Tag Archives: GND

Jeffrey Sachs becomes the first major conventional economist and public figure to advocate the Green New Deal as necessary and affordable. No qualifiers. This is a huge step forward.Jeffrey Sachs doesn't mention MMT in his justification for the affordability of the GND and associated progressive programs because he sees this policy proposal as being cost-saving rather than "budget-busting." It "pays for" itself and actually "saves" money. No need for a "socialist" government to pony...

The Green New Deal unveiled last week by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is a powerful and ambitious statement. It’s more than just a delineation of the enormous changes that will be required to stave off the most cataclysmic impacts of climate warming. It offers a portrait of the better world we can create by doing so. It also has no chance of becoming law, not while Republicans control the Senate and climate change denier Donald Trump resides in the...

"Socialism."While Iain Murray presents an ideologically biased argument agains the GND and MMT, he brings up points that need to be addressed for popular consumption, since it is likely that many people think this way. The GND is not a proposal but an idea for a proposal. A lot of things need to be spelled out that aren't yet. In fact, it is probably not possible to do so at this point, at least comprehensively, since significant pieces are lacking and need to be modeled, developed,...

The increasing uprising against Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) in the media is salutory because it means our ideas are now considered to be a threat to the mainstream economics (for example, Paul Krugman now buying into the carping) and to the heterodox tradition (for example, the British economists who self-identify with that tradition). The high profile debate around the Green New Deal has been associated with MMT and this has brought all sort of crazy attacks on MMT from those who think...

The backers of Ocasio-Cortez’s bill released and then withdrew an FAQwhich seemed to suggest the investment would be paid for using the methods advocated by Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). MMT rightly argues, as against free-market economics, that a state with a sovereign currency cannot go bust. The state can create growth, and thus the means to pay back money borrowed; and it can create money, via the central bank, which can be used to lend to government.For many people on the radical left,...

"Socialism." Cato Institute, what to expect? At the same time, Ryan Bourne's objection that the GND goes way past what is needed to address climate change and that its true agenda is broadly imposing progressive policy needs to be addressed. Ryan Bourne also brings up a point I often make myself. Economics is fundamentally about choice involving tradeoffs and opportunity cost. Rational choice is ruled by effectiveness and efficiency in doing so. Effectiveness is about setting goals,...

The question of how to pay for the Green New Deal is pretty silly when you take a step back and look at the larger issue at hand. Scientists are nearly in unanimous agreement that unless we do something unprecedented in the next twelve years, the Earth will become irreversibly hostile to human life in twenty years, with an estimated cost of $69 trillion to deal with this apocalyptic future. Given that the global GDP for 2017 was $75 trillion, it doesn’t matter what economic theory you...

Physician Ted Noel first admits that AOC went though rigorous math training to obtain her undergrad degree in International Relations and Economics, and then accuses her of making trivial math mistakes.  He then shoots from the hip himself, cooking up an off the cuff model of why AOC is clearly wrong.  Dr. Nolan  thinks he can just extemporize a response off the top of his head based on his undergrad math degree as part of his pre-med training when we are talking about launching another...

You can tell a lot about an idea from who likes it. You can tell even more about it by who doesn’t like it. And some of America’s most obtuse pundits do not like the Green New Deal.... SplinterThe Awful Takes on the Green New Deal Are Already Rolling In Paul Blest

This morning I responded to leading Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) proponent Stephanie Kelton's Huffington Post op-ed, "How We Can Pay for a Green New Deal," with a tweet observing that "MMT often boils down to nothing more than an especially naïve sort of Keynesianism: assume an unlimited excess supply of every resource save money balances, and, voila! monetary expansion can costlessly finance all the projects we like!" My comparison of basic MMT arguments with plain-vanilla Keynesianism is...