Frank wrote on Jan 5^th, 2026 at 11:30am:


"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" ?

tallowood wrote on Jan 5^th, 2026 at 12:16pm:


Well, JJ 'property is theft' Rousseau, the inventor of that quip, was a great scoundrel of Marxist proportions.

Frank wrote on Jan 5^th, 2026 at 12:13pm:


Careful - I will undoubtedly prove your ignorance, lets read on:

Quote:


Your error: much of this 300 years of thinking about political economy is obsolete, in our post gold standard, floating exchange rate, fiat currency era.

Our  modern AI and IT-assisted economies have eliminated scarcity and  can supply the basic necessities for everyone.

Indeed many nations are fighting to access other nation's  markets to sell their excess production (like Oz crying foul because China can now produce most of it's own beef...) 


Quote:


Inter alia, because  what the nation  has to sell is not wanted by the world (eg watch out  if the world no longer wants Oz iron ore....while we stopped making cars).

Quote:


Because Neoclassical orthodoxy requires currency-issuing governments to tax in order to balance the government budget.

Otoh,  taxes to incentivize or inhibit consumption are a legitimate tool of government.

Quote:


Because money lending - the second oldest profession - was usurped by private bankers; even kings had to borrow money from private bankers,  or kings might simply confiscate resources from citizens (who didn't have money)  by force.   

Quote:


Because availabity of national resources, not money - which is created ex nihilo - is the limiting factor for a currency-issuing government.   

Eg the US could cancel its massive debt without causing inflation, provided bond holders were required to limit spending if necessaty,  to avoid inflation. 

Quote:


Wrong: Spain was ruined by insufficient  productive capacity to enable  purchase of necessary goods by citizens: you can't eat gold. 

Keep them questions coming - you might be capable of understanding money, and how and by whom it is created.   

Frank wrote on Jan 5^th, 2026 at 12:22pm:


But I explained your error: modern economies are not subsistance agricultural  economies, like most of 18th century France apart from the aristocrats. 

btw, wasn't it Marie - you know - the lady who lost her head - the source of that quip?  ("let them eat cake"...)

Frank wrote on Jan 5^th, 2026 at 1:31pm:


And no more questions about legal currency issuers?

Ok, but regardless of who made the quip, Marie's fate was was sealed  by dysfunctional  free market economics, while Britain was on the way to circumventing said dysfunction at home, by becomimg the world's most successful imperial pillager.

And speaking of imperial pillage (because Venezuela is now in the news):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Caldera

The concept of "international social justice" was perhaps Caldera's most unique and original contribution to the body of Christian Democratic thought. In the speech he delivered to the joint session of the US Congress in 1970, he explained:

I believe in international social justice. Recalling Aristotle's old aphorism that justice demands that we render "to each his own" may I remind you that in the transformation of his thought in Christian philosophy, "his own" does not evoke exclusively that which belongs to each individual but also the idea of that which belongs to "society" for the "common good". No difficulty lies in transferring this concept onto the international community.

Just as "society" in the international ambit has the right to impose distinct types of relationships on its members, so the "international community," if it exists, demands that the various nations participate in proportion to their capacity in order that "all" may lead what could be termed a human existence. The rights and the obligations of the different countries should be measured, therefore, in terms of its potential and the needs of each one, making peace, progress, and harmony viable, and making it possible for us all to advance within a true friendship…"

But the turbulent nature of Latin American politics wracked by military dictatorships, combined with dramatic drops in global oil prices, wrecked both democratic impulses and economic advancement in Venezuela:

Caldera's second administration inherited and faced three adversities of great magnitude: a steep decrease in oil prices, the economic recession and high inflation of 1993, and a huge banking crisis. Caldera's government chose to respond to the fiscal deficit with a severe austerity plan that included a ten per cent cut of the federal budget in 1994 and, simultaneously, a reform of fiscal legislation and the creation of SENIAT, a new tax collection agency. In January 1994, less than a month before Rafael Caldera's inauguration, the second largest bank in Venezuela, Banco Latino, failed and was taken over by the government. As of October 1994, the government had seized more than ten failed banks. As René Salgado explains in his research on government and economics in Venezuela, "the government's bailout of the financial sector guaranteed approximately 6 billion dollars to depositors, which represented roughly 75 percent of the annual national budget and an alarming 13 percent of the gross domestic product. Additional bank failures continued throughout the year and into 1995".[37]

In agreement with the International Monetary Fund, Caldera implemented in 1996 a new economic plan, called Agenda Venezuela [es], which "increased domestic fuel prices, liberalized interest rates, unified the exchange rate system under a temporary float, abolished controls on current and capital transactions, eliminated price controls (except for medicines), and strengthened the social safety net".[38]

In 1997, gross domestic product (GDP) grew above five per cent and inflation rate was cut in half. The 1997 Asian financial crisis, however, brought oil prices to dramatic low levels, forcing government to make large budget cuts.

Hence the increasing poverty in Venezuela at  that time.

Socialist Chavez was elected by popular vote, 3 times with  large majorities until US sanctions  related to "stolen" ie nationalized oil production,  wrecked the economy.

Chavez died of cancer and Maduro was duly elected, but he failed to manage US sanctions...and here we are today, with Trump wanting to restore the profits of US oil companies in Venezuela..... i

Yadda wrote on Jan 5^th, 2026 at 5:28pm:
 


What the market determines, ie, ,  until 'market failure' require government intervention to regulate the price.

Quote:


Inflation, caused by excess demand for a limited good or service.

But note: in modern productive economies there is no scarcity of the essentials  for living. 

Quote:


Rent seeking, so he can earn income in his sleep (the billlionaires' trick).

In a 'get rich by investing in unproductive (for the macoeconomy)  housing' scheme. 


Quote:


What sensible government pits low income workers against one-another in that fashion?

Hence the need for public housing which subsidies  all low income groups on a needs basis.


Quote:



In the private sector market, rents will rise - see Oz today.

thegreatdivide wrote on Jan 5^th, 2026 at 1:04pm:


You ARE an ignorant, loud idiot.

Money is not 'made' by government, you stupid parrot. Governments print bank notes but that is NOT THE SAME THING.