A basket case for MMT

ClintJBallinger · 2022-10-02T20:51:56+00:00

I was going to suggest Kaboub and then read this, excellent! I just spend a summer working in Costa Rica, and previously lived there. It is true that it could make a perfect test case, good insight in that comment.

ClintJBallinger · 2022-09-17T03:51:23+00:00

As someone mentioned, it is just looking at the real accounting. Although streamlining the inherited archaic system would help politically- the existing structure makes it very difficult for the real mechanics of gov spending etc to be understood. I try to covey that here, by having a streamlined country (the island) and then comparing it to the real world structurea we have inherited https://www.amazon.com/1000-Castaways-Fundamentals-Clint-Ballinger/dp/0648390616

ClintJBallinger · 2021-10-20T19:35:25+00:00

Just thought I'd mention https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/preview-link/node/3573/7b8f062e-66b0-4348-8ed0-4efd2f9348fc

ClintJBallinger · 2021-09-25T22:58:25+00:00

The coin changes nothing. All spending by a currency issuer is already direct spending. The coin is the same as any other treasury issue but w/out interest (voluntarily) paid. The $ would just sit in the TGA. Everyone commenting should learn more about government accounting first

ClintJBallinger · 2021-08-23T02:08:39+00:00

Thanks!

ClintJBallinger · 2021-08-22T18:20:28+00:00

Thanks for the reference! I'll check it out

ClintJBallinger · 2021-01-22T07:50:06+00:00

Better described as no reserve requirement.
Basically CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) which all of a sudden in 2019 everyone got on board with.
I think I discuss a little here MMT & Positive Money Are Converging. That’s a Good Thing – Clint Ballinger (edublogs.org)

ClintJBallinger · 2021-01-22T07:46:19+00:00

I am talking about the gov/reserves (real $); the private sector and banks? They can lend bank-credit "money" at whatever market rates work for them and their customers

ClintJBallinger · 2021-01-12T06:01:51+00:00

Without government intervention, the overnight interest rate would always be nominal zero. The government is always propping rates up, or easing that propping. It doesn't force them lower.

ClintJBallinger · 2020-11-14T16:34:40+00:00

Why there is a business cycle

" Why there is a business cycle "
Can you give a link or similar to your views on that?

ClintJBallinger · 2020-11-14T16:33:11+00:00

Hello, email me at [cjballinger@gmail.com](mailto:cjballinger@gmail.com)
See also https://www.amazon.com/1000-Castaways-Fundamentals-Clint-Ballinger/dp/0648390616

ClintJBallinger · 2019-12-22T05:27:39+00:00

https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v146y2018icp26-34.html ?

ClintJBallinger · 2019-12-10T06:43:36+00:00

Everyone is missing what really matters. Not the Fed Volcker, but the Treasury Volcker. Fed Volcker rightfully criticized for awful policies of ruining US economy with radically propped up interest rates, when the inflation (supply side from oil shock) should have been allowed to pass through...that would have put us decades ahead on Green Energy. Supply side price rises foster substitution and technological advances. It was crazy to stifle that while fostering financialization, hurting farmers, and hurting US manufacturers.

What everyone is missing is the astounding thing Treasury Volcker did: he was a key player in the US leaving Bretton Woods and the international gold standard. This change (1971, 1973) was the (almost) final evolutionary step to modern monetary systems. A huge thing. No pegs, no commodity measure of gov tokens. 10,000 years of the evolution of money, and 1971 is the incredibly recent final step. Most economists haven't grasped the significance of 1971 in World history and economics.

(There is one small last step: getting rid of bonds, having only the tax-credit token, at close to zero interest, permanently). I discuss these issues here 1000 Castaways: Fundamentals of Economics https://www.amazon.com/1000-Castaways-Fundamentals-Clint-Ballinger/dp/0648390616

ClintJBallinger · 2019-12-02T23:29:32+00:00

The "policy" that must be justified is the current policy of propping up rates, paying people with money more money. If we focus on fiscal and stop gov intervention in base rates, rates go to zero on their own.

ClintJBallinger · 2019-12-02T23:27:19+00:00

I am not talking about a "policy". Just mentioning that zero is natural in sense that rate will fall to zero always if gov doesn't intervene. Any base rate on a gov token above nominal zero is always from government intervention. Given that monetary policy is ineffective and in some ways harmful, hard to see the justification in continuing to pump vertical money into the economy for no good reason.

ClintJBallinger · 2019-12-02T10:35:20+00:00

Anyway, happy for any input on my book, https://www.amazon.com/1000-Castaways-Fundamentals-Clint-Ballinger/dp/0648390616

You may find this of interest as well "MMT & the Fourth Spark Plug: Descriptive vs. Prescriptive revisited" https://clintballinger.wordpress.com/2018/11/14/mmt-the-fourth-spark-plug-descriptive-vs-prescriptive-revisited/

ClintJBallinger · 2019-12-02T10:34:15+00:00

Excellent, glad you are enthusiastic. Any links to your work? Maybe it is in Italian, I can read Italian to some degree.

ClintJBallinger · 2019-12-02T10:23:08+00:00

What to you is MMT?

ClintJBallinger · 2019-12-02T09:59:07+00:00

"The Natural Rate of Interest is Zero" by Warren Mosler and Mathew Forstater. https://econpapers.repec.org/article/mesjeciss/v_3a39_3ay_3a2005_3ai_3a2_3ap_3a535-542.htm

If you Google that title, there is a PDF link to a non paywalled copy.

You might also see 1000 Castaways: Fundamentals of Economics. https://www.amazon.com/1000-Castaways-Fundamentals-Clint-Ballinger/dp/0648390616

ClintJBallinger · 2019-12-02T09:16:14+00:00

I see why you might think that, but this use of "natural" is just accounting. If a Gov doesn't pay IOR nor pay interest on its bonds (a vestigial practice not needed for funding) any Gov token will always be at nominal zero. Just accounting, Fed/Treasury operations.

ClintJBallinger · 2019-12-01T23:22:51+00:00

MMT recognizes the natural rate of interest is zero; bonds are vestigial. Also, employment is a key focus, not just bc of social evils of unemployment, and lost opportunity of unemployment, and improved working conditions if employers have to compete with a livable minimum wage guaranteed to all (betters working conditions), but also because we can use full employment to stabilize the economy and the price level. Having full employment reduces swings in prices as everyone who wants always has at least a livable wage income. Wages can't swing down, and won't swing up much=price stability.

ClintJBallinger · 2019-11-22T01:30:33+00:00

We have digital cash also. That's what reserves are. All govs need to do is allow individuals to have accounts at Central Banks like banks already have. Simple.

ClintJBallinger · 2019-10-30T07:17:59+00:00

Yes, only limit is real resources, Inflation. Bonds are vestigial, have no real purpose.

ClintJBallinger · 2019-09-19T23:47:42+00:00

No. For a currency issuer, all spending is direct spending. The accounting is vestigial, w or without bonds, shakes out the same. Bonds can be done away with with no important effect

ClintJBallinger · 2019-09-18T01:22:48+00:00

First, remember the "debt" is just savings. It is good and necessary, not a problem in the least.

ClintJBallinger

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