Something else this ‘mysterious’ Professor of Eighteenth Century Studies from the University of Indiana, Bloomington, said was: “Money, like law, is a POLITICAL creation and (like law) it works most smoothly (if not fairly) when it is not recognized as such. Depoliticised money/law means we have something uniting us.” This may be a form of… Read more
Category:
Money
What gives money value
I was intrigued by a Professor of Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of Indiana, Bloomington, whose name is unfortunately lost in an FT article I cannot now access. But… this Professor was asked to write about Italian mini-BOTS and assignats. “Some would say they’re complete opposites: assignats “backed” by land, mini-BOTS by nothing. But… Read more
Sticking to Neoliberaslism
I see Simon Wren Lewis is puttting his oar in in support of James Meadway – in the sense that he is supporting his Fiscal Credibility Rule (FCR). This same article is also, by the way, published in the New Statesman. Since Simon Wren Lewis (together with Jonathan Portes – both former Treasury Civil Servants)… Read more
Another reason to know where money comes from
In reply to my post on James Meadway’s critical ‘Tribune’ piece, our own Charles Adams considers that “the MMT [Modern Monetary Theory] debates do not get to the nub of the issue, which is really that it is all about the distribution of power. The state has real power but may choose not to use… Read more
A reply to Tribune’s ‘Against MMT’
James Meadway, former advisor to shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has written an article in Tribune entitled ‘Against MMT’. At least we know where he is coming from…. Actually, it is, I suggest, fairly well argued, and certainly concentrates on the ideas and not the people, which for MMT – particularly bearing in mind recent experiences,… Read more
Is the Euro China’s secret weapon?
It seems to have received little attention but, last week, Portugal successfully raised finance by issuing so called Panda bonds in Chinese currency. This is a country in the Euro issuing bonds in a foreign currency and in a Chinese one at that. According to the Madrid based EU affairs news website ‘South EU Summit’:… Read more
Money as public software, rather than private hardware
There is a wonderful article that I’ve encountered on this European Election Day that – for me at least – envigorates the ideas contained within the concepts of Modern Money (MMT). This is excellent ammunition in political arguments because it is both so concise and also itself incisive: As elites literally claim human survival is… Read more
Cash or Data Protection?
This, remarkably, from a recent issue of ‘The Times’ As Sweeden is in the vanguard of the cashless society it just goes to show how completely misleading such an idea is. We might also like to consider whether we really want the payment processors taking their commission percentage on everything – for ever, and knowing… Read more
The Logic of Spend and Tax
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
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