It’s Wednesday and we have discussion on a few topics today. The first relates to the new agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council that was announced on February 10, 2024, which purports to reform the fiscal rules structure that has crippled the Member States of the EMU since inception. The reality is that the changes are minimal and actually will make matters worse. I keep reading progressives who claim the EU fiscal rules are no longer operative. Well, sorry, they are and the temporary respite during the pandemic is now over and the new agreement makes that very clear. I also express disappointment that high profile progressives continue to misrepresent Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) as they advance their own agenda, which effectively provides support to the

Today, I am fully engaged in work commitments and so we have a guest blogger in the guise of Professor Scott Baum from Griffith University, who has been one of my regular research colleagues over a long period of time. He indicated that he would like to contribute occasionally and that provides some diversity of voice although the focus remains on advancing our understanding of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and its applications. Today he is going to talk about what responsible government spending should look like. Anyway, over to Scott …William Mitchell — Modern Monetary TheoryWhat is responsible government spending?Guest post by Scott Baum, Professor at Griffith University, Queensland

The turn away from expansion, production and trade toward lending and speculation has precipitated decline for centuriesIn the vein of Michael Hudson on the transition from industrial capitalism to financial capitalism, and the implications of this transition systemically. The article is a summary of the work of Giovanni Arrighi, one of a number of economists, economic sociologist and economic anthropologists that have explored the phenomenon of capitalism and its development in terms of the world system.RT — Question More (Russian state-sponsored media) Death of empires: History tells us what will follow the collapse of US hegemonyHenry Johnston, an RT editor who worked for over a decade in finance and is a FINRA Series 7 and Series 24 license holder

It’s Wednesday and I discuss a number of topics today. First, the ‘million simulations’ that Bloomberg apparently think show that there is an impending US bond market rout. Second, the way in which neoliberal-inspired legislation ensures the private energy providers can gouge prices and make huge profits in the face of a state-owned alternative. Third, my latest podcast with Real Progressives. Fourth, the crocodile tears from the Australian government concerning Gaza when they are effective supplying the means to kill our own citizens and tens of thousands of others. Finally, to calm down after all that some great jazz.…Bloomberg published a ridiculous article yesterday (April 2) – A Million Simulations, One Verdict for US Economy: Debt Danger Ahead – which I thought might have been a

Not MMT per se but it has to do with economic modeling that is pertinent to MMT’s stock-flow modeling. When looking at Steve Keens’s claim about continuous and discrete yesterday, it seemed to me to be a bit off given that economic data is discrete despite the fact that it is reported in terms of flows that are assumed continuous. Brian explains the details of the modeling math clearly and briefly without getting overly wonkish. Bond EconomicsIn Defence Of Discrete Time ModelsBrian Romanchuk

Podcast and transcript.Money on the Left — MR OnlineEconomic Democracy with Pavlina TchernevaScott Ferguson and William Saas  interview Pavlina Tcherneva

"Finding the Money" Trailer.DeadlineGiant Pictures & Kanopy Acquire ‘Finding The Money,’ Documentary That Explodes Myth Of Deficit SpendingMatthew Carey

I’m on my way back to Nairobi. I spent the last 3 days in Rome at a UN expert group meeting on SDG2 (Ending Hunger) at the FAO, in preparation for the 2024 High-Level Political Forum
that will be help in July 2024. It was a bit ironic that the FAO
building where we held the meeting used to be the Italian Ministry of
the Colonies under the Mussolini regime, and my main message to the FAO
was about decolonizing the global economic
architecture is a prerequisite for achieving the SDGs, including SDG2 to
end hunger. It is 2024, and the global food system reflects the legacy
of colonial and post-colonial hierarchies. This blog is a brief summary
of my main message to the FAO.…Very clear presentation of the conditions of colonization in neocolonialism and of the requirements for

For years, those who want selective access to government spending benefits (like the military-industrial complex and other parasitic sectors), while claiming the government cannot afford to provide adequate income support to the most disadvantaged citizens have used various ruses to give an air of authority or legitimacy to their claims. So in the UK, the lie in 1976 by the then Labour government that it was going to have to borrow from the IMF to stay solvent has been regularly wheeled out. In Europe, it was the ‘tournant de la rigueur’ (austerity turn) introduced by the French government of François Mitterrand in 1983 that effectively cancelled the commitment to the progressive – Programme commun – that is often cited as a demonstration of the limited capacity of governments to resist

The sequel.The National (Scotland)Mark Blyth: Unionists ‘taking my words on independence out of context’Xander Elliards

Philip Pilkington turns the page on MMT?https://twitter.com/philippilk/status/1772538175564447823

The US, like the UK, can’t go broke in their own currency. But if foreign lenders don’t buy into net bond issuance, USD will have to adjust to shrink the trade deficit. This will put upward pressure on inflation and is what the UK faced under Truss. Will Trump get Trussed?… pic.twitter.com/fDuYrC3Gzx— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) March 26, 2024

And there is indeed a ‘current account constraint’ – if you are a small open economy you need things you can sell in order to get the stuff you don’t have.MMT really applies, as many others suggest, uniquely to the US as it issues the world’s reserve currency.If you are not the US and your Sovereign Currency is weak, it will drive import inflation so it really means that your currency is not properly sovereign. MMT does recognize this constraint by treating it with more nuance.MMT’s basic framework includes the priority or primacy of real resources over government finances for all countries including those that issue their own currency and don’t undertake obligations is other currencies.MMT acknowledges that a country must either be able to produce is own real resources, which implies

A brief note on the EU, Egypt, Palestine, and CopenhagenMMT’s man on the ground in the Global South. Global South Perspectives—Reflections & Analysis by Fadhel KaboubClimate Reparations, not "finance"Fadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of economics at Denison University (on leave) and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. He currently serves as the Under-Secretary-General for Financing for Development at the Organisation of Educational Cooperation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He also held a number of research affiliations with the Levy Economics Institute, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Economic Research Forum (Cairo), Power Shift Africa (Nairobi), and the Center for Strategic Studies on the Maghreb (Tunis). Fadhel is a

Interesting post that deal with some of the same concepts as MMT but is not MMT. It’s an interesting take. He has seen both sides, having grown up in a communist country (Yugoslavia). He is former hedge fund manager, commodities trader and author based in Monaco. He now blogs on geoeconomics and geopolitics at TrendCompass on Substack.Alex Krainer’s TrendCompassUntangling the "socialism" vs. "capitalism" dichotomyAlex Krainer, The Naked Hedgie"For full disclosure, I do have a university degree, but I’ve worked hard ever since to recover from it."

In a keynote address to a conference on “Geopolitical Changes” at Kozminski University, Warsaw, on January 29, 2024, Professor James Galbraith called for economics to break with equilibrium dogma and re-found itself on the life principles that govern physics, biology and every existing mechanical and social system. Noting the distinguished presence of Professors Francis Fukuyama and E.S. Phelps, Galbraith called attention to the spectacular fallacies of “an end to history” and a “natural rate of unemployment,” arguing that these doctrines have helped blind our generation to the damage inflicted by rising resource costs and neoliberal policies of austerity and precarity, with dire consequences for households in wealthy societies, for their reproduction rates, and for the long-term

Chronological order. Randy Wray and Stephanie Kelton each make the list.Lars P. Syll’s BlogTop 25 Heterodox Economics BooksLars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

I have received several E-mails over the last few weeks that suggest that the economics discipline is finally changing course to redress the major flaws in the curricula that is taught around the world and that perhaps Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) can take some credit for some of that. There has been a tendency for some time for those who are attracted to MMT to become somewhat celebratory, even to the point of declaring ‘victory’. This tendency is not limited to the MMT public who comment on social media and the like. My response is that we are probably further away from seeing fundamental change in the economics profession than perhaps where we were some years ago – after the GFC and in the early years of the pandemic (which continues). My answer reflects the incontestable fact that the

BRICS doubled its membership at the start of 2024, and faces huge tasks ahead: integrating its newest members, developing future admission criteria, deepening the institution’s groundings, and most importantly, launching the mechanisms for bypassing the US dollar in international finance.The financial plans are toward the end of the post. No details yet, but a plan is supposed to be presented at the BRICs meaning in the fall of this year. An alternative BRICs currency is not being planned at this stage when BRICs is just getting off the ground and has yet to be adequately institutionalized yet itself. It still just "a club" at this point. Lots of work to be done, especially with many more countries already lining up for membership.The CradleWill BRICS launch a new world in 2024?Pepe

Joseph Stiglitz makes freshman mistakes about MMT in addressing the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee on the sustainability of the UK’s national debt. Richard Murphy calls him out on it.Funding the Future (formerly Tax Research UK)Joe Stiglitz really should not talk about modern monetary theory when he so obviously has no clue about what it actually saysRichard Murphy | Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University, London; Director of Tax Research UK; non-executive director of Cambridge Econometrics, and a member of the Progressive Economy Forum

Important for MMT aficionado’s. I was asked during an interview the other day from Paris whether I was a Post Keynesian. I replied not at all and explained that I have never felt that my ideas fit into that category although in a facile sense we are all post keynesian in a temporal sense. Most progressive economists would answer yes if confronted with that question, even most of the economists involved in advancing Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). My point of departure is that while there was a lot of important analytical material in Keynes’ writing that is worth preserving and integrating into, say, MMT, where Keynes went astray was his antipathy to the insights provided by Karl Marx. In particular, I consider that Keynes seriously misunderstood what the dynamics of the class conflict were

LOL… Need a similar disclaimer when reporting on the debt doomsday morons who have been continuously wrong for 40 YEARS…I find it hilarious that Bloomberg feels it necessary to include this disclaimer every time Kolanovic makes a market call. pic.twitter.com/sclIvqZm9V— wu wei (@wu_wei_invest) March 12, 2024

MMT-related.Monetary Policy InstituteEU: Austerity for the people and Keynesianism for the warRiccardo Zolea, Sapienza University of Rome

Not MMT per se, but a post on recent doings in the real world by an MMT economist of rising prominence in the Global South. This post is broadly about a strategy for decolonization and leveling the playing field.Global South Perspectives—Reflections & Analysis by Fadhel KaboubGlobal South RepositioningFadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of economics at Denison University (on leave) and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. He currently serves as the Under-Secretary-General for Financing for Development at the Organisation of Educational Cooperation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.He also held a number of research affiliations with the Levy Economics Institute, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Economic Research Forum (Cairo), Power Shift

The UK House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee is running an inquiry entitled “How sustainable is our National Debt?”The GIMMS written evidence to the inquiry has now been published….New WaylandHow Sustainable is our National Debt?NeilW

The title of the post should be "The Trouble with Economics." Words. The point is well-taken.The Radford Free PressThe Trouble with WordsPeter Radford

While this post is not MMT, it is consistent with MMT and implies that MMT is needed to address the issues that stem from wrong assumptions about the relationship of economics, finance, money and banking, as well as the mistaken view that money is neutral, being only a veil over what is at bottom a barter economy under the veneer of a monetary economy.While MMT doesn’t deal directly with the relationship of economics and power, being an institutional approach is incorporates the role of power implicitly in its analysis of the the relationship of economics and finance. Much of what is presented as received economic wisdom about how economies work and the implications of policies is at best misleading and at worst simply wrong. For decades now, a significant and powerful lobby within the

The bloodiest period of Soviet totalitarianism ended in the fifties, but the habits remained long after, including the advanced system of alternative media that ultimately broke the state: samizdat.Tonight, along with Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and New York Post reporter Miranda Devine, I’ll be accepting the inaugural Samizdat Prize, given by the RealClear Media Fund. Samizdat is a bit of a play on words, since like a lot of politically oppressive groups the Soviets had a mania for reducing beautiful language to state-acceptable ugly compound words (GosPlan, GULAG, etc.), so in place of GosIzdat (State-Publish, the official publisher) dissidents created Sam- or “Self” Izdat: “Self-Publish.”Ten years ago PBS did a feature that quoted a Russian radio personality calling Samizdat the

The Committee for Economic Development (CED) of Conference Board recently put out “Explainer: The National Debt” which is pretty much a greatest hits of debt scare mongering. Other than the references to recent events and data, it is timeless: the authors could have put out the same report in any year since the mid-1980s and not much of the contents would have changed. Anyone who thinks that the MMT debate would improve things just needs to read the report to see that progress in conventional economics is largely illusionary.….Bond Economics"The Debt Crisis Is Here": The Conference Board Is At It AgainBrian Romanchuk

The spectacular government spending post-2008 and post-2020 appeared to upend the neoliberal logic of the past decades, enabling bold public action and opening the door to a more just and democratic social order. Specific policy choices stamped out this opportunity. These pivotal moments did, however, point to policy levers that can facilitate a breakthrough….Brave New EuropePavlina Tcherneva – Whatever it Takes: How Neoliberalism Hijacked the Public PursePavlina Tcherneva | Founding Director of OSUN-EDI, Professor of Economics at Bard College, Research Scholar at The Levy Economics Institute, and Senior Research Associate at the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability

Modern monetary theory has been influential in helping America rise out of the recession that crippled the economy during the pandemic, writes Professor Stephanie Kelton and Dr Steven Hail.The overwhelming number of articles appearing attack MMT pretty much as the work of the devil.  Regarding the the quote, "first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win" (misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi), we seem to be at the attack stage. Independent AustraliaMMT sees America through rapid economic recoveryStephanie Kelton | Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Stony Brook University, formerly Democrats’ chief economist on the staff of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and an economic adviser to the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders