There is an interesting report in Business Insider of a survey of America’s economists. It states In the latest survey of 42 of America’s top economists by the Chicago Booth School of Business, not a single respondent agreed with the basic tenants [I think they meant tenets!] of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT): 36% of economists… Read more
Category:
Economics
Economics Theory
Supporting the NHS
We are told that 6% of NHS health staff are EU nationals and the NHS has 100,000 staff positions unfilled. Yet according to the Medical Schools Council the government determines the number of medical school places available each year. For England that is 7,500. Each medical school is allowed to recruit a maximum of 7.5%… Read more
Saving energy and GDP
A recent article in ‘Carbon Brief’ bemoans the well known paradox of energy having to decline whilst all the while GDP is supposed to increase. The writers have developed the UK MAcroeconometric Resource COnsumption (MARCO-UK) model: As they indicate, the major novelty in MARCO-UK is that it includes a thermodynamic representation of energy flows through… Read more
Everyone needs to feel wanted – even if only by the Police
I thought this comment highly insightful and it just shows how very poor so much of the media is at suggesting anything more than a kneejerk reation to the latest news reports. I think it worth two minutes of your time: "Every generation pretends gang crime is a new problem." Rapper and author Akala says… Read more
Don’t use MMT except in an emergency?
For the first time that I am aware of MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) has been mentioned in the UK ‘mainstream’ rather than specialist press. David Smith, Economics correspondent of the ‘Sunday Times’, published an article in the paper on Sunday which is reproduced with free access on his own website. He states: Then there is… Read more
What targets should the Bank of England have?
I have always considered the form of monetary control suggested by Positive Money – currently a sort of beefed up Monetary Policy Committee which would decide how much money the whole economy needed per year – is both undemocratic and places, in effect even more power with bankers. If the government wanted to spend more… Read more
Work and Shirk is us…
While many people with zero hours contracts probably want to work more, the rest of us with any sort of secure employment usually want to work less. David Graeber argues that the concept of selling off one’s time in increments is relatively new. Historically, he says, the idea “that one person’s time can belong to… Read more
Does MMT trump Marxist theory?
There is an interesting article by Carlos Garciá Hernández here, arguing that Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) renders the Marxist theory of ownership redundant (I wonder if Paul Mason has read it?): What happened when fiat money was introduced? As we have seen, the state that issues its own money is no longer dependent on any kind… Read more
MMT is perhaps gaining hold in the US as there are some very spurious arguments against it
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has received further criticsm in the US – perhaps particularly because that seems to be where it is (can we hope?) gaining a hold. Britain is still mired in the all-consuming provincial business of Brexit. This is a writer on ‘Medium’: “…the treasury can only spend by first ensuring it has… Read more
Estate ‘rent’ in New Towns
Once upon a time there was a new town to the East of Exeter called Cranbrook (not to be confused with the – now smaller – town in Kent). Here they thought they paid council tax for public services – as indeed, they do. But, watch out, they don’t cover the services still provided by… Read more