Posted To Steve Keen’s Substack Newsletter 11/09/2025

Me: Your history and reasoning is correct as usual, but still fails to penetrate to the conceptual/paradigmatic level of analysis. Changing the concepts/paradigms that enlighten, create and enforce temporal universe realities are the most pungent ones possible for instance geo-centrism to helio-centrism and perfect circles to ellipses.

In the present monetary and economic case if you implemented a 50% Discount/Rebate policy at retail sale and the money/credit/demand rebated back to the merchant was a GIFT you’d change/end the present monopoly paradigm concept for the creation and distribution of all new money which is Debt Only to Debt AND Strategic Monetary Gifting. And the consumer gets $100 worth of groceries for $50, a $60k EV for $30k and a $500k house for $250k while the grocer, auto dealership and banker gets their full price with the rebate…but credit/the increase in demand due to Monetary Gifting does not fall. In fact this change in APPLIED CONCEPT implements beneficial price and asset deflation by increasing the money supply. Milton Friedman turns over in his grave…the same as Ptolemy did when Copernicus came along.

Steve Keen referring to Ben Bernanke: He’s certainly lacking in imagination and self-awareness. The word that comes to mind in describing him is “pedestrian”. He’s a True Believer in the Neoclassical paradigm, and can’t comprehend anything outside it. That’s typical of most believers in a paradigm: very few are able to see any flaw in their belief system.

That’s the way I taught economics: explain that the models they use are wrong, but they mark the exams, so you have to know what they believe in order to pass. I told students to treat the exam as if someone had made up crazy rules for Chess; you had to follow the rules even if they were crazy.

Me: Right again. Even the erudite find it hard to drop orthodoxies, fear risking to advocate for a conceptual change that is apparently illogical even though complete conceptual opposition is an historical signature of paradigm changes, and so they lack the imagination to see new paradigms. Pedestrianism has many hiding places even in brilliant minds like for instance cynicism which makes people give up before they even start…even though when the solutions that are also signatures of paradigm changes are evident, they fail to recognize that cynicism or even palliatives are actually unethical “alternatives”. I prefer Gramsci’s insight: “Pessimism of the mind, optimism of the will.”

Instability: Not Necessarily A Problem

Enforced instability by a monopoly paradigm like the present monetary paradigm of Debt Only as the sole form and vehicle for the creation and distribution of all new money IS a significant problem. However, if you change that paradigm you resolve its present negative/unstable effects but, because the temporal universe is by nature emergent/ever changing, even new paradigms eventually become anomalous…but at a much slower and less universal rate and so its much less of a problem…especially if one acculturates/keeps one’s mind open to the signatures of historical paradigm changes.

Posted To Relearning Economics Podcast 11/07/2025

The 50% Discount/Rebate policy at retail sale integrates your macro insights into the micro-economy. Voila! Paradigm change.

Why? Because every individual/micro-economic agent participates in retail sale but the universality of participation in retail sale ipso facto also makes the effect of the 50% Discount/Rebate policy aggregative/macro-economic in effect.

Posted To Peter Diamandis’ Substack Newsletter 11/07/2025

Yes, if there is one thing more important and more fulfilling than money its fulfill…ment itself. However, the truth is, presently, there’s actually one thing even more important than money and that is power. And where is the most power? Thats right Finance’s ability to create new money…only as debt. That’s a MONOPOLY paradigm of Debt ONLY. Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with debt itself. Again, only its dominating monopoly character. The last monopoly paradigm we had to deal with was Salvation Via Roman Catholic Sacraments ONLY and the result was The Reformation. Breaking up the monopoly monetary paradigm would be the first best step in the direction you suggest we’re headed because its the deepest, most underlying and probably the most unperceived problem of the current situation. And what is the new monetary paradigm? Well historically new paradigms have always been in complete conceptual opposition to the present paradigm and that new concept always resolves the deepest problems of the present anomalous paradigm by creating an integrative thirdness greater oneness of that seeming unresolvable duality. So put this altogether and you get a new paradigm of Strategic Monetary Gifting…not Gifting Only which would simply set up another monopoly paradigm, but for instance one place to implement monetary gifting would be at retail sale because everyone participates in retail sale. So a 50% Discount/Rebate policy at retail sale would mathematically double everyone’s purchasing power and simultaneously double the potential demand for every enterprise’s goods and services while transforming chronic erosive inflation into beneficial price and asset deflation (the consumer gets $100 worth of groceries for $50, a $60k EV for $30k and a $500k house for $250k…and yet the grocer, car dealer and house builder get their full price with the rebate aspect of the policy. Finally, this single policy would be the greatest temporal universe opportunity to self-actualize gratitude for a gift since meditation and prayer, both of which are only inward activities, so its actually an integration of opposites (inward and outward universes) in and of itself.

Posted To Mish Shedlock’s Blog 11/05/2025

A thirdness greater oneness resolution of seeming unresolvable opposites will benefit everyone and enable the changes that both parties hold most dear. That thirdness is my new monetary paradigm policy of a 50% Discount/Rebate at retail sale because it doubles everyone’s purchasing power (democratic wet dream) while simultaneously doubles potential demand for every enterpise’s goods and services (republican wet dream), transforms inflation into beneficial deflation (libertarian wet dream).

To ignore or let pre-conceived orthodoxies prevent you from seeing these policy effects traps you in the unresolving dualities of capitalism vs socialism and democrat vs republican instead of the thirness greater oneness which has historically always been the signature of paradigm change.

The Cruel But Honest Truth Is:

Those who commit cynicism and/or palliation of problems when a new paradigm is known and available makes them appeasers of oligarchy and authoritarianism.

Steve Hummel 11/05/2025

Speech Prelims/Things To Keep In Mind

  1. All new money is created ex nihilo, that is out of nothing, simply with double entry bookkeeping, and this itself is not a problem
  2. Presently, virtually all new money is created and distributed only as debt which makes the present monetary paradigm…the monopoly concept of Debt Only, and this Is a problem, primarily because of its monopolistic character
  3. Paradigms by definition are both mental and temporal universe applied concepts, and so new paradigms change both the minds and the worldly circumstances of mankind.
  4. Paradigm changes are permanent progressive solutions, so unless you value mere palliatives more than solutions…when a paradigm change is available…cynicism is actually irrelevant and the only choice is determined effort until the change is accomplished
  5. Science is primarily identifying problems and Wisdom is about solutions
  6. Problems are defined by dualities like capitalism vs socialism etc. and new paradigms are integrative thirdnesses/resolutions of seemingly unresolvable opposites/i.e. dualities, thus new paradigms and wisdom insights are synonymous phenomena

When…

When you see, by actually looking at it, a solution of the magnitude of a paradigm change, which is both a mental and temporal universe change, then cynicism is no longer relevant, and the only decision is to broadcast and enlighten that change to everyone until its accomplished.

Changing Multiple Economic and Monetary Paradigms

  1. The Customer Must Pay Ultimate Full Price At Retail Sale
  2. All New Money Can Only Be Created As Debt

The 50% Discount/Rebate policy at retail sale changes both of these paradigms.

Proviso: All current discounts like MSRP, loss leaders and resaler discounts on non-selling merchandise must remain in effect.

Life Is As Easy As 1 and 2 and 3 and Major Hint

The temporal universe is set up to be/to present as a problem, that is a duality of right/wrong, self/other, thought/counter thought, emotion/counter emotion, effort/counter effort etc. etc. This 1 and 2.

Homo sapiens/wise and discerning man’s most basic job/purpose is to resolve these dualities in the best possible way utilizing its correctly identified exclusive capability namely the contemplative discipline known as Wisdom which has always been associated with “the third resolving way”…out of the trap of the apparency of the Problems Only nature of life/living/continuous change of the temporal universe. This is 3 which is the thirdness greater oneness resolution of an apparently unresolvable duality.

As the natural philosophical concept of grace as in loving action is both the superlative experience and goal of all of the world’s major wisdom traditions, and some of its major aspects are unity, integrative resolution of opposites and thirdness gretaer oneness of dualities…a major hint is to contemplate and self actualize the aspects of grace.

Steve Hummel 11/05/2025