Welcome to ep 59 of Activist #MMT. Today's part 2 of my 2pt-conversation with Marxist academic, blogger, & MMTer, Jim Kavanagh (@ThePolemicist_). Jim talks more about how MMT is necessary but not sufficient for Marxism. Here's a brief highlight:👇
👆Jim has taught at Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, and Wesleyan Universities. He was also a regular guest on the internet radio show Loud and Clear with @BrianBeckerDC and @JohnKiriakou. He is currently an author at @NatCounterPunch and editor at The Polemicist.👇
👆For even a dollar a month, patrons of Activist #MMT currently have exclusive and super-early access to *TEN* full episodes, with both activists and academics (with more on the way). Here's the full list, each with a brief highlight:👇 citizensmedia.tv/activist-mmt-p…
👆As enlightening and fun as it is to create this podcast, your financial support makes it a lot easier. Please consider becoming a patron of Activist #MMT. Start here:👇 patreon.com/activistmmt
👆Patrons of Activist #MMT also get the unique opportunity to ask my academic guests questions, and they also support the development of this large collection of MMT resources, which leans heavily on the MMT body of academic work:
First, the federal government doesn't "print money." It issues currency. It does this by making accounting entries bigger and, when it collects revenue via taxation/bond sales, it reduces those same numbers. It "expands and contracts balance sheets."👇
👆This is how all federal revenue and spending works, and has always worked, since the first dollar was issued around 222 years ago. This is the case regarding funding laws, purchasing and selling gov't securities, QE, and etc. There are no exceptions.👇
👆Giving a physicality to federal money it is plainly incorrect and highly misleading. Physical money is only created (actually, literally printed or minted) in response to citizens explicitly requesting it from a bank teller or ATM. Before that point, it's purely electronic.👇
I found this page, especially the graph & the final para referring to it, particularly challenging.👇
👆Here’s the (full) final paragraph in the above page-screenshot.
It says “the real wage” is equal to both "the marginal product of labor" and "the marginal disutility of work” and that “None of this is the least bit controversial, and Keynes does not take issue with either.”👇
1/ Banks create the vast majority of money in the economy, but it‘s credit, not currency. Currency doesn’t have to be paid back. Most receive it as a paycheck for doing labor.
2/ Bank credit Is in the form of credit cards or loans, and must be paid back 100% plus interest. Once paid back, it disappears.
3/ The fact that more than 90% of money in the economy is created from banks is (A) a bad thing that the government could change (by regulating or providing more for its people) but doesn’t and (B) does not provide anyone wealth.
1. The term full employment has been badly distorted. 2. The measurement of *current* unemployment has also been distorted.
So, not only can those in power draw the finish line, they can also lengthen or put obstacles on the path required to reach it. 1/
3. They also propagandize so people don't even know which direction to go.
Further, the Fed's mandate of maximum employment is, roughly, "to keep as many employed as possible, as long as it doesn't trigger inflation." So now it's quadruply meaningless 2/
1/ Welcome to ep 21 of Activist #MMT. This is actually pt *TWO* of my intvw with millennial & 1J Ryan Mathis. In pt 2 we compare Marx's labor theory of value to MMT's state theory of money. He then shatters the myth that "natural" laws govern our society. activistmmt.libsyn.com/ep-21-ryan-mat…
2/ This is a special two part interview where part one is being released simultaneously on @historic_ly. In part one, Ryan and I talk about his plan for recreating our corrupt political, media, and educational institutions.
3/ Also: Along with @MMTpodcast, @CheseMacro, & #MMT Mondays: on April 14th, #MMT-ers march online. On April 22nd, to mark the 50th anniv. of Earth Day, MMT-ers come together with environmental activists & groups to #EARTHRISE. You can find out more at earthrise2020.org