Lars P. Syll

Radical uncertainty — a question of economic methodology Between 1920 and 1950, a debate took place which defined the future of economics in the second half of the 20th century. On one side were John Maynard Keynes and Frank Knight; on the other, Frank Ramsey and Jimmie Savage. Knight and Keynes believed in the ubiquity of “radical uncertainty”. Not only did we not know what was going to happen, we had a very limited ability to even describe the things that...

What ought to be the role of money and markets in society [embedded content] As Karl Polanyi argued already in the 1940s — it is dangerous to allow markets ’embed’ society. Having unfettered markets and money take over society is a sure recipe for only one thing. Disaster. On both a human​ and ecological scale. What we see happen in the US, the UK, Germany, Sweden, and elsewhere, is deeply disturbing. The rising inequality is outrageous. Societies where we...

Why governments sell bonds  [embedded content]

Money in the real world — how the rich get richer  [embedded content] [There’s an especially interesting part at about 28-35 minutes into the video where professor Helge Peukert speculates on why money is such an unknown territory even among economists]

Sweden as a case of MMT According to the Swedish government official website, “Historically, the Swedish economy suffered from low growth and high inflation,” which the nation overcame with “inventive and courageous reforms” that “succeeded in maintaining control over public spending. “First, in 1996, a ceiling for public spending was introduced. This was accompanied by the addition of the ‘surplus goal’ … for the government budget.” ​Swedish government...

Noah Smith’s MMT ‘critique’ — nonsense on stilts What is MMT, the heterodox economic theory … What does it say? How can we tell if it’s a good theory or a bad one? These are incredibly important questions … These days, most economic theories are collections of mathematical models. If you want to know what the theory says, you can parse out the models and see for yourself … You can go read a New Keynesian model or a Real Business Cycle model and figure it...

MMT perspectives on the euro  [embedded content] When the euro was created twenty years ago, it was celebrated with fireworks at the European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt. Today we know better. There are no reasons to celebrate the 20-year anniversary. On the contrary. Already since its start, the euro has been in crisis. And the crisis is far from over. The tough austerity measures imposed in the eurozone has made economy after economy contract....

Steve Keen on MMT  [embedded content] A bank’s ability to grant loans and create money has nothing to do with whether it already has excess reserves or deposits at its disposal … From the perspective of banks, the creation of money is limited by the need for individual banks to lend profitably and also by micro and macroprudential regulations … The central bank influences the money and credit creation process in normal times through its interest rate...

Basic income — lessons learned from Finland’s experiment  [embedded content] [embedded content]

Robert Reich on the benefits of a Jobs Guarantee  [embedded content]