This is a question that government money creation (aka MMT) has to take on board if you are a net deficit country (without using US reserve currency!) such as the UK. When we import about 40-60% of our food – indeed, the last figure is more relevant in the hungry gap period of April and… Read more
Category:
Economics
Economics Theory
Government choices never need to be funded
When money is used to represent resources knowledge of how it is created is a democratic imperative. When people do not understand that there is no trickle down but a lot of hoovering up and that privatisation allows a small number of people to extract – in effect – rents from everyone else rather than… Read more
Even the FT is gradually acknowledging where money comes from
There is an interesting letter published in the FT of 15 January from a Gary Prosser of Bristol: Martin Wolf argues in “How the UK can finance the rising burden of public spending” (January 10) that “the country will have to raise taxes . . . impossible to do without courage, both intellectual and political”…. Read more
Counter-cyclical Job Guarantee or Universal Basic Income as An Economic Stabliser?
A very interesting recent post from Ivan Horrocks leads me to think a Job Guarantee is clearly possible, but it seems to me to be particularly suited for school leavers. For those worried about the country’s lack of work ethic, who, anecdotally at least, so often seem themselves to be in financial services or property… Read more
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and international trade
I have been taken to task for my recent post on some of the difficulties of Modern Monetary Theory’s (MMT) conception of international trade by Professor Bill Mitchell, in a post headed ‘There is no internal MMT rift on trade or development.’ Apparently he has been “bombarded with E-mails (and DM Tweets) … The specific… Read more
Job guarantee programmes: back to the future?
Following Peter May’s mention in his blog of the 8th January of Dr Fadhel Kaboub and Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), and his advocacy of proposals for job guarantee initiatives, I happened to spot a link to a presentation by Dr Kaboub in a TRUK blog (http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2018/05/05/the-case-for-a-job-guarantee-in-the-uk/). The presentation is worth watching in full, not least… Read more
Suggested requirements for a properly functioning Monetary system based on MMT in the UK
It is interesting that Fadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of Economics at Denison University, and president of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity, who is a great Modern Monetary Theory ‘MMT’ (Charles Adams’ summary here) and Job Guarantee Advocate, seems to be rather opposed to the Warren Mosler and Bill Mitchell idea that exports are like a… Read more
From being ironical, ‘local currency’ is now of the essence
FT Alphaville (which is generally free) has an article on an Italian bank that has gone bust entitled ‘The curious case of Banca Carige’. It certainly is – the European Central Bank (ECB) is acting as a receiver! It states: The ECB assumed new powers in 2014, through the implementation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism… Read more
Real progress on real local banking
We are gradually getting the rollout of local banking, which I – among many others – have long wished for! The third one is the South West Mutual covering Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset. Digressing slightly, they have an attractive logo incorporating the flags of all the counties. Except that Somerset doesn’t have one, so… Read more
2019 forecasts
The FT has started the new year with a bang by asking economists for their forecasts for 2019. The article itself offers more detail but this is is a small selection of the pretty devastating comments: “Given the political shambles . . . the outlook is anything from lacklustre to catastrophic, but who knows?” said Diane Coyle, professor of… Read more