Brian Romanchuk — Initial Comments On The New MMT Macro Textbook

Very brief first impressions.

Bond Economics
Initial Comments On The New MMT Macro Textbook
Brian Romanchuk

Bill Mitchell — Eurozone fiscal rules bias nations to stagnation – exit is the remedy

It is Wednesday and I am doing the final corrections to our Macroeconomics textbook manuscript before it goes off to the ‘printers’ for publication in March 2019. It has been a long haul and I can say that writing a textbook is much harder than writing a monograph not only because the latter are more exciting in the drafting phase. The attention to detail in a textbook that runs over 600 pages is quite taxing. Anyway, that is taking my attention today.

👍 Yay!

I also plan to write some more about Brexit in the coming weeks and Japan (tomorrow). But today, I have updated some ECB data on household and corporate borrowing and the cost of borrowing to see what sort of recovery is going on. With nations such as Germany now recording negative growth in the third-quarter, it is clear that the Eurozone is stalling again. The explanation doesn’t require any rocket science. It is all there in the behaviour of the non-government sector (saving more overall) and fiscal rules that are too tight to offset that saving desire. The reliance on monetary policy is an ineffective tool to provide the offset in non-government saving overall. Fiscal policy has to be reinstated to the primary position and that means nations such as Italy must consider exiting the dysfunctional monetary union that biases nations to recession and stagnation...

It look to me like Brussels and the Continental powers that be are doing their best to sabotage Brexit. As a warming to others wishing to secede from the union? Could be made difficult and nasty to exit. See below.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Eurozone fiscal rules bias nations to stagnation – exit is the remedy
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

See also

Thierry Meyssan explains how Europe turning into the powder keg it has been historically.

Voltaire Net
Secession from the European Union
Thierry Meyssan

Bill Mitchell — Economics curriculum is needed to work against selfishness and for altruism

It is Wednesday and so just some snippets. I have written about the behavioural impacts that studying mainstream economics, particularly the microeconomics component can have on students as they progress through their studies. I have observed sort of nice young people entering first-year and by later years, become arrogant, self-opinionated and delusional jerks. This phenomenon is particularly prominent if they go onto to do postgraduate level studies. It is well documented. The way mainstream economics is taught builds on anti-social attitudes that might already be present in students who choose to undertake this sort of training. The curriculum matters a lot. In that context, our next macroeconomics textbook (see below) will, in my view, actively work against any predisposition towards selfishness and against altruism, while still providing students with a first-class, technical education in how the monetary system operates....

Also

The final publication of our new Macroeconomics textbook (Mitchell, Wray and Watts) by Macmillan Palgrave will be February 2019.

We are presently working with Macmillan’s editors on the final version to clear up outstanding issues. It has been a mammoth task, much harder than writing a stand-alone monograph. But we are in the final stages now and the outcome will be a two-year (University-level) sequence in Macroeconomics that is built from foundations up by the developments we have made in Modern Monetary Theory.

It doesn’t just mention MMT. The pedagogy is core MMT – the first time a 2-year sequence of this type will become available....

Woo hoo!

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Economics curriculum is needed to work against selfishness and for altruismBill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Bill Mitchell — Brexit propaganda continues from the UK Guardian

Its Wednesday, so a relatively short blog post today. We are just about finished the final responses to the editors from Macmillan on the manuscript for the next Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) textbook, which I am now reliably informed will be published in February 2019.

Woo hoo!

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Brexit propaganda continues from the UK Guardian
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Peter Cooper — Mitchell, Wray and Watts on Teaching Modern Monetary Theory

The video below is of a three-part presentation by Bill Mitchell, L. Randall Wray and Martin Watts concerning their forthcoming MMT textbook. Throughout the presentation and in the Q&A session that follows there are interesting observations on the current state of university economics and prospects for MMT and the economics discipline in general. The presentation was given at the First International Conference on Modern Monetary Theory….

heteconomist
Mitchell, Wray and Watts on Teaching Modern Monetary Theory
Peter Cooper

Bill Mitchell — Paradigm shift – not from the CORE Econ Project – as mainstream as you will get

Next Friday (September 22, 2017), I will be presenting at a panel on developments associated with the proposed MMT University and our new MMT Macroeconomics textbook, which will be published by Macmillan in April 2018. The panel will present during the First International MMT Conference, to be held in Kansas City. In part, my contribution will be to discuss the general pedagogical concerns that we (Randy Wray, Martin Watts and myself) had as we wrote the textbook over what turned out to be several years. 

We were confronted with the situation that we want our textbook to be used as widely as possible in the first and second years of a typical undergraduate program, but also didn’t want to fall into the trap of compromising what we considered to be a unified body of theory based upon Modern Monetary Theory (MMMT) for what other colleagues (particularly, mainstream academics) would claim to be necessary material to prepare a student for the labour market. 

We now have what we believe is a very strong two-year sequence in macroeconomics, firmly founded on MMT principles, with a good balance between discursive narrative, historical context, empirical challenge, and formal (mathematical) reasoning. When one compares it to other post-GFC developments in the pedagogy of macroeconomics, some of which have received the headlines in the past week, I think the curriculum embodied in our text is progressive, consistent, and doesn’t fall into the typical neoliberal default regarding governments and the monetary system....

[Paragraphing added for online readibility]

Bill Mitchell – billy blog

Paradigm shift – not from the CORE Econ Project – as mainstream as you will get

Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

MMT books now available

Eric Tymogne's money & banking series is now available through the navigation bar at New Economic Perspectives.

Eric has also completed first draft of a book based on the series that it available at Scribd for download. It can also be accessed though the NEP money & banking link below.

NEP — Money and Banking

Bill and Randy's introductory MMT textbook is now available at Amazon Kindle for $20. Subscribers to Kindle Unlimited can read for free.

Modern Monetary Theory and Practice: An Introductory Text [Print Replica] Kindle Edition
by William Mitchell, L. Randall Wray, and Martin Watts

See also

Radical Political Economy
New Work by Eric Tymoigne: Towards a Heterodox Perspective on Money, Banking, & Macroeconomics
David M. Fields

Bill MItchell — FINALLY – Introductory Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) Textbook

FINALLY – Introductory Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) Textbook

I will write a separate blog about this presently, but today we finally published the first version of our MMT textbook – Modern Monetary Theory and Practice: an Introductory Text – today (March 10, 2016).

This appears after the conclusion of today's blly blog, linked to separately.

Bill Mitchell — Growth and Inequality – Part 4

I am now using Friday’s blog space to provide draft versions of the Modern Monetary Theory textbook that I am writing with my colleague and friend Randy Wray. We expect to publish the text sometime around mid-2014. Our (very incomplete) textbook home page – Modern Monetary Theory and Practice – has draft chapters and contents etc in varying states of completion. Comments are always welcome. Note also that the text I post here is not intended to be a blog-style narrative but constitutes the drafting work I am doing – that is, the material posted will not represent the complete text. Further it will change as the drafting process evolves.

Previous blogs in this series:

• Growth and Inequality – Part 1
• Growth and Inequality – Part 2
• Growth and Inequality – Part 3

Chapter X Growth and Inequality

X.2 Keynesian growth theories – Harrod-Domar

[PREVIOUS MATERIAL HERE]

Required growth and the full employment of labour

Bill Mitchell – billy blog

Growth and Inequality – Part 4

Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia

Bill Mitchell — Growth and Inequality – Part 3

I am now using Friday’s blog space to provide draft versions of the Modern Monetary Theory textbook that I am writing with my colleague and friend Randy Wray. We expect to publish the text sometime around mid-2014. Our (very incomplete) textbook home page – Modern Monetary Theory and Practice – has draft chapters and contents etc in varying states of completion. Comments are always welcome. Note also that the text I post here is not intended to be a blog-style narrative but constitutes the drafting work I am doing – that is, the material posted will not represent the complete text. Further it will change as the drafting process evolves.

Previous blogs in this series:

• Growth and Inequality – Part 1
• Growth and Inequality – Part 2

Chapter X Growth and Inequality

X.2 Keynesian growth theories – Harrod-Domar

[PREVIOUS MATERIAL HERE]

[WE LAST CONSIDERED THE DUAL NATURE OF INVESTMENT WHICH WAS STRESSED IN DOMAR'S 1947 ARTICLE "EXPANSION AND EMPLOYMENT". WE HAD DERIVED THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INVESTMENT SPENDING AND GROWTH IN PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY. TODAY WE CONSIDER THE DEMAND SIDE IMPACTS OF INVESTMENT AND BRING THE TWO TOGETHER TO DEFINE THE GROWTH IMPERATIVE - IT SHOULD BE FUN]

X.x1 The demand contribution of investment

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Growth and Inequality – Part 3
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia

Bill is also adding material to his forthcoming options for Europe book. The series can be accessed here. It's up to part nine now.

Philip Pilkington — Textbook Revolution

Philip Pilkington heaps enthusiastic praise on Bill Mitchell and Randy Wray's MMT macro textbook that is in preparation.

Fixing the Economists
Textbook Revolution
Philip Pilkington

Bill Mitchell — Growth and Inequality – Part 2

I am now using Friday’s blog space to provide draft versions of the Modern Monetary Theory textbook that I am writing with my colleague and friend Randy Wray. We expect to publish the text sometime around mid-2014. Our (very incomplete) textbook home page – Modern Monetary Theory and Practice – has draft chapters and contents etc in varying states of completion. Comments are always welcome. Note also that the text I post here is not intended to be a blog-style narrative but constitutes the drafting work I am doing – that is, the material posted will not represent the complete text. Further it will change as the drafting process evolves.

Previous blogs in this series:
Growth and Inequality – Part 1

Chapter X Growth and Inequality

[CONTINUING - NOTE I REARRANGED THE PEDAGOGY A LITTLE IN THIS SECTION FROM THAT PRESENTED LAST WEEK - I HAD ACCESS TO HARROD'S ORIGINAL BOOK TODAY WHEREAS LAST WEEK IT WAS FROM MEMORY]

X.2 Keynesian growth theories – Harrod-Domar

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Growth and Inequality – Part 2
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia

Bill Mitchell — Growth and Inequality – Part 1

I am now using Friday’s blog space to provide draft versions of the Modern Monetary Theory textbook that I am writing with my colleague and friend Randy Wray. We expect to publish the text sometime around mid-2014. Our (very incomplete) textbook home page – Modern Monetary Theory and Practice – has draft chapters and contents etc in varying states of completion. Comments are always welcome. Note also that the text I post here is not intended to be a blog-style narrative but constitutes the drafting work I am doing – that is, the material posted will not represent the complete text. Further it will change as the drafting process evolves.

Chapter X Growth and Inequality

X.1 Overview

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Growth and Inequality – Part 1Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia

Bill Mitchell — Analytical appendix for NIPA Chapter 3 – Part 3

I am now using Friday’s blog space to provide draft versions of the Modern Monetary Theory textbook that I am writing with my colleague and friend Randy Wray. We expect to publish the text sometime in 2013. Our (very incomplete) textbook home page – Modern Monetary Theory and Practice – has draft chapters and contents etc in varying states of completion. Comments are always welcome. Note also that the text I post here is not intended to be a blog-style narrative but constitutes the drafting work I am doing – that is, the material posted will not represent the complete text. Further it will change as the drafting process evolves.

The Table of Contents for the first draft, which is nearly completed, currently lists Chapter 3 as National Income Accounting, with a section 3.7 Using the NIPA Framework to Model the Macro Economy. The status of this section might change but the content aims to present some analytical terminology that is used in the specification of macroeconomic models which the student encounters throughout the textbook.

The section (or subsection) will cover basic algebra, manipulation of equations, solving simple linear models, consideration of graphs, and some essential tools that help an applied macroeconomist assess data trends etc.

Today, I am adding to the material already developed which is currently available as Chapter 3 Draft, Section 3.8.

The snippets I develop here will be integrated into the draft for further assessment. The ambiguity of the numbering reflects the transient status of these sections.

The other parts of this section of the text:
Analytical appendix for NIPA Chapter 3
Analytical appendix for NIPA Chapter 3 – Part 2

[CONTINUING FROM HERE]

Index numbers

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Analytical appendix for NIPA Chapter 3 – Part 3
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia

Bill Mitchell — Analytical appendix for NIPA Chapter 3 – Part 2

I am now using Friday’s blog space to provide draft versions of the Modern Monetary Theory textbook that I am writing with my colleague and friend Randy Wray. We expect to publish the text sometime in 2013. Our (very incomplete) textbook home page – Modern Monetary Theory and Practice – has draft chapters and contents etc in varying states of completion. Comments are always welcome. Note also that the text I post here is not intended to be a blog-style narrative but constitutes the drafting work I am doing – that is, the material posted will not represent the complete text. Further it will change as the drafting process evolves.

The Table of Contents for the first draft, which is nearly completed, currently lists Chapter 3 as National Income Accounting, with a section 3.7 Using the NIPA Framework to Model the Macro Economy. The status of this section might change but the content aims to present some analytical terminology that is used in the specification of macroeconomic models which the student encounters throughout the textbook.

The section (or subsection) will cover basic algebra, manipulation of equations, solving simple linear models, consideration of graphs, and some essential tools that help an applied macroeconomist assess data trends etc.

Today, I am adding to the material already developed which is currently available as Chapter 3 Draft, Section 3.8.

The snippets I develop here will be integrated into the draft for further assessment. The ambiguity of the numbering reflects the transient status of these sections.

The first part of this section of the text:
Analytical appendix for NIPA Chapter 3

[CONTINUING FROM HERE]

Graphical depiction of macroeconomic models

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Analytical appendix for NIPA Chapter 3 – Part 2
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia

Bill Mitchell — Analytical appendix for NIPA Chapter 3

I am now using Friday’s blog space to provide draft versions of the Modern Monetary Theory textbook that I am writing with my colleague and friend Randy Wray. We expect to publish the text sometime in 2013. Our (very incomplete) textbook home page – Modern Monetary Theory and Practice – has draft chapters and contents etc in varying states of completion. Comments are always welcome. Note also that the text I post here is not intended to be a blog-style narrative but constitutes the drafting work I am doing – that is, the material posted will not represent the complete text. Further it will change as the drafting process evolves.

The Table of Contents for the first draft, which is nearly completed, currently lists Chapter 3 as National Income Accounting, with a section 3.7 Using the NIPA Framework to Model the Macro Economy. The status of this section might change but the content aims to present some analytical terminology that is used in the specification of macroeconomic models which the student encounters throughout the textbook.

The section (or subsection) will cover basic algebra, manipulation of equations, solving simple linear models, consideration of graphs, and some essential tools that help an applied macroeconomist assess data trends etc.

Today, I am adding to the material already developed which is currently available as Chapter 3 Draft, Section 3.8.

The snippets I develop here will be integrated into the draft for further assessment. The ambiguity of the numbering reflects the transient status of these sections.

In this section we present some analytical terminology that is used in the specification of macroeconomic models and which you will find throughout this book.

The level of mathematics that will be used throughout this book is no more sophisticated than the typical material that a student would encounter in the second-half of their secondary school studies. The most advanced analysis we employ is simultaneous equation techniques and some simple calculus. For the most part, the mathematics is confined to algebraic representations of the behavioural theories and/or accounting statements that we advance and some simple solution exercises to determine the unknown aggregates we are interested in.

The practical material accompanying the analytical text will also provide a step-by-step sequence to mastering the techniques required.
We recognise that mathematical techniques are commonly used within the social sciences and that students will gain confidence in dealing with the standard conceptual and empirical literature in economics and more broadly if they develop some formal modelling skills in addition to the deep understanding that we hope to engender.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog

Analytical appendix for NIPA Chapter 3

Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia

Bill Mitchell — External economy considerations – Part 10

I am now using Friday’s blog space to provide draft versions of the Modern Monetary Theory textbook that I am writing with my colleague and friend Randy Wray. We expect to publish the text sometime in 2013. Our (very incomplete) textbook home page – Modern Monetary Theory and Practice – has draft chapters and contents etc in varying states of completion. Comments are always welcome. Note also that the text I post here is not intended to be a blog-style narrative but constitutes the drafting work I am doing – that is, the material posted will not represent the complete text. Further it will change as the drafting process evolves.

Chapter 21 Policy in an Open Economy: Exchange Rates, Balance of Payments, and Competitiveness

This material updates the work already done on Chapter 21 that appeared in the following blogs:

• External economy considerations – Part 1
• External economy considerations – Part 2
• External economy considerations – Part 3
• External economy considerations – Part 4
• External economy considerations – Part 5
• External economy considerations – Part 6
• External economy considerations – Part 7
• External economy considerations – Part 8
• External economy considerations – Part 9

Today, I am just continuing filling in the gaps in the Chapter.
21.7 Currency crises

[CONTINUING THIS SECTION FROM LAST WEEK - PREVIOUS MATERIAL IN LAST POSTS LINKED ABOVE]

The South East Asian Debt Crisis 1997

[CONTINUING HERE]

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
External economy considerations – Part 10

Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia

Bill Mitchell — External economy considerations – Part 9

I am now using Friday’s blog space to provide draft versions of the Modern Monetary Theory textbook that I am writing with my colleague and friend Randy Wray. We expect to publish the text sometime in 2013. Our (very incomplete) textbook home page – Modern Monetary Theory and Practice – has draft chapters and contents etc in varying states of completion. Comments are always welcome. Note also that the text I post here is not intended to be a blog-style narrative but constitutes the drafting work I am doing – that is, the material posted will not represent the complete text. Further it will change as the drafting process evolves.

Chapter 21 Policy in an Open Economy: Exchange Rates, Balance of Payments, and Competitiveness

This material updates the work already done on Chapter 21 that appeared in the following blogs:

• External economy considerations – Part 1
• External economy considerations – Part 2
• External economy considerations – Part 3
• External economy considerations – Part 4
• External economy considerations – Part 5
• External economy considerations – Part 6
• External economy considerations – Part 7
• External economy considerations – Part 8

Today, I am just continuing filling in the gaps in the Chapter.

21.7 Currency crises

[CONTINUING THIS SECTION FROM LAST WEEK - PREVIOUS MATERIAL IN LAST POSTS LINKED ABOVE]

The South East Asian Debt Crisis 1997

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
External economy considerations – Part 9
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia

Bill Mitchell — External economy considerations – Part 8

I am now using Friday’s blog space to provide draft versions of the Modern Monetary Theory textbook that I am writing with my colleague and friend Randy Wray. We expect to publish the text sometime in 2013. Our (very incomplete) textbook home page – Modern Monetary Theory and Practice – has draft chapters and contents etc in varying states of completion. Comments are always welcome. Note also that the text I post here is not intended to be a blog-style narrative but constitutes the drafting work I am doing – that is, the material posted will not represent the complete text. Further it will change as the drafting process evolves.

Chapter 21 Policy in an Open Economy: Exchange Rates, Balance of Payments, and Competitiveness

This material updates the work already done on Chapter 21 that appeared in the following blogs:
External economy considerations – Part 1
External economy considerations – Part 2
External economy considerations – Part 3
External economy considerations – Part 4
External economy considerations – Part 5
External economy considerations – Part 6
External economy considerations – Part 7

Today, I am just continuing filling in the gaps in the Chapter.

21.7 Currency crises

[CONTINUING THIS SECTION FROM LAST WEEK]

The 1994 Mexican Peso Crisis

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
External economy considerations – Part 8
William F. (Bill) Mitchell |Professor of Economics at Charles Darwin University, Professor of Economics at the University of Newcastle, and inaugural director of CofFEE

Bill Mitchell — External economy considerations – Part 7

I am now using Friday’s blog space to provide draft versions of the Modern Monetary Theory textbook that I am writing with my colleague and friend Randy Wray. We expect to publish the text sometime in 2013. Our (very incomplete) textbook home page – Modern Monetary Theory and Practice – has draft chapters and contents etc in varying states of completion. Comments are always welcome. Note also that the text I post here is not intended to be a blog-style narrative but constitutes the drafting work I am doing – that is, the material posted will not represent the complete text. Further it will change as the drafting process evolves.

Chapter 21 Policy in an Open Economy: Exchange Rates, Balance of Payments, and Competitiveness

This material updates the work already done on Chapter 21 that appeared in the following blogs:
External economy considerations – Part 1
External economy considerations – Part 2
External economy considerations – Part 3
External economy considerations – Part 4
External economy considerations – Part 5
External economy considerations – Part 6

Today, I am just continuing filling in the gaps in the Chapter.

21.7 Currency crises

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
External economy considerations – Part 7
William F. (Bill) Mitchell |Professor of Economics at Charles Darwin University, Professor of Economics at the University of Newcastle, and inaugural director of CofFEE