There’s a Whole Ideological Package That Goes With Raising Interest Rates: Fadhel Kaboub — Sowmya Sivakumar

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is an alternative economic framework that challenges the conservative neo-liberal narrative of ‘free trade’ and ‘competition’ which has held sway for many decades as the way to global prosperity. In simple terms, MMT makes us see that money is completely a creation of the State, and hence, a sovereign government does not need our money (either through taxes or borrowing) in the first place to strategically spend it, that is, without causing inflation. And that frees the ‘fiscal’ constraint to address the most pressing problems of our times: socio-economic inequality, exclusion and climate change.

Fadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of Economics at Denison University, Ohio (US), and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity, is a leading voice in the global MMT community and among a handful of economists who speaks of MMT’s relevance for emerging countries like India. In this first part of a two-part ilong-distance nterview with independent journalist Sowmya Sivakumar, he explains how MMT is slowly shifting the debate in the US, with important lessons for India and rest of the world. Edited excerpts:

News Click (India)
There’s a Whole Ideological Package That Goes With Raising Interest Rates: Fadhel Kaboub
Sowmya Sivakumar

Fadhel Kaboub is President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity and Associate Professor of economics at Denison University. He also held a number of research affiliations with the Levy Economics Institute, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Economic Research Forum, and the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability. Dr. Kaboub is an expert on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), the Green New Deal, and the Job Guarantee. His work focuses on public policies to enhance monetary and economic sovereignty in the Global South, build resilience, and promote equitable and sustainable prosperity. He is a widely published author and his recent work has been presented at many prestigious institutions including the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Law School, Cornell University, Columbia University, Duke University, Sorbonne University, and the National University of Singapore. His academic work has been published in the Journal of Economic Issues, Review of Keynesian Economics, Review of Radical Political Economics, Review of Social Economy, International Journal of Political Economy, Middle East Development Journal, and International Labour Review. Some of his recent media commentaries on MMT, climate change, employment, development, finance, and the Middle East economies have appeared in the New York Times, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Le Monde, The Guardian, La Croix, Al-Jazeera, France 24, Deutsche Welle, The Hill TV, Radio France Internationale, Asharq News, Al Hurra TV, CGTN Africa, National Public Radio, New Inquiry, BBC Mundo, Carta Maior, Diwan TV, Saudi Gazette, Express FM, Assabah News, Le Quotidien, and La Presse.

Dr. Kaboub earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Tunis – El Manar, and his Master’s and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Before settling at Denison University in 2008, he taught at Simon’s Rock College of Bard (Massachusetts) and at Drew University (New Jersey) where he also directed the Wall Street Semester Program.

— Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity