The powder was burning but somebody forgot to load the cannonballs.
About five years ago I was banned from New Economic Perspectives, the website that claims to have invented the concept of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), I had never heard of the site or the MMT initials. MMT preached, in general, that our system of money was inadequate, and should be changed. The basic idea was that we could spend more money on important projects than the old rules allowed.
I agreed with that right away, because in the aftermath of WWII returning veterans would gather often at our house and they talked about how the Depression was still going and the government needed to do something to restart the economy, so they, the vets, could restart their lives. In the summer of 1949 they began to imagine what could be done if the government suddenly found an unlimited supply of gold to back our dollars. They began to talk about Rocky Mountains made of gold. They began to imagine a nation that had a robust economy instead of one that was still staggering.
Remember this is 1949, and had been going on since late 1945. These guys, there were about eight regulars, were serious and smart. But nothing came of it because they had to find work. So, the group disintegrated. But I never stopped thinking about it. And I still haven’t.
So time goes by and I saw our economy go from long busts to brief booms in which the rich got richer and the poor… well, you know…
I became a mathematician and later a systems engineer. Then in June of 1965 I started working on one of the first non-defense IBM system/360’s, and my generation of systems engineers spent the next thirty years computerizing America and the world. You are welcome, no thanks are necessary, it was a hoot.
Medicare and Medicaid as well as HMOs of various types and sizes were systems I helped to create. Consolidation of life insurance companies on a large scale, route settlement systems for delivery systems such as soft drink bottling companies, world-wide management of employee health benefits for petroleum companies and large computer companies, application of computers to medical diagnoses were others I designed and developed. During all of this work I could see how easy, yes I said easy, it would be to manage an unlimited supply of money for America. I could see the benefits—and they were many.
I stumbled on DKos at about the same time as MMT, I am not sure exactly when. So, on MMT I told the story about the WWII vets and Rocky Mountains of gold. I was not claiming to have invented anything new I just wanted to join the MMT conversation—I was not welcome. The old NIH syndrome kicked in and I was banned.
I was pretty much doing the same thing on DKos and the assaults, right, I said assaults, were bitter and hard to deal with. NIH all over again. I have been threatened with banning here several times and actually sent to stand in the corner at least twice. My sin was to urge Daily Kos t get behind the idea of an unlimited supply of money and the power it would have as part of the Democratic Party platform. But, my ideas were unwelcome.
Then several months ago, changes started happening at MMT and they started moving my way. I called attention the change here on DKos and the insults just kept on coming. I thought that if MMT and DailyKos and the Democrats could join ideas things might finally change.
I was told to shut up or be banned.
Today another front page article was posted on MMT and it comes my way in the most explicit language yet.
The article is called, “GW, CC, and MM.” GW=global warming, CC=climate change, MM=Modern Money.
I recorded the Democratic debate the other night, and watched it this morning. And it broke my heart to see those earnest (most of them) talented people floundering around. They need a haymaker platform to win the election and an unlimited supply of money is the winner. But it won’t happen. Where will they get the information, the understanding. Here, on DKos? They won’t find it here because that kind of forward thinking has been kicked to the curb. The extreme editorial control here is well… you know.
I even wrote a book about an unlimited supply of money. It is called Faction-Free Democracy, Finishing What the Founding Fathers Started. It also talks about creating American democracy by reviving Athenian democracy, which computers make possible. But it went nowhere here and the raging insults just got to be more than I could take.
But then I saw the debate and the only person on the stage with monetary credentials is a raging, profane, misogynistic, racist, jerk. The rest of the panel looks like a bunch of children, a bunch of novices. Bernie and the Lady from Broken Bow are the two adults. She is the better of the duo, but he may drag her down by dragging down the party. In case you don’t know it, if the money man wins the nomination the Democratic Party will die and America could be lost for good.
As I watched the debate I could not help thinking how different it would have been if we had an honest-to-God (it’s ok I can say that, I went to Baylor) answer to our financial woes. Ross Perot had some placards outside his office in Dallas. They were meant to inspire and for me they worked. One said something like this: “Every good and worthwhile thing stands on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for.”
I hope Trump will blow it and the Dems will win, but short of a miracle, it looks grim. I am in touch with a large number of old-timers mostly from Texas northwards to Canada and back to the East Coast—the Eastern half of the country. They are highly motivated and, barring sudden death, they will turn out and vote their hate.
If you’re gonna win this fight, you better have something to fight with. Petty insults on tweets won’t do it, Banning won’t do it. we need all the help we can get, no matter the attitude or the ideas. Aaww, why bother.
Remember, pray for the children.