Modern Monetary Theorists have employed parables or simple teaching models to illustrate how sovereign currencies work. Usually the parables are used to drive home the most fundamental aspect of state or chartal money; namely, the manner in which a tax…
Imagine for a moment a society without compulsion. People are working for themselves and each other. They might share, barter or agree to use a private money or monies in exchange. If everybody could somehow agree to share land and…
It seems the failure of neoclassical macroeconomists to foresee the global financial crisis and the willingness of some of its more extreme members, in the Great Recession that followed, to push for ridiculous remedies such as “contractionary expansionism” have resulted,…
In the previous post, it was suggested that the unearned income of landlords, rentiers and capitalists should really be the equal entitlement of all citizens. Such an equal entitlement could, in part, take the form of basic income or a…
It is sometimes argued that a basic income guarantee (BIG) would be unfair because it requires no reciprocation from the recipient. If we are to hold to a principle of reciprocity, it might be worth briefly considering how the principle…
We are subjected constantly to threatening talk by politicians and media personalities about budget deficits and public debt. Budget surpluses, or at least balanced budgets, are touted as fiscally responsible, whereas deficits are painted as burdensome and unsustainable. This framing…
In a previous post, I briefly introduced Marx’s value theory. Values and prices were considered at the aggregate level without breaking the economy down into different sectors. This enabled a focus on basic macro relationships. In this post, the economy…
I’ve been thinking about it. Work, being a core part of life, is meant to be interesting, engaging, and meaningful. Otherwise, why are we wasting our time on this planet? Yet, for many, work is not living up to its…
In a recent post focusing on inflation and distribution, I touched on the connection between the aggregate markup and income distribution. Here, I thought it might be worth demonstrating the connection explicitly, and then outlining a simple extension that brings…
The neoliberal policy approach in the decades leading up to the crisis basically amounted to enticing or pushing people into increasing levels of private debt. With private debt burdens mounting in relation to real GDP, we were told that consenting…
