An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Thursday, March 30, 2023
The National Debt Ceiling and How Money is Created — jasciu
MMT for the "left." It's a reasonably good explanation of how a currency issuer is different from a currency user. Reading the comments section is depressing. The so-called left is about as clueless as the so-called 'right," e.g., as represented in the comments section at ZH. It seems doubtful that either of these heavily programmed groups will ever get it. However, here there are also commentors supporting MMT, holding out hope that the "left" isn't totally brainwashed.
My impression is the left is more clueless than the right on macroeconomics in general. The center left also seems clueless.
ReplyDeleteMaybe being on the left means I notice it more.
My impression is the left is more clueless than the right on macroeconomics in general. The center left also seems clueless.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Actually, there is no monopoly on clueless. Just about everyone is hooked into the cultural narrative in which economic liberalism ("capitalism") is embedded.
The real left realizes the narrative that is representative of the "modern" worldview is biased in favor of the elites of the time, and it reacts to this politically. The problem is that very often, this reaction is based on its own dogma, which is naïve economically. Much of it is based on different understandings of what Marx said, which differ somewhat with respect to what Marx meant. But little of the dogmatism acknowledges that Marx himself took a historical approach and his view of economics, finance, and "money" was based on the environment in which he lived, which is quite different from the institutional arrangements now, e.g, the post-1971 monetary system.
The center left——pseudo-left actually—is hooked solidly into the prevailing culturally constructed worldview based on "liberalism," which is essentially a secular "religion." Moreover, it is "bourgeois liberalism" as a social, political, and economic system that favors modern elites that replaced the feudal aristocracies. This is the new ownership class. Politicism is essentially elite factions trying to get a leg up over other elite factions.
The center left and center right are variations of this, with the right being more traditional and the left more liberal. Both are firmly in the grip of the ownership class. In addition, they aspire to this class to the degree they do not belong to it. They buy in to the degree they imagine this aspiration is viable, so much of the narrative is about how this aspiration is attainable as iterations of the Horatio Alger story.
The right is made of the libertarians who are so into individualism that they deny the existence of society as a system that exerts cultural influence and either deny that institutions have relevance or else seek to either commandeer them or destroy them.
The far right is populated by extremists and at the fringes neo-Nazis. The smart ones know that Hitler made use of Hjalmar Schacht's knowledge as central bank chief to implement many aspects of MMT to pull Germany out of its WWI-induced depression and rebuild its military. The lessons are not lost on them.
This leaves the bourgeoisie in the West who control the politics and who don't seem to have any difficulty using MMT-type awareness to accomplish their purposes, which is essentially control of people and resources worldwide. They rent the politicians by means of legalized bribery, which has become institutionalized, e.g., the SCOTUS Citizens United decision.
Yes, the (whatever) Left is more clueless. And not just about money. The Left is generally played like a fiddle by the Right. Especially in the USA, the only country I know of where the unions fought tooth and nail for decades against minimum wages, maximum hour slegislation. Maybe we should just rename it the Bizarro States of America.
ReplyDeleteI'd say that the real problem on the Left is not from bourgeois liberals, but from Marxists dogmatically following Marx's worst mistakes. No, money is not necessarily gold and silver. Although peterc is a big expert on such things - one of the world's best - and whatever he writes about it is worth reading - I would appreciate some help on it when I can spare the time in some months, totally focused now on the deadly illness of a close relative. Although that, I think it is quite clear today's and yesterday's Marxists/socialists have their heads more screwed up on money than liberals. The prominence of Trotskyism in such circles did nobody any good. Lerner visited Trotsky, but couldn't get him to see reason.
This problem was already obvious and commented on in the 1930s. It's not that the Marxists or some fewer liberals don't want to do right. They just don't understand one of the wisest things anybody ever said: The most potent weapon in the hands of an oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. So they fight the right-wing's battles for them. Which is why the Left loses so much, so often. Except for those times when it doesn't and becomes unstoppable. Which we are overdue for.