The financial middleman function, on the other hand, is not an engine, but just a transmission.
But if you the textbooks for Money and Banking ... even the so-called "New Keynesian" textbooks ... the role of the Finance Sector is the middleman function, and even though there are chapters that describe the money creating function of depository instituutions in some detail, the fact that this is not a financial middleman function and so the depository institutions are more than simply middlemen ...
... well, that is not in there.
And we have raised more than a generation of college students going into the finance sector on this blinkered monetarist view of the finance sector, that money is somehow dropped on the economy by heicopters and banks are supposed to be just one more type of financial middleman.
It could well be that Geitner in reality simply does not know that he is working on fixing the oversized monetary transmission when the problem is that the monetary engine is not only broken, but is a too small engine trying to drive a too large transmission to make an effective drive train. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
In other words, even if a group of heterodox economists led a revolution, the slightly educated masses wouldn't follow.
A little learning is a dangerous thing. Most economists teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless. -- James K. Galbraith
"Saving" as adding to a Dragon's Hoard that will increase societies real productive capacity when "the time comes to spend it" ... that is even more deeply entrenched than the "gas tax is political suicide" meme.
And of course, Agent Orange is designed to avoid undermining people's basic prejudices. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
You're From Ohio, You Idiot, Don't Screw With Our Train I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
