Pages

Pages

Sunday, December 6, 2020

Does the National Debt Matter? — David Andolfatto

Together, these considerations suggest that we might want to look at the national debt from a different perspective. In particular, it seems more accurate to view the national debt less as form of debt and more as a form of money in circulation.

Investors value the securities making up the national debt in the same way individuals value money—as a medium of exchange and a safe store of wealth. The idea of having to pay back money already in circulation makes little sense, in this context. Of course, not having to worry about paying back the national debt does not mean there is nothing to be concerned about. But if the national debt is a form of money, wherein lies the concern?…
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Regional Economist
Does the National Debt Matter?
David Andolfatto

4 comments:

  1. Far as I know, Warren Mosler was the first to point out that govt debt is essentially money that has been placed in a term account at a bank called "government".

    ReplyDelete
  2. The guy is writing for the same organization that requires Depositories to possess a certain % of these same securities to meet regulatory requirements while at the same time there are people there saying we should operate at balance and not issue them...

    This is like last year when they have a RRR if 10% of Deposits and deposits are at 13T so the same people are doing “Quantitative Tightening!” and reduce Reserve assets below 10% and lose control of their interest rate policy then go all around wondering what happened...

    Everyone there should be shown the door...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Far as I know, Warren Mosler was the first to point out that govt debt is essentially money that has been placed in a term account at a bank called "government".

    Many people have said essentially the same thing. The most public and effective statement was probably-

    FDR: "Government credit and government currency are one and the same thing" Second Fireside chat.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MMT — an exercise in newspeak
    Comment on David Andolfatto/Tom Hickey on ‘Does the National Debt Matter?’*

    MMTers deceive WeThePeople by
    • calling macroeconomic profit private sector saving,#1
    • calling public debt government-issued assets,
    • claiming that national debt does not matter and does not have to be repaid.

    The 3 essential things to know about MMT are
    • MMT is scientifically worthless because MMTers don't get macrofoundations right,
    • MMT is political agenda pushing for the benefit of the Oligarchy.
    • deficit-spending/money-creation matters for distribution; MMT is the biggest redistribution program ever.#2

    Egmont Kakarot-Handtke

    * For more details see Twitter thread
    https://twitter.com/dandolfa/status/1334884973132779520

    #1 Stephanie Kelton’s legendary Plain-Sight-Ink-Trick
    https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2019/01/stephanie-keltons-legendary-plain-sight.html

    #2 MMT works just fine
    https://axecorg.blogspot.com/2020/12/mmt-works-just-fine.html

    ReplyDelete