Bill Mitchell— The failure of economics – reality and language

Yesterday (March 7, 2017), I presented the Second Lecture in the 3rd Annual Joan Muysken Lecture at Maastricht University. Unfortunately, the recording from the First Lecture, which I delivered on Monday evening (March 6, 2017) was corrupted but I am told there was an alternative video recorded and I will make it available when I can. The first lecture was a public event and the presentation reflected that. The second lecture was delivered to academic staff and students and so the language was more pitched to an academic audience, although it should be generally accessible. There is a little noise interference at odd times, which I could not get rid of. The audio of the talk runs for 50 minutes and I have interleaved the slides from the lecture in with the sound.

Anyway, this is my blog for today. I am fairly tied up with commitments during this trip to Europe and also finishing some manuscripts (textbook and book with Thomas Fazi) that have to be sent to the publishers in the coming week or so.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog

The failure of economics – reality and language
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Debt, Deficits, and Modern Monetary Theory — Interview with Bill Mitchell

Read it at Harvard International Review
Debt, Deficits, and Modern Monetary Theory
Interview with Bill Mitchell

By Winston Gee | October 16, 2011

Particular budget outcomes should never be a policy target. What the government should be targeting is real goals, by which I mean a sustainable growth rate buoyed by full employment.....

From a macroeconomic point of view, the spending and tax decisions of government should be such that total spending in the economy is sufficient to produce the level of real output at which firms will employ the available labor force. This is the goal, and the particular budget outcomes must serve this goal. 

[emphasis added]