Philip Pilkington — Taxation, Government Spending, the National Debt and MMT

Phil discovers Beardsley Ruml.

The other day my friend Rohan Grey — a lawyer and one of the key organisers behind the excellent Modern Money Network (bringing Post-Keynesian economics to Columbia Law School, yes please!) — directed me to an absolutely fascinating piece of writing. It is called ‘Taxes For Revenue Are Obsolete’ and it was written in 1945 by Beardsley Ruml. Ruml was the director of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 1937-1947 and also worked on issues of taxation at the Treasury during the war.

The article lays out the case that taxation should not be focused on revenue generation. Rather, Ruml argues, it should be thought of as serving other purposes entirely.…

Fixing the Economists
Taxation, Government Spending, the National Debt and MMT
Philip Pilkington

Rohan Grey — MMT Vs Austrian Debate Post-Mortem

One of our network coordinators, Rohan Grey, has written a 5-part response to the debate, which can be found here:

• Part I: Preface
• Part II: Monetary Operations vs. Political Economy
• Part III: Democracy, Taxes, and the Currency Monopolist
• Part IV: The (Legal) Extension of the MMT Case
• Part V: Coda

Another summary and critique can be found here, by JP Hochbaum.

Go to page for links.

The Modern Money Network
MMT Vs Austrian Debate Post-Mortem
Rohan Grey