There appears to be confusion among those interested in Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) as to what the implications for a green transition that will fasttrack the transition to renewable energy will require by way of government. I regularly see statements that government deficits will have to be ‘massive’ for extended periods because the private (for profit) market entities will not move fast enough to deal with the climate emergency in any effective way. The confusion inherent in these claims is that they fail to separate the ‘size’ of government from any particular ‘net spending’ (deficit) recorded by government. The two outcomes are quite separable and have to be if government action is to achieve sustainable outcomes, not only in terms of environmental goals but also price stability goals. So let’s work all that out. Failing to do so, leads MMT activists to make claims that open them up to criticism from those who understand the point I am making but have different ideological agendas. So they make erroneous claims such that ‘MMT just advocates big deficits’, or that ‘MMT thinks that deficits do not matter’. But they have been lured into that position, in part, by the social media behaviour of some MMT activists.
This is now going on at scale as capital resists the changes needed to address emergent challenges in a timely way. This is being worked out that the level of the world system in terms of the Global South/East confronting the five-hundred-year dominance of the Global North, which manifests historically at present as neoliberalism, and its attendant neo-imperialism and neocolonialism. The basis is economic (control of resources), political (control of territory), and social (confrontation of cultures and ideologies). There is no "solution" to this. The solution — the replacement of this moment of history with the next moment — is being worked out on the battlefield of history in the same way that such issues always have been and competing worldviews and interests collide.
William Mitchell — Modern Monetary TheoryA large government presence required for energy transition does not mean massive deficits are required
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
8 comments:
After we burn as much fossil fuels in the next 30 years as we have to date, there will be a transition - to a world with less energy.
We don't have energy accounting, either.
It won't be won in a class room.
As history shows very clearly, It is a class war pure and simple everything else is just noise.The upper class just waited everybody out until generations who fought for change died out. Using the education system and monetary silencing prepped and organised the next generation to carry out their work for them. Whilst rolling back as many of the lower class gains they could get away with.
Take France for example and the yellow jacket protests. That was censored in the main by the mainstream media that the upper class own. Compare that coverage with what's happening now as immigrants go on the rampage with wall to wall coverage. As far right football hooligans are now on the streets fighting with the immigrants.
Same thing happened in the US with black lives matter and the proud boys and other fascist groups who were unleashed to divide communities even further.
Millions of people have nobody to vote for and the anger is growing across the globe. The upper class need to provide an outlet for that anger to stop it from really getting out of control. Trump, Farage, Le Pen, AFD in Germany and the far right in Greece etc, etc, are On the march.
Those are the outlets that will soak up that anger but as Italy's far right push as shown. These vehicles for change are part of the upper class. They are not grass roots movements they are all top down movements. That when the chips are down morph into either Brussels or Washington's press releases.
Boris is gone, Truss is gone, Sturgeon is gone, Trump and Farage are under attack. Anybody who promised change or was part of Brexit is gone. The upper class using the power of the state simply waited them out and then ruthlessly tossed them aside. Le Pen and the AFD after they have been used as an outlet for the anger will end up the same way. Each political faction of the upper class will work together to ensure the status quo remains.
Might take 20- 30 years but they'll wait it out until all threats have been neutered. Re write political history in their favour and prep and organise the next generation to do their bidding.
History was always thus.
Only way things do change if it is a grass roots movements from the bottom up free from the upper class and run by the lower class. They are always bloody with thousands killed. The way the police and army are armed today will be over in a week or two.
I just can't see any way how the upper class will ever be removed and watching Macron very closely he is a man that knows it. He is already looking for his next job in NATO or the EU comission. While the French elite offer up Le Pen as the blobs top down approach to suffocate any real change.
Thus any change to money design is strangled at birth.
Believing that money design can be changed in an environment created by the upper class, when the whole purpose of such an environment ( a class room ) is to do the exact opposite and serve the upper class.
Even the name of the environment tells you exactly What it is.
Is delusional if you ask me. The only changes going to made to money design are further changes that entrench even more the upper class power over the rest of us.
History was always thus.
There's not one political faction of the upper class pushing for change. Each and every one of the different political splits within the upper class are pushing their own form of monetary silencing. Which all lead to the same outcome....
Money scarcity - Who in society has the easiest access to money. Why they all stand behind austerity and bank lending - Sound money.
History was always thus. Their money design entrenched their power over us.
If you think for one minute the upper class are going to give that power up without blood on the streets, then a history lesson is what you need.
From the day the first settlers landed on American shores just look at the blood shed and count up the number of dead bodies.
It was all over money design and who got to design the Money everybody uses.
This war today in Ukraine is no different it is the crux of the issue. The upper classes are willing to kill millions of the lower class, as long as they can hold onto the power of money design.
History was always thus.....
The "immigrants" in France are descendants of 'pieds-noirs' who fled Algeria after their war of independence. As collaborators in French colonialism, their descendants belong in France as much as any white person.
Ye reap what ye sow.
Here is a local example of the so-called energy transition:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-power-plans-to-burn-heavy-fuel-oil-1.6895930
Geography Now! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
https://youtu.be/Xp_TGilL9Sk
Comment from 'Barbs':
Trust me, I had to cut a ton of footage and this was the shortest I could make the video. After nearly a decade of my life devoted to this channel, we finally approach a little place I call "home." - Thanks to all my best friends and Fellow USA Geograpeeps that helped with this video, and hope you have a HAPPY 4th of JULY! ENJOY the #USA Episode!
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