Can BRICS Create a Multipolar World? — Fadhel Kaboub (MMT economist)

Decolonize to Dedollarize!

I’m often asked whether BRICS is going to be the game-changer that will disrupt the current geopolitical hierarchy, dedollarize the system, and create a new multipolar word. My position has always been that we can’t dedollarize a system that hasn’t been structurally decolonized yet, and that no new multipolar world can be born without Africa and the rest of the Global South being repositioned away from the bottom of the global hierarchy and at the center of a New International Economic Order.…

Global South Perspectives—Reflections & Analysis by Fadhel Kaboub

Can BRICS Create a Multipolar World?
Fadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of economics at Denison University (on leave) and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. He currently serves as the Under-Secretary-General for Financing for Development at the Organisation of Educational Cooperation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.He also held a number of research affiliations with the Levy Economics Institute, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Economic Research Forum (Cairo), Power Shift Africa (Nairobi), and the Center for Strategic Studies on the Maghreb (Tunis). Fadhel is Tunisian-American MMT economist. Ph.D. in Economics & Social Science Consortium, 2006, University of Missouri - Kansas City. M.A. in Economics, May 2001, University of Missouri - Kansas City. B.S. in Economics, June 1999, with Distinction

Austerity cultist Kenneth Rogoff continues to bore us with his broken record — Bill Mitchell

His latest intervention (November 28, 2024) –
Europe’s Economy Is Stalling Out – was published by Project Syndicate, which regularly gives space to these nonsensical mainstream articles.

The simple proposition that Rogoff offers is:

"As Germany and France head into another year of near-zero growth, it is clear that Keynesian stimulus alone cannot pull them out of their current malaise. To regain the dynamism and flexibility needed to weather US President-elect Donald Trump’s tariffs, Europe’s largest economies must pursue far-reaching structural reforms."

And those structural reforms have to tackle the:

"… bloated and sclerotic welfare states to blame?"

Apparently, those that hold to the most basic macroeconomic rule that spending equals output and income and drives employment growth are “detached from reality”....

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory

Austerity cultist Kenneth Rogoff continues to bore us with his broken record
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Yes, Banknotes Are A Central Bank Liability — Brian Romanchuk

David Bholat recently wrote “How to Modernise Central Bank Balance Sheets: No Notes.” It is partly in response to this article. The idea is that banknotes (“dollar bills”/”pound notes” etc. issued by the government should not be classified as a liability, rather as some form of capital or possibly taken off the balance sheet. I have run into variants of this idea in the past (the stronger version being that all forms of the monetary base are not liabilities), and the root idea is that “monetary issue is good for the economy, so how can it be a liability?” Such a redefinition or removal of banknotes is either misleading or wrong.

Bond Economics

Yes, Banknotes Are A Central Bank Liability

Brian Romanchuk

What Trump's Pick for Treasury Secretary Gets Right (and Wrong) about MMT — Stephanie Kelton

Scott Bessent is aware of MMT but he has a faulty understanding of what MMT says, Kelton argues. On the positive side, he is not clueless, like most others. For example, he gets that high rates are may be stimulative and low rates contractive, based on policy outcomes of the Bank of Japan.

The Lens
What Trump's Pick for Treasury Secretary Gets Right (and Wrong) about MMT
Stephanie Kelton | Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Stony Brook University, formerly Democrats' chief economist on the staff of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and an economic adviser to the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders

Money for beginners — Lars P. Syll

Plug for Randy Wray's popular-access book on basic MMT.

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
Money for beginners
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

Rates

 

Why would you have your RRP rate above your min FFR target and then not understand why MMMFs won’t fully engage in Tsy markets?

How stupid are these f-ing people?

When Fed did RRP in the first place they created a competing risk free asset class to Tsy securities which was bad enough… but then set the rate higher than your min target?

#Fed officials are mulling a 5 bps cut to the reverse-repo rate to align it with the lower end of the federal funds target range. Nov meeting minutes highlight this as a "technical adjustment" to control the benchmark rate. RRP usage: $148.8B on Tue.#Fed #FOMC #Powell #inflation pic.twitter.com/QVDV6FlIMD

— Rymond_Inc (@rymondIncKenya) November 27, 2024

So what’s going to happen is these Art degree monetarist morons are going to cause an auction failure and then all the other Art degree debt doomsday morons are going to go running all around saying “ no one will loan the US any more money! … no one will loan the US any more money! … “

You watch…

How to Cut $2 Trillion in Federal Spending Without Breaking a Sweat Stephanie Kelton

As James Galbraith put it years ago, "It's the interest rate, stupid."

Nostalgia: Carlos "beowulf" Mucha liberally quoted. And no, not "the coin."

The Lens with Stephanie Kelton
How to Cut $2 Trillion in Federal Spending Without Breaking a Sweat
Stephanie Kelton | Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Stony Brook University, formerly Democrats' chief economist on the staff of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and an economic adviser to the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders

Tariffs As A Fiscal Tool? — Brian Romanchuk

Has Trump thought his tariff proposal through? Brian gives reasons to doubt that this move would be successful in replacing the income tax or substantially affecting it.

BTW, Brian has migrated from X to Bluesky along with many others in the fields of economics and finance. Links provided at the end of the post.

Bond Economics

Tariffs As A Fiscal Tool?

Brian Romanchuk

Class

 

Whoa!… hold up!…  was Marx correct? 🤔

Americans are increasingly voting along class lines, not racial ones. That could upend how we’ve thought about politics for decades. https://t.co/rWBJFK32BD

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 15, 2024

Episode 8 (S2) of the Smith Family Manga is now available — Bill Mitchell

Today (November 15, 2024), MMTed releases Episode 8 in the Second Season of our Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money. Have a bit of fun with it while learning Modern Monetary Theory….

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
Episode 8 (S2) of the Smith Family Manga is now available

Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Oh no...Eva Langoria leaving the U.S.!!!

Oh no, what will we do? "Privileged" (her words) Eva Langoria is leaving the U.S.!! What a loss.  Here's Eva, lamenting for all the rest of us who will be left behind.

“Most Americans” are “going to be stuck in this dystopian country, and my anxiety and sadness is for them."

Thank you, Eva, for your fake concern. We'll try to get by in this terrible country as best as possible. But before you go, can you please take all of your Hollywood asshole friends, too? America can't stand you and your privileged elitist sanctimonious jerks from Tinseltown. Get lost. Go!! 

Hopefully, this is not an empty threat by Eva, as we hear regularly from people like Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, and Robert De Niro. They should take the lying, terrorist-loving, woke, anti-American mainstream media with them.

Wishful Thinking

 

More wishful thinking from Democrat left:

Given voters’ ire at the high cost of living, it might be wrong to assume Donald Trump will simply pick up where he left off and pressure the Fed to take interest rates right on down https://t.co/Mf70bunUQr

— Bloomberg Economics (@economics) November 12, 2024

Trump v Iran

 

Reports Iran conspired to assassinate Trump…

The DOJ charged 3 individuals in an assassination plot against Trump. Two are in custody and one is allegedly living in Tehran — the capital city of Iran.

Some really interesting things are happening right now. pic.twitter.com/8rsDBdyjGk

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) November 8, 2024

6 of these m-fers just deployed to Qatar plus boomers to the region…

Maybe Trump will demand the surrender of the Iranian regime…or finally incinerate that whole goat f-ing rats nest…

Volatility premiums increasing 2 months out…

Trump v Fed ?

 

This guy a MAGA Trump insider perhaps in line for AG (probably too much to hope he gets it 🙏🏻) but it’s revealing that he mentions the bankruptcy first…

Trump’s opponents attempted to bankrupt him for non-fraud.

And imprison him for life for non-crimes.

And take him off the ballot.

And take off his head.

Now they want “unity”?

Fuck them.

Let’s unify them in prison.

— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) November 8, 2024

Biden 2022 rate increases were unprecedented… so you can see what they did they put the rates way up to squeeze him, then they get commie kangaroos in NYC to impose half a billion dollars civil judgement in attempt to to bankrupt him…  flushing the US CRE market down the toilet bowl in the process causing mini banking crisis in March 2023 … hoping Trump somehow got caught up in the whirlpool…

So his first mission (he will never say that it is) will be to reverse all this ..  which would start with quick reversal of Biden rate rate increases to benefit his position and a lot of others like him who also have been being squeezed… which means policy rate down at least to 2% pronto.. will cover it politically by saying he’s getting mortgage rates down for young households which will be an added political benefit…

Going to be interesting to see if the Fed commie deep state Monetarists are going to be the first to fight him on this part of his agenda..,

Functional finance — Lars P. Syll

What monetarists. deficit hawks, and debt phobes don't get. Quotes by Abba Lerner and John Maynard Keynes.

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
Functional finance
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

On Sraffa and Keynes — Lars P. Syll

Minsky quote that underlies not only Keynes but also MMT.

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
On Sraffa and Keynes
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

Escobar: The Roadblocks Ahead For The Sovereign Harmonious Multi-Nodal World — Pepe Escobar

We will need weeks, months, years to fully grasp the enormity of what took place in Kazan during the annual BRICS summit under the Russian presidency.

For the moment let’s cherish arguably the most appropriate definition of BRICS as a laboratory of the future: this lab, against nearly insurmountable odds, is actively engaged in creating a Sovereign Harmonious Multi-Nodal World.

My take is that there were two tracks leading up to the meeting of BRICS+ in Kazan. 

The first track was widely reported in the Alt-Media and was wildly optimistic about the outcome since it focused almost exclusively on the "key players" none of whom had any political clout. It was even speculated that a new monetary system based on a BRICS+ currency would be announced. This turned out to be pie-in-the-sky.

The second track that was taking place behind the scenes and was not reported on or factored in by most of the Alt-Media. This group emerged into view immediately prior to Kazan as a meeting of the heads of the central banks of the the BRICS+ nations. This was a tip off that "the grown-ups" would be managing the proceeding and outcomes, which is what happened. 

The boat did not rock as many had anticipated.  It has now become clear that BRICS+ intends to work within the existing system to reform it rather than to revise it drastically or to shape a new system or to radically "de-dollarize."

In other words, practicality won the day rather than confrontation. Change is likely to be gradual rather than dramatic. The task at hand is to develop alternative means of settlement for international accounts that avoids sanctions and that is already taking place through binary agreements to settle in the currencies of the respective partners.

Pepe gives his take on it.

Zero Hedge
Escobar: The Roadblocks Ahead For The Sovereign Harmonious Multi-Nodal World

Pepe Escobar

Government job creation programs deliver significant (net) long-term benefits — Bill Mitchell

On April 5, 1933, US President Roosevelt made an executive decision to create the – Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) – which was a component of the suite of government programs referred to as the – New Deal – that defined the Federal government’s solution to the mass unemployment that arose during the early years of the – Great Depression. These programs have been heavily criticised by the free market set as being unnecessary, wasteful and ineffective. Critics assert that no long-term benefits are forthcoming from such programs. However, those assertions are never backed by valid empirical evidence. A recent study by US academics has provided the first solid piece of evidence that the CCC delivered massive long-term benefits to the individuals who participated in it. And these benefits considerably outweigh the dollars outlaid by the government. I discuss that research today. The results also point to the effectiveness of a Job Guarantee program....

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory

Government job creation programs deliver significant (net) long-term benefits
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

MMT — debunking the deficit — Lars P. Syll

Lars comments on a quote from Stephanie Kelton's The Deficit Myth showing the loanable funds theory being inconsistent with stock-flow accounting.

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
MMT — debunking the deficit
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

24 per cent annual interest on time deposits: St Petersburg Travel Notes, installment three — Gilbert Doctorow

Not much happening regarding MMT these days.

Herer is an anecdotal report on Russian banking. And, yes, you read that right. You get 24% not the bank.

Doctorow is an American residing in Brussels who spends a good deal of time in Russia. His wife is Russian and he is fluent in Russian. A "Russianist," he has a a PhD in history (Harvard) and is a retired business person. His reporting does not conform to the narrative.

Gilbert Doctorow—International relations, Russian affairs
24 per cent annual interest on time deposits: St Petersburg Travel Notes, installment three

Gilbert Doctorow

Did The Latest BRICS Summit Achieve Anything Of Tangible Significance At All? — Andrew Korybko

The conclusion is that it’s a lot easier to talk about creating truly alternative institutions than actually doing so, which means that BRICS will likely just remain a talking club, or a “multitasking laboratory of global governance” as Kortunov diplomatically described it. That’s not to downplay the group’s role since it’s important for major and developing non-Western countries to discuss pressing issues of the evolving world order, especially economic-financial ones, but that’s not the same as what enthusiasts expected.

A dose of reality. The Alt-Media got a quite a bit ahead of reality with respect to their expectations of the initial outcome.

The Kazan Summit therefore wasn’t a failure, and in fact, it succeeded in its only realistic goal all along of gathering its members and partners together to discuss ways to voluntarily accelerate financial multipolarity processes such as through the increased use of national currencies. The outcome was always going to be more symbolic than tangible due to the group’s purely voluntary nature, though some observers had false expectations and thus feel bitter, but now they know what BRICS is really about.  

Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Did The Latest BRICS Summit Achieve Anything Of Tangible Significance At All?
Andrew Korybko

Rate policy

 

Democrat rate policy still has US overnight risk free IOR rate at 4.9% so what is so bad about a 10yr risk free UST rate of 4.2%?  

It’s still significantly inverted over time …  usual Art degree moron suspects going apoplectic meanwhile a significantly inverted yield curve… hard to understand how these peoples brains work… 🤔

Pepe Escobar —Date With Destiny–BRICS Offers Hope in a Time of War

Pepe Escobar summarizes the state of play at the outset of the BRICS conference as it begans in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, Russian Federation. The heads of the central banks have already met in Moscow in preparation for discussing initial steps in an overhaul of the post WWII Bretton Woods monetary system and associated institutions established by and controlled by the West, the US in particular. Expectations had begun to exceed reality and now they are more modest but still positive.

Sputnik International
Pepe Escobar: Date With Destiny - BRICS Offers Hope in a Time of War

BRICS plans ‘multi-currency system’ to challenge US dollar dominance: Understanding Russia’s proposal — Ben Norton

The BRICS Cross-Border Payment Initiative (BCBPI) will use national currencies, instead of the US dollar. Russia’s finance ministry and central bank released a report detailing plans to transform the international monetary and financial system.

Geopolitical Economy

BRICS plans ‘multi-currency system’ to challenge US dollar dominance: Understanding Russia’s proposal
Ben Norton

BRICS—facts and figures — Peter Hanseler/Denis Dobrin

Introduction

In the first part of this year’s BRICS series, we described the geopolitical environment in which BRICS is currently operating and trying to evolve. This environment has changed for the worse since the last BRICS summit in South Africa last August.

The consequence is that BRICS cannot develop freely, because on the one hand, the decisions – especially those of the USA – regarding the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the situation in the financial markets and finally the elections in the USA will have serious consequences for the whole world. On the other hand, the decisions of the BRICS regarding the admission of new members and the introduction of a currency (unlikely) or a payment and settlement system (likely) will also have a major impact on the overall geopolitical situation.

This article deals with the facts and figures of the current state of this organization, the figures including candidates for admission (BRICS+) and an outlook with figures including interested countries (BRICS++). In a subsequent article, we will cover the topic of a new currency and a new payment and settlement system.

Voice from Russia — The trilingual blog about geopolitics and geoeconomics written by a Swiss living in Moscow
BRICS – facts and figures

Peter Hanseler/Denis Dobrin 

The Boy Who Cried Wolf About Government Debt —Yeva Nersisyan, L. Randall Wray

In a New York Times editorial, David Leonhardt recounts Aesop’s apocryphal story about the boy and the wolf, warning that while deficit hawks have so far been wrong, the growing government debt will eventually bite. He reports the economic plans of both presidential candidates would add to the debt that will soon exceed GDP and grow to 130 percent of annual output under a President Harris, or 140 percent with a Trump presidency.

The story of the boy and the wolf was a fable, although it was within the realm of possibility. The fable of the debt wolf is not. While there are real world wolves—Leonhardt mentions climate catastrophe and autocratic leaders, and the authors would add rising inequality and the concentration of economic and political power in the hands of billionaires.

Levy Economics Istitute
Policy Note 2024/1 | October 2024

The Boy Who Cried Wolf About Government Debt
Yeva Nersisyan, L. Randall Wray

Improvement Of The International Monetary And Financial System — The Ministry Of Finance Of The Russian Federation, Bank of Russia, Yakov and Partners

This is what will be presented at the upcoming BRICS + meeting. Download report at link below.

Description on X here. (It's nothing like the cheerleaders have been projecting.)

BRICS Chairmanship Research

Improvement Of The International Monetary And Financial System
The Ministry Of Finance Of The Russian Federation, Bank of Russia, Yakov and Partners

Episode 7 (S2) of the Smith Family Manga is now available–A revealing Zoom session — Bill Mitchell

Today (October 18, 2024), MMTed releases Episode 7 in the Second Season of our Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money. Have a bit of fun with it while learning Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and circulate it to those who you think will benefit.…

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory

Episode 7 (S2) of the Smith Family Manga is now available – A revealing Zoom session
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

How Australian Monetary System Favours the Powerful — Denis Hay

MMT to the rescue (from neoliberalism). This applies similarly to other countries running under neoliberalism, which can be broadly characterized as policy formulation based on state capture by elites in a plutocracy masquerading as a democracy. 

Social Justice Australia
How Australian Monetary System Favours the Powerful
Denis Hay

LA Woman

Great breakdown of a great song (by The Doors) by these 2 Millennial black bros… never understood the song as a metaphor for the city of Los Angeles but yeah I get it now… makes it even better…