Tag Archives: Green New Deal

Good "debate." Lays important issues on the table. Short read.TRNNThe MMT Debate With Dean Baker & Randall Wray

We did this before (New Deal). We can do it again (Green New Deal). The article shows why the ND and GND are similar as responses to environmental degradation. Most have forgotten what a paroblem this became in the US in the 30s. Kevin Baker refreshes our memory. The present threat is potentially much graver and presents a greater challenge than the Great Depression did, as bad as it was. HarpersWhere Our New World Begins Kevin Bakerht Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism Several leading...

This analysis is basically right about the economics, but very wrong about the finance.The problem we face with human contributions to climate change and the levels of pollution that are unhealthy for a vast majority of people is basically economic in the sense that negative externality is being socialized. This means that in markets, goods that generate negative externality through use or in the course of their production are sold at below true cost.The result is mispricing of negative...

I haven't linked to the WaPo in some time since it is seriously compromised. Now it is paywalled, too. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are also on this list. The one aspect I think worth debate, which Noah Smith has previously brought up, is the issue of whether to craft a comprehensive bill that addresses all issues or to create a comprehensive proposal and craft many separate bills to address the complexity involved. This is a political issue that involves strategy....

Not MMT but worth reading. Robert Hockett is an advisor to AOC. ForbesGreen New Deal Funding: Remember Finance is a Public-Private Franchise, Not a Big Broker in the SkyRobert Hockett | Edward Cornell Professor of Law, Cornell University See also Bloomberg OpinionHow to Design a Green New Deal That Isn’t Over the Top Noah Smith

Must-read.The GND proposal that is on the table doesn't scratch the surface of what needs to be done. Global resources must be reconfigured and deployed internationally to meet this emergent challenge. The scope and scale of a design solution is mind-boggling. Tweaking around the edges is simply a foolish delay.The alternative is massive culling.VOXThis is an emergency, damn it David Roberts See also at VOXIt is absolutely time to panic about climate change Sean IllingSee alsoWorld in...

I hate to break it to the MMTers, but fuddy-duddy economists already knew this. Indeed, among free-market economists it is a standard pedagogical device to tell the audience that the government has three ways of financing its spending, namely (1) taxes, (2) borrowing, or (3) inflation. So this notion that only the MMTers perceive the possibility of the printing press as a means of “paying for” government programs is silly.  For proof, consider the following excerpt from Austrian economist...

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...

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...