Close Encounters of a Green New Deal Kind — Douglas Holtz-Eakin

In the end, MMT looks like an extreme version of conventional economics in which there is no independent monetary policy and there are a lot of unused resources. But when resources get tight, the reflex is command and control central planning.

This cuts to the quick of it. The question is how much market state (where free markets determine outcomes, in theory at least) and how much welfare state (where the economy is managed based on desired outcomes). This is an ongoing dialectic among Libertarians, conservatives, liberals and progressives in the US.

However, the GND is different in that it is a special case. The name indicates that it is being compared to the New Deal that addressed the effects of the Great Depression. Proponents also point to the American economic response in WWII, in which John Kenneth Galbraith played a major role. In the minds of the proponents of the GND, this is about government mobilizing resources and "taking charge" in order to meet an existential threat. Opponents view this as overreaction to a supposed threat that does not appear to exist, in their minds.

This is reminiscent of the lead up to WWII, where Americans in general preferred isolationism to preparation until events were forced on them at Pearl Harbor. Then the race to catch up.

American Action Forum

Close Encounters of a Green New Deal Kind

Douglas Holtz-Eakin | President

Sebastian Heilmann — Big Data reshapes China's approach to governance

Absolutely must-read!

Economic planning and societal control: The digital transformation is changing the rules of the game in the global systemic competition. China's determined pursuit of a "digital Leninism" presents a major challenge to liberal market economies and democratic political systems.

MERICS — Mercator Institute for China Studies

Big Data reshapes China's approach to governance

Sebastian Heilmann

ht Ryan in the comments

Sebastian Heilmann is the founding president of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) and professor for the political economy of China at the University of Trier (currently on leave). Heilmann also conducted research at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center, the University of Oxford China Centre, and the Harvard-Yenching Institute. He has published extensively on China’s political system, economic policy making, and international relations.
Heilmann has years of experience providing advice to the German federal government and EU institutions. From 2010 to 2013, he was the principal investigator of a project group funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research examining the industrial and technology policies of the People’s Republic of China. In 2014, he was appointed as one of 15 German representatives to the German-Chinese Dialogue Forum, which fosters non-governmental exchanges and bilateral confidence-building.

Heiko Khoo — China's modern planning system

The 12th Five-Year Plan comes to a close this year and the 13th Five-Year Plan is being elaborated, so it is worth looking at how China's planning system functions so we can better understand the forces driving China's economy....

Professor Hu describes modern planning as a system of public affairs governance. The planning system is visible to market players and therefore it also assists private sector entities to be more responsive to state planning priorities. The process has become more democratic, scientific and institutionalized. Hu explains that under China's modern planning system "the performance of governance is far higher not only than in the period of the planned economy, but also higher than in the mature market economies of Western countries."

China's planning facing off against with neoliberalism's "spontaneous" order that blesses the top.

China.org.cn
China's modern planning system
Heiko Khoo