07 December 2012

The Financial Crisis (With Subtitles)


This comes from a group of students at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

There is something very wrong about hearing R. Lee Ermey speaking French. Even if the words do not match the subtitles. And would he have ever used the word 'rhetorical' in real life?

I wonder if having Darth Vader explain Modern Monetary Theory, and then arrogantly choke off any serious discussion, was intentionally satirical?   

MMT is little more than a de facto debt default through monetary inflation backed by official coercion, pure and simple. It doesn't have to be, of course, but it always turns out that way. Hyperinflation and the Pernicious Myth of Modern Monetary Theory.

There is a third alternative between modern monetary inflation and destructive austerity. Reform the financial system and make the bond holders and investors take the downsides of the risks which they have incurred, in the manner of Iceland. But there is little knowledge of this, because the monied interests are controlling the discussion.

For a related topic see The Debt Prisoner's Dilemma.

Enjoy.