- #1
JakeA
- 12
- 0
I'm wondering what people think about this idea concerning U.S. economic and monetary policy. I believe we should stop borrowing so much money and start merely printing it basically "out of thin air."
The reasons for this are numerous, and I'm working on some math models to show why it would work. Basically you have the following:
1. It appears that the vast U.S. national debt, now at $11 trillion is acting as a monetary sink which siphons off money from investments in other areas like real estate and business ventures. The term is "flight to quality," but what's really happening is classic monetary "hording." Money is being holed up instead of being used to benefit the economy. The vast national debt is facilitating that.
2. Japan, with also a massive national debt, has the same problem. It also has similar results. Reduced economic activity, deflation, etc.
3. Printing money would be inflationary, however inflation isn't such a bad thing all the time. There's no such thing as pure, evenly distributed inflation. We want wage inflation and we want real estate inflation. There's every indication that printing money instead of borrowing it would create wage and real estate inflation in America.
4. You could drastically lower the income tax burden by printing money instead of borrowing it. That would also spur the economy.
5. Inflation can be nasty. Look at Zimbabwe which is printing money like crazy and has like 1 million percent inflation. You need to do things to decrease the money supply if you did it.
6. Printing money would create a pure monetary tax. To me it seems like the most fair and easily implemented form of tax. Yes, it's somewhat regressive, especially for poor people trying to save money, but poor people in America don't save money. Let's not fool ourselves about that.
7. It would help ease our trade deficit, since our currency would be less valuable to buy foreign goods.
The reasons for this are numerous, and I'm working on some math models to show why it would work. Basically you have the following:
1. It appears that the vast U.S. national debt, now at $11 trillion is acting as a monetary sink which siphons off money from investments in other areas like real estate and business ventures. The term is "flight to quality," but what's really happening is classic monetary "hording." Money is being holed up instead of being used to benefit the economy. The vast national debt is facilitating that.
2. Japan, with also a massive national debt, has the same problem. It also has similar results. Reduced economic activity, deflation, etc.
3. Printing money would be inflationary, however inflation isn't such a bad thing all the time. There's no such thing as pure, evenly distributed inflation. We want wage inflation and we want real estate inflation. There's every indication that printing money instead of borrowing it would create wage and real estate inflation in America.
4. You could drastically lower the income tax burden by printing money instead of borrowing it. That would also spur the economy.
5. Inflation can be nasty. Look at Zimbabwe which is printing money like crazy and has like 1 million percent inflation. You need to do things to decrease the money supply if you did it.
6. Printing money would create a pure monetary tax. To me it seems like the most fair and easily implemented form of tax. Yes, it's somewhat regressive, especially for poor people trying to save money, but poor people in America don't save money. Let's not fool ourselves about that.
7. It would help ease our trade deficit, since our currency would be less valuable to buy foreign goods.