The conservative forces including those ‘Tories’ that are within the British Labour Party (aka New Labourites) continue to gather their forces to counter the growing threat posed by Jeremy Corbyn to their secure world as neo-liberal, Tory-lite hopefuls. They are part of a phalanx of critics, including mainstream economists who seek to diminish his credibility. At the extreme end of this bunch are the evil ones who have accused Corbyn of being antisemitic and a friend to Islamic terrorists. I am reliably informed that the same tactics have been deployed against Bernie Sanders in the US. It tells us that desperation has replaced any sense of decency or reason. It also tells us that the Tory-lites are finally seeing the evidence that their day in the sun has gone and they are being cast into irrelevance. Not before time, I should add. But all is not clear on the Corbyn front either. Today, I want to discuss what appears to be a major economic policy proposal – the so-called People’s Quantitative Easing (or PQE). There are elements of a good idea in this proposal but the QE reference and the resulting language is all wrong, in that it betrays as lack of understanding of the difference between a monetary policy operation and a fiscal policy intervention. The concept should be re-framed so that a consistent narrative can be provided and that a good policy proposal gains the wings it needs. PQE is a wealth generating policy which is in contradistinction to QE which just shuffles wealth portfolios.…Hope Jeremy Corbyn and his people are listening.
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
PQE is sound economics but is not in the QE family
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
1 comment:
I support "People's QE" because it's part of the ongoign struggle to redefine the frame and barbarian metanarrative by the freebooters in charge.
While Bill is well meaning, we have to work with short periods of time (months) to push for a more 'socialist' agenda and remove the faux left from the political establishment. We know the immense majority of the people supports populists policies, and we know the only way stopping those policies is the eternal question "but how are we going to pay that!?".
Changing the barbarian metanarrative fully will take years or decades, but "People's QE" is an interlude, a compromise, that can be used to finance the state AND show that this doesn't create hyperinflation, inflation, or whatever.
We need a Green People's Money Printing and Investment scheme at large scale, and if the only way to do it is thought this re-framing of the neolib deformation of language, so be it.
The education will come with new generations and when common policies are widespread and we may get rid of the barbarians by then, but we have to start somewhere, and People's QE is as good as it may be right now.
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