Johnny Fulfer — It’s Time to Guarantee Jobs

The first half of the twentieth century was a challenging time for economics. The Great Depression wiped out incomes, investments, and most importantly, optimism. But when the traditional laissez-faire approach proved ineffective, the work of Keynes and FDR showed that there was another way. The New Deal employed American workers directly and restored confidence among business owners. Today, we could benefit from a similar program. It’s time for a new New Deal, or a Job Guarantee Program, that secures employment to all who are able and willing to work. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again....

Job guarantees are not unexplored territory. Maps exist.

The Minskys
It’s Time to Guarantee Jobs
Johnny Fulfer

Foreign Policy — How to Save the Global Economy: Hire Everybody

Measured by the length and depth of the downturn in global GDP, the current economic crisis is set to be even worse than that of the 1930s. As in the 1930s, governments in the United States and Europe must switch from doing the least they can get away with to avert immediate disaster to acting with enough commitment to the future that their citizens begin to believe in a brighter economic outlook. Above all, this means creating jobs -- perhaps even creating a modern equivalent of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration.

Read it at Foreign Policy

How to Save the Global Economy: Hire Everybody

By Diane Coyle

(h/t Dan Kervick)

Ralph Musgrave — Government as employer of last resort.

This is a summary of the arguments for allocating ELR people to EXISTING employers rather than to specially set up schemes or “employers” as was the case with the WPA in the 1930s.

Read it Ralphonomics
Government as employer of last resort.

by Ralph Musgrave

John Henry — A Federally-Funded Jobs Program?

In the current debates surrounding various job guarantee programs (in association with the Chartalist or Modern Money perspectives), it might prove helpful to review some aspects of the Works Progress Administration (renamed in 1939 as Work Projects Administration).  While the WPA was not a “job guarantee” program, it nevertheless points to a number of issues that are under current discussion, including those of the nature of the projects undertaken, impact on the larger economy, concerns surrounding bureaucratic impediments, etc.

Read it at New Economic Perspectives
A Federally-Funded Jobs Program? Lessons from the WPA
By John Henry

(h/t Clonal)

Rodger Mitchell joins the attack on the MMT JG

Read it at Monetary Sovereignty
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea.

by Rodger Malcolm Mitchell