To continue on from yesterday’s blog about where people think money comes from and how it is created, now people realise that the era when money rested on the value of gold has long past, so most, these days, seem to consider that money comes from tax. After all everyone ‘knows’ that there is no… Read more
Category:
Economics
Economics Theory
MMT is real gold
The misleading title is because one reader has suggested (thank you, Damien) that I might respond to an ‘Economist’ article on MMT (Modern Monetary Theory). Which seems to go under various headings ‘Magic or logic?’ ‘Nutty or essential?’ depending on which Economist edition you are reading. Remarkably, it summarises MMT fairly well, whilst pointing out… Read more
Money is abstract not physical
There is an interesting piece from Joanna Montgomerie of King’s College London, on Storytelling about Debt in which she calls out the: …£1.64 trillion of private debt [86% of GDP]. This enormous stock of debt must be fed a steady stream of present-day income, flowing from households… and she shows that this private debt is almost… Read more
Thinking like China
There is a very interesting piece in the FT about China building a road in Montenegro, to link the Adriatic port of Bar to Serbia’s capital Belgrade. The Montenegrin government’s borrowing from China to finance the road’s cost, estimated at €1.3bn, has sent the country’s debt soaring from 63 per cent of gross domestic product… Read more
Universal Basic Services (UBS) and also UBI?
There is a very interesting article ‘Can we have UBS and UBI?’ on what appears to be a new site devoted to Universal Basic Services (UBS). UBI is of course Universal Basic Income. It says: When we think about how to transition to a 21st century future that will deliver a larger life for the… Read more
Rent to prosper – or not?
There was an interesting item buried in the ‘Next’ retailer’s annual report (click to read it!) It expresses some optimism on their shop rents. Their leases run on average for only six years (which actually seems short to me) but at a 25% reduction on their current costed basis. That is very good news for… Read more
Does the minimum wage encourage the gig economy?
There is much joy in the Sunday papers and also elsewhere that the minimum wage is due to increase from the Ist April. This is certainly good news: good news too that that after a full twenty years of operation jobs have not, as was initially feared, been destroyed by the minimum wage. Indeed jobs, we… Read more
If you are not at the table you are on the menu
There is an excellent post on twitter from the The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) – I’d like to suggest a few key lines : Put this into practice for a moment: Trump and the EU are negotiating the successor to TTIP. If the UK leaves with May’s deal on 12 April, then the… Read more
Allies of Positive Money have actually educated the BBC here:
This is one area, at least where Positive Money can create progress. Let us at least ensure, between us all, that ‘loans are created by bank deposits’ doesn’t get repeated: We have, regrettably a way to go on the BBC’s ideas on Money Creation……. Read more
No Deal is not just self harm on a massive scale – it is tyranny
There is a very discouraging graphic from Giordano Mion, a professor of economy at the University of Sussex, and Dominic Ponattu, a researcher at the Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany: which is suitably dark – the nearest to dark (apart from the sea) indicates the worst impact of Brexit. Funny how the UK – and even… Read more