In modern states, demand for currency comes from the ongoing self-imposed liability for the currency. There is no need to pay savers in order for them to desire to hold the currency (interest on sovereign bonds issued for "deficit spending"). Any justification for doing so must rest on some other perceived benefit of paying savers.
Category: Development Economics
The Two Families of Global Reserve Proposals & Swap Lines
Before continuing with posts on this topic I want to note: I started these posts with a twitter comment by Nathan Tankus on replacing the dollar in international trade. That thread continues – that he foresees “a world of swap lines as alliance politics... Swap lines may seem like technocratic high politics now but it's … Continue reading The Two Families of Global Reserve Proposals & Swap Lines
Types & Motivations for Supranational Currencies
It is important to note that the proposals for a supranational currency have been made with various, disparate goals. Some are primarily interested in some aspect of commodities, others primarily or completely the supranational-currency aspect. These can overlap in several ways. The primary possibilities:
Questions Related to International Trade & Currencies
The currency of international trade has been on a lot of peoples' minds in the last few years. The hierarchy of currencies literature, the related questions of reforming the international monetary and financial system (IMFS), the effects of US monetary policy on the rest of the world (ROW). Add to that the war in Ukraine and Chinese trade-related discussion on the role of the ruble, dollar, yuan, oil and natural gas, wheat etc.
Democracy & Profligacy: Will MMT Destroy the World? Part III
Part I, Part II Part III continues with Edmond’s first three examples: New Zealand throughout the 1980sFrance in the early 1980sIsrael mid 1980s hyperinflation France For starters, as in the cases in Part II, we see the twin oil supply inflationary events of the 70s/early 80s. In France, there is a steady and sharp decline … Continue reading Democracy & Profligacy: Will MMT Destroy the World? Part III
Democracy & Profligacy: Will MMT Destroy the World? Part II
[Continued from Part I]In Part One I ask:Name examples where peacetime, politically stable countries (with no foreign-currency denominated debt) have ever spent themselves into inflation? I received a first potential case, the so-called "Barber Boom" in the UK in the early 1970s (which of course segued into the global inflationary spikes of the the two … Continue reading Democracy & Profligacy: Will MMT Destroy the World? Part II
Democracy & Profligacy: Will MMT Destroy the World? Part I of III on the Government Spending→Inflation Myth
Prologue The worry about a "danger" from understanding how government actually functions/spends was already famously stated by Paul Samuelson decades ago: I think there is an element of truth in the view that the superstition that the budget must be balanced at all times...Once it is debunked, [it] takes away one of the bulwarks that … Continue reading Democracy & Profligacy: Will MMT Destroy the World? Part I of III on the Government Spending→Inflation Myth
The “MMT & Developing Countries” Criticism
We have to think not just of the goods, but also think of "productive capacity" & "varied economy" as "real resources" when we make society-wide import/export calculations
Clint Ballinger 