I presume Alex Little put this together after reading the NY Times piece on Warren Mosler and MMT in which I was (mis)quoted as saying that MMT has no footprint in the academic press. It’s not an exhaustive list, but you’ll be exhausted by the time you reach the end.
Follow: twitter.com/deficitowl
Economists of nearly every flavor believe in the concept of “revealed preferences.” What matters is not what people say they will do in a hypothetical situation, but what they actually do. Their actions speak more credibly than their words. In this column I announce a related concept: “revealed biases.”
Posted in William K. Black
Tagged Control Fraud, krugman, Lowrey, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Thoma
The blogosphere and Twittersphere are buzzing over today’s NYT article on Warren Mosler and the proponents of Modern Money (or Monetary) Theory (MMT). This isn’t the first time MMT has been featured by a high-profile mainstream media outlet (see here, here, here) and, as usual, there are some editorial inaccuracies.
Warren has responded to the mistakes that affect him personally, and Randy Wray followed with some quick thoughts of his own. I spent close to 30 minutes on the phone with the journalist who wrote the latest NYT piece, so let me offer a further correction of (and for) the record. I was quoted as saying:
These ideas definitely aren’t disseminated through published academic journals. It’s all on the Internet.
Um, no. What I said is that we — the academics who helped develop the literature on MMT — started blogging as a way to get our ideas out more quickly than through traditional channels, where it is customary to wait two years or more before an article is finally published. The notion that MMT has no academic footprint is astonishingly inaccurate, for there are, quite literally, hundreds of publications including: peer-reviewed articles, books, chapters in edited volumes, encyclopedia entries, working papers, policy briefs, etc. in print. Suggesting otherwise supports the general tenor of the NYT piece — i.e. MMT is an Internet phenomenon that hasn’t been vetted through traditional peer-reviewed channels. That is patently false.
Has the Internet helped to generate a following? I’d say so.
And it seems to ruffle a lot of feathers.
Follow: twitter.com/deficitowl
By Scott Fullwiler
I suggested more than three years ago that helicopter drops are fiscal operations (printable version here), in contrast to the more traditional view that they were monetary policy operations (e.g., “Helicopter Ben”). My argument was based almost entirely on accounting and, therefore, on the actual balance sheet effects of a money drop. True helicopter drops of money raise the net financial assets (via income increases) of the non-government sector, which is exactly what fiscal policy does but not what monetary policy does.
Posted in Stephanie Kelton
Tagged coordination, Fiscal Policy, helicopter, MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Monetary policy, money
By Jonathan Denn
This demonstration will work well in the classroom or barroom. There are five levels, the first is designed for someone who knows nothing about sector balances, each level adds a new variable and complexity. Continue reading
By Dale Pierce
III. Taxing and Spending
MMT 101
The state’s money is a good store of value and a reliable medium of exchange because absolutely everybody needs at least a little of it. Even off-the-grid survivalists and doomsday preppers need it. Because when they pay for their hollow-point ammunition at Dick’s, or for their freeze-dried mashed potatoes at Costco, they not only pay for the goods – they also pay the sales tax. Now, Dick’s and Costco only take dollars or dollar-denominated credit anyway, but what makes the state’s money valuable is that every company has to collect the tax piece in dollars and cents – and pay dollars to the government at the close of each week or month or other accounting period. Between sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes and all other taxes, everyone knows that there will be a stable, long-term demand for the currency which the state alone can issue. If this currency is reasonably well-managed by the country’s monetary authorities, it will remain everyone’s preferred legal tender – unless a person really is a survivalist or some other kind of crank. Continue reading
Neil Irwin at Wonkblog has a new post up: The Deficit is Falling Fast. Can Washington Accept Victory?
He quotes John Makin of the American Enterprise Institute, who says, approvingly, that the U.S. has probably imposed enough austerity “for now.” Then he shows us the evidence. Continue reading
By Dale Pierce
II. The Science of Government
Backlash
The wave of capitalist triumphalism that spread around the world from the 1980s on was, and remains, a very complex social, political and economic phenomenon. Future historians, if there are any, will marvel at the suddenness of its rise and the completeness of its victory. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan seemed to come out of nowhere. Working class Tories and Reagan Democrats rose up in their millions – to vote against the very parties and ideas that had made them prosperous. And which had also made it possible for many of them to send their kids to college for the very first time. The kids themselves graduated into an economy plagued by inflation and full of uncertainties and unknowable quantities that everyone, everywhere seemed determined to blame on some English guy named John Maynard Keynes. Him and his Welfare State. And all that reckless deficit spending. And all those high taxes. Who wanted to be for things like Welfare and taxes? So, a lot of those kids went ahead and took the logical next step and became Young Republicans. Continue reading
By Dale Pierce
Chapter One
Introduction
This is Chapter One of a three-part overview of a body of economic thought known popularly as “Modern Monetary Theory” or “MMT”. The aim of this chapter is to explain the basic dynamics of our present-day “fiat-money” economy through the dual lenses of government spending and taxation. We will also explore some contested history, and examine some of the ways we need to think about money differently, now that the United States, along with the rest of the world, has gone off any version of a gold standard. The intent is to be as non-technical as possible, but some parts of the subject are, unavoidably, a little complex. In these areas, keeping the logic as step-by-step as possible will be the goal. In Chapter Two we will look at the ways money systems sometimes go haywire, through either inflationary malfunctions or through the (thankfully) less-familiar phenomenon called deflation, including “debt deflation”. Chapter Three will be about Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Continue reading
The latest in the MMPP Seminars at Columbia feature NEP’s Scott Fullwiler. The topic of this seminar is Interactions Between Monetary and Fiscal Policy. You can watch below or visit MMPP’s site.
Posted in Scott Fullwiler
Tagged MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Modern Money and Public Purpose
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