Lars P. Syll

MMT — Keynesianism with an expansionary twist Expansionary policy with a strong redistributive component is an attractive proposal … Higher output and real wages would likely stimulate productivity growth. Global warming can and should be attacked seriously. With regard to foundation myths for MMT, Chartalism adds little to the observation that a modern macro economy operates on the basis of fiat money supported by state power which transcends enforcing the...

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What’s the use of economics? The simple question that was raised during a recent conference … was to what extent has — or should — the teaching of economics be modified in the light of the current economic crisis? The simple answer is that the economics profession is unlikely to change. Why would economists be willing to give up much of their human capital, painstakingly nurtured for over two centuries? For macroeconomists in particular, the reaction has...

Animal cruelty and human dignity   Throughout European history the idea of the human being has been expressed in contradistinction to the animal. The latter’s lack of reason is the proof of human dignity. So insistently and unanimously has this antithesis been recited … that few other ideas are so fundamental to Western anthropology. The antithesis is acknowledged even today. The behaviorists only appear to have forgotten it. That they apply to human beings...

MMT — neither modern, nor monetary Voltaire once said of the Holy Roman Empire that it was “Neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire”. Something similar might be said of Modern Monetary Theory … It is neither modern, nor genuinely monetary, and it is at least as much a set of policy proposals as a theory. It might be thought that “modern” refers to the fiat money world in which we have lived since major currencies broke with gold convertibility in the 1930s …...

Pandemic depression antidote (XVII)  [embedded content] The greatest movie soundtrack of all time.

The limits of game theory If you read Binmore’s Essays on the foundations of game theory (1990) you will find a section where he says that, unfortunately, we get into a kind of impasse. We get this infinite regress linked to the common knowledge problem. For example, I drive frequently from Aix to Marseille. You have the autoroute and parallel to it is the route nationale. Say there is, one day, congestion on the autoroute and nobody on the nationale. I...

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New German study shows kids with corona may be as infectious as adults Combined data from both PCR instruments show that viral loads of at least 250,000 copies, a threshold we previously established for the isolation of infectious virus in cell culture at more than 5% probability, were present across the study period in 29.0% of kindergarten-aged patients 0-6 years old (n=38), 37.3% of those aged 0-19 (n=150), and in 51.4% of those aged 20 and above...

USA — der Zusammenbruch einer Gesellschaft Christina M. Greer ist Professorin für Politikwissenschaft und Amerikastudien an der Fordham University in New York. Sie lehrt und forscht unter anderem zu Wählergruppen, Stadtsoziologie sowie Wahlen und ist Autorin mehrerer Bücher über schwarze Wähler … ZEIT ONLINE: Apropos Signal: In der Berichterstattung über die Proteste scheint das Bild der gewalttätigen Randalierer, die Scheiben einwerfen und Gebäude...