Administrative announcements

Travelling across the world today to escape the famine that MMT will cause

I am travelling all day today and I will resurface, in blog terms, on Monday. A quiz will pop up tomorrow as usual. For now a brief excursion into the Dutch press, which has decided to join the wannabees attacking Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). The scenario outlined in the article I read earlier today takes the criticisms to a new level. We are no longer worried about hyperinflation, crowding out, sky high interest rates. No, things are likely to get much worse than that. If any government takes on MMT (noting it is not a regime that can be taken on) to operationalise a Green New Deal then tax rates will have to rise to around 100 per cent, households and firms will stop working and producing, and a massive famine in possible where millions die. Sort of Project Fear stuff that has marked the Remain position in the Brexit debate!

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Event news and podcast

I am moving from well north of the Arctic Circle today to eventually get to Vienna for an event that I am talking at tonight as part of a new lecture series “Talk Europe #offenegesellschaft”. So no time to write a detailed blog post today. But I have information about the event tonight and the media for a podcast I did last week in Helsinki that should be sufficient for today. Normal transmission resumes tomorrow.

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The NAIRU/Output gap scam reprise

It is Wednesday and despite being on the other side of the Planet than usual (in Helsinki at present) I am still not intending to write a detailed blog post today. I am quite busy here – teaching MMT to graduate students and other things. But I wanted to follow up on a few details I didn’t have time to write about yesterday concerning the role that NAIRU estimates play in maintaining the ideological dominance of neoliberalism. And some more details about the Textbook launch in London on Friday, and then some beautiful music, as is my practice (these days) on Wednesdays. As you will see, my ‘short’ blog post didn’t quite turn out that way. Such is the tendency of an inveterate writer.

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Travelling mostly today … but we have events and music

Today I am in Finland after a long flight and have to catch up on things. My usual blog posting will resume tomorrow. Over the page, I have listed the speaking events that I will be involved in over the next two or so weeks. I hope to see some regulars at these events. And I will be back in early May for another solid speaking tour of Scotland and England with several opportunities to meet people and talk about MMT and the future. For now, it is cold, icy and there is a lot to organise.

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No blog post today

My usual very active life ground to a halt today as the flu bug that is working its way through the human population took me with it. Staying vertical for any length of time is quite a task. And I do not write very well on the horizontal plane. I cannot even listen to any…
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On holidays again …

I am travelling for most of today across land and water and so have no time to write anything coherent. So it is just a music day to welcome in 2019. Happy New Year to all and lets hope a few banksters go to prison, that a few politicians join them on corruption charges, that Italy tells the European Commission to jump and leaves the Eurozone, that the Gilets in France spread throughout Europe and bring down the whole disastrous monetary union, that Britain goes out without an agreement and that the British Labour Party gets some spine, sacks its New Keynesian advisors, and demonstrates how to actually run fiscal policy, and that … you get the drift.

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On holiday

The blog is on holiday until Thursday, December 27, 2018. All the best from my local beach (Nobbys). Today is an economics free zone. Music discussion if you click on …

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Australian workers losing out under neoliberalism

The current conflict in France, while multidimensional, is a reflection that the neoliberal austerity system is not working for ordinary people. All sorts of cross currents feed in to this discontent, some of which (for example, distaste for foreigners/migrants) are clearly not to be encouraged. Most of the claims of the Gilets Jaunes are about the alienation, exclusion and poverty that they feel living in the neoliberal, corporatist EU world. A lot of so-called progressives are out there claiming this is a right-wing ruse advancing climate denial and anti-migrant sentiment. But I consider that to be a typical elite response to any EU discontent to avoid discussion of exit and the paint the critics as being stupid and/or racist. A replay of the Brexit accusations from the Remainers. But the writing is on the wall for the Eurozone countries. People will only tolerate being put down and oppressed for so long. And all is not well elsewhere. Even when a nation has its own currency and has the capacity to avoid the sort of stagnation that many European nations are now wallowing in, the universality of the neoliberal austerity bias is making life hard for not only the low-income cohorts, but, increasingly for the lower tiers of the ‘middle class’ (defined in income terms). Australian workers are feeling that pinch in the land of plenty.

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