Friday, March 22, 2019

Peter Coy, Katia Dmitrieva, and Matthew Boesler — A Beginner’s Guide to MMT


A mainstream summary of MMT that is actually pretty fair and balanced and reasonably accurate, too. The tide is turning.

This is a good pice to share with others curious about MMT. I am bookmarking it as a reference to pass on in the future.

In a media world of sloppy journalism and outright propaganda, this article stands out. Kudos to Bloomberg for putting it up.

Bloomberg Businessweek
A Beginner’s Guide to MMT
Peter Coy, Katia Dmitrieva, and Matthew Boesler, New Economy Forum

4 comments:

Kaivey said...

Glad to see you back, Tom. I put it out too, btw.

Unknown said...

We need 100% land value tax and basic income to discourage rentierism by taxing away rent. Please put this link up:

https://iea.org.uk/blog/the-case-for-a-land-value-tax
The LVT is an annual levy on the underlying value of land. What is on top, whether it’s residential housing, a factory or wheat is of no importance, so that an empty plot of land next to a plot with a mansion on are valued the same ceteris paribus. This value is derived from the amenities and infrastructure which surround it, or Ricardian economic rent monies accruing not by virtue of work or returns to capital but by virtue of exclusive rights over the land’s use, or ownership. As described by Henry George in 1879, and more recently by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in the Mirrlees Review, this value is borne out of community effort, rather than individual effort, and therefore its returns should properly be redistributed back to that community.

Since the supply of land is finite and fixed, it is perfectly inelastic. This means that economic decisions are unaffected by the tax and that the incidence coincides with the legal payer (landowner). When a landowner builds a swimming pool on his plot its value increases but his LVT payment remains unchanged; when a public swimming pool is built a short walk away and the value of his plot increases, so does his tax liability. There is no efficiency cost.

In addition we need to ban all bank lending except capital development with 0% overdrafts for capital development lending with agency businesses deliver state funds to business. Tax cuts and monetarising the entire national debt could be in place to counter the recessionary effect of bank regulation.

Many working people also own some small property in the south, and they want the good life that comes from big work-free tax-free property gains at the expense of renters and the next buyer. And it's not as if they selling out for little: for the average "I'm all right Jack" southern property owner it means an extra £20k-£40k on top of their work income, usually nearly doubling it. That much money in exchange for voting tory is the stuff of legends. Obviously people here don't visit Waitroses and M&S and see how easily tory supporters spend the big money they take out of renters and buyers every year. We need right-libertarianism with a minarchist government not communism with housing bubbles. Zero corporate taxes.

Unknown said...

Another libertarian tax dodge scam.

The land size (value) of a single family dwelling could be the same as that for an apartment complex. The owner of the apartments collects rents but has no tax liability other than the tiny land value tax.

Rentierism has many other forms. In the US that includes health care (insurance) and the transformation of ownership in many forms to subscription services. A land value tax ignores all of them.

"not communism with housing bubbles" As if housing bubbles could ever happen under communism. Incongruous and idiotic.

Libertarian motto: "Fuck you I got mine"

Noah Way said...

Excellent article, I'll be forwarding that around.