UBI and JG

The Radical Proposal That Moderate Democrats Should Be Running On by Eric Levitz

The Conversation About Basic Income is a Mess. Here’s How to Make Sense of It. by Charlie Young

Bruenig on abortion

Democrats Need to Change the Way They Talk About Abortion

Elizabeth Bruenig, an assistant editor at the Washington Post (full disclosure: We've previously worked together), is a Christian socialist who believes abortion is morally wrong, except when the mother's life is at risk. Her pro-life views seemingly echo many Republicans, but unlike conservatives, she believes that to fight abortion we should expand the social safety net.

"What I aim for is to reduce abortions peacefully, without involving the penal-carceral system, which I'm highly skeptical of," she told me. "I support bigger, more robust welfare programs that would help women and families: a child allowance, state-paid parental leave, and single-payer healthcare." Better access to social services, she reckoned, is "a way to help them choose life."

In a 2014 article for the American Conservative, Bruenig cited multiple studies that found the majority of American women get abortions for economic reasons. "If the goal really is reducing abortion and supporting the ability of mothers to care for their infants," she argued, "the data directs us to a very intuitive solution: give would-be moms, especially the poorest, the financial boost they need to give birth while maintaining financial security. A child allowance program fits the bill neatly."

Lipinski a marked man

Dan Lipinski-- A Marked Man by DownWithTyranny

Spross on UBI and JG

Why America needs both a UBI and a job guarantee by Jeff Spross

Chris Dillow on socialism

MY SOCIALISM by Chris Dillow

THE TRANSITION TO SOCIALISM

CENTRISTS & CAPITALISM

MARXISM VS SOCIAL DEMOCRACY

Nordic Socialism is realer than you think

Nordic Socialism Is Realer Than You Think by Matt Bruenig

Rudolf Meidner

The Radical Reformist by Peter Gowan

how Democrats can win

Resolving the Democrats’ False Choice by Joshua Mound

Matt Bruenig on Singapore

How Capitalist Is Singapore Really? by Matt Bruenig

Elizabeth Bruenig on socialsim

It’s time to give socialism a try by Elizabeth Bruenig

Legion Season 2

The Neoliberal Retreat

The Neoliberal Retreat by Ryan L. Cooper

Chapo Trap House

What Will Become of the Dirtbag Left? by Jia Tolentino

The Young Karl Marx

Matt Bruenig and PPP on CAP's Medicare Extra for All

Thoughts on the Medicare Extra Proposal by Matt Bruenig

Dean Baker single-payer skeptic

Single Payer? by Dean Baker

Enlightenment and the capitalist crisis

ENLIGHTENMENT & THE CAPITALIST CRISIS by Chris Dillow

If this is right, liberal centrists are doing what Tom Paine accused Edmund Burke of: they are pitying the plumage of liberal values but forgetting the dying bird of the prosperity that fostered them.

Hillary Clinton on how single payer will never ever happen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGDKCy0bWGY

Mason on Varoufakis and Europe

Austerity by Design by J.W. Mason

Baker on bond vigilantes

The Bond Vigilantes Are Dead! Even With Soaring Budget Deficits Interest Rates Are Stable

21 February 2018

In the last six months, Republicans gave up being a party that pretends to care about budget deficits as they happily pushed through large tax cuts (roughly 0.7 percent of GDP over the next decade) and big increases in spending (roughly 0.7 percent of GDP over the next two years). The deficit picture looks much worse today than it did a year ago. 

While the few remaining deficit hawks at the Washington Post and the Peter Peterson–funded organizations are screaming, the question serious people should be asking is: why don't the markets don't share their concerns? In particular, the bond market, where the "bond vigilantes" live, should be going nuts with much larger deficits now being projected for as far as the eye can see. 

It is true that rates have gone up. At just under 2.9 percent, the interest rate on 10-year Treasury bonds is almost half a percentage point higher than it was a year ago. But a 2.9 percent rate is still very low by any reasonable standard. After all, it was over 3.0 percent at the end of 2013 and it was over 5.0 percent in the late 1990s as the deficits were turning to surpluses. 

The current 2.9 percent rate is also well below what the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had projected just a couple of years ago when it expected deficits to stay on their prior no tax cut path. In January of 2016, CBO projected that the interest rate on 10-year Treasury bonds would be 3.7 percent by now. This means that even with the recent run-up, long-term interests are still 0.8 percentage points below what CBO had projected without any major increases in the budget deficit. 

This might suggest that the concerns that deficits would send interest rates through the roof have little basis in reality. After all, long-term interest rates are driven by expectations, and unless investors in the bond market have hugely different expectations about the size of deficits than folks in Washington, they apparently don't believe that the larger deficits we are now looking at are that big a deal.