Sunday, September 4, 2016

Simon Wren-Lewis — Fiscal rules and MMT


About a blogger whom I had never heard of previously.

I left the following comment there.
Who is Ellis Winningham? I have been following MMT for several years now and this is the first I have heard of him. A search at Levy Institute where the MMT economists post working papers turns up nothing by Ellis Winningham. A Google search suggests he is chiefly a blogger advocating MMT.

For an accurate view of MMT I would suggest looking at the work of MMT economists that recognize one another as speaking for the MMT school of economic thought and critiquing this rather than relying on second-hand sources.
The founders of MMT are Warren Mosler, L. Randall (Randy) Wray and William F. (Bill) Mitchell. There are only a handful other economists that have joined them — Stephanie Bell Kelton, Pavlina Tcherneva, Scott Fullwiler, Eric Tymoigne, Andrea Terzi, for example. All are academic economists other than Warren Mosler, who was a fixed income fund manager. They generally post working papers at Levy Institute and also blog at well-known MMT venues, particularly New Economic Perspectives and billy blog. MMT teaching is centered at Levy Institute's Bard College and University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC).

There are other economists writing about MMT that worth reading, too. Peter Cooper (Australia) and Dirk Ehnts (Bard in Berlin) come to mind. There are some blogging on MMT who understand it well also, in particular Neil Wilson (UK).

Bill Mitchell has recently posted a three part series on the contributions of MMT entitled, Modern Monetary Theory – what is new about it? It's a draft of a paper that will be presented as the keynote address at the International Post Keynesian Conference in mid-September at UMKC. Part 1 in the blog series mentions SWL as an MMT critic.
Mainly Macro
Fiscal rules and MMT
SimonWren-Lewis | Professor of Economics, Oxford University

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, I looked at Ellis Winningham's blog and website, and he seems to be a very coherent MMT-er. I did not come across him in the past either, but let us not hold this against him. He also does link to all the big names in MMT, and to a very good textbook too.

Hail to the man, I say! :)

Tom Hickey said...

I am not dissing him. The more the merrier.

I would just like SWLand other economists to read the stuff directly from the horse's mouth, as we say in the US.

I think if SWL interacts with the MMT economists he'll come around gradually. He is already familiar with Godley SFC modeling, and he has worked at Treasury, too so it is not a jump for him. But blogs are not going to do it. He needs to read some books and papers that lay out theory. Then they can intelligently debate it.

Andy Blatchford said...

Known Ellis for quite a while (@elliswinningham) although he hasn't been blogging that long.

Kristjan said...

"I think if SWL interacts with the MMT economists he'll come around gradually. He is already familiar with Godley SFC modeling, and he has worked at Treasury, too so it is not a jump for him. But blogs are not going to do it. He needs to read some books and papers that lay out theory. Then they can intelligently debate it."

He as usual neoclassical as they come. It is good that he engages but he himself will never accept MMT. May be there are some who will because they read the stuff as a result him engaging.

Tom Hickey said...

@ Kristjan

SWL has already come around somewhat, although he may not realize it.