Thursday, May 24, 2018

Bill Mitchell — Timor – challenges for the new government — Part 1-3 of 3

This is Part 3 (and final) of my mini-series analysing some of the challenges that the newly elected majority government in Timor-Leste faces. In Part 2, I discussed the progress of the Strategic Development Plan and the challenges ahead in terms of poverty, unemployment, and other indicators relating to the development process. In Part 2, I focused more on the currency debate – documenting how the IMF and World Bank had infused its ideological stance into the currency arrangements that Timor-Leste set out with as a new nation. I made the case for currency sovereignty which would require Timor-Leste to scrap the US dollar, convert the Petroleum Fund into its stock of foreign exchange reserves, and to run an independent monetary policy with flexible exchange rates, mediated with the capacity to use capital controls where appropriate. In this final discussion I consider specific policy options that are required to exploit what is known as the ‘demographic dividend’ where the age-structure of the nation generates a plunging dependency ratio. To exploit that dividend, which historically delivers massive development boosts to nations, the shifting demographics have to be accompanied by high levels of employment. That should be policy priority No.1.
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Timor – challenges for the new government – Part 1


Timor-Leste – challenges for the new government – Part 3Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

1 comment:

Kaivey said...

Steve Grumbine said to Warren Mosler that Bill Mitchell's Billy's Blog was a good way to get to understand MMT but the amount he writes is phenomenal. Warren Mosler said he's seem him doing it and he stays to all night writing it.

Bill Mitchell is very passionate about MMT, and socialism, but he still gets time to do his music. A really nice guy, like Steve Keen, Micheal Hudson, and the rest of the MMT team.