Raghuram G. Rajan rcently wrote "How Much Debt is Too Much?," which includes an attempted critique of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). As quite often happens when mainstream commentators critique MMT, no attempt was made to cite or quote MMT sources. In this case, that would have been useful -- since he accuses MMTers of making basic analytical errors. Unfortunately for his case, those errors are actually made by mainstream economists, and MMTers take the other side of debates....Bond Economics
Rajan Accuses MMT Of Making Errors Made By Mainstream
Brian Romanchuk
The premise of the Job Guarantee is that it provides full employment
ReplyDeletePaying people to waste their time is not "full employment" but a mockery of it.
and stabilises inflation.
By providing a buffer stock of pre-broken, pre-disciplined wage slaves to put a ceiling on wages.
The only group of people who believe (or at least, believed) that low unemployment rates are linked by an iron law to inflation are mainstream economists, not MMTers.
Paying people to waste their time is inherently inflationary and inferior in that regard to simply paying people what they are due anyway, a Citizen's Dividend to replace all fiat creation for private interests such as for the banks and asset owners.
“ Of course, any “theory” that promises a free lunch”
ReplyDelete“ the monetary financing advocated by MMT is just smoke and mirrors.”
All figurative language blah blah blah.... that is all these unqualified Art Degree people have...
The first sentence of Rajan's article is total bullshit. He says "The new conventional wisdom in these unconventional times is that advanced-economy governments can take advantage of today's ultra-low interest rates to borrow and spend without limit."
ReplyDeleteMMTers have repeated till they're blue in the face that inflation places a limit to deficits.
Evidently you need to be a loud-mouthed idiot to get an article published by Project Syndicate.
AA: Paying people to waste their time is not "full employment" but a mockery of it.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why the Job Guarantee does not pay people to waste their time. To assert it does is a lie.
As is Rajan's, yours is a mockery of a critique. Making up stuff about the object of criticism and then tearing into your own straw man - shows up the "critics' " folly. You know the one about logs and specks?
Of course Citizen's Dividends - unlike jobs - are inflationary and basically pointless. One might call them a waste of time.
Actually, the purpose of a Citizen's Dividend is to counter deflation in an ethical manner - so it would be metered to NOT produce price inflation.
ReplyDeleteOh and please destroy any stimulus checks you might receive since they are a "waste of time" according to you.