social insurance

In defense of social insurance by Max Sawicky

welfare reform

DeLong quotes Kevin Drum against his own instance that blue states did well with welfare reform while only red states didn't.

Kevin Drum: Welfare Reform and the Great Recession “CBPP…. Welfare reform… in its first few years… 

…seemed like a great success… but it was a bubbly economy that made the biggest difference. So how would welfare reform fare when it got hit with a real test? Answer: not so well. In late 2007 the Great Recession started, creating an extra 1.5 million families with children in poverty. TANF, however, barely responded at all. There was no room in strapped state budgets for more TANF funds…. This is why conservatives are so enamored of block grants. It’s not because they truly believe that states are better able to manage programs for the poor than the federal government. That’s frankly laughable. The reason they like block grants is because they know perfectly well that they’ll erode over time. That’s how you eventually drown the federal government in a bathtub. If Paul Ryan ever seriously proposes—and wins Republican support for—a welfare reform plan that includes block grants which (a) grow with inflation and (b) adjust automatically when recessions hit, I’ll pay attention. Until then, they’re just a Trojan Horse…. After all, those tax cuts for the rich won’t fund themselves, will they?

helicopter money and UBI

When is helicopter money optimal? by Nick Rowe

Universal Basic Income Recycling by Max Sawicky

"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Work that brain muscle.

Blue-Skying

Yglesias has mentioned this (as have Nixon and Milton Friedman?*)

From Atrios:

Day I sometimes write for elsewhere. Was going to write about how we need to give people free money, but over the weekend everyone got there first.

Just Give People Money by Karl Smith (mentions Chris Hayes)

Thinking Utopian: How about a universal basic income? by Mike Konczal

There's A Way To Give Everyone In America An Income That Conservatives And Liberals Can Both Love by Joe Weisenthal

I don't think conservatives will go for it because they believe people will just spend everything on booze and drugs as soon as they get the check. Plus it will attract immigrants.

Still I think it's a good idea. To stimulate the economy, the Department of Demand Management could add money to people's accounts. To combat inflation and an overheating economy, they could take money out of their accounts. 

Sort of like what the Trading Desk at the New York Fed does with the banks who are primary dealers.

*Friedman has as a negative income tax. Nixon I'm not sure. I think he floated the idea but it got shot down, sort of like when Clinton floated the idea of investing the Social Security trust fund in the stock market. The Wall Street Journal editorial pages blew a gasket because that would be the government appropriating the means of production. I laughed out loud.