basic theoretical material

The theory of modern money summarized in the prior two articles is not just another perspective on the monetary system. It is also another perspective on government. In this final article, I want briefly to explore the implications of this alternative approach to government, especially as it relates to public sector workers and their unions.

Many of us believe that living-wage job guarantees, publicly-provided benefits and services, and well-funded, stronger enforcement of the laws and regulations already on the books, is pie-in-the-sky. We have been taught to think that such guarantees cost too much money and that we can’t afford them, even if we agree that they would be good things to do if we could. We have been taught wrong. We can afford such programs. And we can afford them without imposing an unfair tax burden on anyone.

The general public has been taught for thirty years and more to think of government as a burden on themselves and others, and therefore an obstacle to our shared prosperity. Anti-government propagandists have not only kept up a steady drum beat against any notion of public service that is not minimal, but they have also worked to slash government spending wherever and whenever possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EObtwxpDSzk

In early April, 2013, the Bank of Japan, a central bank, under its new Chairman Haruhiko Kuroda, announced that it will implement both quantitative and qualitative easing (QE and QualE) to stimulate the stalled Japanese economy. (Please see my April 17, 2013 Article: Bank of Japan Bashing)

In economics there is the notion of economic rent—payment in excess of what is required to mobilize factors of production. For example, such rents accrue to those who have “cornered the market”—by artificially restricting supply of some resource, they are able to dictate usurious terms to buyers. We call them “rentiers”.

The Antidote to Euphemism

The fallacies that lurk in words are the quicksands of theory; and as the conduct of nations is built on theory, the correction of word-fallacies is the never-ending labor of Science. … the party in this country, one of whose great aims was, at one time, the perpetuation of slavery, owed much of its popular vote to the name Democracy.
– S. Dana Horton, Silver and Gold (1895)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAxa82-ZQQY

This is an important presentation by Istvan Meszaros, that years later is still apt and astute. Meszaros is truly a pathfinder for socialism, and is compatible, imo, with MMT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wA-TLUWwTc

This is a second interview of Meszaros that happened about the same time. The associated notes are not clear

Modern Monetary Theory is a way of doing economics that incorporates a clear understanding of the way our present-day monetary system actually works – it emphasizes the frequently misunderstood dynamics of our so-called “fiat-money” economy. Most people are unnerved by the thought that money isn’t “backed” by anything anymore – backed by gold, for example. They’re afraid that this makes money a less reliable store of value. And, of course, it is perfectly true that a poorly managed monetary system, or one which is experiencing something like an oil-price shock, can also experience inflation.

Hello one and all, I am going to rework this entire site so that it can function as a more or less ordinary blog, withn the posting of articles, followed by comments The theme is going to be particular slice of the MMT/FF discourse which is not currently given much in the way of attention. To a large degree it will cover MMT/Ff related development, And it will tend toward the nexus between Adoplh Lowe and Alfred Schutz, more specifically using Lowe's On Economic Knowledge.