Suboptimal Outcomes, MMT And The Financial Tabloid Barons
One of the interesting (and somewhat unfortunate) aspects of the increasingly vociferous public debate around Modern Monetary Theory, involves the cognitive dissonance exhibited by those who have spent years (and in some cases decades) lampooning central banks' inability to raise rates and generate inflation, but who now contend that accepting the reality of MMT is "dangerous."
For our purposes here, I'm not going to spend an inordinate amount of time elaborating and expounding. Rather, I wante
This is a great post by the way….Has a lot of H….wisdom in its content.. The Utopian feel was shared by my Mother who when we were in ravaged post war Europe in the 1940’s used paper currency to Philosophically light a coal stove and critique the World situation… I learned the true value of money does never exceed the true values in your spirit… Maybe that is what is lacking today…
If used wisely MMT can provide the resources needed to fix a lot our problems but who can we trust to spend wisely? If you think about it when a company borrows money to build up its business, it has to pay the money back as well as remain profitable. With MMT the govt just needs to spend wisely, there is no loan repayment, why is that so hard?
True about the “true value of money.” I recently heard a Buddhist talk about the time he was a Thai monk in 1997. People went to bed rich only to wake the next day in poverty when the Baht was dramatically devalued.
This is not comparable. You’re missing the monetary sovereignty piece of the puzzle.
How long does (can) that last?
How long does what last? I mean, the US isn’t going to start issuing CNY bonds or borrowing in Turkish lira. And the US isn’t going to peg the dollar to another currency, as that wouldn’t make any sense (we are the peg). So it will last forever or until the US loses its reserve currency status, but even then it wouldn’t lose monetary sovereignty. The US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, etc. etc. all have high levels of monetary sovereignty that are not (and will not) come under threat anytime soon,
IT is a great post. I also applaud the effort to repackage the same thing and repeat it. The greatness is that the repackaging seems fresh and new. However in this almost nothing is new. Truly a work of art.
As Donald Trump has shown us (and marketers everywhere have long understood), you have to repeat something seven times before people will start to give it credence.
I am in favor of a national healthcare. Can we add some “online” elements to keep the cost under control? Can we still allow those who want to and can afford to pay for supplemental coverage, to do so?
I am in favor of free education K-12 plus 4. My issue is that the current public education system in this country is broken, IMHO. Thank heaven for “free” online sources from Khan Academy and others because my kids needed a teacher who could teach, but did not always get that- especially in math and science. Seems like that should be a given- also, can we stop lowering the reading, writing, math and science standards required for high school graduation. So what if not all kids get a trophy and some might have to repeat a grade or course to achieve competency.
Fix K-12 ( teacher unions better step up) and I am a believer in free online college education for all. For those super bright students, I even agree the US should pay for education and living expenses for 4 years at a public or private US university. The covid pandemic is proving that college on line works. I agree on line probably not so great for K-12.
There’s more to a real university than learning differential calculus. Sexual education, discerning egos, modest amateur athletics, friendships made for life, first taste at budgeting, …..
Canuck- I agree. Just do not think the government needs to pay for that portion of “education “
Government does not ‘need’ to pay for anything, but to keep citizen’s wealthy they must invest in things that individuals are too cheap to invest in.
Education cannot be measured but it can be under-invested in. The easiest way to impoverish a society is to not invest in education.
Today our wealthy enjoy being a king in a capable court. What happens when our wealthy are a king of an ignorant pauper’s court? They will not be as wealthy.
Agree. We should all be wary of election-year, financial-analysis, pop-up sites
While I believe that America needs healthcare and affordable education for all, I also agree that the whole education system k-12 has deteriorated and we need to bring it up to world standard where we’re as good as the best and that all children should be able to advance as far as their ability will take them. I agree also that the ‘young Sheldons’ of America should be identified early in the k-12 system and fast tracked.
Interested to know your thoughts on universal basic income. It seems easier and more economical to administer than universal healthcare and education, or jobs guarantees. It would also be fairer, in that each individual could use it to find a ‘best fit’ solution for their own needs.
The scare narratives of austerity promoters generate eyeballs, but those of elected officials must have a darker purpose, even if unintended. The net results of the scare narratives are decisions that determine what kind of society you will have, and more of the benefits go to the purveyors of that narrative. Right now, your beneficiaries are NOT a large portion of the population that needs basic health care, NOR a large portion of those that could benefit from access to education. The population elected the President. The public at large has no interested in favoring science over heresay and conspiracy. So who continues to benefit and propagates the narrative?