Tag Archives: Scott Fullwiler

One frequently encounters variations of the phrase "unsustainable debt trajectory" (or similar) in statements by mainstream economists. The phrase is popular as it offers what appears to be a sophisticated criticism of some fiscal policy setting that is disapproved of, but without having any content that can be used to prove the speaker wrong. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) largely rejects that "debt sustainability" has theoretical validity for a floating currency sovereign. I will focus on...

Scott Fullwiler's article "The debt ratio and sustainable macroeconomic policy"* offers a very good introduction to Modern Monetary Theory's (MMT) stance on fiscal policy. It covers a lot of ground, making it hard to summarise. This article has some general remarks on why I recommend reading the paper as an introduction to MMT thinking. The key argument is that interest service is what matters for sustainability (and not the debt-to-GDP ratio) -- and that the rate of interest is under the...

From Twitter via AppThreadReader https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1133586537512341504.html Note: material in brackets is added to the original by Tom Hickey for clarification. Scott Fullwiler @stf18 1. Quick(?) MMT 101 lesson:From the very beginning in the 1990s, MMT has NEVER argued that 'printing money' was necessary. Anyone saying MMT = "print money," even if they (correctly) incorporate an inflation constraint, is getting MMT dead wrong.2. The argument from the earliest...

Lambert Strether posed these links at Naked Capitalism. The VoxEU article was posted here at MNE when it came out. It is cited here if you missed it. The operative post is the Twitter thread that Scott Fullwiler tweeted in response to it.Modern money theory and its implementation and challenges: The case of Japan VoxEU. Thread in response by Fullwiler.Naked CapitalismSee also at Naked Capitalism today.Michael Hudson exceeded himself on this one. Here is the conclusion. The American promise...

It's difficult to project precisely what the overall economic impact of this would be. Student debt is distributed all up and down the income ladder, and people at different income levels will spend or save the freed up money in varying proportions — it's the spending that will juice job growth and economic activity. But a Levy Institute paper from early 2018 — written by economists Scott Fullwiler, Stephanie Kelton, Catherine Ruetschlin, and Marshall Steinbaum — took a crack at figuring it...

I'll break a self-imposed rule and link to the WaPo for this. The debt burdens not only the debtors but also the entire economy by dampening consumer demand. The federal government guarantees more than 90 percent of all outstanding student debt. A recent paper by Scott Fullwiler, Stephanie Kelton, Catherine Ruetschlin and Marshall Steinbaum of the Levy Economics Institute found that if the government canceled the debt it owns and bought out the remaining private creditors, it would...

A new report from Bard College’s Levy Economics Institute concludes that this bold idea – cancelling all outstanding student debt – would help the entire economy and create more than a million jobs. To those who say we can’t afford to cancel this debt, the report poses a new and different question: Can we afford not to? Cancel and Grow Using widely-accepted economic tools, the report’s authors – Scott Fullwiler, Stephanie Kelton, Catherine Ruetschlin, and Marshall Steinbaum – found that...

The recently passed Republican tax cut package will cost about $1.4 trillion over a decade, according to independent figures. It’s a very expensive policy that currently is not offset by an increase in government revenue, or by spending cuts.Another measure would cost about the same amount and it too would be hard to justify as a deficit-busting policy. But it might have greater economic benefits, say economists. That policy would be canceling all student debt. The contention comes from a...

Student loan debt is a crushing problem in America. Over 44 million people have such loans, with an average balance of about $30,000 — making for a total debt pile of $1.4 trillion. Unsurprisingly, people often struggle to repay these debts with their entry-level wages after graduating. Student debt is now the most common form of troubled debt, with about 11 percent of them 90 days or more delinquent. Worse still, thanks to Republicans and neoliberal Democrats alike, they are almost...

MMT is mentioned, but the author buys into the criticism of MMT based on assuming central bank and Treasury consolidation, and he misses the key concept of Treasury issuance being a reserve drain in his criticism. He mentions Stephanie Kelton and gives a shout out to Scott Fullwiler, too. The post is also interesting as a look at popularized economics. Hughes cites an Izabella Kaminska post at FT Alphaville on MMT that is worth reading or re-reading as the case may be:  Why MMT is like...