Comments for Is Having Missed the Crisis a Requirement to Be a Media Expert? at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 7 out of 7 comments http://www.cepr.net Sat, 18 May 2013 06:32:29 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/is-having-missed-the-crisis-a-requirement-to-be-a-media-expert/#comment-372 Of course it is. The only thing allowed on tv are sophists and whores. Earnestness is too complicated, confusing and really undermines what the network is looking for. We are in a Hegelian dialectic that is quickly reducing itself to absurdity. - scott Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:22:04 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/is-having-missed-the-crisis-a-requirement-to-be-a-media-expert/#comment-346 Dean, there is a bit more to it. How would the ECB help Greece? The direct machanism would be to purchase greek debt. But Art 123 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU states: "1. Overdraft facilities or any other type of credit facility with the European Central Bank or with the central banks of the Member States (hereinafter referred to as ‘national central banks’) in favour of Union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of Member States shall be prohibited, as shall the purchase directly from them by the European Central Bank or national central banks of debt instruments. 2. Paragraph 1 shall not apply to publicly owned credit institutions which, in the context of the supply of reserves by central banks, shall be given the same treatment by national central banks and the European Central Bank as private credit institutions." This provision makes sense to avoid running deficits through the printing press - unfortunately it has no exit clause for deflationary crisis. The ECB is to some extent working around this prohibition by accepting low quality collateral from banks. But there is still the question of a bailout: If you get bad debt on the ECB balance sheet, all member countries will in the end pay for it (it's like the Fed buying California's debt). So in the end, it's not much different from the pooling of a bailout fund that currently happens. If your point is about ECB policy concerning the debt of all member states, it is prohibited from buying that debt directly, but it can be monetized through the banks. - RW Fri, 30 Apr 2010 02:12:12 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/is-having-missed-the-crisis-a-requirement-to-be-a-media-expert/#comment-340 Zach; This rant of yours is a joke, right? There was no money - there were massive amounts of debt (and still are, on the books of the TBTF banks, because they know if they were honest about all the junk they would most definitely wake up to find themselves in the crapper); there was no regulation - there were regulators who ignored what few regulations remained and ignored the warnings of whistleblowers while they watched porn. Printing money may not be the optimal way out of this mess, but it's the best one we have in the current moment. Right now we have to dig ourselves out of the hole we're in, and doing away with all regulation while cowering in fear of inflation is no way to proceed. - Queen of Sheba Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:52:03 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/is-having-missed-the-crisis-a-requirement-to-be-a-media-expert/#comment-338 "there is no basis for concern that printing money will cause inflation in the current economic situation." Printing money will not solve any problems, in fact it will make them much much worse. What we need now is deflation, prices need to fall further in order to cancel out all of the malinvestments that have been created in the last 20 years due to massive credit expansion and lower than market interest rates by central banks. A recession should be embraced so we can have solid footing in the future. Too much money and regulation was the major reasons for the boom and bust, and all Baker is saying that we just need more of this. This is backwards thinking. A sacrifice is needed in the short-term in order to achieve long-term growth. However, with all the money already pumped into the economies around the world, an inflatioary bubble and corresponding boom is now inevitable. More printing of money will just make these distortions worse. - Zach Halstead Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:48:54 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/is-having-missed-the-crisis-a-requirement-to-be-a-media-expert/#comment-332 "[i]Ironically, these superstitions may ultimately have a severely negative effect on Germany's economy as well.[/i]" Ironically, these superstitions may ultimately have a severe negative effect on the political side of the ledger. Do we have to go through another Great Depression just to remember that awful economic conditions can have absolutely toxic political consequences? This isn't exactly a shining moment for western democracies. My, how far we have fallen from the glory days following the defeat of communism. - leo Thu, 29 Apr 2010 05:24:59 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/is-having-missed-the-crisis-a-requirement-to-be-a-media-expert/#comment-331 The EU central bank in Frankfurt is doing a terrible disservice to the other EU countries by being in a snit over the deceptive economic games played by Greece when they entered the Union. The "superstitions" they hold about inflation are only rationalizations for their sulk. The central bankers' refusal to make money available to Greece is tantamount to refusing to help your neighbor put out the fire consuming his house because the fire was started by your neighbor's smoking in bed after assuring you that he didn't smoke at all. Pretty soon the fire spreads to your own house because you refused to help put it out when it first began. - Queen of Sheba Thu, 29 Apr 2010 04:47:27 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/beat-the-press/is-having-missed-the-crisis-a-requirement-to-be-a-media-expert/#comment-322 The media want experts who will cooperate with hyping whatever story seems to be resonating with the public at the moment. It makes sense that the economists who were good cheerleaders for the housing market would also turn out to be good cheerleaders for today's fad - deficit handwringing. There are economists who know which side of the bread is buttered and then there are the naive ones who call it like they see it. - AndyfromTucson Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:11:13 +0100