3 ms·
>Steve Keen outlines our best hope, a modern debt jubilee, here: >http://www.profstevekeen.com/modern-debt-jubilee/ http://www.profstevekeen.com/modern-debt-ju
by treis 6y ago
>Steve Keen outlines our best hope, a modern debt jubilee, here:
>http://www.profstevekeen.com/modern-debt-jubilee/ http://www.profstevekeen.com/modern-debt-jubilee/
This doesn't really make sense. If you force me to pay down debt and I want cash then I'm just going to take out more debt.
Low interest rates or high debt aren't really the fundamental problem. The problem is a concentration of cash/wealth. Adam Neumann is a billionaire because he convinced some morons in Japan to give his company 10s of billions of Saudi money. But an average Joe would be laughed out of a bank if they asked for 10s of thousands to start a business.
If we are worried about a deflationary spiral the solution is simple. Give everyone money.
- recursivedoubts 6y ago> If we are worried about a deflationary spiral the solution is simple. Give everyone money. Yeah, you might want to spend a bit more time thinking and reading about it. Keen has been ignored and mocked by the economics establishment, but he's the only guy I know who takes debt seriously and has developed computer models for dealing with the natural instability of exponential growth in it (Krugman famously has said "we owe it to ourselves"). You need to bring the total debt load down, to bring the absolute payment load down to a sustainable level and handle the exponent in debt growth. Giving everyone money without forcing them to pay down debt doesn't accomplish that, it's a linear response to an exponential problem. There's a reason debt jubilees were built into most pre-modern societies.
- treis 6y ago> bring the total debt load down You saw the part where I said people would just take out new debt, right? You can't force people to lower their debt load unless you also prevent them from taking out more debt.
- recursivedoubts 6y agoI would again suggest reading and thinking about Keens much more extensive treatment of the topic. We aren't going to make much progress here.