Is your job to stream porn on the internet?

There is something wrong with an economy that prioritizes advertising over production. There is so much production capacity that advertising has to absorb excess profits to capture market share from a shrinking group of consumers with enough disposable income. Instead, create money and transfer it to individuals in the form of a Basic income. Stimulate innovation with challenges. Put the basic income financing on the Fed's balance sheet, so there is zero cost to taxpayers. Index all incomes to inflation, with the Fed providing the adjustments, so purchasing power remains constant.

Solution: unconditional basic income. Then companies can reduce wages and hours to whatever they like; but individuals have a guaranteed minimum decent standard of living. Companies benefit by reducing costs; individuals benefit from an increase in the General Welfare, and the ability to work if and when they want, doing what they choose. Why would inflation occur? Congress should direct the Fed to finance a basic income, at zero cost to taxpayers.

I have a classic view. Even with "All comments" selected, hidden comments are reduced to a subject line. I have scores hidden precisely because I want to read all comments without being influenced by their scores. But slashdot won't let me see everything raw and uncut. I know a comment has been downvoted because all I see is the subject line. I have to click on the post and load a new page to see the comment body. Such actions take me away from the flow of the comments.

Slashdot should stop lying to me. When I select "All comments", I should see all comments equally. When I select "hide ratings", I should not still know when a comment has been downvoted.

Experiments should require the informed consent of all subjects. Until we can communicate with rats, we should not use them in experiments. Get informed consent from humans. If you can't, then do a non-destructive experiment, a simulation. Do not use live creatures without their consent.

I question this logic that creating money devalues the currency. In the US the Fed created at least $3 trillion, likely many more trillions because of off-balance-sheet operations. Yet the US dollar is stronger than ever, especially against the Euro which has pursued tight money policies.

In conclusion, the quantity theory of money has serious empirical problems.

You should. The Federal Reserve Act specifically mentions loans to individuals. I think it was the Populists who got that put in; William Jennings Bryant wanted a Federal Reserve Bank at every crossroads, lending to ordinary people. That can easily be incorporated into the Federal Reserve's operations.

My proposal: have the Fed fund a basic income at zero cost to taxpayers. The Fed could structure it under Section 13 (13) of the Federal Reserve Act, as loans to individuals with negative interest. Thus, people would be paid to borrow. Give everyone who wants it, a basic income of $20,000 per year.

Indexation of all incomes to price rises eliminates any potential inflation tax. If incomes rise in lockstep with prices, your debit card can keep track of your money in units of purchasing power, which will not decrease.

The point about the Fed's unlimited swap lines is that they worked to keep their targets afloat. Now the Fed should apply that power of creating unlimited liquidity to improve individuals' lives, instead of only helping corporations.

Greece should start buying Russian cars and 3D printing their own.

Why did the Fed bail out the ECB and Deutsche Bank and other Euro banks when they were in over their heads in the 2008 crash? The Fed opened up unlimited swap lines with those banks and others in Europe. Why? Why not let Germany collapse because of a liquidity crisis?

Why didn't the US let Germany fend for itself after World War II, instead of creating the Marshall Plan (at a time of high inflation in the US)? Why did the US give away 85% of the Marshall Plan funds, instead of requiring repayment?

Why is there no production capacity shortage to keep Greek pensioners at a decent standard of living? The only scarcity is an imposition of liquidity. There is no physical scarcity preventing Greeks from living full, happy lives. There is an artificial scarcity of money.

The ECB should create more money and give it to Greece, as the US gave money to Europe after World War II with the Marshall Plan.

Failing that, the world's most powerful financial institution, the Fed, should open up an unlimited swap line with Greece, buying as many drachmas as the Greeks want to sell.

It is stupid that economics requires people to suffer when there is no physical scarcity.

This is funny because the Belgians are the butt of so many jokes in Europe. Belgians:France as Polacks:US. You didn't loan money, banks create deposits with loans. Only a Belgian would fail to see the difference!

There is no production capacity shortage forcing scarcity on Greece. There is no physical scarcity. The scarcity is of liquidity, imposed by policy decision. Austerity economics is creating scarcity where none need exist. Austerity in Greece is not a physical necessity but an ideological creation of obsolete, feudal economic theory. Banks should lend freely to Greece as the Fed gave freely to AIG so it could buy T-bills at 3% and keep restructuring or rolling over the 0% loans.

When Roosevelt gave in and tried to balance the US budget in 1938, another recession resulted. Same with Japan in 1999. And of course we all know that Reagan proved deficits don't matter.

The Fed right now has $1.7 trillion in "toxic assets" on its balance sheet. In return, primary dealers got $1.7 trillion in deposit accounts at the Fed. No one else was going to lend to those dealers; they were tapped out, couldn't roll over their funding. But the Fed extended its unlimited safety net to them. Why not give Greece the same courtesy?

Loans create deposits. The banks are insured and hedged anyway. Any loss is tiny because banks regularly book future cash flows today as 'Net Worth', paying themselves handsome bonuses and salaries. Central banks such as the ECB expand their balance sheets at zero cost to taxpayers. When the ECB needed dollars in 2008, the Fed gave them an unlimited swap line. The ECB can easily afford to forgive the Greek debt, with no cost to any taxpayer.