Tag Archives: MMT

Despite reports of a healthy US labor market, millions of Americans remain unemployed and underemployed, or have simply given up looking for work. It is a problem that plagues our economy in good times and in bad—there are never enough jobs available for all who want to work. L. Randall Wray, Flavia Dantas, Scott Fullwiler, Pavlina R. Tcherneva, and Stephanie A. Kelton examine the impact of a new “job guarantee” proposal that would seek to eliminate involuntary unemployment by directly...

Imagine an end to Washington spending wars that leave filibustering senators blue in the face. Economist Stephanie Kelton does. She sees a world where the federal government can build a big, beautiful social safety net, strengthen the military and, for good measure, cut taxes on the rich. The government, in her eyes, can spend as much as it wants on anything without the bill coming due. Welcome to Modern Monetary Theory — a bizarro world that might not be as far-fetched as it sounds. The...

By J.D. ALT This essay was first posted at www.realprogressivesusa.com I keep reading the big challenge Democrats face in the 2018/2020 elections is that they have moved too far left, proposing a platform that includes “free” universal health care, “free” college tuition, “free” pre-school day-care—and a national infrastructure building and repair program paid for, not by the states, but by the federal government (i.e. “free infrastructure”). Progressives seem to genuinely wonder why...

Don't be put off by the title. The post is chiefly about MMT's interpretation of functional finance rather than Australia. While the post is longish and wonkish (but no equations to slow you down), it is worth a careful read. Brian explains functional finance from the POV of an applied mathematician with experience in both control systems and finance. It's a bit of a different perspective so there is a lot in there that MMT economists generally don't touch on.Bond Economics Australian...

SummaryContrary to mainstream opinion the CBO report is a positive result. The CBO finds that higher deficits will lead to higher and faster GDP growth and employment. The governement deficit is the private sector surplus and while the private sector balance remains positive and grows the likelihood of a stock market crash or recession is low. The purpose of this report is to show the finding of the latest CBO about the Federal deficit is a good thing and should be celebrated. To produce...

MMT.Makes MogulTheBitcoin Fallacy-Back to the Gold Standard Jonah Ho

There are some people who like to suggest that modern monetary theory (MMT) suggests that a government can create money without limit. They go on to say that this has always resulted in economic disaster. The words Zimbabwe and Weimar Republic are never far from their lips. The reality is, however, that MMT does not say that governments can create any amount of money they like without limit. What it does say are two things. The first is that as a matter of fact all government spending is...

Professor Thomas Palley has once again launched a critique of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) in "Modern Money Theory (MMT) vs. Structural Keynesianism." One could argue that there are some useful nuggets in his argument, but they are arguably behind the times. His critique is of how he perceives MMT -- which has only a limited relationship to MMT as it exists now. I probably should have ignored his article, but too many people have discussed it, and so I do not want to leave the impression...

By Thomas PalleyA journalist sent me some questions about MMT. My answers are below. 1. What are the major flaws you see within Modern Monetary Theory? (A.) I like to say that MMT is a mix of “old” and “new” ideas. The old ideas are well known among Keynesian economists and are correct, but the new ideas are either misleading or wrong.The essential old idea, which everybody knows, is government has the power to issue money. We used to talk of “printing” money. In today’s electronic world we...

My work on the Job Guarantee spans more than 25 years. The following paper [pdf] operationalizes the proposal for the United States.​Below are some easy-to-share answers to Frequently Asked Questions that I address in the paper.This webpage is intended to be a 'living document' that will be expanded and edited in response to new questions/concerns.​Please feel free to share with proper attribution. I welcome your comments [about]. Tcherneva, Pavlina, R. 2018. "The Job Guarantee: Design,...