A few weeks ago, in my three part series answering questions about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), I addressed the issue often raised about the fiscal policy emphasis in MMT, that it is difficult to time government spending injections to match the cyclical need. These criticisms go back a long way and were used by the likes of Milton Friedman to build up his case against discretionary fiscal activism in favour of monetary rules. Of course, that was an ideological preference, given the Monetarists wanted ‘small’ government and technocrats implementing economic policy. The basic precepts of Monetarism have not stood the test of time and the GFC and its aftermath have showed, beyond doubt, that monetary policy is an ineffective means of stimulating aggregate spending and that fiscal policy is the best way to counter non-government spending collapses. In those blogs, I outlined several ways in which fiscal policy could overcome ‘timing’ issues and deliver prompt stimulus when needed and be able to contract the stimulus in a timely manner once non-government confidence and spending had recovered. The points I raised are not new and have been discussed and made operational many times in the past. A tweet from my MMT colleague Stephanie Kelton last week reminded us of this again when the US National Resources Planning Board (NPP) was mentioned with a link to the The Internet Archive is a “non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more” and is a fabulous resource for researchers. Reading the Report from the NPP is like music to the ears! History has a lot to say if we listen properlyIt's ironic that China is doing this kind of national planning that the US used to do, while present US policy is to funnel money to the top.
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
1 comment:
Cryptoeconomics ― the best of Bill Mitchell’s spam folder
Comment on Bill Mitchell’s ‘Planning public works ― history has a lot to say if we listen properly’
MMT is a failed approach. Therefore, there absolutely no use to follow the discussion between what Bill Mitchell calls mainstream and progressives. Both sides lack sound scientific foundations, that is, the true theory. MMTers have until this day not realized that their foundational premises/balances equations are provably false.#1
Until this day, in their research and communication, economists in general and MMTers, in particular, are not guided by the principles of Science but by the principles of Circus Maximus. As a consequence, in the econoblogosphere, the best stuff is hidden in the spam folders, and what is openly recycled ad nauseam is soft soap, blather, gossip, propaganda, disinformation, and proto-scientific garbage.
It is long known that economists routinely violate scientific standards and simply suppress/ignore refutation “In economics we should strive to proceed, wherever we can, exactly according to the standards of the other, more advanced, sciences, where it is not possible, once an issue has been decided, to continue to write about it as if nothing had happened.” (Morgenstern)
It is at anybody’s guess to which extent the econoblogosphere is corrupted. The problem, of course, is that spam folders are invisible to the general public. Private censorship is built into the blogging software and works without any traces.
Occasionally, there are exceptions. For those who appreciate the privilege of casting a glance into the Bill Mitchell’s spam folder, here is a sample of posts he suppressed over the last twelve month.
Full employment through the price mechanism
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/11/full-employment-through-price-mechanism.html
MMT and the promotion of Wall Street socialism
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/11/mmt-and-promotion-of-wall-street.html
Everything you know about MMT is wrong
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/10/everything-you-know-about-mmt-is-wrong.html
MMT, fake science
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/08/mmt-fake-science.html
MMT: another case of inverted economics
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/08/mmt-another-case-of-inverted-economics.html
Economics: a hereditary mental disease with scientific incompetence as father and political fraud as mother
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/08/economics-hereditary-mental-disease.html
Forget Friedman, forget Keynes
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/07/forget-friedman-forget-keynes.html
Macrofounded labor market theory
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/07/macrofounded-labor-market-theory.html
Economics is NOT about Human Nature but the economic system
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/05/economics-is-not-about-human-nature-but.html
Where MMT got macro wrong
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/04/where-mmt-got-macro-wrong.html
Rectification and generalization of MMT
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/02/rectification-and-generalization-of-mmt.html
Economics as poultry entrails reading
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/01/economics-as-poultry-entrails-reading.html
Rethinking MMT
https://axecorg.blogspot.de/2016/12/rethinking-mmt.html
Needless to emphasize that Bill Mitchell’s billy blog represents not more than the tiny tip of the iceberg. The four main approaches ― Walrasianism, Keynesianism, Marxianism, Austrianism ― are mutually contradictory, axiomatically false, and materially/formally inconsistent. As a result, almost all of the econoblogosphere consists of fake news, attention management, brown-nosing, wrestling exercises, buddy back-scratching, slander, and cheer-leading. MMT is NO exception, it is political agenda pushing with a scientific content of zero.
Egmont Kakarot-Handtke
#1 For the full-spectrum refutation see cross-references MMT
http://axecorg.blogspot.de/2017/07/mmt-cross-references.html
Post a Comment