Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It

I know that time is short between now and April 28th. But nevertheless, I propose that we organize a counter Fiscal Summit “Teach-in” Conference in Washington DC, on that day. Such a “teach-in,” depending on how many people we could get to attend, could steal media attention from the Peterson-sponsored event, and introduce an opposing narrative to the ones coming out of the deficit hawk events on the 27th and 28th. To have such a Conference would take money. Speaker expenses would have to paid, as would hotel expenses if it were possible to get a hotel site at this late date. On the other hand, it would not be hard to think of high-level speakers for such a Summit. Here’s my list of speakers who could do a really good job delivering a Modern Monetary Theory counter to the neo-liberal paradigm: L. Randall Wray, William K. Black, James K. Galbraith, Warren Mosler, Marshall Auerback, Bill Mitchell, Rob Parenteau, Yeva Nersisyan, Scott Fullwiler, and some other very good top-level participants who would question the neo-liberal paradigm to at least some degree are: Yves Smith, Simon Johnson, Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Johnson, Robert Reich, Robert Kuttner, and Dean Baker. Finally, someone who ought to be invited, since he’s expressed frequent and very explicit criticism of the neo-liberal paradigm is George Soros. It would be valuable to get him into direct discussions with others on the relationships between hedge fund traders and nations with unencumbered fiat monetary systems.

During Obama’s speech last night he referred to the idea that dealing with the financial sector, specifically AIG, is kind of like dealing with someone who has a bomb strapped to their chest. He said we have to deal with them cautiously. I found this statement fascinating and telling. William Black has written extensively about “control fraud” in which the executive of a large institution uses this fraud to manipulate markets and steal money. He says that 80% of these loans contained accounting fraud. So how is the accounting fraud in my mortgage and the mortgages of others, connected to what Obama describes as a “terrorist” like event? Let me tell you.