Tag Archives: MMT

Functional Finance and the Debt Ratio—Part IV

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Scott Fullwiler | 16 comments

This five part series will explore at length (warning!) and in detail (another warning—wonk alert!) the MMT perspective on the debt ratio and fiscal sustainability. While the approach suggests a macroeconomic policy mix and strategies for both fiscal and monetary policies that most neoclassical economists currently believe are unsustainable, ultimately the MMT preference for a significant role for fiscal policy in macroeconomic stabilization is shown to be consistent with traditional neoclassical views on fiscal sustainability.

This fourth part integrates the content of the first three parts with the functional finance strategy for fiscal policy. Warning again—this part is the longest and most detailed of the four. Continue reading →

16 Comments

Posted in Scott Fullwiler

Tagged debt ratio, Fiscal Sustainability, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory

Functional Finance and the Debt Ratio—Part III

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Scott Fullwiler | 8 comments

By Scott Fullwiler

[Part 1] [Part 2] […] [Part 4] [Part 5]

This third part discusses the historical behavior of US interest rates on the national debt in the context of fiscal sustainability.

Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in Scott Fullwiler

Tagged debt ratio, functional finance, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory

Functional Finance and the Debt Ratio—Part II

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Scott Fullwiler | 15 comments

By Scott Fullwiler

[Part 1] […] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5]

This second part discusses interest rates on the national debt in the context of a currency issuer operating under flexible exchange rates. Continue reading →

15 Comments

Posted in Scott Fullwiler

Tagged debt ratio, functional finance, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory

Beyond the MSM: the New Wave of Brief Blog Posts on Platinum Coin Seigniorage

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Devin Smith | 8 comments

By Joe Firestone

Introduction

MSM bloggers and cable hosts weren’t alone in creating the new wave of posts and video segments on Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) at the beginning of December. The blogosphere also produced brief posts from a number of bloggers, as well as a few more substantial ones. I’ll review the brief ones in this post, and the more substantial ones in future posts, but won’t include my own recent posts on PCS during December.

Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged #PCS, $60 T coin, debt ceiling, debt-subject-to-the-limit, fiscal cliff, Fiscal Policy, hyperinflation, inflation, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, platinum coin seigniorage, Trillion Dollar Coin

Functional Finance and the Debt Ratio—Part I

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Scott Fullwiler | 56 comments

By Scott Fullwiler

[…] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5]

This first part defines the correct measure of the national debt and then looks at the mathematics of debt service and the debt ratio. Continue reading →

56 Comments

Posted in Scott Fullwiler

Tagged debt ratio, functional finance, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory

Government Financial Asset Addition = “Deficit”; Government Financial Asset Destruction = “Surplus”

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Devin Smith | 16 comments

By Joe Firestone

The word “deficit,” when applied to the Government financial accounting of a monetarily sovereign nation, that is, one that issues a non-convertible fiat currency, with a floating exchange rate, and no debts in a currency it doesn’t issue, is a problem, because the label “deficit” when applied to such a Government doesn’t mean what most people think it means. As Michel Hoexter points out:

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged deficit, michael hoexter, MMT, modern money theory, national debt, net contribution, net financial assets, savings, surplus, the addition, the destruction, the national credit, the national depletion

Fueled by Deficit Hysteria, Obama and the Republicans Are Choosing the Path of “Economicide”

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Devin Smith | 27 comments

By Michael Hoexter

In the “fiscal cliff” negotiations and the subsequent debt limit talks between Obama and the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives, it appears that there will be no “good guys” because the talks and policy framework within which they are operating are at odds with the welfare of the American people. Set up by a series of interactions over the last four years between Obama and his nominal opponents in the Republican Party, the framework of the negotiations ignores the way that the US government finances itself as well as the only known economic policy orientation which will allow our economy to thrive; the proposed policies and negotiations have been to date economically illiterate. The biggest losers in these talks if they “succeed” according to the self-evaluations of the Republican and Democratic leaderships will be the American people and politically the Democrats who go along with a framework that demands cuts in federal budget deficits at all costs. Continue reading →

27 Comments

Posted in Michael Hoexter

Tagged Deficit Hysteria, democrats, economicide, fiscal cliff, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, obama, republicans

Richard Eskow Asks: Which Side Are You On?

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Devin Smith | 16 comments

By Joe Firestone

Richard Eskow of the Center for the American Future, posted a very good one a couple of days ago. He used the old union meme “which side are you on” to beat up the President and Congress about Social Security being placed on the negotiating table. I thought his writing on it was striking. Here’s some of it:

Continue reading →

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged chained CPI, debt ceiling, fiscal cliff, Fiscal Responsibility, Fiscal Sustainability, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Nancy Pelosi, Randy Wray, Richard Eskow, social safety net, Social Security

NEP’s Stephanie Kelton Has Op Ed Piece in LA Times

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Devin Smith | 12 comments

Look, up in the sky! It’s a “fiscal cliff.” It’s a slope. It’s an obstacle course.

The truth is, it doesn’t really matter what we call it. It only matters what it is: a lamebrained package of economic depressants bearing down on a lame-duck Congress.

Read the entire piece here.

12 Comments

Posted in Stephanie Kelton

Tagged deficit, fiscal cliff, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Taxes

“Deficit” is the Wrong Word and Concept

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Devin Smith | 44 comments

By Michael Hoexter

The hour is late and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are attempting to shrink the social welfare state in the name of a lack of funds. Barack Obama has made it now abundantly clear that he is no friend to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, after years of signaling overtly and covertly that cutting social programs was his intention. Obama is as beholden as any right-wing politician, a group among which some might count him, to the notion that the government is running out of money, as if our money was still backed by a limited supply of gold bullion. According to Obama and his fiscal advisors, the government’s supposedly limited funds must be conserved by cutting the activities of government while also raising taxes to, in the “hard-money” telling of the story, “increase revenue” from the private sector for the remaining government programs. The former activity of cutting social welfare spending seems in Washington DC to take political precedence over the latter, in part because the wealthy in the private sector are a powerful lobby for their monetary holdings and income. Meanwhile the poor and middle class have not been, over the past 40 years, a powerful lobby for the social safety net which puts a “floor” under their standards of living. Continue reading →