Randall Wray, one of the founders of the economic theory known as Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) lays out some of its main arguments. Paul Jay hosts
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The new funding of new production jobs under the New Green Deal will generate new Sales Tax, Income Tax … which will flow back to government. Why not show these incomes and balance them with the government fainancing of the NGD?
I never heard or read about any incomes generated by the NGD.
Why must resources be shifted? Just print more dollars.
'Shut down the fossil fuel companies.' Okay Einstein, then we'll just all starve and freeze then. Good solution!
Well comrade, thanks for the interview
No, we live in a mixed market economy. How long until we get to full Soviet style planned economy i don't know. Then of course that will collapse. This guy has s*** for brains
Planned economy worked very well in the Soviet Union, Venezuela, etc.
The essence of MMt's economic argument that federal government politicians should have "Policy Space" to spend in excess of it's income for what it considers is better for the economy.
The same in their minds great theory that talks about the evil of inequality but when it comes to the reality only politicians should have "Policy Space" when everyone else like the average person and those on less than average incomes should be restrained and have no "Policy Space" to spend more than it's income. Not you, not anyone else but politicians.
That's right. Notice that when those corrupt asshole-lickers in Congress want to pay for something, which always either a bloated military budget or corporate welfare to the tune of many billions, you can't force them to say inflation. When Congress wants to pay for something believe me nothing will stop them from doing so. Federal Congress is owned and operated by Wall Street and the fossil fuel industry so of COURSE it doesn't want to do anything that helps people, or transitions off fossil fuels, because the people in Congress are blood-drinking sociopaths. So I don't know how we're going to change the human composition of Congress but until we do that none of this will go anywhere. I say to hell with inflation!! Prices are frequently fluctuating up and down that ALWAYS happens due to daily small adjustments. Price increases can be limited by price controls number one, and if they still rise somewhat I'm pretty sure we can handle it. Never before in Congress in history did they cry about "how we're going to pay for it" when it was something that their billionaire owners and Wall Street wanted. Congress is nothing but a bunch of spineless servants wholly owned and operated by Wall Street and the fossil fuel industry and that's been true more or less for I would say at least the last hundred years, with a few short exceptions here and there.
If we can get better people in Congress there's no LIMIT to what we can't do as a nation for the public good. But that is a big IF. The number one requirement to be a senator or a representative is to have no conscience and no soul. It's pretty much non-negotiable. Oh sure there's a tiny few that may not fall into this category but they're usually too weak to stand up for their principles. If we can replace the representatives in DC with people of conscience then we'll have a bright future ahead of us, but that's like saying we could slingshot ourselves to the Moon.
Today's Congressional reps are holy without ethics.
They gladly do the bidding of the elites and they'll step down with a fat lobbyist job waiting for them. It's one of the best possible career paths for a grifter.
In order to provide moral leadership for the future we need people who actually HAVE a conscience in this country to step up and that is something that is impossible in this universe. So before we even GET to being able to undertake bold courageous projects for a new century we got to change the physical makeup of the Congressional body and that is no mean feat. I mean I honestly have NO idea how we're going to do that. They're scum today and they were scum yesterday. How in the WORLD is this ever going to be changed? Your guess is as good as mine.
With strict wealth caps and yearly income limits, taxes become obsolete. Any individual household who makes above that limit, there can be a mechanism in place where it automatically gets deposited into an account from which then is distributed to either it's local state or the federal government or some previously vetted legitimate private charities that the person has chosen. That's one way of doing it. Just literally have income limits at the top, that solves everything. I always thought it was beyond ridiculous that people thought we could have a totally unregulated free-for-all casino-style unicorn and fairies private market where infinite amounts of wealth could be accumulated and this wouldn't create any problems for anyone else.
Once you start controlling by law the greed of the private market EVERYTHING works itself out. People can't afford the rent because there's no rent control. Solution: institute rent control. Voila! Wow that was hard. Increase welfare, increase price controls, and so on. Institute laws that mandate any unsold inventory of both food and goods if it cannot be resold must be simply distributed amongst its local community. That way we solve the grossness of the extreme amoral waste in this country.
The only people who stand to lose under this plan are the very selfish and the extremely wealthy. Well boo hoo!! I'm going to fall into a deep manic depression for the poor ultra-rich and all the corporations out there. Fuck them. They're lucky we're not bringing out the guillotines.
Now imagine if wages were brought up to where they SHOULD have been years ago, $25 or even $40 an hour with a small business exception of $15-25 an hour.
Many things would change for the positive.
Time got redistribution DOWNWARDS. Let's take it BACK PEOPLE.
I didn't hear anything out of Randall's mouth that I disagreed with
Imagine using the central government for the benefit of all citizens instead of the parasitical evil .1%. Radical I know.
His opening statement proves it all: "…..what is clear that the government spends money when it needs it." A fact which the American people chose to ignore.
5:55 thats because they worked to make a claim of ownership and somehow are systematically excluding people from the benefits of ownership which causes wealth inequality, even money is just another form of claimed ownership of loan products or payment instruments some loan products or payment instruments are exclusively manufactured and other loan products or payment instruments are not exclusive, economics is just a problem for socio-economist, monetary economist and business minded people
Rationing and price control… yikes. Good luck with MMT America
#MMT supporters claim that funding is infinite.
The skeptics problem with that is that we have already funded way too many programs. The Fed Debt to GDP is 125% and now petrodollar hegemony is threatened. Our infinite money printing and therefore infinite funding ability is supported by pillars like the petrodollar and U.S.
Treasury market. These are both currently under seige. The petrodollar via Russia, China, India, and the Saudis by using their new oil funding system. And treasuries are threatened by inflation.
MMT is an acronym being used to mean Modern Money Theory. But this meaning of the MMT acronym ignores the mind of the man who actually recognized and accurately described to everyone what money truly is and how money truly works in any society. Therefore, the acronym MMT should mean Mosler's Money Theory which credits the man – Warren Mosler – who GAVE THE WORLD a clear and accurate understanding of money. In fact, there is no one in the MMT field who does not credit this man as MMT's founder.
While the government is at it, can they just print us all a million. That should get rid of income inequality. Thank me very much! Life is now fair and easy. Tomorrow in the forecast…..raining gumdrops and lollipops!!
Damn! Love it when the ideology gets out in front of the science. Probably be easier to not just destroy everything for a shot at a utopian society
Price control and wage control has never worked. Because of the nature of humans
MMT is simply Keynesianism socialism on steroids. Pure absurdity. Only gold and silver are money. The M1 USD money stock has increased 65 percent in the past year. The Chinese have 20000 tons of gold and are about to launch a gold backed crypto. When that happens, there will be a run on the USD that will make it worth less than toilet paper. If you actually think that MMT is rational, I have a bridge over the East River that I'd like to sell to you. Ugh.
They want the government to take over major industries? This doesn’t have a great track record.
Randall Wray is not great at explaining this
If the profit produced by the workers energy was more appropriately distributed to the workers, market inflation and taxes (both would increase) would sit better with the normal consumers / earner and government (spending).
The high concentrations of wealth are like blood clots in the economic flow and appropriation of money.
Until we fix this, we are doomed.
In some fashion or another successful companies must pay their employees more.
The company's net profit adjusted against company's debt should be distributed as bonuses to all employees — there could be employee investment requirements, either time at company and/or purchase of shares. Employees could opt for extra earnings via company reinvestment.
Company taxes will increase or lower according to the degree of profit distributed to all employees.
Does this spending take into account that it pays workers whom will pay a certain percentage back via taxes. Lifting people out of poverty means more people reaching higher tax brackets and less who qualify for government help.
The inflation would only happen in markets that have high demand and low supply, why deflation will happen in some markets that find lower cost in higher demand generated by greater consumption because people have more available funds. Which means even more tax collection.
"We do live in a planned economy. The question is who is doing the planning."
— L. Randall Wray
Echoing Michael Hudson, perhaps
I like how he points out , “capitalist wheather MMT is inflationary or not, they don’t like full employment because it removes their leverage over people”
“We do live in a planned economy, it just depends on who is doing the planning.”
In other words, the actual economy is behind the money, it’s the people. And while I do think this makes a good case for AI, automation. And then we can just use MMT to keep us busy.
I know it’s conservatives that for what ever reasons become against this, but think, you could use MMT to build a shipping moat between Mexico and the US. It cost 500 trillion, but it at least earn us money more in long run than a wall would and would give you way more control than ever.
So refreshing to hear an un-biased news network.
Great to see TRNN / Paul Jay cover Modern Monetary Theory. It's of the utmost importance.
Randall gave up on pretending to be an economist, and is now just an openly radical left winger. "Green New Deal" has nothing to do with MMT economics as it used to be articulated. MMT isn't economics anymore. It's political ideology.
Of all the MMT proponents, I find Randall to be the most politicized and gives the theory itself a bad name. He is a proponent of massive government control and central planning. This is not MMT. MMT can be done through tax cuts and privatization as well, his version of MMT is an ideological extremism. MMT, devoid of his political bias, has a lot of merit. The issue with his idea is centrally planned economies have been shown to be far less efficient allocation of scarce resources which have alternative uses. Inefficient use of resources is the primary cause of decrease in production and in turn, inflation.
Mr. Wray talks for about twenty minutes about how to finance a Green New Deal and implies that this has something to do with a modern monetary theory! He is just a bad accounant who can't distinguish between politics and financial and monetary theory.
Very interesting, the host uses the term of "right" and "left" economists.Unfortunately this is todays reality; most economists are political economists but not scientists anymore. Mr. Wray just states his own political view, which he doesn't recognize (or wants to recognize) as such of course. And he hides this political view as economic facts by using the term MMT. Mr. Wray thinks that he is a scientist but the truth is he is a politician.
If you ignor all the political nonsense and financial theory he talks all day long, his thoughts on monetary theory boil down to the quantity theory of money and that the government (which he defines in a very generous way) is the sole issuer of money e. g. should be the central planner – but this is hardly new or modern.
The right question to ask but not asked is: "What is the legitimate source of public revenue?" The answer comes from the writings of the 17th and 18th century writers on political economy, from Cantillon to Smith to Turgot to Ricardo to Mill to Marx and, finally, to George. Societies must collect rent from all of its sources. This change in public policy is independent of MMT reforms but would work in the direction, whereas most tax revenue relied on today has negative consequences for implementation of the "Green New Deal."