A lot of us have been struggling to reconcile our criticisms of Fed independence with the fact that defense of the Fed is, at this moment, critical to the defense of liberal government. Tooze’s latest grasps this nettle more firmly than anything else I’ve seen. adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...
The excerpt, while pungent, doesn’t give the full flavor - it’s one side of what is very much a dialectical argument. Read the whole thing, as we used to say.
There are two US parties: the party of fascism and the party of empire. If you're in the party of empire (i.e. liberal governance), you defend Fed independence.
I find him unfair with Krugman. Maybe "I'm Spartacus" is too much but the subtitle is clear about the meaning of the title : "Nobody is safe from weaponized government". It seems to me more important than any consideration pro or contra Fed Independence.
What is defense of liberal government, you mean Liberal Democracy and modern capitalism; because the government analog to parliamentary system is presently communist not liberal !!
Much of what Trump is saying resonates, at first glance, with traditional progressive narratives about central banking, global trade and finance, lost manufacturing jobs, etc. Some on the left are struggling to see the wood for the trees.
Finding Tooze increasingly…detached isn’t right word - but coming at things from weird angles of highly variably usefulness. For example, Obama not firing fed governors is not remotely the type of complacency that I’d critique that admin for… I mean really I find any “MAGA has a point” schtick odius
I remember separation of powers; that used to be a thing, right?
