Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
after seven calpers with us and economist and share of the department
economics the university of missouri kansas city at ur in chief of the new
economic perspectives plugin economic perspectives dot org
dr kalam you are in summary same
the u_s_ government is the issuer of our currency and therefore we don't have to
worry about
the via borrowing from the chinese as it were weakened uh... you know that the
u_s_ government can by anything that's not it in dollars because we have
we did with people with the government
have all the dollars we create the dollar's theirs
and that really what constrains us is not
the number dollars we have that the number of resources that we have a my
restating that
united plane okay
so that being the case
how do we make economic decisions in ways that don't have
unintended consequences that don't
devalue the dollar don't producing for in other words and play it create
inflation
or deflation for that matter that don't
you know screw-up market-style
bring about depressions
what should we be doing
this is an excellent question so in any clicks the focus where it belongs which
is back on the real economy so what should we be doing
if you've got the way we do today about twenty two million americans who want
full-time work and can't find it
we've got all of this lacking a kind we've got factories that are operating
anywhere near capacity so there's a lots of room for factories to ramp up
production to meet rising demand for goods and services
without creating bottlenecks in inflationary pressures and so
when economists talk about inflation most of the time what you hear yes
for people who are concerned about the increased too much money chasing too few
good so it's this you know there's more demand then there is the capacity in the
economy
to produce and satisfy that demand out if that happens
you're going to get inflationary pressure
well what i'm suggesting is that we're nowhere near
having that situation in the u_s_ today that we've got all kinds of room to run
both because we have twenty two million americans who
waffle time working campfire and because we have lots of capacity in the economy
of lots of resources available that can be mobilized in used to produce the
things that we need a new discussion becomes
what are those things what do we as a society need a massive political
question that's a question for boaters working through their elected officials
to say you know whether it's wheaton we don't like the fact that our levees are
of breaking that our bridges are falling down our water treatment facilities are
in disrepair that aria reports in our schools and so far so if it
infrastructure you can point to the national infrastructure report card and
you can say you know those civil engineers have told us what needs to be
done and the memory is astounding it's two point two
trillion dollars
that the civil engineers say we should be spending on our national
infrastructure in order to bring it up to snuff it it is skin such
uh... bad disrepair now this is not something that the private sector is
going to do right this is a job for the public sector
so i'm just giving us by way of example this is something where
we can see lots of people who want to contribute we concede useful work that
needs to be done and then we can ask the question well
or the resources available to do that work can we put the workers together
is there enough
concrete steel copper all those things that we need
in order to do this without creating inflationary pressure how pass can we go
where do we need to go more slowly in every area in the economy they should be
a good question it's about whether we can put the resources to work weather
will serve the public purpose and whether we can do it without creating
inflation about competing with the private sector for those resources now
it is with the libertarians would suggest the
uh... if
the roads are insufficiently bad disrepair if the bridges are seriously
falling apart
that of you know the cook political on issue this is an opportunity for
investment no bill private rosenthal bridges on either end
and you'll have a private sector solution all the stuff
well impractical printers would like to come in
and take over a fair bit of the national infrastructure in the way they can
actually accomplish that is by allowing the state budgets to have become so
strained that you actually create fiscal crisis of the state
and local level when you start getting states to sell off resources like power
plants in toll roads and so it's happening right now since that is
happening right now
it's it's happening right now
is that a is that intrinsically are necessarily a bad thing
uh...
well i don't know that in every case that is there are certainly resources
that
are better uh...
are are better for national security reasons and so forth and they get there
in the public domain
uh... but britain but the main point is i guess that doesn't have to happen
that state and local governments
well they face the same kinds of concerns that you an idea where their
private business does because they only issued currency and so when you get
when your income falls
my income we're falling half uh... overnight now the sun and left with half
a day disposable income
i might be forced to tighten my belt and spend a whole lot lesson
the same goes for a private business when its sales drop off or from state
government or local government when their tax receipts fall-off for example
because the economy goes incident into the tank
and this is what happen after the uh... financial crisis in the incident
economic
meltdown in those states but
of the federal government because it's different because it can spend and in
fact must encounter cyclically
that the federal government has the capacity to deal with none of the rest
of us can give which is to spend even as its income so-called uh... is going down
so federal governments could
stepping in and they shouldn't step in the nation of diana's long ago and
provided the backstop but he's still struggling state and local government so
that they were or stir
game in a situation where they're selling off assets to the people like
the coat brothers
so and and and
uh... we we have just a little less than that before the break your how do we do
that without creating inflation how do you know when when
inflation is a danger
well you know inflation can arise from lots of different reasons it doesn't
just come and he doesn't even mainly just come from the demand side of the
economy from people with too much money
trying to buy too many goods and services that are produced in the
economy in fact well we have chronically is a situation where they're isn't
enough total demand in the economy
tonight all the goods and services that are business is one of the day's
also
we look most of the time to the supply side
he can't find a little action on some other striking rationing airways ted to
figure out when that's coming in anything different in shifting policies
trident i got inflation porcupine probably have to take a assessment of
break for the news here with us for the fifteen minutes
great dr stephanie killed this year will be right back the into nyc perspectives