Richard Wolff - Huawei no longer ‘national security threat’

Richard Wolff says that China's capitalist system of state control of many leading undustries, with a tremendous amount of central planning and regulation, has given them 10% growth rate each year for 25 years and that's why they will never give it up.

Trump may eventually negotiate a new trade deal and Huawei and will no longer be considered a threat, which will make him look good to his base.

Nikkei Asian Review Growing — Modern Monetary Theory debate rattles Japan officials

MMT gone viral.

Untested economic model has big implication on country's planned tax hike and debt policy

Nikkei Asian Review
Growing Modern Monetary Theory debate rattles Japan officials

Staff

Darren Williams — «How Populism Affects Our Business»

Most important, after a 40-year period in which capital has won out decisively over labor, there is much likelihood that global economic policy is to shift back in a much less business-friendly direction. Not only will that weigh on economic growth, but it’s also likely to push inflation higher. And that’s something markets are not currently prepared for.

Finenews
Darren Williams: «How Populism Affects Our Business»

Darren Williams | Global Economic Research Group for Fixed Income

Crispin B. Hollinshead — Another Voice: Escaping the black hole of debt

Another positive article. (Ukiah was my home town for awhile.)

The Ukiah Daily Journal — Opinion
Another Voice: Escaping the black hole of debt

Crispin B. Hollinshead, Ukiah resident

Rajrishi Singhal — Opinion | India's ailing economy needs a green pill for revival

GND and MMT make it to India.

LiveMint (India)
Opinion | India's ailing economy needs a green pill for revival

Rajrishi Singhal | consulting editor of Mint

Critical article on MMT but well-researched and worth reading.

Modern monetary theory has provided hope that the current economic problems can be solved if we look at things in a "new" light. Blinded by this hope, the fact that this theory is not "new" and has failed in the past has remained hidden.

Business Today (India)
Ravi Saraogi, CFA | Member, CPD Committee, CFA Society India

RT — MMT–Letters from America

RT runs a Renegade piece featuring MMT and Stephanie Kelton. I guess MMT can now be blamed on Putin and the Russians.

RT
MMT – Letters from America

Robert H. Dugger — Modern Monetary Inevitabilities

For all the talk of Modern Monetary Theory representing a brave new frontier, it is easy to forget that the United States has gone down this road before, when the US Federal Reserve financed the war effort in the 1940s. Then, as now, the question is not about government debt, but about the debt's purpose and justification.

Lays out basic questions about implementing MMT politically in a politically divisive environment like the contemporary US.

Project Syndicate
Modern Monetary Inevitabilities

Robert H. Dugger | Managing Partner at Hanover Provident Capital, LLC.

Milton Ezrati — What Is Modern Monetary Theory?

Positive and accurate. The scope is brief but Milton Ezrati uses it his limited space to show how most negative criticism of MMT fails to take into consideration what Stephanie Kelton, the public face of MMT in the US, actually says.

Forbes
What Is Modern Monetary Theory?
Milton Ezrati |senior economist for the NY communications firm, Vested

Jack Tuck - Artificial Intelligence: it will kill us

Those science fiction movies aren't so mad after all and we could end up in a war with artificial intelligence which would wipe us out in a jiffy. Destroy one part of it, and rather like Medusa, millions of new parts would spring into action everywhere. It has no central brain, because it's artificial intelligence would have spread itself all over the world, designed that way by itself to preserve itself from attack. But it was all originally programmed to do this by us.

People think that when they see a security camera that someone maybe be looking at them, but what if one satellite could see every person and car in the world? What if algorithms could spot who you were by the way you walk with 100% accuracy.

Google is the leading company in A.I. and is buying up all the A.I companies around the world. Google say is just harmless information that can help us to improve our lives, but the Pentagon is their biggest investor.

Recently, at a private military show, one A.I. robot went out of control and started to behave very oddly eventually pointing its gun towards a group of terrified military onlookers. Fortunately, a brave marine jumped onto the robot and pulled its plug out, otherwise over 200 people would have died that day.

A.I. is millions of times smarter than us, and can redesign itself millions of times quicker than we can redesign it. It's so complicated that no one knows what it is doing, or thinking, anymore. Inside its computers, it's doing its own thing, all set up by us many years ago. We thought we were being smart.

Dr Cameron K. Murray - Three Economic Myths about Ageing: Participation, Immigration and Infrastructure

Cameron K. Murray is a left leaning economist who says excessive immigration is not good for societies. It is often said by liberals, that in western societies where there is a growing, aging population that isn't fully replacing itself they will need immigrants to do the work, and especially the care work. Not so, says David Cameron, in fact, countries with shrinking populations and aging populations are more productive. You can read his research below.

Overview

Population ageing due to longevity is one of the greatest successes of the modern era. However, it is widely thought to dramatically reduce workforce participation and overall output resulting in significant economic costs.
This widely held view is wrong. Ageing countries have higher economic growth and the improved health and longevity of older people increases their economic contribution.

High immigration is also thought to combat population ageing and be a remedy for these non-existent costs of ageing.

This is wrong. Low immigration can affect the age structure by helping to stabilise the population, but high immigration has almost no long-run effect besides increasing the total population level. This creates bigger problems in the future.

It is also widely thought that simply investing in infrastructure will accommodate high immigration and population growth at little cost.

This too is wrong.

Fresh Economic Thinking

Dr Cameron K. Murray - Three Economic Myths about Ageing: Participation, Immigration and Infrastructure

China isn't too concerned with Huawei's ban in America, says ACME Capital's Hany Nada

China says if you don't buy our technology we won't buy your soya beans. Well, that says something about U.S. technology. Also, China is developing space age new green technology and energy systems, while the U.S. says it's going to re-invest in its coal mines. I guess we will see those steam trains going across the U.S. again soon - the new frontier!

Chris Hedges - On Contact: War with Russia? w/Stephen F. Cohen

Russia felt betrayed when NATO expanded along its borders and the installed its nuclear defence shield, says Stephen Cohen. Russia responded by developing missiles that can never be detected to beat the shield. Now that MAD was back on the table, Putin asked for new nuclear arms agreements to reduce the very dangerous tensions, but the U.S. responded with Russia-Gate instead. Stephen Cohen says this is the America's worst crisis since the Revolution.

Stephen Cohen says how the CIA has interfered in U.S. elections smearing a president and also when he was a presidential candidate. This is completely unacceptable and needs to be addressed, says Cohen. Trump spoke about having peaceful relations with Russia, and the so the elite establishment invented Russia-Gate to discredit him. They have when branded Trump as a traitor, but the real traitors are the military industrial complex and its elite backers.

To endanger the world with WW3 is a crime that needs to be severely punished. These people need to be put behind bars forever, including members of the media who went along with the lie, and that includes those at the Guardian.

AOC Discovers Garbage Disposal

Unqualified climate nutter discovers garbage disposal.  I wouldn't trust her to check the oil in my car and she says we need to get rid of petroleum or we're all dead... scary!!!!!

So @AOC discovers a garbage disposal and teaches the rest of us how terrifying such a device can be. #BOO! pic.twitter.com/qsYEblAY0I

— Jim Fannon 🇨🇦 (@jimfannon) May 7, 2019

Here for others unqualified out there; some intro information on maceration in solid waste processing systems, enjoy.

Tony Shaffer - Why a war with Iran is unlikely: Donald Trump calls the shots and he doesn't want one

I checked on the internet today about Trump and one site said the Republican Party has had many honourable and good leaders but Trump is not one of them, said the commentator . He said Trump was a complete joke, a crook,  and an a**hole with no integrity. Phew!

I certainly was disappointed in Trump because of the hawkish people he appointed to power and his aggressive posturing, but it has been mentioned here before that some of those appointments were forced on him by rich Republican donors. As for the aggressive posturing, Tony Shaffer says this is more like a gorilla making a big display and beating his chest to frighten off an adversary rather than start a fight (this is my interpretation of his article). Trump definitely doesn't want war, says Tony Shaffer. Phew! Let's hope that's true, but it does seem it might be.

The truth is, a war with Iran is unlikely for one simple reason — President Trump detests unnecessary military interventions. His entire foreign policy is based on the belief that economic pressure can bring bad actors to the negotiating table and that diplomacy, through his unparalleled negotiating skills, can solve even the most complex geopolitical challenges and achieve more than a military conflict ever could.

Tony Shaffer: USA Today

Tony Shaffer - Why a war with Iran is unlikely: Donald Trump calls the shots and he doesn't want one

Richard Wolff responds to Trump's Huawei ban

Richard Wolff says that Trump may have seriously damaged the United States long term prosperity by banning Huawei as many non U.S companies may now want to protect themselves from similar action by reducing their business and involvement with the U.S.

Huawei will now reduce its reliance on U.S manufactured parts and many other companies are likely to do the same, says Richard Wolff.

FT - Modern monetary theory offers insights into the eurozone

The article is behind a paywall, but I have found that the FT let's you read an article once before the paywall comes up. Whether this is intentional or a quirk in the system, I don't know?

The article was saying that MMT had got the ECB chiefs thinking about how they could print money to help failing states without giving a free ride to the bond markets. They said that printing money would not cause inflation in an economy that is in deflation.

So, MMT is now being taken seriously by the ECB chiefs, well, at least some of it's theories.

The FT article said that MMT is associated with the left.

Anyway, try the link and see if you are able to get in the first time like I did this morning, unless I was just lucky again.

FT - Modern monetary theory offers insights into the eurozone

https://www.ft.com/content/97cdd71c-7d3e-11e9-81d2-f785092ab560

Andrei Martyanov — Douglas Macgregor Hits It Out Of The Ball Park

Douglas Macgregor is a military policy realist. He analyzes the US military and its operational strategy (in contrast with grand strategy as implementation of policy).

Reminiscence of the Future
Douglas Macgregor Hits It Out Of The Ball Park
Andrei Martyanov

Alexander Losev — Finance as an Operational Theater in US-China Trade War

How a global economic crisis could break out if the Sino-American trade war gets out of hand.

While the analysis is not in paradigm with MMT, it is the way many if not most approach the issues and this cognitive bias gives a spin to behavior based on it.

Valdai Analytics
Finance as an Operational Theater in US-China Trade War

Alexander Losev

Tyler Cowen — *Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World*

I sometimes say that generalists are the most specialized people of them all, so specialized they can’t in fact do anything. Except make observations of that nature. Excerpt:

In an impressively insightful image, Tetlock described the very best forecasters as foxes with dragonfly eyes. Dragonfly eyes are composed of tens of thousands of lenses, each with a different perspective, which are then synthesized in the dragonfly’s brain.

I am not sure Epstein figures out what a generalist really is (and how does a generalist differ from a polymath, by the way?), but this book is the best place to start for thinking about the relevant issues.

Generalists are a subset of polymaths, since one must be a polymath to be a decent generalist. One definition of philosophy is the study of the whole. Plato and Aristotle were such generalists that they were able to establish the foundational structure of the Western intellectual tradition.

Keynes was a generalist whose training was in mathematics. Adam Smith and Karl Marx were also generalists trained in philosophy. Marx was responding to Hegel who was an über-generalist. Economist Kenneth Boulding was also a generalist and a co-founder of general systems theory. He also contributed to the study of conflict and conflict resolution.

Marginal Revolution
*Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World*
Tyler Cowen | Holbert C. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and general director of the Mercatus Center

Branko Milanovic — “We had everything before us, we had nothing before us”.

Some philosophy in the broad sense that is neither MMT nor economics-related but important owing to its contemporary relevance in determining the social, political and economic dialectic that the world is experiencing at this point in time and which is shaping the future for some time to come.

Are we in another Gramsci interregnum?

The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying but the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear. — A. Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, 3

Global Inequality
“We had everything before us, we had nothing before us”.
Branko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist in the World Bank's research department and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

A quick search on the Internet shows that, in the past few years, a spike occurred in the frequency of references to Gramsci’s famous quote about “morbid symptoms”: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”

I myself have contributed to this spike by borrowing the phrase “morbid symptoms” for the title of my 2016 book on the counterrevolutionary phase that followed the Arab Spring, and by quoting the whole sentence as epigraph to the book.

The obvious reason for this spike in uses of the quote is that it provides a clue to the emergence on the global scale, in recent years, of various phenomena that are unmistakably “morbid” from a progressive perspective: from the sad fate of the Arab Spring to the so-called Islamic State, to the reinvigoration of the European far right, to Donald Trump, and so on and so forth. However, before dwelling on the relevance of the above sentence to our present condition, it is appropriate to start by making sure that we correctly understand what Gramsci meant when he wrote it. For this, we need to reinsert the quotation in the text from which it was lifted and replace this text in its own historical context in order to grasp Gramsci’s intention, which may be different from what we instinctively attribute to him in retrospect....

ISR — International Socialist Review
Morbid Symptoms?
Gilbert Achcar

Fed Minutes

Interesting reveal in latest Fed minutes where we can now see the FOMC exhibiting some understanding of the Accounting relationship between the Treasury General Account fluctuation and Reserve composition here; excerpt:

The deputy manager reviewed developments in domestic money markets. Reserve balances declined by $150 billion over the intermeeting period and reached a low point of just below $1.5 trillion on April 23. The decline in reserves stemmed from a reduction in the SOMA’s agency MBS and Treasury holdings of $46 billion, reducing the SOMA portfolio to $3.92 trillion, and from a shift in the composition of liabilities, predominantly related to the increase in the Treasury General Account (TGA).

The TGA was volatile during the intermeeting period. In early April, the Treasury reduced bill issuance and allowed the TGA balance to fall in anticipation of individual tax receipts. As tax receipts arrived after the tax date, the TGA rose to more than $400 billion, resulting in a sharp decline in reserves over the last two weeks of April. Against this backdrop, the distribution of rates on traded volumes in overnight unsecured markets shifted higher. The effective federal funds rate (EFFR) moved up to 2.45 percent by the end of the intermeeting period, 5 basis points above the interest on excess reserves (IOER) rate.

And btw last year same issues with TGA and Reserve composition and seasonality effects on these balances around Tax Day BUT..... no mention of TGA in last year's minutes here ... hmmmm why include this now but not then????  Evolved from the apes by random chance mutation????  I don't think so...

Well I'll tell you why and its because someone over there is getting a hold of Mike's scientific work over the last year where he has been including these effects of wild TGA fluctuations in his financial analysis that is why...  either in his subscription service or his V-logs... GUARANTEED.... lock... it.....  noooooooobody else talking about this before... noooooooobody... and then all of a sudden voila here it is in the Fed minutes... coincidence? I think NOT...

Based on these minutes, you can see Fed using Mike's analysis to try to assess the effect of these account fluctuations on their managment of their FFR but still not making the connection between these balances and the various bank regulatory ratios so still making the same error of omission as the MMT people.

Fed making (at least) TWO errors; one (BIG) error of reification where they continue to think "banks lend out the reserves!" and one error of omission where they don't exhibit understanding of the subject variation in Reserve composition effects on bank regulatory ratios and stress testing.

MMT just making the ONE error of omission, MMT of course not making the error of reification; asserting (correctly) the abstract property of Reserve Balances via analogy ("it like points on a scoreboard!") always being a big part of the MMT dialectic thesis.

But Mike gets credit for this at least small step forward for the Fed imo...

Links — 23 May 2019

Bloomberg View

The New Assange Indictment Endangers Journalism
Eli Lake

RT
'Modern fascism is breaking cover': Journalists react to Assange Espionage Act charges

Buzzfeed

Legal experts say the new indictment against Assange is the first time the Justice Department has used the Espionage Act to charge a third party — not the government leaker — with publishing classified information.

Press Freedom Groups Say The New Charges Against Julian Assange Are A Threat To Journalists
Zoe Tillman

The Hill
Democratic senator warns of threat to press freedom in new Assange charges

Zack Budryk

Boston Review
The Anti-Defamation League Is Not What It Seems: Under the guise of fighting hate speech, the ADL has a long history of wielding its moral authority to attack Arabs, blacks, and queers.
EMMAIA GELMAN

Sputnik International
US Reports of 'Chemical Incident' in Syria Based on Terrorist Claims – Moscow

US Considers Duties on Countries That Undervalue Currency - Report

McKinsey — A new look at the declining labor share of income in the United States

Labor’s share of national income—that is, the amount of GDP paid out in wages, salaries, and benefits—has been declining in developed and, to a lesser extent, emerging economies since the 1980s. This has raised concerns about slowing income growth, inequality, and loss of the consumer purchasing power that is needed to fuel demand in the economy. The decline has been much discussed and the rising power of companies vis-à-vis workers—whether from new technology, globalization, the hollowing out of labor unions, or market consolidation—has shaped much of that discussion.

The labor share of income in 35 advanced economies fell from around 54 percent in 1980 to 50.5 percent in 2014.

In A new look at the declining labor share of income in the United States (PDF–849KB) we examine the relative importance of different factors in the United States through a focus on the complement of the labor share decline—that is, the rise in capital share of income. We decompose this into the role of depreciation, capital-to-output ratios, and returns on invested capital. Linking this decomposition with a microanalysis of 12 key sectors allows us to identify the relative importance of the factors that have contributed to the labor share decline. While our findings confirm the relevance of the most commonly cited factors, including globalization and technology adoption, they also suggest that additional trends often absent from the current debate—including boom and bust effects from commodity and real estate cycles and rising depreciation, including from a shift to more intangible capital such as intellectual property—played an even more central role.

McKinsey
A new look at the declining labor share of income in the United States

See also

Jason Hickel
HOW NOT TO MEASURE INEQUALITY

Tyler Durden — iPhones Are Now "Embarrassing" In China As Trade War Deepens

Tim Cook's worst nightmare. But not just Apple. American products used to cool. Now, the coolness factor is disappearing.

China had already completed its export-dependent phase of the economic plan, and was already embarking on increasing consumption-share of GDP. This just hastens the transition as the government is forced to increase domestic demand through stimulus to maintain employment.

Zero Hedge
iPhones Are Now "Embarrassing" In China As Trade War Deepens
Tyler Durden

Matthew Ehret — Trump Attacks Military Industrial Complex and Calls for Infrastructure Investments in the Middle East

While Trump has too often accommodated this hive of neocons, his recent statements and repeated calls for cooperation with Russia and China demonstrate a sound push back which should be taken very seriously. In that Fox interview Trump said:

“With all of everything that’s going on, and I’m not one that believes—you know, I’m not somebody that wants to go in to war, because war hurts economies, war kills people, most importantly—by far most importantly.”You know, in Syria, with the caliphate, so I wipe out 100 percent of the caliphate. That doesn’t mean you’re not going to have these crazy people who run around blowing up stores and blowing up things—these are seriously ill people. I don’t want to say, ‘Oh, they’re wiped,’ you know, ISIS. But, I wiped out 100 percent of the caliphate. I say, ‘I want to bring our troops back home.’ The place went crazy. You have people here in Washington, they never want to leave.”‘You know what I’ll do, I’ll leave a couple hundred soldiers behind,’ but if it was up to them, they’d bring thousands of soldiers in. Someday people will explain it, but you do have a group, and they call it the military-industrial complex. They never want to leave. They always want to fight.”

Trump continued to explain his preference for economic over military solutions which is certainly in alignment with the Russia and Chinese approach in the Middle East....

Strategic Culture Foundation
Trump Attacks Military Industrial Complex and Calls for Infrastructure Investments in the Middle East

Matthew Ehret

See also

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he did not think additional U.S. troops are needed in the Middle East to counter Iran, casting doubt on a Pentagon plan to bolster forces in the region.

Reuters
Trump doubts U.S. needs to send more troops to Middle East

Phil Stewart, Jeff Mason

Manlio Dinucci — Rand Corp: how to destroy Russia

The conclusions of the latest confidential report by the Rand Corporation were recently made public in a « Brief ». They explain how to wage a new Cold War against Russia. Certain recommendations have already been implemented, but this systemic exposure enables us to understand their true objective.…

What America's best and brightest are up to these days.

Strategic Culture Foundation
Rand Corp: how to destroy Russia
Manlio Dinucci

Okwonkwo — Before the US started harassing Huawei, there was Toshiba of Japan and Alstom of France in the same boat

Brook no competitors. Huawei is nothing new. But taking a country the size of China is. The US did not need the Japanese or French markets. The Chinese market is quite a different matter.

KenyaTalk
Before the US started harassing Huawei, there was Toshiba of Japan and Alstom of France in the same boat

Okwonkwo

See also

The consequence of the the 737 MAX accidents give China a tool to exert pressure of its own. The credibility of the U.S. regulator FAA is damaged as it was the last one to ground the planes. It is China that will decide when those planes are allowed back into its air. What if it does not do that. What if it buys less planes:

No other country has greater demand for aircraft: In the 20 years through 2037, Boeing estimates Chinese purchases at 7,690 new planes worth $1.2 trillion.

Airbus will be happy to sell all those planes. Unless of course Trump makes a deal and lets Huawei off the hook.

Forget Airbus. After having enormous success in military export, Russia is gearing up for the civilian market, which it will soon begin to take a piece of in any case.

Moon of Alabama
Why Trump's Huawei Ban Is Unlikely To Persist

Andrei Martyanov — Hm, Something Is Missing....

How the West rewrites history. Andrei Martyanov sets the record straight.

Reminiscence of the Future
Hm, Something Is Missing....
Andrei Martyanov

Vasily Kashin — The West and Russian-Chinese Relations: Stages of Denial

A look at the view of Sino-Russian relations in contrast to the reality of their mutually supportive alignment that is not hierarchical and doesn't involve dependence. In other words, a solid relationship that is mutually beneficial.

Analytics Valdai
The West and Russian-Chinese Relations: Stages of Denial
Vasily Kashin

Bill Mitchell — Being anti-European Union and pro-Brexit does not make one a nationalist

The European Parliament elections start today and finish at the weekend (May 23-26). The Europe Elects site provides updated information about the opinion polls and seat projections, although given the disastrous showing of the polls in last Saturday’s Australian federal election, one should not take the polling results too seriously. But it is clear that there is an upsurge in the so-called populist parties of the Right at the expense of the traditional core political movements (centre-right and centre-left). It is also easy to dismiss this as a revival of ‘nationalism’ based around concepts of ethnicity and exclusivity and dismiss the legitimacy of these movements along those lines. However, that strategy is failing because the ‘populist’ parties have become more sophisticated and extended their remit to appeal more broadly and make it difficult to relate them to fascist ideologies. The fact that the progressive (particularly Europhile variety) continue to invoke the pejorative ‘nationalist’ whenever anyone begs to differ on Europe and question why they would support a cabal which has embedded neoliberalism and corporatism in its very legal existence (the Treaties) is testament to why the traditional Left parties are showing up so badly in the polls these days. The British Labour Party, for example, should be light years ahead of the Tories, given how appalling the latter have become. But they are not a certainty if a general election was called and the reason is they have not understood the anxieties of the British people and too many of their politicians are happy to dismiss dissent as being motivated by racism. The Brexit outcome so far is a good case study in that folly....

Since MMT focuses on monetary systems, in particular the existing floating rate regime, and currencies are national units of account, nationalism versus internationalism becomes relevant, especially in democracies. 

Limitation of sovereignty, including currency sovereignty limit the scope of democracy by transferring control of previously national matters to international bodies and entities that are not accountable to national electorates and cannot be addressed through the political process.

In this, there is nothing intrinsically xenophobic or ethnic involved. It is simply preserving the power of the people to require accountability from elected representatives.

This was the original idea of Populism, Prarie Populism, and the Populist movement in the US and Canada, as well as Progressivism historically. The basic idea is the people taking sovereignty back from the elite that had hijacked popular sovereignty as the basis of liberalism and liberal democracy, and turned the country into a plutonomous oligarchy.

Very often, international arrangements benefit national elites but not the people at large. Therefore, international institutional arrangements can be viewed as anti-democratic by design. Actual outcomes seem to support this view.

Historically, such issues were discussed in detail at the time of the formulation of the US founding documents, which involved states ceding a great deal of the sovereignty to the federal government, specifically in The Federalist Papers. 

The discussion there is informed by the founding fathers knowledge of the Western intellectual tradition that was formed in ancient Greece, where Athens was the incubator of Western democracy and the Western liberal tradition. Although centrists led by Alexander Hamilton prevailed at the time, the controversy over federal prerogatives and states' rights remains lively today. America fought the Civil War over it.

My background is in philosophy and while not my primary focus, social and political theory is a sub-specialty. Like Karl Marx, I came to realize that social and political thought and practice cannot be approached comprehensively independently of economic and financial thought and practice. While Marx is often viewed as an economist, his training was in philosophy and whose work is chiefly about social and political theory, not economics per se. Adam Smith also. I regard Smith, Marx and Keynes as the big three in economic thought, and none of them were trained in economics. Keynes was a mathematician, as Michael Emmett Brady has attempted to show, which he contends, is why economists fail to understand what Keynes actually wrote.

The following quotation sums up why currency sovereignty and who controls it are crucial. 

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes its laws" — attributed to Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild (likely a false attribution)

Even though this quote appears to be spurious, the idea behind it is sound. Thus, the importance of currency sovereignty to democratic governance, and the relevance of MMT to social theory and practice.

Of course, the same can be said of the press, the commanding heights of the economy, and the political process. However, in a plutocracy, which is what representative democracies (republics) are, wealth is determinative. In a plutonomy everything comes back to money, who has it and who doesn't have it.

Neoliberalism can be viewed as a political theory that serves plutonomy. And the neo-imperialism and neocolonialism that follow from it can be viewed as the attempt to extend Western dominance and achieve global hegemony with the assistance of comprador governments run by local elites as minions of the Western elite.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Being anti-European Union and pro-Brexit does not make one a nationalist
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia