Several things to point out on this: 1) As I've long pointed out, the Medieval/Early Modern origins of our modern monetary systems could not have been the simple “chartal origin story;” there simply wasn't the bureaucratic/tax system in place until...
much later, & both the institutional change AND the understanding of monetary systems were torturously slow to change; it happened more by emergence w most key actors still not fully grasping the change (if they did, we would not have own-currency Sov Bonds, nor Central Banks of
the type we have now).
However, as I've also long pointed out, this also doesn't matter for understanding our existing chartal world per se, which was the (I'd say inevitable) outcome. Coins were a 2,500 year "interlude," w still older ancient "money" a braid of the 3 strands of
US Gov spends. What it doesn’t tax back is necessarily held by non-gov.
Why oh why does anybody think it makes sense to then make the economy 10 trillion times more complex by packaging up those $ as securities varying in rates & maturities from weeks to 30 years?
Literally no one knows wtf is going on.
Seriously. Just read the financial press. And I don’t mean now.
I mean ever.
And don’t give me any Chesterton’s fence bs.
Just let $ savers be $ savers. No interest, no varying rates, no maturities.
The whole ecosystem=waste of time
Ps this is nothing against Brad, who knows more than most.
The point is there are literally scores of posts & finance articles daily, often saying the exact opposite things, about a system we don’t need, wasting everyone’s time, and lining the pockets of some for no reason at all
In a recent twitter thread I outlined why I believe the new Reg Q inflation theory can be seen as supporting post-keynesian views. However, there is a meta issue I was not able to address in such a short format.
The DSS paper argues that by putting a ceiling on bank-deposit interest rates, Regulation Q stopped the transmission of interest rate hikes (Fed funds rate), thereby breaking the primary tool of the Fed from 1965~1980 when Q became binding on bank deposit rates.
Besides the importance for understanding 1970s inflation, the meta point their paper makes can be interpreted as supporting mainstream monetary beliefs. Chiefly, that *but for* Reg Q stopping proper transmission, monetary policy was (before 1965) and later (post ~1980) working..
Myths on 1970s inflation sadly still shape the beliefs of the economists who have the ears of policymakers.
The belief interest rates “fixed” the problem rather than worsening it,
combines w an only weak acceptance of the Vietnam War/73/79 Oil shocks as prime causes, has led to decades of wasted time on “monetary policy” (read: fiddling w a single knob, interest rates) at the expense of the real economy and investment in fiscal expertise and policy
If you lack something you truly need, you are better off figuring out how to get it rather than just deciding to give up and go without. You increase supply rather than reduce your wellbeing by giving up on your demand 1/x
When it comes to inflation, oddly, popular opinion is to do the opposite. The primary policy against inflation governments turn to is to raise interest rates with the end goal of reducing the public's consumption of goods and services rather than increase production & capacity 2/
Worse still, that goal is attempted through using rate hikes to *reduce* investment, *reduce* employment, and *stifle* wages; the latter makes life less, not more, affordable for workers 3/