Debt Relief for Whom? Part I

The student debt burden has grown from about $481 billion in 2006 to $1,476 billion in 2022. Just wiping it all out would be unfair, because more than half is owed to relatively-high income professionals. Richard Vague proposes that the federal government should expand an existing program, to allow such students “work off” their debt in public service such as providing health care in under-served areas. READ MORE about Vague’s Debt Jubilee proposals for student debt, medical debt, mortgages that exceed home values, bankruptcy reform, and more on Dollars & Sense. . . . → Read More: Debt Relief for Whom? Part I

Webinar with Richard Vague, author of A Brief History of Doom, May 17, 2020

In A Brief History of Doom, Two Hundred Years of Financial Crises, Richard Vague simultaneously fills in a gap in Henry George’s economic model, and torpedoes the conventional Keynesian model of the business cycle. . . . → Read More: Webinar with Richard Vague, author of A Brief History of Doom, May 17, 2020

The Poverty Industry: How state and local service agencies scam both the federal government and their intended beneficiaries

In The Poverty Industry, Daniel L. Hatcher explains how the austerity following the 2008 financial crisis has induced state and local public service agencies to scam both the federal government and their intended beneficiaries. . . . → Read More: The Poverty Industry: How state and local service agencies scam both the federal government and their intended beneficiaries

Review: A Brief History of Doom by Richard Vague

A Brief History of Doom: Two Hundred Years of Financial Crises is the most important economics publication to come along in years. The author, Richard Vague, a retired banker, documents how a necessary and sufficient explanation for a boom and bust cycle is an episode over several years of excessive private sector lending, typically triggered by an exciting innovation. . . . → Read More: Review: A Brief History of Doom by Richard Vague

The Kotlikoff-Mehrling Plan: Better than the Paulson Bailout

In 1992, a Swedish real estate bubble burst, creating a banking panic and freeze. The Swedish loaned banks money, but in exchange, forced banks to promptly write down bad real estate investments and issue warrants to the government. Warrants–the right to purchase stock at a preset price–gave the government bank stocks cheap. At the end . . . → Read More: The Kotlikoff-Mehrling Plan: Better than the Paulson Bailout

The Great Crash of 2008, by Mason Gaffney

This crash is The Big One; it has signs of becoming a Category 5. How do we know? We’ve “been there and done that” so many times before, roughly every 18 years over the last 800 or more. Major wars and, rarely, plagues have broken the rhythm, along with the little ice age, reformation and . . . → Read More: The Great Crash of 2008, by Mason Gaffney

The Great Crash of 2008, by Mason Gaffney

This crash is The Big One; it has signs of becoming a Category 5. How do we know? We’ve “been there and done that” so many times before, roughly every 18 years over the last 800 or more. Major wars and, rarely, plagues have broken the rhythm, along with the little ice age, reformation and . . . → Read More: The Great Crash of 2008, by Mason Gaffney