Following my previous correspondence with the Treasury I had to ask why it seemed to be fine for private banks to create money by issuing loans at will, yet if the Treasury were to create any money it would be inflationary. Here is the reply (as ever, click to enlarge): The key response to my… Read more
Category:
Money
A new role for the Bank of England?
I was interested to discover that Marshall Auerback of the American think tank the Levy Institute, has recently written an article in which he suggests that Central Banks are in effect really insurers to private banks. And all by way of Walter Bagehot, who I discover was not just an authority on the UK Constitution,… Read more
Despair of ‘The Left’
Grace Blakeley, of the IPPR, has written a tour de force on the financialisation of capitalism on the Jacobin website and bemoans, as do most of us, the lack of proper change since the financial crisis. She sums up the pre 2008 situation rather neatly, I thought: This class of [middle class] “mini-capitalists” had a… Read more
Having to use two words where one should do…
I lived dangerously and mentioned to someone the picture I posted yesterday on revenue. Notwithstanding that the root of the word ‘revenue’ certainly means to come back, and so in theory neatly proves that governments spend first and tax later, the danger is, as I discovered, that everyone presumes that revenue is its own justification…. Read more
A solution to imposed austerity?
In an interesting article actually written before the collapse of the Genoa flyover a group of Milanese Italians promoting ‘Fiscal Money’ suggest that Italy should introduce its own parallel currency in the Eurozone. ” Rome can regain control of its monetary policy without breaking the rules of the eurozone.” They continue: Our proposal is for… Read more
How money really works
Positive Money have started a discussion forum and already there seems to be an interesting division between so called Modern Monetary Theorists or MMTers and the opposition. A chap called Howard was certainly against: “Sorry but this is MMT nonsense. Tax money comes in and the numbers in the account go up, when it is… Read more
If we can do it, surely we can pay for it ?
One of the most confused suggestions of my recent session with Positive Money (PoMo) was their stance in favour of PQE, which they are happy to admit is just printing money without first raising taxes. IE they are spending first. So if they are prepared to justify it on that basis what do they propose… Read more
Positive Money thinking
Whilst most people were probably on holiday, I spent much of last weekend at a ‘get together’ in scenic London SE1 with Positive Money. Or PoMo as many of the staff seem to call it. I do think that PoMo is to be admired for – uniquely – promoting grass roots groups throughout the country… Read more
Neoliberalism is no philosophy but simply another pressure group
I quote from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) “deepen the inequalities and inefficiencies of neoliberalism.” This suggests neoliberalism is a philosophy. I profoundly disagree. It is rather a pressure group that was smart enough to endeavour to create an idea. I think the NEF should know better. We must beware – neoliberalism is NOT a… Read more
Neoliberalism exists to disable democracy
Whilst the Mont Pelerin Society was founded 1947, it is interesting to discover that the origins of Neoliberalism go back forty years or so before that. When, in 1907, Austria saw its first elections held under universal male suffrage – a full eleven years before Britain, and seven years before the First World War, the… Read more