By Stephanie Kelton and Randall Wray
A few days ago, Jared Bernstein posed some Questions for the MMTers in order to gain a “better understanding [of our] arguments.” We appreciate his interest in our ideas and, especially, his direct appeal for clarification of our views. He raised four big questions, which our Australian counterpart, Bill Mitchell, has already answered in his own three-part series. What follows is a response from two North American MMTers.
Conference site: mmtconference.org
With Support From
Journal of Post Keynesian Economics
Featured Speakers Include
Warren Mosler, Robert Skidelsky, Jamie Galbraith, Jan Kregel, and Randall Wray
Modern Monetary Theory has transformed the economics discipline. Its influence extends beyond economics, reaching deep into the fields of law, history, finance, banking, public policy, and philosophy. Join the world’s leading MMT practitioners, and explore the cutting edge of modern economic thinking.
Call for Papers. Submissions are welcome on any aspect of Modern Monetary Theory, such as: fiscal policy, economic development, employment policy, framing and marketing of MMT, taxation, inflation and reforming the financial system. Please send your individual abstract (200 words max) or panel submission with a short description before June 15 to [email protected].
We look forward to seeing you there!
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Posted in MMT, Modern Monetary Theory
By Stephanie Kelton
I’m in Washington, D.C. this morning, kicking off the new year in a new job. There are some rules about blogging (and so forth) and, while it is permitted, I think it’s best for me to hand over the reins to my friend and colleague, William K. Black so that I can give my full attention to the tasks ahead. I appreciate Bill’s willingness to take over as Editor-in-Chief of NEP.
Some of you have wondered whether I’ve left UMKC. I haven’t. I’ve simply taken a leave of absence in order to accept a position as Chief Economist on the Senate Budget Committee (minority side). I’ll be working closely with Senate budget staff, under the direction of ranking member Sen. Sanders (I-VT). And, of course, I’ll be reading NEP.
Onward!
Posted in Uncategorized
The Department of Economics at UMKC lost a member of its family last night. Fred Lee, prolific scholar, humanist, and devoted husband, father and grandfather, spent the last several months battling a startling diagnosis — a non-smoking variety of stage 4 lung cancer. Like the disease itself, Fred was a rare type. His commitment to the advancement of heterodox economics built an infrastructure of newsletters and list serves to enable this community of scholars to engage and build ties. He recorded this podcast with me shortly after learning that his diagnosis was terminal. Fred left an indelible mark on the UMKC Economics Department and on heterodox economics. We will miss him terribly. ~Stephanie Kelton
*Podcast audio starts garbled but quickly resolves.
Click here to watch Fed’s last lecture in his MA-level Micro theory course.
Posted in Stephanie Kelton
I knew my colleague had been in Sacramento this summer, and I knew he was there to testify in a federal case involving mortgage fraud. But I didn’t know the details of the case. I didn’t know the defendants had been the homebuyers or that they were on trial for mortgage fraud. This morning, I learned these details and more in this story from the Sacramento Bee. The whole thing is astonishing, and I doubt anyone but Bill could have helped to persuade a jury that, in spite of all the evidence, the real fraudsters were the elite bankers who looked the other way, even as borrowers falsified loan applications.
The jurors heard shocking testimony from ‘control fraud’ expert William Black that regular people who got loans they were unable to pay back did not (defraud) the banks. The elite bankers commit the fraud while prosecutors look the other way and prosecute the wrong people.”
Go Bill!
Posted in Uncategorized
Scott Fullwiler spent part of the afternoon reading (and reacting to) a paper that John Cochrane just gave at a conference on central banking in Stanford, CA. I haven’t read the paper yet, but judging by Scott’s reaction on Twitter, there’s lots to like about it. (Mostly because it appears to draw heavily from a broad swath of at least a decade of published work from MMTers.)
We’ll have to wait for Scott’s forthcoming post to see just how close the parallels are (and how much Cochrane 2014 departs from Cochrane 2009). It will be interesting, particularly because several years ago Cochrane wasn’t interested in garnering insight from outside the mainstream. “Every now and then,” he confessed, “there’s an excluded subgroup that turns out to be right.” But he readily admitted — nay, disparaged — “I haven’t read their specific work. I’m busy, and I try to read what is considered interesting and valid.” Being right matters, and I think that’s why MMT has begun to seep into the mainstream. The risk (though this is not how Noah sees it) is that “all the interesting heterodox ideas [will] quickly get incorporated into the mainstream in some slightly bastardized form,” leaving the discipline as a whole only marginally better off, while those who did the heavy lifting remain at the margins.
Posted in Stephanie Kelton
Tagged john cochrane, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Scott Fullwiler
Stephanie’s latest podcast. This episode is a broad-ranging discussion of conventional economics and the heterodox alternatives to IS/LM, Ricardian equivalence, among others.
Stephanie’s latest podcast. She talks with UMKC Economist Dr. Fred Lee about the micro/maco distinction, Post-Keynesian price theory, the problems with neoclassical economics and his ideas about how to move the discipline in a more useful direction. (Note: There are some audio quality issues but only for the first 30 seconds).
(Updated – slides added)
Stephanie Kelton’s keynote address to the students, faculty, and visitors at Augustana College’s (Sioux Falls, SD) Undergraduate Research Symposium on Saturday, April 12, 2014 at 10am. Stephanie begins at 2:40. The topic of the keynote is Debt and Deficits in the Modern Economy. The slides are available below the video.
What gives money its value? PBS explores. You can check it out here.
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