Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Bill Mitchell – We can have full employment again in a green world

Must-read.
Last Saturday, the Weekend Australian, Rupert Murdoch’s daily national newspaper, had a relative Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) avalanche, with two core MMT-style articles published and two that were supportive rather than hostile. That tells you something about the way the world is shifting. I have received a bit of flack for publishing an Op-Ed piece in that newspaper from those who style themselves as Leftists. It is the same old argument – dealing with the devil. And the same old reply – if you want to influence policy then you have to talk to those who make policy. It is easy plotting revolutions over lunch. There has been a lot of groundwork laid over the last several months to bring people into the conversation. It is quiet stuff. Discreet. And as things unfold I will make some of the developments public. At present, all I can say is that I have a document before the Prime Minister today and there is a lot of behind-the-scenes workshops/briefings going on at state-level. And, while activists spend a lot of time ‘pressuring’ this person and that person on social media, the big shifts that are going on at present, including the publication of Noel Pearson’s piece and my article, are not being helped by aggressive social media confrontations. Sometimes it is better to work in a subtle way and exploit networks where they are available. That is not to say that activism to promote MMT is not appreciated and helpful. But we do need to pick our path. Anyway, a number of people asked me to publish my article here because they cannot get behind The Australian’s paywall. So here is the penultimate version which is a few hundred words longer than the actual article, which I cannot provide due to copyright restrictions. I also cannot provide Noel Pearson’s accompanying and complementary article but it was magnificent.
I think we can safely say that this behind the scenes maneuvering is going on elsewhere, too. In fact, likely for some time in the US given Stephanie Kelton's high profile position.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
We can have full employment again in a green world
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

6 comments:

Peter Pan said...

Oz is not nearly as bad off as the US... what is the impetus for this 'backroom' maneuvering?

AXEC / E.K-H said...

MMT Basics
Comment on Lars Syll on ‘MMT basics’

• The counterfeiter never runs out of money.
• The counterfeiter never stops stealing stuff from the rest of society.
• The counterfeiter increases the profit of the business sector with his additional demand.
• The counterfeiter says that he is good for the economy and employment.
• When the economy breaks down the counterfeiter increases deficit spending/money creation.
• The counterfeiter solves any problem from unemployment to pandemics to global warming with deficit spending/money creation.
• The counterfeiter continuously increases the public debt but says that it does not matter.
• The counterfeiter is a criminal but never gets caught because he games the fiat money system from within.#1, #2, #3
• The counterfeiter gets valuable PR support from academia, in particular from the MMT fake science trolls.#4

Egmont Kakarot-Handtke

#1 Criminals and the monetary order
https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2019/10/criminals-and-monetary-order.html

#2 MMT sucks
https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2018/12/mmt-sucks.html

#3 Cross-references
https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2017/07/mmt-cross-references.html

#4 The sectoral balances obfuscation: stupidity or corruption?
https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-sectoral-balances-obfuscation.html

Matt Franko said...

You sound like a gold bug with the “counterfeiting!” schtick....

Matt Franko said...

Pete, stand by for the policy synthesis.... will still be f-ed up....

Peter Pan said...

Bill is counting his chickens before they hatch. A JG is a long way from Australia's welfare/workfare system.

Peter Pan said...

So yeah, the policy synthesis may be a Frankenstein monster.