Paul Vigna

Managing editor, American Banker. Author, The Almightier. Last of the Duke Street kings. Opinions mine own. Email: [email protected]

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

Pub Day!

My new book The Almightier is out today. Already the top new release in Amazon’s money section, it’s a history of money you haven’t heard before: how money came from religion, eventually broke free from religion and how money became its own morality. And how maybe we can do better.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

I graduated college some decades ago, but I remember thinking even then that four years was one year too long. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the hell out of that fourth year, but I didn’t need it.

[John Arnold @johnarnold]

There are likely many majors in which a 3-year degree can deliver >95% of the value for 75% of the time and cost. It's one of the most promising experiments to improve the value proposition of college.

The most vocal critic: the American Association of University Professors.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@ColyerAndy @jj_hunsecker666 That’s a fair criticism. You get only ~1,000 words in an editorial, so I was just trying to intro the concept broadly. My book The Almightier gets into much more detail.

And, no, there’s no crypto angle.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

The US is almost $80 trillion in debt. There is no normal solution to that problem. We need an un-normal solution. I wrote about one for The New York Times: cancel the debt. All of it. After all, that's what they used to do in the ancient world.

Gift link: https://t.co/Uys3mMpPtK

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@samfbiddle Please tell me those are mini donuts.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@jj_hunsecker666 Oh, I wouldn’t just screw the creditors. That would create just as big a calamity. No, we’d make them whole.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@ChrisNokeoi721 Well, I did write about it in a book: https://t.co/uDR6vGrG3k

And I do plan to keep talking about it. And introducing the idea to 13 million people can’t be that bad.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@wbmosler I’ll read yours if you read mine:

https://t.co/uDR6vGrG3k

We’re probably not as far apart as you suspect.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@DanielHerz3 @nytimes Also, I have deep concerns about people’s welfare as well. This is really just one idea in a book I wrote last summer about money and our attitudes toward it. I see this as one part, one big part, of a wider movement.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@DanielHerz3 @nytimes Your point about the dollar is fair, of course. And don’t worry about the slight. This is Twitter, that’s tame for these parts.

Would it make any difference if I told you I think every other country should do this as well, not just the U.S.? :)

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@1020thoughts Nutballs screaming at clouds sometimes change the world. :)

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@thinkandsoar Respectfully, I think we are way past the point where that playbook will help. We can’t grow our way out of this. We can’t austerity our way out of this. Need to get more creative.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@arateof @wbmosler @ProfSteveKeen The essay was just to introduce the concept broadly. Obviously I didn’t have space to get into details. And there would be a lot of them with this idea. But I would not structure it so as to wipe out savers or creditors. That is just as destructive as massive default.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@DanielHerz3 @nytimes This is not a panacea, a get-out-of-jail-free card. There would be tradeoffs. But I’d rather do this and control it as opposed to our current plan, which is to do nothing and hope the reactor doesn’t melt down.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@DanielHerz3 @nytimes Think of it as a controlled implosion. And a way to give our economy a fresh start. If we do nothing the debt is just going to slowly consume us.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@cwoodrich @ChrisNokeoi721 Like I said, I was just broadly introducing the topic. And I agree you can’t do it in a way that wipes out the creditors, the mutual funds and pension funds and so on. And I agree, go Blue.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@ChrisNokeoi721 Because I had only 1,000 words and to fully address the topic would take a lot more than that. This was just to introduce the idea, not to get into details.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@Trish_GURU I loved Mr. Robot.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@arateof @wbmosler In those ancient societies, it was literally the public. Individuals. They didn’t have government debt back then. Commercial debt, among merchants, weren’t affected in an amargi.

But the concept should be applied broadly today, I think. Public, gov’t, across the board.

[Paul Vigna @paulvigna]

@DougKass It doesn’t matter anymore who’s responsible. We are past the point where we can deal with conventionally. It’s time to get creative. It’s time to do what the Sumerians did: cancel the debt.

https://t.co/NkY3O5TPSe