[ExI] Deficit spending and never admitting you were wrong

[John Clark]

On Wed, May 27, 2020 at 1:57 PM Dylan Distasio via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:


> > *my original point is when they go to unwind that balance sheet, they
> can't create more bonds than they have to sell, so they may be left holding
> the bag on some portion of it if bond values fall in the interim. *
>

First of all I think it's going to be a long time before the Fed even wants
to unwind its balance sheet and we have plenty of things to worry about
before then. And besides, selling bonds is not the only tool they have,
they can also reduce their balance sheet by just stop reinvesting in
maturing government securities.

>> Unlike Trump supporters I'm still strongly in favor of Free Trade. I see
>> nothing inherently evil in corporate monopolies especially high tech ones,
>> but I do see something inherently evil in tariffs. I like bitcoin and
>> encryption in general. I think women should have the right to do what they
>> want with their bodies and everybody should have the right to end their
>> life if they choose to. I think all drugs should be legal and gambling and
>> prostitution too.
>>
>
>
*> In the interest of pointing out where our beliefs do and do not
> intersect, I see nothing evil in tariffs whatsoever, and am fully in favor
> of free trade INTRA-nation state.  I am no longer in favor of unrestrained
> trade amongst nation states,*
>

How times have changed. When I first joined the list Free Trade was a core
belief that virtually defined what a libertarian was, at least for economic
issues as opposed to social questions. In fact most libertarians, including
me, weren't even in favor of nation states existing much less wanted
economic warfare between them. I'm no longer quite that radical, I still
think if we were starting from scratch we could do better by organizing
things along pure free market principles, but I have come to realize as a
practical matter it's far too late to go down that path now, and we'll
never get rid of nation states before the technological singularity. The
mere existence of the Fed means we've already accepted that we've strayed
from the pure Free Market, so I can't get all hot and bothered when they
try to do something to help during a simultaneous biological and economic
catastrophe.

*> That said, I am a fan of cryptocurrencies and a huge supporter of strong
> encryption.   I also think women should be able to do whatever they want
> with their own bodies, along with everyone else including ending their own.
> I also think all drugs, gambling, and prostitution should be legal. See,
> besides an interest in transhumanism, telescopes, and traversing the
> universe, we actually do have some other things in common!*
>

Yeah but other than that....

John K Clark
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