Review of The Case for a Job Guarantee by Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Polity Press (2020) — Sheila D. Collins

Pavlina Tcherneva, a Professor of Economics at Bard College and a Research Scholar at the Levy Institute, has written a concisely, argued case for a federal job guarantee within the context of a Green New Deal. Citing its origins in FDR’s 1944 Economic Bill of Rights and the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Rights, and the, at least nominal, commitment to the idea of full employment that prevailed through every administration until it was quashed with the election of Ronald Reagan, Tcherneva points out that it is a moral imperative, more needed than ever before. Although this book was written before A.I.’s threat to jobs became visible, Tcherneva’s call to action could not be more prescient.

The National Jobs for All Network
Review of The Case for a Job Guarantee by Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Polity Press (2020)
Sheila D. Collins, professor emeritus of political science at William Paterson University

Modern Monetary Theory Explained — Steve Burns

For the record. Not the best presentation of MMT, but it takes a positive approach. It is more or less correct, even though there are some major mistakes. So some progress on balance.

Although MMT has kind of faded into the background lately, on the blogs at least, the message still seems to be filtering out there.

New Trader U — Empowering Your Financial Journey
Modern Monetary Theory Explained
Steve Burns

The Smith Family manga continues – Episode 8 is now available — Bill Mitchell

Episode 8 in our new Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money – is now available. Have a bit of fun with it and circulate it to those who you think will benefit …

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory

The Smith Family manga continues – Episode 8 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

US Rates

 

Biden people still 3.5% above their “inflation!” target….

Data last week indicated US inflation over the last six months likely returned to the Fed’s 2% target on an annualized basis. Figures out Friday are poised to make the achievement official https://t.co/CAVTfVK2EA

— Bloomberg Economics (@economics) December 21, 2023

And circling the toilet bowl:

CNBC: "Americans are giving President Biden TERRIBLE approval numbers — no matter how you look at it."

Overall: 35%
Economy: 33%
Foreign Policy: 29% pic.twitter.com/9rwiHA93C1

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 19, 2023

Monetarism….. 🤔

The parallel universe in Japan continues and is delivering superior outcomes, while the rest look on clueless — Bill Mitchell

The question that the mainstream economists should be paraded out in front of the public and forced to answer is how can Japan do this and experience economic growth (albeit moderate) while the rest of the world is contracting due to misconceived monetary and fiscal tightening and is recording inflation rates above the Japanese rate?

The New Keynesian mob never directly answer questions like that because they cannot.

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory

The parallel universe in Japan continues and is delivering superior outcomes, while the rest look on clueless
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Is It Over Yet? — Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson

"It" is neoliberalism.

Michael Hudson: "Well, you’ve just made the point that neoliberalism wants to make itself invisible. It’s like the devil. If there a devil, the devil wants to say he doesn’t exist. Neoliberalism says inequality doesn’t exist, exploitation doesn’t exist, and everything is quite fair."

Michael Hudson

Is It Over Yet?
Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson

Demographics, the economy and the environment: An MMT approach — Randall Wray and Yeva Nersisyan

Special Issue
How can we construct an economics consistent with the biophysical limits to economic growth?

The whole issue looks interesting. 

Real World Economics Review #106
Demographics, the economy and the environment: An MMT approach

Randall Wray and Yeva Nersisyan

Explain this

 

Hey Art Degree people explain this:

Explain that… 🤔

Here’s fucking another one:

Explain this dumb fuck Art Degree people… 🤔

Here here’s another one with go- go dancers… Art Degree m-fers what is going on here?

What?  Lead belly song from AT LEAST  Jim Crow?  What is going on Art Degree morons? what?

Another one can’t make it up:

What is going on Art Degree morons?

F=ma I can explain that let me know …  can you morons explain what going on here?

🤔

Central banks and climate change — Bill Mitchell

Today, I discuss a recent paper from the Bank of Japan’s Research and Studies series that focused on how much attention central banks around the world give to climate change and sustainability and how they interpret those challenges within their policy frameworks. The interesting result is that when there is an explicit mandate given to the central bank to consider these issues, the policy responses are framed quite differently and are oriented towards solutions, whereas otherwise, the narratives are about how climate change will impact on inflation. In the latter case, the central banks do not see their role as being part of the solution. Rather, they threaten harsher monetary policy action to deal with inflation. I also consider the most recent US inflation data. Finally, some live music from my time in Kyoto this year....

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
Central banks and climate change
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

New Argentina libertarian cutting government

 

This should be revealing… 🍿

BREAKING: President of Argentina, Milei, signs his first executive order, which reduces the Argentine government from 21 ministries to 9 pic.twitter.com/tRVshSCcPI

— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) December 11, 2023

US labour market – no sign of a major slowdown underway — Bill Mitchell

Last Friday (December 8 , 2023), the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their latest labour market data – Employment Situation Summary – November 2023 – which showed payroll employment rising by 199,000 which is a good sign. The unemployment rate also fell as employment growth outstripped the growth in the labour force – down to 3.7 per cent (from 3.9 per cent). The participation rate rose by 0.1 point, indicating optimism among workers. I see no sign of a major slowdown emerging. Real wages have also started rising – modestly.

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
US labour market – no sign of a major slowdown underway
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Science v Art

Massie (BSEE MIT, allegedly) vs. Kerry (BA PoliSci, Yale)…

House freakdom caucus member Massie doesn’t understand the contemporary organization of the academe… 

Amazing how people don’t understand this simple bifurcation… 🤔

MUST-WATCH: Rep. Thomas Massie masterfully exposes John Kerry's #ClimateScam propaganda—upon which Net Zero is built—for the sheer undiluted nonsense that it is, in just two minutes.

"I think it's somewhat appropriate that somebody with a pseudoscience degree is here pushing… pic.twitter.com/fZ4u7JtcEK

— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) December 8, 2023

Progress coming in Biology

 

Looks like the department of Biology is going to finally shit can the Art Degree entirely… that would leave Economics as last moron standing…

Seems like a consensus is forming amongst many smart people!

This is Jensen Huang, CEO of $NVDA

Basically WATCH OUT for the impending biotech BOOM 💥 pic.twitter.com/QrN7heeyiQ

— Gene Investing w/Anthony 🧬 (@GeneInvesting) December 6, 2023

Biden: Fed should be discouraged from raising interest rates

 

Implies at least a hold for election year… for now…

Hey, I thought Biden always said he respected the Fed’s independence. What gives?
“Biden said the Federal Reserve should be discouraged from raising interest rates, in rare comments from the president on central bank policy making” https://t.co/9SnBThvJWU via @bpolitics

— Judy Shelton (@judyshel) December 9, 2023

Scientists revisit Solomon Asch’s classic conformity experiments—and are stunned by the results — Eric W. Dolan

This article is not about MMT as such or even economics, but rather social psychology. It may explain to some degree both opposition to MMT in the face of evidence and also the appeal of monetarism in the face not only of evidence but also fiancial losses sustained from trading on monetarist assumptions. It is also of interest to contrarianism.

TL/DNR version:

The study’s findings were striking in their similarity to [Soloman] Asch’s original results. In the non-incentivized group, the average error rate in the line judgment task was 33%, closely mirroring Asch’s findings. However, in the incentivized group, the error rate dropped to 25%. This suggests that while financial rewards can reduce the impact of group pressure, they do not eliminate it.

“When we started the study, we could not imagine to be able to replicate the original findings as close as it turned out,” Franzen and Mader told PsyPost. “We thought Asch’s findings were overstated. We also believed that providing incentives for correct answers would wipe out the conformity effect. Both did not happen. The replication turned out to be very close to the original results and providing monetary incentives did not eliminate the effect of social pressure.”

The conclusion is also of interest to contrarianism.

Regarding what people should take away from the findings, the researchers remarked: “Here we like to cite Mark Twain, ‘Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.'” 

PsyPost
Scientists revisit Solomon Asch’s classic conformity experiments — and are stunned by the results
Eric W. Dolan

The Smith Family manga continues – Episode 7 is now available — Bill Mitchell

Episode 7 in our new Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money – is now available. Have a bit of fun with it and circulate it to those who you think will benefit …

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory

The Smith Family manga continues – Episode 7 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

British House of Lords inquiry into the Bank of England’s performance is a confusing array of contrary notions — Bill Mitchell

On November 27, 2023, the Economic Affairs Committee of the British House of Lords completed their inquiry into the question – Bank of England: how is independence working? – by releasing their 1st Report after taking evidence for several months – Making an independent Bank of England work better. The report is interesting because it contains a confusing array of contrary notions. On the one hand, the witnesses to the Inquiry claimed it was “Groupthink” in operation that prevented the Bank from raising rates earlier and that it was obvious the inflationary pressures were traditional excess spending driven by excessive monetary supply growth (classic Monetarism). That assessment is contested by the alternative, which I adhere to, that the inflationary pressures were supply driven and not amenable to interest rate shifts. And the Groupthink arises because these economists consider interest rate changes would solve the inflation irrespective of the contributing factors. While the Report is sympathetic to the mainstream view as above, it then launches into a critique of the mainstream forecasting approaches. A confusing array of notions....

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
British House of Lords inquiry into the Bank of England’s performance is a confusing array of contrary notions
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

The Smith Family manga continues–Episode 6 is now available — Bill Mitchell

The Smith Family manga continues – Episode 6 is now available….

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory

The Smith Family manga continues – Episode 6 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

Hedge Fund short sellers sustained losses of approximately $43 billion

 😂😂😂

BREAKING 🚨: Short Sellers

Hedge Fund short sellers sustained losses of approximately $43 billion over the past few days pic.twitter.com/k2FXpsY0cZ

— Barchart (@Barchart) November 22, 2023

What Art Degree Monetarist wouldn’t be short into this:

You’d have to be…

Finding the Money: A Review — Brad Sandler

For the record. Short.

Real Progressives
Finding the Money: A Review
Brad Sandler

Chinese scholar calls on Beijing to raise deficit ratio to 5% — Jia Genliang

Beijing: China needs to decisively ramp up fiscal spending so it can support an economy damaged by Western restrictions on trade, according to a Chinese scholar studying an unconventional school of economic thought.

Jia Genliang – the co-author of the new book Modern Monetary Theory in China and a professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing – said China should lift its headline deficit ratio to above 5% of gross domestic product on average for the next decade.…

Jia is one of the most prominent Chinese proponents of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), whose principle is that countries which borrow in their own currencies don’t face a real debt limit because they can print money to pay for it. That theory has attracted attention in China over the past few years as authorities relied more on fiscal stimulus and infrastructure investment to help a slowing economy.

The Star
Chinese scholar calls on Beijing to raise deficit ratio to 5%
Jia Genliang , professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing and co-author of the new book Modern Monetary Theory in China

The Smith Family manga continues – Episode 5 is now available — Bill Mitchell

Episode 5 in our new weekly Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money – is now available. Have a bit of fun with it and circulate it to those who you think will benefit …

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory

The Smith Family manga continues – Episode 5 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

[Branko] Milanovic Gets Feisty — Peter Radford

I have just finished reading the excellent new book by Branko Milanovic. It’s called “Visions of Inequality” and is a tour through the history of economics since the days of Quesnay. More specifically it takes a look at how a handful of prominent economists have treated the topic of inequality. Most of you will have covered this territory before, but examining how people such as Quesnay, Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Pareto and Kuznets discussed the problem of distribution is not only an excellent refresher on their individual thought, but is also a tour through the evolution of economics itself.…

In his very long seventh chapter, where he lays bare the lean years for the study of distribution, he goes on offense. He prefers to call the economics developed during those mid to late twentieth century decades “Cold War” economics because it was ideologically tainted by the preferences of the American ruling class. It also suffered a catastrophic breakdown of method. The two go hand in hand. In order to eliminate power — and thus by definition things such as class — economics reduced its boundaries and focused only on matters that did not disturb its patrons.…

Power matters. The study of inequality allows us to reconnect economics with reality….

The Radford Free Press
Milanovic Gets Feisty
Peter Radford

Modern monetary theory opens range of economic possibilities - Independent Australia — Stephen Hail

NEARLY 30 YEARS AGO, a New York fund manager named Warren Mosler noticed a discrepancy between what he saw day-to-day in his interactions with the Federal Reserve and the way almost all academic economists write about money. The way they write, you would think currency-issuing governments need to tax before they can spend — Mosler noticed it is the other way around.

Getting this wrong is not trivial. It biases policy narratives. It misleads politicians into thinking that there is something inherently good or sustainable about budget surpluses. It misleads them into worrying about finding the money to meet their commitments when that is the wrong question to ask.

Independent Australia
Modern monetary theory opens range of economic possibilities

Stephen Hail, Lecturer in Economics at the University of Adelaide

US inflation rate falling fast — Bill Mitchell

It’s Wednesday, and today I discuss the latest US inflation data, which shows a significant annual decline in the inflation rate with housing still prominent. But for reasons I discuss, we can expect the housing inflation to fall in the coming months. I also discuss how on-going fiscal ignorance allows the Australian government to avoid investing in much-needed fast rail infrastructure which would solve many problems that are now reducing societal well-being. And then some of the best guitar playing you will ever hear.…

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
US inflation rate falling fast
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Fiscal austerity does not on average reduce public debt ratios — Bill Mitchell

The resurgence of economic orthodoxy is a great example of how declining schools of thought can maintain dominance in the narrative for extended periods of time if the vested interests are powerful enough. In the case of the economics profession, mainstream New Keynesian theory persists because it serves the interests of capital. Recently, the IMF urged the Australian government to engage in ‘fiscal consolidation’ in order to support further interest rate hikes by the RBA aimed at reducing inflation quickly. In general, the IMF is urging nations to engage in fiscal austerity in order to bring their public debt ratios down. The problem is that even their own research shows that these fiscal adjustments on average do not succeed. And, usually, they leave a damaged society where the lower income and disadvantaged cohorts are forced to endure the bulk of the negative effects....

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
Fiscal austerity does not on average reduce public debt ratios
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

The Bank of Japan is light years ahead in sophistication relative to the West — Bill Mitchell

Given yesterday’s detailed monetary policy analysis, I am using today to present an array of news items and some brief analytical thoughts on central bank monetary policy. The latter is based on a very interesting speech that the governor of the Bank of Japan gave in Nagoya earlier this week. The juxtaposition with the way the Western central banks are behaving at present is stunning. There is also some self promotion and some announcements. Then we get to listen to Ron Carter. A good day really.

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
The Bank of Japan is light years ahead in sophistication relative to the West
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, AustraliaThe Bank of Japan is light years ahead in sophistication relative to the West

The Smith Family manga continues – Episode 4 is now available — Bill Mitchell

Episode 4 in our new weekly Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money – is now available. Have a bit of fun with it and circulate it to those who you think will benefit …

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
The Smith Family manga continues – Episode 4 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

MMT and the Deficits That Matter — Bethesda 1971

For the record, a MTT promo piece on the "left." 

Daily Kos
MMT and the Deficits That Matter
Bethesda 1971

Yes, we can afford democracy — and it should be up to voters to decide what a government should do — Dirk Ehnts

It follows from what has been said that a “shortage” of money with the state is not a technical shortage. Thus, it is never the lack of “money” that causes the state to be unable to spend, but always the lack of resources that causes the state to be unable to get what it wants. Money moves resources. If there are no resources, nothing is moved. However, if resources are the monopolist of money — the government with its central bank — can move it even when the political will is there. This applies to wars, but also to social programmes. The state can always afford to pay money to the poor or create employment for the unemployed. It is always a question of political will....

Monetary Policy Institute Blog #106

Yes, we can afford democracy — and it should be up to voters to decide what a government should do
Dirk Ehnts, Torrens University, Australia, adjunct lecturer