In Defense Of Deficits — Steven Desmyter

I invited Stephanie Kelton to speak at our Man Alternative Investment Symposium in Oxford in 2021. Kelton was Bernie Sanders’s economic advisor and a leading proponent of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), a neo-Keynesian movement that asserts that there ought to be no theoretical limit to a country’s ability to borrow, providing that it is in control of its own currency. Kelton and Sanders were near-perfect exemplars of the kind of “fiscal irresponsibility” (as their opponents would see it) that Conservatives (and, indeed, conservatives) like to hold out as a warning. Joe Biden, resolutely of the center, friend to the markets and the banks, was able to position himself as a far more rational and responsible alternative....

Forbes
In Defense Of Deficits
Steven Desmyter, President of Man Group

Government debt fears – more fiction from the mainstream media — Bill Mitchell

After all these years of trying, the insights provided by Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) still haven’t cut through. One doesn’t even need to accept the complete box of MMT knowledge to know that, at least, some of it must be factual. For example, how much brainpower does a person need to realise that a government that issues its own currency surely doesn’t need to call on the users of that currency in order to spend that currency? Even if we could get that simple truth to be more widely understood it would change things. But every day, economists and journalists, that just give platforms to the economists write and say things that demonstrate even that simple understanding of the monetary system fails them. Are they stupid? Some. Are they venal? Some. What other reason is there for continuing to use major media platforms, which give the author a massive privilege in terms of influence and reach, to pump out fiction masquerading as informed economic commentary? And the gullibility and wilful indifference of the readerships just extends the licence of these liars. Some days I think I should just hang out down the beach and forget all of it....

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
Government debt fears – more fiction from the mainstream media
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

MAGA: The Biden Admin Has Had Zero Coordination Between Fiscal and Monetary Policy

Current MAGA thesis… “inflation!”…  “deficit too high!”… “the dollar is going down!”…  same shit as always…. if Trump gets back in he’s going to have a lot of trouble with these Art Degree morons on his right flank…

Nvidia now worth over $2.5 Trillion, more than the market cap of the entire German stock market

Perma bears are going to be FREAKING… OUT…

Nvidia now worth over $2.5 Trillion, more than the market cap of the entire German stock market. pic.twitter.com/Q7sJctOeoR

— Erik Brynjolfsson (@erikbryn) May 23, 2024

 

UK MMT Conference 2024

15-17 July, 2024 / University of Leeds, UK

UK MMT Conference 2024

The conceptual roots of the Global South’s debt crisis — Ndongo Samba Sylla

MMT taking hold in the Global South?

The Jordan Times
The conceptual roots of the Global South’s debt crisis
Ndongo Samba Sylla, head of research and policy for the Africa region at International Development Economics Associates, is a former technical adviser for the presidency of the Republic of Senegal and a co-author of “Africa’s Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story” (Pluto Press, 2021) and a co-editor of Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa (Pluto Press, 2021)

Treasury Settlement

 

Much easier to understand by the monetarist morons figuratively as “they’re printin’ money!”…

U.S. government securities clearing & settlement visualized pic.twitter.com/ngYUXHWpBu

— Conks (@concodanomics) May 7, 2024

De-Dollarization Bombshell: The Coming of BRICS+ Decentralized Monetary Ecosystem — Pepe Escobar UPDATED

 Footsoldier posted this in the comments. I am promoting it to a post. 

So-called de-dollarization is envisioned to happen in two major steps stages each with many incremental iterations. 

The first stage stage is conducting bilateral trade in the currencies of the trading partners. This is already well advanced. 

However, this is not actual de-dollarization, which is the establishment of a competing monetary system with a goal of eventually replacing the USD as the primary global currency. 

No one thinks that this will happen quickly and without growing pains, or without Western opposition. But it is a stated goal rather than simply an aspiration. 

The Unit plan is now on the table.

Sputnik Globe

De-Dollarization Bombshell: The Coming of BRICS+ Decentralized Monetary Ecosystem
Pepe Escobar

See also

Pepe waxes philosophical here. 

For some reason there is increasing interest in Stoicism right now.  

The most prominent Stoics were Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome, and Epictetus who was born into slavery. That pretty well covers the spectrum.

Those wishing to up their mental game may profit from reflecting on the Stoics.

Strategic Culture Foundation (sanctioned by the US Treasury Department)

We should all be Stoics now

Pepe Escobar

UPDATE

A new order may be in the works already. (The Economist)

Moon of Alabama

A Pessimistic Economist Laments The End Of Order

b

 

If Government Can Print Money, Why Does It Borrow? — L. Randall Wray (2005)

Recently, the neglected question of why the US government borrows, given that it can print money, has arisen in the context of discussions surrounding a new documentary, Finding the Money. As L. Randall Wray observes in this one-pager, Modern Money Theory has been providing answers to this question for some time; and, he argues, it is a topic that mainstream economists are ill-equipped to address, since very few concern themselves with the monetary operations that underlie the question of why a currency-issuing government issues debt.

Underground Network ONE-PAGER No. 72 | May 2024

If Government Can Print Money, Why Does It Borrow?
L. Randall Wray, Levy Economics Institute, 2005

Also at Underground Network May 9, 2024

New documentary that explains how money works and how pretty much everyone today gets it all backwards.

Finding the Money – There’s another side to the national debt.

Cleveland Fed for May

CPI nowcast for May reporting low:

Corporate buybacks

No not so fast there buddy. ..  According to MMT the US government is “borrowing money!” from the tax exempt foreign divisions of these multinationals…

It’s not just transferring retained earnings into foreign UST accounts at the Fed as part of a scheme to reduce overall corporate tax liabilities… that’s not what is happening..

I wonder how many people know these “buybacks” are mostly unpaid taxes distributed to investors in US 🤔

In the case of $AAPL profits are kept offshore in 0% tax countries like Ireland, then $AAPL issues bonds in #US to finance these buybacks and when the bonds mature they use… https://t.co/HKwjqY8PYx

— JustDario 🏊‍♂️ (@DarioCpx) May 3, 2024

Month end settlements

 

Have to see if this large month end settlement pattern continues…. It may be that first of the month fiscal transfers are getting so large these days that they are destabilizing reserve assets at Depositories… so Treasury might be scheduling most of the settlements the day before to reduce reserve balances within the same regulatory period as the first of the month…

Treasury issuance is not “borrowing!” despite what MMT asserts…

Treasury issuance is skewed this month. There are net paydowns and one large settlement on month-end. If we exclude month-end, there's a net paydown of $108B. O/N rates should head lower throughout the month. Every net paydown will put additional downward pressure on O/N rates pic.twitter.com/3fTwWGMwmR

— Scott Skyrm (@ScottSkyrm) May 2, 2024

Jared Bernstein, total idiot. You have to see this to believe it.

You know that scene in The Big Short, when after the collapse there's a distinct vibe of "man that was so obvious, how were people so impossibly stupid?"

If you are loaning money to the Federal Government (ie if you own government bonds), the *only* reason you should feel… https://t.co/KgutE7xeIv

— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) May 3, 2024