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 →

Inflation & Unemployment: Fiscal actions (i.e., “daily governance”) & Banking Regulation Work. Monetary “Policy” Does Not

Any argument that there is a “fiscal policy versus monetary policy” debate that somehow suggests we primarily rely on the latter is misspecified. You cannot not be primarily “doing fiscal,” it is simply not possible. (Whether done well or not is a different issue; the very belief that somehow fiscal takes a backseat is the key reason it has been done poorly for decades).

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

A (very) oblique history of MMT, Part III: (Blogs, Mitchell etc.)

"What happened to get the ideas out was the development of blogs.So Bill developed a blog...This is how the ideas got out. It wasn't through academics. It wasn't through the conferences—those are almost a complete bust. It was the blogs.L. Randall Wray (11 min mark generally, 14 min mark for these qts) A (Very) Oblique … Continue reading A (very) oblique history of MMT, Part III: (Blogs, Mitchell etc.) →

A (very) oblique history of MMT, Part II: (Co-Authors, Mosler etc)

Thinking about it – it is nothing short of astounding that three scholars almost single-handedly (triple-handedly?) eventually upended the massive “Great Vampire Squid” (to steal Taibbi's line) that is neoclassical economics in our universities, central banks, and government.

A (Very) Oblique History of MMT (Wray, Institutional Econ, & other ramblings): Part I

As MMT has “taken off” its founders and others have begun to preserve and reflect on its history (1). That history will be well covered as it will prove to be central to (genuine) macroeconomic history one day. Leaving that to others, I enjoy thinking about subtle influences, intellectual links and lineages, that go less … Continue reading A (Very) Oblique History of MMT (Wray, Institutional Econ, & other ramblings): Part I →

Airplane crashes aren’t “hyperlandings”: Notes on Zimbabwe

“IF THERE IS FIRST NO COLLAPSE IN PRODUCTION, NO ELITE MINORITY, AND/OR NO FOREIGN DENOMINATED DEBT, YOU GET NO HYPERINFLATION. JUST SOME OTHER TYPE OF TRANSITION OR STATE FAILURE.”

AUSTERITY IN A TIME OF PLENTY: The “domestic default” boogeyman = More bad statistics from Reinhart & Rogoff

According to Reinhart and Rogoff the danger is both outright (de jure default) and de facto default from inflation and financial repression. However, like their discredited “growth” paper, the “default” argument is also based the on the improper use of statistics.

THE RHETORIC OF GRAEBER’S “MYTH OF BARTER” (& the likely early role of commodity-exchange in credit- & State-money development)

Let's look into the actual ethnography.
Humphrey's primary ethnographic research for the paper Graeber cites as definitive was based on her research of the Lhomi of the Arun Valley in northern Nepal near the Tibetan border.
Of the Lohmi, Humphrey writes (1985, pp.54-55): "Before the virtual closure of the Tibetan border by the early 1970's which followed the Chinese invasion, the Lhomi engaged in three kinds of barter." These are: