money in ten years than it ever has – by far – while the U.S. federal government took more from the economy than ever before.
Millennials must be gullible for loving Obama so much. His record federal deficit-funded trillion dollar stimulus package, the $700 billion Wall Street bailout he voted for, his trillions for the military industrial complex, and especially Obamacare, was just a president grabbing all the money he could get out of millennials’ pockets to give to their grandparents.
Nothing New About Modern Monetary Theory
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is talking about what Washington’s been doing for decades. | Source: Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP
Similarly, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says “Medicare for All” would save you money on healthcare, but what she wants Congress and the Fed to do would sap a massive amount of wealth from the economy and transfer it to Washington bureaucracies and Wall Street financiers.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to max the planet’s credit cards to the absolute hilt to pay for all her bright ideas and let the Federal Reserve continue debasing the USD.
People are calling this Modern Monetary Theory and acting like it’s something new, but AOC is not the first Washington politician in either major party to run up the U.S. national debt.
The Federal Reserve Has Been Monetizing The National Debt for as Long as We Can Remember
For some reason, the press and commentariat are ridiculously enamored of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the most overrated politician in U.S. history.
They’re talking about running up the national debt and selling Treasury securities to the Federal Reserve for trillions of newly-printed greenbacks as if it was her idea.
When you listen to old speeches by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who ran a notoriously-conservative anti-Fed, antiwar campaign for president in 2008 and 2012, Paul refers to this as the Federal Reserve “printing money.”
But they don’t even print most of the new money they create at the Federal Reserve anymore. The U.S. dollar is a digital currency – though not one like Bitcoin.
More dollars exist notionally as amounts recorded on a digital ledger than as super-counterfeit-proofed-and-policed bank notes on green paper.
And you bet cryptography is used to secure this digital information.
The Elitism of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
It’s not fair that the Federal Reserve can simply create money without earning it the way the rest of us do. Nor is it fair that the central bank exercises this extraordinary legal economic privilege to the enormous benefit of an elite industry of Washington bureaucrats and Wall Street bankers.
Although she poses as a socialist reformer looking out for the little guy – like so many politicians have before her – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants the financial apartheid of central banking not only to continue unabated but to increase in the scale of its theft from the economy.
That is really as elitist as you can get.
Yup. If you don’t like the #GreenNewDeal, then come up with your own ambitious, on-scale proposal to address the global climate crisis.
Until then, we’re in charge – and you’re just shouting from the cheap seats. https://t.co/h3KSJhHqDN
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 23, 2019
Look how authoritarian she is.
And she’s already looking down her nose at people for not having as nice a seat as hers.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to, CCN.