Sunday, September 16, 2012

The Deeds of the Divine Augustus: Running the MMT 'Scoreboard'


MMT often uses an analogy of a "scoreboard" to describe a state currency system.  In the US, the USD balances that an entity may possess is maintained by the government, and the government "dosen't get the points from anywhere".

In my view, many who are made morons today think otherwise.

2,000 years ago, the historic record indicates that the Roman government was indeed doing this exact thing via their  "scoreboard" state currency system that was termed in Greek 'nomisma' .  Here are some "scores" excerpted from the ancient document "The Deeds of the Divine Augustus" c. 14 A.D.

I paid to the Roman plebs, HS 300 per man from my father's will and in my own name gave HS 400 from the spoils of war when I was consul for the fifth time (29 B.C.E.); furthermore I again paid out a public gift of HS 400 per man, in my tenth consulate (24 B.C.E.), from my own patrimony; and, when consul for the eleventh time (23 B.C.E.), twelve doles of grain personally bought were measured out; and in my twelfth year of tribunician power (12-11 B.C.E.) I gave HS 400 per man for the third time. And these public gifts of mine never reached fewer than 250,000 men.
In my eighteenth year of tribunician power, as consul for the twelfth time (5 B.C.E.), I gave to 320,000 plebs of the city HS 240 per man. And, when consul the fifth time (29 B.C.E.), I gave from my war-spoils to colonies of my soldiers each HS 1000 per man; about 120,000 men i the colonies received this triumphal public gift. Consul for the thirteenth time (2 B.C.E.), I gave HS 240 to the plebs who then received the public grain; they were a few more than 200,000.
I paid the towns money for the fields which I had assigned to soldiers in my fourth consulate (30 B.C.E.) and then when Marcus Crassus and Gnaeus Lentulus Augur were consuls (14 B.C.E.); the sum was about HS 600,000,000 which I paid out for Italian estates, and about HS 260,000,000 which I paid for provincial fields.
I paid out rewards in cash to the soldiers whom I had led into their towns when their service was completed, and in this venture I spent about HS 400,000,000
Four times I helped the senatorial treasury with my money, so that I offered HS 150,000,000 to those who were in charge of the treasury.
And when Marcus Lepidus and Luciu Arruntius were consuls (6 A.C.E.), I offered HS 170,000,000 from my patrimony to the military treasury, which was founded by my advice and from which rewards were given to soldiers who had served twenty or more times. when the taxes fell short, I gave out contributions of grain and money from my granary and patrimony, sometimes to 100,000 men, sometimes to many more.
Written after Augustus' death: All the expenditures which he gave either into the treasury or to the Roman plebs or to discharged soldiers: HS 2,400,000,000. .... The sum expended on theatrical spectacles and gladatorial games and athletes and hunts and mock naval battles and money given to colonies, cities, andtowns destroyed by earthquake and fire or per man to friends and senators, whom he raised to the senate rating: innumerable.
One can see from reading this how proud (ok, perhaps someone would say "braggadocious") both were Augustus and his subjects over the amount of government expenditures they promulgated during the period of his rule.

The system they were running was a giant "scoreboard" system whereby they could measure and record in quantitative or accounting terms, the magnitude of their human accomplishments, perhaps to be able to document this for posterity and/or to compare to the accomplishments of previous rule. To them, "money" was endogenous to their government authority, and their success was measured quantitatively by the amounts they issued towards public purpose.

What would this type of account read like today if our current morons running things commissioned the "Deeds of the Debt Doomsday Crowd"?

We cut spending by $1 Trillion, we eliminated nutrition assistance to the many, when we had floods and tornadoes we decided not to provide monetary balances to the victims because we didn't have the money, we did not burden our grandchildren with inter-generational debt, since we were out of money we withheld lifesaving treatments from the dying, for our disabled veterans we did the least we could afford, we raised taxes where politically possible for the government to get money, we maintained inadequate public pensions to our seniors, for our posterity we practiced inter-generational accounting, our infrastructure degraded substantially but at least we tried to balance the budget, we remained reliant on foreign sources for energy because we couldn't afford to develop alternatives due to lack of money, our military was often ill equipped due to lack of money, we had to seek public donations for our schools because we didn't have the money in the government, ..... 
Lately I'm longing for "the good old days" when the west had non-moron leadership.


17 comments:

y said...

He mentions the "spoils of war" a couple of times as a source of wealth. This indicates he saw his money as 'coming from somewhere', or being taken from conquered lands, rather than simply being created by fiat on a 'scoreboard'.

Conquering foreign lands as the main means of icreasing domestic wealth sounds like a pretty moronic policy to me.

y said...

Maybe if the US spent less on its military that money could be redirected to more productive things.

Anonymous said...

Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback, Sorrows of Empire and talks about the similarities in the decline of the Roman and Soviet empires and the signs that the U.S. empire is exhibiting the same symptoms: overextension, corruption and the inability to reform.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2CCs-x9q9U

geerussell said...

On a tangent, Ed Harrison goes a 2-min round on RT news trying to break down tax-driven money for moron consumption. Pretty good stuff. (ht @wonkmonk on twitter)

y said...

geerussell,

I disagree a bit with Harrison's characterisation of currency.

It's based on enforcement of the constitution and the law.

Matt Franko said...

"He mentions the "spoils of war" a couple of times as a source of wealth"

Negative y, there is no mention of "wealth" here at all.

Here are two instances where it mentions "spoils of war":

1. "I paid to the Roman plebs, HS 300 per man from my father's will and in my own name gave HS 400 from the spoils of war when I was consul for the fifth time (29 B.C.E.)"

2. "I gave from my war-spoils to colonies of my soldiers each HS 1000 per man"

NO MENTION OF WEALTH.

Doesnt look like it was all about "wealth accumulation" for them. It was all about HUMAN power and authority.

Since the "spoils" are directly tied to monetary appropriations in these excerpts (there are other mentions of spoils in the context of real terms in this passage), what this means logically is that they probably removed weight measures of silver or another metal from the conquered areas and then had this silver subjected to human authority by striking Caesar's image and imprimatir in the silver to make a coin of a certain assigned legal value (denarius, etc..) ... these monetary gifts when added up equaled the total amounts recorded here.

They didnt NEED these metals but instead USED them. Here it is chronicled that under Augustus they rejected gold on many occasions:

"I sent back gold crowns weighing 35,000 to the towns and colonies of Italy, which had been contributed for my triumphs, and later, however many times I was named emperor, I refused gold crowns from the towns and colonies which they equally kindly decreed, and before they had decreed them."

They sent it back, think of them saying in effect: "GET THAT SHIT OUT OF HERE YOU GOLD LOVERS!"

Perhaps the leaders of that day understood the corrupting influence that these metals or other forms of human economic inter-mediation could have and rejected it...

rsp,

geerussell said...

y,

For me those are just two different perspectives on the same thing. Framing the discussion in terms of the constitution narrows in on a more US-specific institutional description of how currency authority is delegated within the sovereign. Talking about it in terms of taxes gets to the same bottom line but in a more general way that applies to any country/currency without regard to whether it has a constitution or what institutional arrangements it uses within the sovereign. I don't see a right vs wrong between the two perspectives, only a judgement call as to which is more useful for whatever rhetorical point is being made at the time.

Q: said...

What is a Libertarian?

Someone who believes in Libertary.

y said...

geerussell,

fair point, but using the term 'coercion' outside of any context leaves out the fundamental and prior legal foundation upon which the currency is based.

Enforcing the constitution and the law may involve coercion, but not necessarily.

geerussell said...

y,

Regardless of the political arrangements and bargaining used to arrive at a system of laws and taxes, they are necessarily coercive. Enforcement. That's the difference between rule of law and a list of suggestions. The difference between the tax man and a bell-ringer with a bucket.


y said...

Not necessarily.

For example, say there is a tax on imports into the country. Those importing goods know they will have to pay that tax. Let's say it's a charge payable to the government for maintaining the security of their goods and contracts once they enter into the country.

Those importing are not coerced into paying the tax, but they may not import without paying it.

Those that try break the law, bypass the tax, and smuggle goods in will be stopped, made to pay the tax and perhaps charged a fine (or more) for breaking the law.

In both cases you have enforcement of the law.

geerussell said...

Those importing are not coerced into paying the tax, but they may not import without paying it.

By definition, if you choose to avoid the tax by not importing you are no longer a member of the group "those importing". "Those importing" are coerced into paying the tax.

In every case, if a person or activity falls within the scope of a law, enforcement is coercive. Given the broad scope of law, ultimately one's options are reduced to compliance, outlaw status or leaving the state.

y said...

No, because "those importing" are necessarily entering into a 'contract' with the jurisdiction into which they are importing. They choose to enter into that contract by choosing to import.

Letsgetitdone said...

Good one, Matt. Morons is right!

Matt Franko said...

Thanks Giuseppe... ;)

I guess they didn't have access to Platinum either thru domestic production or their war spoils back then or they could have just minted a HS 1T Platinum coin and been done with it!

Augustus could have just had his image struck into that Platinum to from a new coin and forwarded it to the Roman Treasury and had enough quantity of nomisma to last quite a while I'd say!

Trying to depict a different historic paradigm here Joe to perhaps jolt some people out of their stupor, thanks for your comment my friend!

rsp,

David said...


"I sent back gold crowns weighing 35,000 to the towns and colonies of Italy, which had been contributed for my triumphs, and later, however many times I was named emperor, I refused gold crowns from the towns and colonies which they equally kindly decreed, and before they had decreed them."

What's kind of neat about this is the theatrical flair Augustus used in accomplishing a fairly standard, practical "transaction." The people offer up a "sacrifice" and then receive it back as a gift in a magnificent gesture of "generosity." They of course needed the money for commerce more than Caesar needed it for his hoard, and every time they used coin with the emperor's visage stamped on it they would be reminded of his power and munificence. We do something similar, if much more prosaic. Every year we file to "pay" our taxes and if, like me, you didn't make very much money, the government credits your account for more than what you "paid."

The magnificent gesture seems to have been an important idea in the ancient world. Consider how short the Old Testament would have been if God had really had Abraham kill Isaac rather than offering him up as a "sacrifice" so he could receive him and his progeny back as a "gift."

Wekasus said...

I always find the similarities between our modern system and the Romans interesting. Thanks Matt!