Re: generational accounting/kotlikoff

[ACSLKS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx id <01HMNX7E068G8Y5T69@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Sat, 04 Feb 1995 20:32:51 -0400 (EDT)]

> At 11:09 AM 2/4/95, Allin Cottrell wrote:
>
> >> If we halved the current interest rate on the national debt
> >> we could lower current government expenditures by 11% --or approximately
> >> 150 billion. Then what would happen to the deficit?????
> >
> >Hmm...  If we halved the interest rate on US government debt, in
> >isolation, who would buy it?  Wouldn't this imply a vast
> >monetization of the deficit?  Just thinking aloud.
>
> Ultimately, many PK lines on financial reforms such as this, and many of
> JMK's own writing too, seem hopelessly dreamy, as if the capitalist class -
> bondholders, stockholders, and industrial managers - would ever surrender
> discretion over interest rates to a state body other than a market-friendly
> central bank. Forcing rates down to 1-2% would strike at the heart of class
> power, but I guess Keynesians don't belive in class power. What are
> financial instruments if not titles of ownership and control?
>
> Doug
>
> --
>
> Doug Henwood
> [dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx]
> Left Business Observer
> 250 W 85 St
> New York NY 10024-3217
> USA
> 212-874-4020 voice
> 212-874-3137 fax
>
>

"Class" in the sense of the functional distribution of income, e.g. capital vs.
labor.  After all, doesn't sustained full employment raise incomes and reduce
the unemployment reserves?

Lonnie K. Stevans