Wednesday brings music and not much blog posting activity. But I have been following the debate in the UK and Europe about the likelihood of some sort trade deal or not with some interest and amusement. There are several facets to the discussion: (a) the on-going hypocrisy of the European Union elites; (b) the necessity for major state intervention in Britain (and everywhere) and the possibility that the Tories will abandon Margaret Thatcher’s EU single market legacy is another sign that the paradigm shift in macroeconomics is well under way. (c) the way in which the Labour party are being wedged on the issue and refusing to come out in support of further state aid. Instead, inasmuch as they are saying anything, they are just repeating the mindless, neoliberal dogma about ‘free trade’. They will lose on that one, one thinks. All round it is interesting to follow as an external observer.
The major problem for the "left" (NOT) politically is cluelessness about practicality and how systems actually function. They are not alone in this, of course, since the "Right" is also clueless about this, but they presently control the narrative, and to unseat them the "Left" is going to have to come up with something more promising than a lite version of the Right.
Margaret Thatcher is remembered for several statements that have shaped the narrative since.
1. "There is no such thing as society." This is the denial of complex adaptive biological and social systems. Assuming there is no such thing as society and acting on this assumption destroys society and its functionality. Ronald Reagan's "government is the problem" is a corollary of this.
2. "There is no such thing as public money, there is only taxpayers' money." This is contradicted by institutional analysis that shows how the currency issuer finances itself if it is sovereign in its currency (which the US and UK are). Progressives undermine their own cause by buying into this false narrative.
3. "There is no alternative" to neoliberalism. Keynes and the Post Keynesians and MMT have brought to light how there is not only an alternative to neoliberalism but also this path resolves the issues associated with neoliberalism. The sooner the fundamental falsity of this narrative is exposed so that it just disappears, the better.
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
British-EU disputes suggest the Tories are set to break away from the sordid Thatcher legacy
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
4 comments:
“Progressives undermine their own cause by buying into this false narrative.“
No one is buying into anything this is figurative language..,
This is a THESIS: “ There is no such thing as public money, there is only taxpayers' money."
That is a Thesis... it is not a narrative.., it’s not a “myth!” .... it’s a Thesis...
“Undermine” is also figurative...
Maybe “progressives fail to achieve progress because they often believe this falsifiable thesis”
I don’t think there is any figurative language there..,
Try leaving out the figurative use only literal language and see how that goes....
You Art degree people have to make some sort of adjustment you are getting nowhere.. your problem might be in your application of language...
MMT: the Oligarchy's latest beauty treatment
Comment on Bill Mitchell on ‘British-EU disputes suggest the Tories are set to break away from the sordid Thatcher legacy’
Bill Mitchell summarizes: “There are several facets to the discussion: (a) the on-going hypocrisy of the European Union elites; (b) the necessity for major state intervention in Britain (and everywhere) and the possibility that the Tories will abandon Margaret Thatcher’s EU single market legacy is another sign that the paradigm shift in macroeconomics is well under way. (c) the way in which the Labour party are being wedged on the issue and refusing to come out in support of further state aid. Instead, inasmuch as they are saying anything, they are just repeating the mindless, neoliberal dogma about ‘free trade’.”
Reduced to slogans, the Thatcher/Reagan neoliberalism is remembered for:
• antistatism/deregulation/privatization
• free trade/globalization
• a macho/aggressive/anti-99%/pro-1% policy style
• rhetorical budget discipline.#1
After the successful implementation, at some point, the Oligarchy realized that this program backfired badly. So, in the last few years, the program was literally turned on its head. The most spectacular policy switch was from globalism to nationalism (MAGA) and from minimizing the state (Reagan's “government is the problem”) to capture the state.
Bill Mitchell and his MMTers are the propaganda prophets of the new strategy. This new policy is sold as progressive, i.e. as benefiting WeThePeople, and it is heavily pushed over all communication channels from Bill Mitchell's speaking tours to Stephanie Kelton's NYT bestseller to massive Twitter trolling by an army of morons.#2
The fact of the matter is that the U.S. economy hangs already for a long time on the state ventilator for its survival.#3 In the elementary production-consumption economy with a state sector, macroeconomic profit comes ultimately from the household and state sector’s deficit spending/money creation, i.e. Qm≡(G−T)−Sm. This means that the greater part of the profit in the U.S. is actually produced by the state. The U.S. economy is NOT a dynamic/wealth-creating free-market economy as described in the economic textbooks but hangs on the state ventilator for its survival. Financial wealth is created by deficit-spending/money-creation and is roughly equal to public debt.
The MMT policy of deficit-spending/money-creation is ultimately a means of postponing the breakdown of the U.S. economy.#4 It does not matter at all whether deficit-spending is justified with fighting unemployment, fighting COVID, or fighting climate change.#5 Because of the macroeconomic Profit Law, i.e. Public Deficit = Private Profit, the alleged benefit for WeThePeople, in any case, turns out to be a free lunch for the Oligarchy.
In order to save itself and to take the profit production into its own hands, the Oligarchy has given up its anti-state stance and tries to take over the national treasury and the central bank.#6 This is a Wall Street coup and has nothing at all to do with anti-Thatcherism/Reaganism/Neoliberalism.
Hollywood's political casting department has just replaced the bulldog face of aggressive Maggie Thatcher with the pretty face of emphatic Stephanie Kelton and ordered the academic Bill Mitchell to sell this botox farce as a scientific Paradigm Shift.
Egmont Kakarot-Handtke
References
#1 “During Reagan's eight year presidency, the annual deficits averaged 4.0% of GDP, compared to a 2.2% average during the preceding eight years.” (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics
#2 MMT ― a Wall Street myth
https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2020/07/mmt-wall-street-myth.html
#3 The US economy hangs on the state ventilator for its survival
https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-us-economy-hangs-on-state.html
#4 MMT ― now official doctrine
https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2020/07/mmt-now-official-doctrine.html
#5 MMT: If you’ve got a problem, I don’t care what it is, let me help
https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2019/02/mmt-if-youve-got-problem-i-dont-care.html
#6 Prophet Stephanie divines the seizure of the means of production of currency
https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2019/07/prophet-stephanie-divines-seizure-of.html
Paradigm shift = theater of the absurd
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