Tax Research UK
What is money? An explanation
Richard Murphy | Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University, London; Director of Tax Research UK; non-executive director of Cambridge Econometrics, and a member of the Progressive Economy Forum
Also from Richard Murphy
I would say that MMT is well-defined by the MMT economists. Most economist that "embrace MMT" either misunderstand MMT in important ways or else focus on only a part of it. If they wish to create an economics that "embraces MMT" in their understanding they they should also create a different name for it to avoid confusion with MMT properly speaking.
Question of to the day: what to call an economics that embraces MMT?
Question of to the day: what to call an economics that embraces MMT?
2 comments:
Warren Mosler sums it up pithily: Modern money as state-issued currency is a tax credit. Tom Hickey
Fiat is not only a tax credit but also a means to pay off the debt the government privileged usury cartel drives the population into.
No wonder then that there is such opposition to fiat creation for the general welfare - it's a means to liberate debt-slaves.
Warren Mosler’s above statement is not an attempt to define money: it is description of most countries’ BASIC form of money, i.e. central bank or state issued money, in the 21st century, which is certainly A FORM of money.
The definition of money given in most dictionaries of economics is along the lines of: “Anything widely accepted in payment for goods and services or in settlement of a debt” (as one of the commentators after Murphy’s article rightly said.
E.g. Bitcoins are a form of money, but they are not a tax credit. And in various societies and civilisations throughout history, almost anything you can think of has been used as money: cattle, cowrie shells, gold coins, base metal coins etc etc.
Plus the latter items are not “promises to pay” which seems to be Murphy’s definition of money. In short, he doesn’t have a clue.
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