Podcasts about mmters

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2024 69:39

Welcome to episode 150 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with Maren Poitras, the creator and director of the MMT documentary, Finding the Money. I had the pleasure of seeing this film on October 1st, 2023, in New York City, with my Torrens professor Steven Hail, Torrens administrator Gabie Bond, and Torrens classmate Susan Borden. After the film, we all went to a nearby bar-restaurant, and I got to meet and speak with Maren at length. (A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found below.) In today's episode, Maren and I talk about how she came to the film and how it's informed by her background in ecological economics. We talk about the trials and tribulations of film-making, including the tortures of creating the intricate and subtle graphics used in the film. We also talk about her interactions with the non-MMTers as seen in the film. At the end, she says what you as a supporter can do to help this film be seen by others. In my view, the film is the most important milestone in the MMT movement since Stephanie Kelton's 2020 book The Deficit Myth (which was the most important milestone since US Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said "MMT" out loud in 2018). The film has the power to change how we talk about some major concepts. It will be available to stream in early May. And now, on to my conversation with Maren Poitras. Enjoy. Audio chapters 3:35 - Hellos, European premiere 14:47 - When did the idea for the film happen and what is your background in film-making? 20:15 - MMT is the child in the Emperor's New Clothes. MMT forces people to question many deep fundamental assumptions about their lives. 38:59 - Printing fiasco 39:17 - Did feedback from the academics result in any major changes? 43:10 - Graphics (ripping open a wound) 47:46 - Non-MMTers in the film (attempts at critique) 55:35 - The film is unfortunately US-centric, due to time and resource constraints 57:18 - What can people do to help the film be seen? 1:01:00 - You never know where secret MMT people are lurking. 1:06:57 - Duplicate of introduction, but with no background music (for listeners with sensitive ears)

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Ep150: Maren Poitras, creator and director of Finding the Money

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2024 69:38

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Episode 148[1/2]: Steve Keen: MMT says government spending creates money. It's correct.

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 26, 2024 38:46

Welcome to episode 148 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with post-Keynesian economist Steve Keen about his decades-long fight against mainstream economics, what MMT convinced him of, and the couple parts of MMT he still disagrees with. This first part is a half-hour long audio interview, which will be followed next month by an hour-and-a-half-long video interview, where Steve walks me through the basics of his Minsky modeling software, and why he believes it's an important tool for MMTers. (Here's a link to PART TWO. A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found right below.) MMT and Steve are in complete agreement with how banks spend (lend money into existence). After reading Stephanie Kelton's book in 2020, Steve realized that government spending also creates money. National governments don't tax in order to spend, they spend in order to tax. Steve quickly created a Minsky model convincing himself that MMT is indeed correct regarding this. This insight is also completely compatible with his understanding of bank spending. As far as Steve's disagreements with MMT, they are important, and Steve lays them out in detail in the last ten-or-so minutes of this episode. But let it be known that they are far from core issues. In other words, the amount of agreement is far greater. It's good to understand what these disagreements are, but as Steve says, we have much bigger fish to fry. This is the first main episode of Activist #MMT since August. Although I've released three chapters from John Harvey's readings of his book Contending Perspectives (with lots more to come!), the past six months have been all consuming, starting with my third Torrens course – which was coincidentally taught by John on that very book. It was both incredibly enlightening and unbelievably exhausting. I've also become a full-time musician. I now sing several times each week at retirement communities and related facilities (independent living, assisted-living, nursing homes, etc.). Coincidentally, back in July, I met Steve in person for dinner in Princeton, New Jersey, which is about an hour north of my home. After dinner and conversation, Steve gave me an initial walk-through of Minsky. We ended the night with me singing a few songs on the sidewalk – just me, my phone, and a little Bluetooth speaker. At the very end of today's episode, after the closing theme music, you'll hear a small highlight from that experience. You can check out my singing website at seejeffsing.com. And now, onto my conversation with Steve Keen. Enjoy. Audio chapters 4:24 - Hellos, and the plan 5:53 - His journey fighting mainstream, and, in 2020, to MMT 8:19 - Marx's view of money, Steve's PhD, Minsky's financial instability hypothesis, double entry bookkeeping, thinking of government spending differently 9:43 - Modeling money properly with double entry bookkeeping 10:49 - Discovering MMT in 2020, which changed his view on government spending 12:56 - Mild criticism of MMT's consolidated view 14:29 - Money creation is the expansion of balance sheets. The same thing happens on both the asset and liability side. If it ONLY happens on the liability side, it's a liability swap it. If it ONLY happens on the asset side, it's an asset swap. 16:42 - Regarding government money creation, how does your model distinguish between money creation and the supposed recycling of collected money? 19:12 - The only insight MMT gave Steve was that government spending creates money. All his work on banking is exactly compatible. 20:09 - Steve's two disagreements with MMT 21:31 - Disagreement 1: MMT says that in general, imports are a benefit and experts are a cost. 25:48 - Disagreement 2: The JG and UBI are actually complementary 27:59 - A dangerous follow up question: danger of UBI is that it could undermine the job guarantees Price anchor. Steve's response: the UBI would need to be below the job guarantee wage 30:25 - Have you modeled these disagreements in Minsky to confirm your view? Answer: no. There are simply much bigger fish to fry. 31:16 - Goodbyes for audio portion, transitioning to video 34:38 - Singing for Steve on a sidewalk in Princeton 36:01 - Duplicate of introduction, with no background music (for those with sensitive ears)

Episode 148[1/2]: Steve Keen: MMT says government spending creates money. It's correct.

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 26, 2024 38:45

Welcome to episode 148 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with post-Keynesian economist Steve Keen about his decades-long fight against mainstream economics, what MMT convinced him of, and the couple parts of MMT he still disagrees with. This first part is a half-hour long audio interview, which will be followed next month by an hour-and-a-half-long video interview, where Steve walks me through the basics of his Minsky modeling software, and why he believes it's an important tool for MMTers. (Here's a link to PART TWO. A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found right below.) MMT and Steve are in complete agreement with how banks spend (lend money into existence). After reading in 2020, Steve realized that government spending also creates money. National governments don't tax in order to spend, they spend in order to tax. Steve quickly created a Minsky model convincing himself that MMT is indeed correct regarding this. This insight is also completely compatible with his understanding of bank spending. As far as Steve's disagreements with MMT, they are important, and Steve lays them out in detail in the last ten-or-so minutes of this episode. But let it be known that they are far from core issues. In other words, the amount of agreement is far greater. It's good to understand what these disagreements are, but as Steve says, we have much bigger fish to fry. This is the first main episode of Activist #MMT since August. Although I've released three chapters from John Harvey's readings of his book Contending Perspectives (with lots more to come!), the past six months have been all consuming, starting with my third Torrens course – which was coincidentally taught by John on that very book. It was both incredibly enlightening and unbelievably exhausting. I've also become a full-time musician. I now sing several times each week at retirement communities and related facilities (independent living, assisted-living, nursing homes, etc.). Coincidentally, back in July, I met Steve in person for dinner in Princeton, New Jersey, which is about an hour north of my home. After dinner and conversation, Steve gave me an initial walk-through of Minsky. We ended the night with me singing a few songs on the sidewalk – just me, my phone, and a little Bluetooth speaker. At the very end of today's episode, after the closing theme music, you'll hear a small highlight from that experience. You can check out my singing website at . And now, onto my conversation with Steve Keen. Enjoy. Audio chapters 4:24 - Hellos, and the plan 5:53 - His journey fighting mainstream, and, in 2020, to MMT 8:19 - Marx's view of money, Steve's PhD, Minsky's financial instability hypothesis, double entry bookkeeping, thinking of government spending differently 9:43 - Modeling money properly with double entry bookkeeping 10:49 - Discovering MMT in 2020, which changed his view on government spending 12:56 - Mild criticism of MMT's consolidated view 14:29 - Money creation is the expansion of balance sheets. The same thing happens on both the asset and liability side. If it ONLY happens on the liability side, it's a liability swap it. If it ONLY happens on the asset side, it's an asset swap. 16:42 - Regarding government money creation, how does your model distinguish between money creation and the supposed recycling of collected money? 19:12 - The only insight MMT gave Steve was that government spending creates money. All his work on banking is exactly compatible. 20:09 - Steve's two disagreements with MMT 21:31 - Disagreement 1: MMT says that in general, imports are a benefit and experts are a cost. 25:48 - Disagreement 2: The JG and UBI are actually complementary 27:59 - A dangerous follow up question: danger of UBI is that it could undermine the job guarantees Price anchor. Steve's response: the UBI would need to be below the job guarantee wage 30:25 - Have you modeled these disagreements in Minsky to confirm your view? Answer: no. There are simply much...

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Monetary Operations: Coordinated vs. Consolidated with Eric Tymoigne

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2023 66:51

**If you'd like to discuss this episode with friends and comrades, join our Macro ‘n Chill listening party on Tuesday evening at 8 ET/5 PT. For the Zoom registration link, go to realprogressives.org/rp-events-calendar/Understanding how monetary sovereign governments create and spend money means looking at the Treasury department and the central bank or, in the US, the Federal Reserve.Economist Eric Tymoigne explains two approaches to understanding the relationship: the consolidated and the collaborative, or cooperative, version of the Treasury and the Fed.The consolidated approach merges the Fed and the Treasury into one entity and analyzes the implications of this merger on public finance. It emphasizes that taxes and government securities don't fund the government, but rather, the government spends by crediting accounts. (This comes as no surprise to MMTers.)The consolidated approach also highlights the importance of injecting reserves into the economy before taxes can be collected or government securities can be sold. The coordinated approach recognizes the separate roles of the Treasury and the Fed but emphasizes the extensive coordination between the two entities.Eric walks us through these operations and touches on the relationship with private banking and the role of reserves on the international stage.Listening to this episode, you can't help but conclude that the ways in which the US manages monetary operations are not consistent with budgetary needs. It's hard to see how it has anything to do with provisioning our society.Eric Tymoigne is an Associate Professor of Economics at Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, and Research Associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.@tymoignee on Twitter

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The MMT Lens with Bill Mitchell

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2023 48:50

**On Tuesday evenings, Real Progressives hosts Macro ‘n Chill, an informal listening party for members of the community to discuss an episode of this podcast. For the Zoom registration link go to realprogressives.org/rp-events-calendar/When someone associates Modern Monetary Theory with left or right wing politics, they're signaling they know nothing of MMT and are simply associating it with some of its proponents. MMTers are political, MMT is not. Regarding degrowth, this week's guest, Bill Mitchell, explains:“The way I think about it is that MMT is compatible with deep, hard industry pollution and massive growth if you want it to be. And it is also compatible with a highly sustainable strategy to reduce our reliance on mass consumption and to divert our economic activity, which we normally think is gross domestic product, to divert that into sustainable products. In other words, radically change the composition of our output.”In other words, MMT neither supports nor opposes the degrowth agenda. In this episode, Bill describes degrowth as a value system and strategic approach to the future of humanity on the planet.MMT, on the other hand, is a lens or framework for understanding the capacities of currency issuance and the consequences of using that capacity. He and Steve highlight that MMT is compatible with both growth-oriented and sustainable strategies, and that degrowth policies would require significant investment from the state. They also discuss the challenges and obstacles to implementing a degrowth agenda, including the resistance of powerful vested interests and the potential for military conflict.The conversation also delves into the historical and political factors that have shaped the current domestic and global politics, including the counterattack by corporations and the wealthy against social democratic majorities in the early 1970s. They discuss the role of ignorance and media manipulation in perpetuating the current system and the importance of education and knowledge in empowering individuals and fostering solidarity movements.Bill Mitchell is a Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. He is also a professional musician and plays guitar with the Melbourne Reggae-Dub band – Pressure Drop. Follow his work on https://billmitchell.org/blog/@billy_blog on Twitter

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#6 - Inflation Persists, Retail Inflows to Stocks, Asset Bubbles, Tech Valuations, and Gambling/Cryptocurrency

AppliedMMT Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2023 47:06 Transcription Available

In this episode, Adam and Ryan discuss:Whether or not all MMTers believe interest rate hikes are expansionaryThe newest PCE inflation dataRetail inflows to the stock marketInterest rates and asset bubblesThe post-2008 venture capital boomGambling apps & cryptocurrencyLinks:Introductory MMT resourcesPocket Change podcastNYC Deficit Owls MeetupAppliedMMT.comAppliedMMT on TwitterDouglas (@MMTmacrotrader) on TwitterDisclaimer: The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial or investment advice. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any associated employers or organizations. Listeners should consider their financial circumstances and consult with a professional advisor before making any investment decisions

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RP Live with Brett Scott

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 31, 2022 74:40

**Happy New Year from Real Progressives and Macro N Cheese. If you would like to help us continue to bring you great content, please consider becoming a monthly sponsor at patreon.com/realprogressives. Your contributions help pay for the tech platforms and equipment that keep this podcast alive.**This week's episode is the recording of a recent RP Live webinar with Brett Scott, author of Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets.In terms of its politics, the digital money movement is largely only discussed by the mainstream media, ever ready to promote the interests of big finance and big tech. Brett makes the case that leftists and MMTers need to get involved. Those of us with knowledge of the monetary system are particularly well-situated to recognize potential minefields and see through lies that are being passed off as fact. For example, there is the notion of inevitability. Once the automobile was invented, it was only a matter of time before the horse cart would disappear. We're also led to believe that the move to replace cash with digital comes from the bottom up—from ordinary people. We need only consider who is pushing this so-called cashless society. And who profits from it. Crypto itself is simply another commodity to be bought and sold with... money.Brett presents interesting ways of considering the war against cash and the future of money. In the second half of the episode, he takes questions from attendees. If you haven't heard his interviews on Macro N Cheese, now would be a good time to do so.Brett Scott is an author, journalist, and activist, who explores the intersections between money systems, finance, and digital technology. He's the author of The Heretics Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money. His latest book is Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets. Find more of his work on brettscott.substack.com@suitpossum on Twitter

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FTX and the Fall of Cryptocurrency with Robert Hockett

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 24, 2022 50:55

All digital currency is not created equal. Its technology can potentially be used as a force for good or a force of evil. Robert Hockett joins Steve to discuss both. Let's start with the evil. The collapse of FTX, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, is still sending shock waves through the mainstream and financial media. It seems that only MMTers are unsurprised by it or the chain reaction, as other crypto schemes are tumbling apace. Bob describes how the collapse follows the same pattern as the junk bond bubble of the 80s and the sub prime mortgage crisis in the aughts. Prices are driven up as more people crowd the market, eager to hop aboard a new investment opportunity. You don't need a Ponzi to have a Ponzi scheme. And apparently you don't need to produce anything of value in order to generate huge profits... for a while. “The irony is that in every one of these cases, there is a clue in the name of the product in question that ought to warn you. If it's called a junk bond, there's a reason for that word "junk" being used. And if it's called a sub prime mortgage loan or sub prime mortgage-based product, there's a reason for that “sub prime” term. Similarly with cryptocurrency or crypto assets, one of the most ironical names ever conceived for this kind of product. If the word "crypto" comes into it, then that's a pretty good tip-off that there's something non-transparent about it, that there's something opaque and occluded and difficult to understand about it.” Bob and Steve talk about the development of Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC, which will be as safe as a nation's fiat currency—Bob likens it to the introduction of the greenback dollar in the 1800s. None of this is to say that we at Macro N Cheese approve of the Federal Reserve's ideology or actions; a neoliberal system will have a neoliberal central bank. No big surprise there. Robert C. Hockett is an American lawyer, law professor, and policy advocate. He holds two positions at Cornell University and is senior counsel at investment firm Westwood Capital, LLC. His latest bo...

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Ep135 [1/2]: Gabie Bond: Talking all about music [NOT MMT]

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2022 66:40

Welcome to episode 135 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with Gabie Bond. In part two, we talk about MMT, Torrens University, climate change, and the job guarantee. In hour one, however, we talk all about music. (To be clear, this first hour has little to do with economics.) As you heard before the opening music, Gabie is a classically trained violist. (Her accompanist and partner is a classically trained pianist.) I'm a classically trained singer, and for the past year have been learning guitar. Gabie and I talk about various topics, such as how the guitar has frets and the viola doesn't, and the consequences that has on our approach to the instrument and the notes. We talk about the differences between perfect and relative pitch, and how neither of us have the former. We also share some of our own experiences learning from, and teaching others. Gabie ends by describing how and why she let much of her professional music career go in order to become an activist, something which is greatly informed by MMT and ecological economics, which she learned thanks to meeting Steven Hail and Phil Lawn. In the show notes, you'll find several links to the things we mention, plus some examples of our playing. Out of my almost 140 episodes, this is the third entirely or substantially dedicated to music. Links to the other two, with Andy Berkeley and Derek Ross, can be found in the show notes. Getting to know MMTers outside of MMT, is important. It's basically an anthropological look at the background of MMTs adherents, which provides important context on the theory and movement as a whole. I was inspired to do this by Fred Lee in his 2011 book, A History of Heterodox Economics Next month in part two, Gabie and I transition to discuss MMT, Torrens University, climate change, and a job guarantee. Gabie is CEO of Modern Money Lab, which is the owner of the intellectual property – the academic content – of the Torrens graduate program. She talks about her role in the program coming to life and in its day-to-day operations. And now, onto my conversation with Gabie Bond. Enjoy. Resources Version two of the job guarantee report by the Sustainable Prosperity Action Group. Here's an overview. Examples of Gabie's playing viola: Piece played before the opening music: Carl Stamitz viola concerto, accompanied by Alexander Hanysz Performing with the Australian Discovery Orchestra: Tuscany from 17 songs Performing with the Australian Discovery Orchestra: The Tender Land (Suite) Aaron Copland Gabie's partner is pianist Alexander Hanysz. His website, which includes music and digital art Gabie's sister Annie is a scientist and part of Scientist's Rebellion. She recently glued her hand to the front-door window of a fossil fuel company headquarters, as mentioned by Steven and covered by ABC TV and radio. Examples of my singing: Me singing Weekend In New England by Barry Manilow Me singing every part except the lead vocal, of an a cappella arrangement I wrote of slave song called Wayfaring Stranger. I created the theme of a train to represent the slave's journey from earth to heaven, where he is finally free of his suffering. - - - (Here's a link to part two. A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post.) And now, onto my conversation with Gabie Bond. Enjoy. Audio chapters 5:25 - Hellos, summer here, winter there 7:24 - Music! 8:32 - Listened to each others' music 13:58 - Traveling by plane to rehearsal and reservations about it 15:46 - Jeff learning guitar, ambitious pieces like Maple Leaf Rag 21:29 - Learning an instrument as an adult (and teaching adults) 23:34 - Guitars have frets, violas don't 27:46 - Perfect pitch versus relative pitch 31:44 - Gabie's partner is a classical pianist, Flinders Street school of music 36:47 - Jeff playing a couple minutes of When She Loved Me on the guitar 40:18 - Jeff- finger-style versus strumming 42:36 - Why Gabie stopped being a musician and became an activist 52:31 - Do you choose to listen in your own time to the (classic) music that you play? 57:04 - Climate change and not wanting to fly- mass travel (and Levy Summer Session) 1:04:18 - Duplicate of introduction, with no background music (for those with sensitive ears)

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Ep135 [1/2]: Gabie Bond: Talking all about music [NOT MMT]

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2022 66:39

Welcome to episode 135 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with Gabie Bond. In part two, we talk about MMT, Torrens University, climate change, and the job guarantee. In hour one, however, we talk all about music. (To be clear, this first hour has little to do with economics.) As you heard before the opening music, Gabie is a classically trained violist. (Her accompanist and partner is a classically trained pianist.) I'm a classically trained singer, and for the past year have been learning guitar. Gabie and I talk about various topics, such as how the guitar has frets and the viola doesn't, and the consequences that has on our approach to the instrument and the notes. We talk about the differences between perfect and relative pitch, and how neither of us have the former. We also share some of our own experiences learning from, and teaching others. Gabie ends by describing how and why she let much of her professional music career go in order to become an activist, something which is greatly informed by MMT and ecological economics, which she learned thanks to meeting Steven Hail and Phil Lawn. In the show notes, you'll find several links to the things we mention, plus some examples of our playing. Out of my almost 140 episodes, this is the third entirely or substantially dedicated to music. Links to the other two, with and , can be found in the show notes. Getting to know MMTers outside of MMT, is important. It's basically an anthropological look at the background of MMTs adherents, which provides important context on the theory and movement as a whole. to do this by Fred Lee in his 2011 book, A History of Heterodox Economics Next month in part two, Gabie and I transition to discuss MMT, Torrens University, climate change, and a job guarantee. Gabie is CEO of Modern Money Lab, which is the owner of the intellectual property – the academic content – of the Torrens graduate program. She talks about her role in the program coming to life and in its day-to-day operations. And now, onto my conversation with Gabie Bond. Enjoy. Resources of the job guarantee report by the Sustainable Prosperity Action Group. Here's . Examples of Gabie's playing viola: Piece played before the opening music: Carl Stamitz viola concerto, accompanied by Alexander Hanysz Performing with the Australian Discovery Orchestra: from 17 songs Performing with the Australian Discovery Orchestra: Aaron Copland Gabie's partner is pianist Alexander Hanysz. , which includes music and digital art Gabie's sister Annie is a scientist and part of Scientist's Rebellion. She recently glued her hand to the front-door window of a fossil fuel company headquarters, as and covered by ABC and . Examples of my singing: Me singing by Barry Manilow Me singing every part except the lead vocal, of an a cappella arrangement I wrote of slave song called . I created the theme of a train to represent the slave's journey from earth to heaven, where he is finally free of his suffering. - - - (Here's a link to part . A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post.) And now, onto my conversation with Gabie Bond. Enjoy. Audio chapters 5:25 - Hellos, summer here, winter there 7:24 - Music! 8:32 - Listened to each others' music 13:58 - Traveling by plane to rehearsal and reservations about it 15:46 - Jeff learning guitar, ambitious pieces like Maple Leaf Rag 21:29 - Learning an instrument as an adult (and teaching adults) 23:34 - Guitars have frets, violas don't 27:46 - Perfect pitch versus relative pitch 31:44 - Gabie's partner is a classical pianist, Flinders Street school of music 36:47 - Jeff playing a couple minutes of When She Loved Me on the guitar 40:18 - Jeff- finger-style versus strumming 42:36 - Why Gabie stopped being a musician and became an activist 52:31 - Do you choose to listen in your own time to the (classic) music that you play? 57:04 - Climate change and not wanting to fly- mass travel (and Levy Summer Session)...

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Ep134 [2/2]: Charles Hayden: Inflation and Warren's monopoly price setter

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2022 82:44

Welcome to episode 134 of Activist #MMT. Today's part two of my two-part conversation with Charles Hayden. In part one, Charles described how he created at least three important milestones in MMT history, and how Warren Mosler played a integral role his journey to understanding and accepting MMT. Today in part two, we discuss some of the many varied realistic views of inflation, and how each of them is connected by the fact that the national government is the monopoly price setter for the entire economy – whether they know it or not. This is one of the unique contributions of Modern Money Theory. The first realistic view of inflation is how it's not a disease or a symptom, but rather a measurement of some prices going up somewhere in the economy for some reason. It's not possible to know what the problem is without going out into the real world and discovering them for yourself. If you address those real-world problems, then those prices will naturally go down, which will in turn result in a lower measurement of inflation. This is not unlike how a thermometer measures the temperature of a sick person. The rabid desire to "lower inflation" is not unlike dunking the thermometer into a cup of ice, and ignoring the actual sickness of the actual patient, and doing nothing to help them. This is the idea behind lowering inflation by raising interest rates – if we lock all the starving people out of the kitchen, then we can truthfully say that "everyone who enters this kitchen gets a good meal." These are all examples of how real costs are pushed by those with the most onto those with the least – and subsequently onto the families and communities in which those people exist. A second realistic view is the class conflict theory of inflation. This is as originated by Marx and adopted by MMT. Inflation is essentially a battle between business owners and their workers, where one side fights to increase their profits, and the other fights to increase their wages. A wage-price spiral can only happen if we allow it to happen. The only way it can stop is if one side is empowered enough to prevent the other from pushing back. More broadly, this is a centuries-long battle between rich and poor to increase their power over the other. In all the above cases, outside of natural catastrophe, the government must be complicit in order for the inflation to persist. Currently, the government is essentially entirely on the side of the rich, business owners, and capitalists. So, in almost all cases, all real and financial costs are borne by workers and the poor. The idea that the government is the monopoly price setter, essentially means to me that: We as a collective are in control of our own destiny. The government is us as a collective. We have let it decay into the morass that it currently is. We've let the leash out way too far and now it's going to take a whole lot of effort in order to reign it back in. Regardless, no matter how unlikely or even impossible that task may be, if we are to survive, there is a no alternative. Outside of natural disaster, everything we do and don't do is a choice. We are choosing to go extinct. We could choose to not do that. And now, let's get right back to my conversation with Charles Hayden. Enjoy. Audio chapters 6:23 - Inflation- first thoughts 7:24 - Inflation is to the real world like a thermometer is to sickness (also, inflation the boogeyman) 12:34 - Government is the monopoly price setter. This is behind every other (valid) view of inflation 20:10 - Government is dog walker 24:07 - Foreign demand for a currency 26:40 - The government passively delegates its price setting powers (plus neglect and suppression) 38:29 - Inflation affects peoples lives 40:54 - Fortunate to learn MMT directly from Warren Mosler 42:34 - The language of Warren, versus other academics, versus activists, versus 46:08 - Warren's extreme examples as thought experiments 47:21 - MMT was all over TV (trying to do to MMT what they did to CRT) 49:43 - Dennis Kucinich and my monetary reform article 50:54 - Inflation is an area of concern MMT 53:33 - The first MMT Activist 56:24 - Inflation and the real world, grades and children, temperature and sickness 1:01:46 - Raising interest rates (to 100%!) 1:04:03 - Street protester (there's power in protest) 1:08:30 - MMTers in Texas 1:09:45 - Campaigning 1:13:18 - Vote blue no matter who 1:14:59 - Goodbyes 1:18:44 - Duplicate of introduction, with no background music (for those with sensitive ears)

Moral Economies And Money with Jakob Feinig

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2022 47:07

When Jakob Feinig speaks of moral economies, he's talking about we, the people – the currency users – and how we relate to the institutions that issue money, as well as our monetary knowledge and its ability to inform direct action. Needless to say, Modern Monetary Theory is an essential component of this. This week he and Steve discuss both moral economies and “monetary silencing,” a concept that gives shape to the frustration MMTers experience on a daily basis. Feinig has said he derived the term “silencing” from Paolo Freire, the Brazilian educator and philosopher who wrote about the dehumanizing nature of political silencing, denying people the right to participate in their own history. “There are moral economies that enable people to connect their lives and their needs to monetary design. And there is another process, and that's what I call monetary silencing, that disconnects people, that makes it seem like, oh, those are forces that are beyond your reach. This is something you should not be thinking about ... You have to try to work as hard as you can as an individual. And if you don't make it, or if you don't have enough for a decent life, that is your own fault. But please do not think about where it comes from.” Feinig gives historical examples of both moral economies and monetary silencing – though rather fewer of the former than the latter in recent times. During the US Civil War, the federal government issued the greenback, a brand new currency. Not only did it enable them to win the war, it also made visible the fact that the government has the power to spend money into existence. (Haven't we said the same about Covid stimulus checks?) The gold standard and bitcoin are among the notable monetary silencers, but some may be surprised to find FDR in this category. Feinig makes the case that he was one of the most successful. We cannot disagree. Jakob Feinig is a historical sociologist who writes about the connection between justice, democracy, and monetary design. He teaches at the State University of New York (Binghamton). His book, Moral Economies of Money: Politics and the Monetary Constitution of Society, will be published in October, 2022. @FeinigJakob on Twitter

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Ep127 [3/3,3/6]: John Harvey: MMT, the UK, and pound sterling

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 17, 2022 61:27

Welcome to episode 127 of Activist #MMT. Today's part three in a six-part series with Texas Christian University (TCU) economics professor and Cowboy Economist, John Harvey. The first three parts are hosted by me, the final three by MMT researcher, Texas lawyer, and my previous guest, Johnathan Wilson. Jonathan and John talk about how MMT can apply to nations outside the US, using Russia as an example, and also some of the core theoretical and ideological differences between MMTers and mainstream economists, focusing on a recent critique of MMT by Drumetz and Pfeister. (You can hear my own interview with Jonathan in episodes 106 and 107.) (A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post. Here's a link to part one, which contains a link to all six parts in the series. For a link to every Activist #MMT interview with John – plus the full audio of every Cowboy Economist video (!) – go here.) Today in part three, John and I finish our conversation about his chapter in the upcoming book called Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers. The book will be published by the UK-based Gower Institute for Modern Money Studies, or GIMMS; it's edited by L. Randall Wray and GIMMS; and is scheduled for January 2023 release. John is one of 15 authors. John's chapter is called "Modern Monetary Theory, the UK, and pound sterling". It addresses the following criticism of MMT (this is a quote from the chapter): "MMT-inspired policies will cause high rates of price inflation which will, in turn, lower the international value of a domestic currency – perhaps catastrophically." This conversation discusses the three major false assumptions underlying this criticism. We end on two mostly unrelated topics. The first is how, when it comes to those we directly interact with, on a day-to-day basis, mainstream economic theory is not in fact, a massive conspiracy. Therefore we should almost always err on the side of being diplomats instead of assassins. Or as I like to put it: rage against the system, be kind to individuals. Most who agree with mainstream theory genuinely believe it to be accurate. As I mention, I do believe it takes a lot of shutting out of dissenting views and of those that hold them, in order to enable this true belief. However, that filtering always occurs at the level above, starting with those who rank the economic journals and universities. Another important example relevant to my own experience, are those who moderate extremely large social media discussion groups, who prevent dissenting thought from ever appearing in the first place. The second is the good and bad of math in economics. Basically, there's nothing wrong with math, just as there's nothing wrong with any tool. All that matters is how you use it. If you like what you hear, then I hope you might consider becoming a monthly patron of Activist #MMT. Patrons have exclusive access to several full-length episodes, right now. A full list is here, each with a brief highlight. Patrons also get the opportunity to ask my academic guests questions, such as my recent episode with Warren Mosler, last week's episode with John, and my next interview with John Harvey. They also support the development of my large and growing collection of learn MMT resources. To become a patron, you can start by going to patreon.com/activistmmt. Every little bit helps a little bit, and it all adds up to a lot. Thanks. And now, let's get right back to my conversation with John Harvey. Enjoy. Audio chapters 5:43 - Purchasing Power Parity 10:11 - Purchasing Power Parity: Follow-ups 15:47 - "Mainstream economic theory is one big conspiracy." 26:17 - Hans Visser and Keynes' gloomy view 27:29 - Conspiracy, rage against the system, be kind to individuals. Every higher level shuts out dissenting thought 34:53 - The good and bad of math in economics 45:18 - My responses 50:24 - Levy summer session and goodbyes 57:26 - Duplicate of introduction, but with no background music

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Ep127 [3/3,3/6]: John Harvey: MMT, the UK, and pound sterling

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 17, 2022 57:54

Welcome to episode 127 of Activist #MMT. Today's part three in a six-part series with Texas Christian University (TCU) economics professor and , John Harvey. The first three parts are hosted by me, the final three by MMT researcher, Texas lawyer, and my previous guest, Johnathan Wilson. Jonathan and John talk about how MMT can apply to nations outside the US, using Russia as an example, and also some of the core theoretical and ideological differences between MMTers and mainstream economists, focusing on a recent critique of MMT . (You can hear my own interview with Jonathan in episodes and .) (A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post. Here's a link to , which contains a link to all six parts in the series. For a link to every Activist #MMT interview with John – plus the full audio of every Cowboy Economist video (!) – .) Today in part three, John and I finish our conversation about his chapter in the upcoming book called . The book will be published by the UK-based Gower Institute for Modern Money Studies, or GIMMS; it's edited by L. Randall Wray and GIMMS; and is scheduled for January 2023 release. John is one of 15 authors. John's chapter is called "Modern Monetary Theory, the UK, and pound sterling". It addresses the following criticism of MMT (this is a quote from the chapter): "MMT-inspired policies will cause high rates of price inflation which will, in turn, lower the international value of a domestic currency – perhaps catastrophically." This conversation discusses the three major false assumptions underlying this criticism. We end on two mostly unrelated topics. The first is how, when it comes to those we directly interact with, on a day-to-day basis, mainstream economic theory is not in fact, a massive conspiracy. Therefore we should almost always err on the side of being diplomats instead of assassins. Or as I like to put it: rage against the system, be kind to individuals. Most who agree with mainstream theory genuinely believe it to be accurate. As I mention, I do believe it takes a lot of shutting out of dissenting views and of those that hold them, in order to enable this true belief. However, that filtering always occurs at the level above, starting with those who rank the economic journals and universities. Another important example relevant to my own experience, are those who moderate extremely large social media discussion groups, who prevent dissenting thought from ever appearing in the first place. The second is the good and bad of math in economics. Basically, there's nothing wrong with math, just as there's nothing wrong with any tool. All that matters is how you use it. If you like what you hear, then I hope you might consider becoming a monthly patron of Activist #MMT. Patrons have exclusive access to several full-length episodes, right now. A full list is here, each with a brief highlight. Patrons also get the opportunity to ask my academic guests questions, such as my recent episode , last week's episode with John, and my next interview with John Harvey. They also support the development of my large and growing collection of . To become a patron, you can start by going to . Every little bit helps a little bit, and it all adds up to a lot. Thanks. And now, let's get right back to my conversation with John Harvey. Enjoy. Audio chapters 5:43 - Purchasing Power Parity 10:11 - Purchasing Power Parity: Follow-ups 15:47 - "Mainstream economic theory is one big conspiracy." 26:17 - Hans Visser and Keynes' gloomy view 27:29 - Conspiracy, rage against the system, be kind to individuals. Every higher level shuts out dissenting thought 34:53 - The good and bad of math in economics 45:18 - My responses 50:24 - Levy summer session and goodbyes 57:26 - Duplicate of introduction, but with no background music

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Ep126[2/3,2/6]: John Harvey: MMT, the UK, and pound sterling

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2022 62:25

Welcome to episode 126 of Activist #MMT. Today's part two in a six-part series with Texas Christian University (TCU) economics professor and Cowboy Economist, John Harvey. The first three parts are hosted by me, the final three by MMT researcher, Texas lawyer, and my previous guest, Johnathan Wilson. Jonathan and John talk about how MMT can apply to nations outside the US, using Russia as an example, and also some of the core theoretical and ideological differences between MMTers and mainstream economists, focusing on a recent critique of MMT by Drumetz and Pfeister. (You can hear my own interview with Jonathan in episodes 106 and 107.) (A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post. Here's a link to part one, which contains a link to all six parts in the series. For a link to every Activist #MMT interview with John – plus the full audio of every Cowboy Economist video (!) – go here.) Today in part two, John and I continue our conversation about his chapter in the upcoming book called Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers. The book will be published by the UK-based Gower Institute for Modern Money Studies, or GIMMS; it's edited by L. Randall Wray and GIMMS; and is scheduled for January 2023 release. John is one of 15 authors. John's chapter is called "Modern Monetary Theory, the UK, and pound sterling". It addresses the following criticism of MMT (this is a quote from the chapter): "MMT-inspired policies will cause high rates of price inflation which will, in turn, lower the international value of a domestic currency – perhaps catastrophically." This conversation discusses the three major false assumptions underlying this criticism. Surprisingly, however, my the main insight I take from this conversation with John is a much clearer understanding of inflation in general. As promised in the intro to part one, here's that insight: Inflation is not a disease or even a symptom, but rather a potential measurement of some problem somewhere. Similarly, a thermometer says you have a fever. A fever means your body is fighting off something. Sure, you could take an ice bath to reduce your fever, but that will do little if anything to cure the underlying sickness. Further, while a thermometer measures something simple and definitive – your body temperature – the measurement of inflation is, and can only be, socially defines and executed. As John says, if used cars are heavily weighted in the consumer price index (a primary survey used to measure inflation), then the price of used cars skyrocketing (such as for a shortage of microchips) will increase overall inflation. But for the majority who have no plans to buy a used car, this particular inflation means little to them in real terms. However, this same inflation is used to stoke fear in everyone, regardless what they want to buy or not buy. Further still, inflation is a measurement. The idea of "reducing inflation" (such as by the Fed raising interest rates) is targeting something that serves as nothing more than a distraction from the real world and the underlying problems the measurement is referring to. Targeting low inflation is very similar to targeting a low deficit ("we must reduce deficit!"). This is targeting a measurement and sacrificing those at the bottom, in the real world, in order to do it. This is example of Goodhart's law: when a measurement becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measurement. The difference is that a deficit is never inherently a bad thing, where inflation is generally, genuinely referring to a real problem in real world. However, targeting only the inflation measurements itself, almost always results in the underlying problem(s) being ignored and exacerbated. Basically, is your goal to lower the temperature on the thermometer, or to not be sick? And now, let's get right back to my conversation with John Harvey. Enjoy. Audio chapters 6:28 - Back to inflation 12:25 - Don't respond to market signals, make then go away 18:34 - Critique: overview and mischaracterization of MMT (air is free!) 24:23 - A currency can only depreciate against another 25:52 - Why he wrote the paper, how he ended up speaking and Levy summer session 30:33 - Answering the question 33:28 - "I never listen to myself" 34:47 - Free-market ideology requires balanced trade, and no leakages of any kind. 39:38 - Financial flows are not leakages 46:27 - Follow ups 50:09 - Purchasing Power Parity 54:37 - Purchasing Power Parity: Follow-ups 57:46 - Duplicate of introduction, but with no background music (for listeners sensitive to the opening music)

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Ep126[2/3,2/6]: John Harvey: MMT, the UK, and pound sterling

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2022 62:24

Welcome to episode 126 of Activist #MMT. Today's part two in a six-part series with Texas Christian University (TCU) economics professor and , John Harvey. The first three parts are hosted by me, the final three by MMT researcher, Texas lawyer, and my previous guest, Johnathan Wilson. Jonathan and John talk about how MMT can apply to nations outside the US, using Russia as an example, and also some of the core theoretical and ideological differences between MMTers and mainstream economists, focusing on a recent critique of MMT . (You can hear my own interview with Jonathan in episodes and .) (Here's a link to , which contains a fuller introduction, and a link to all six parts in the series.) Today in part two, John and I continue our conversation about his chapter in the upcoming book called . The book will be published by the UK-based Gower Institute for Modern Money Studies, or GIMMS; it's edited by L. Randall Wray and GIMMS; and is scheduled for January 2023 release. John is one of 15 authors. John's chapter is called "Modern Monetary Theory, the UK, and pound sterling". It addresses the following criticism of MMT (this is a quote from the chapter): "MMT-inspired policies will cause high rates of price inflation which will, in turn, lower the international value of a domestic currency – perhaps catastrophically." This conversation discusses the three major false assumptions underlying this criticism. Surprisingly, however, my the main insight I take from this conversation with John is a much clearer understanding of inflation in general. As promised in the intro to part one, here's that insight: Inflation is not a disease or even a symptom, but rather a potential measurement of some problem somewhere. Similarly, a thermometer says you have a fever. A fever means your body is fighting off something. Sure, you could take an ice bath to reduce your fever, but that will do little if anything to cure the underlying sickness. Further, while a thermometer measures something simple and definitive – your body temperature – the measurement of inflation is, and can only be, socially defines and executed. As John says, if used cars are heavily weighted in the (a primary survey used to measure inflation), then the price of used cars skyrocketing (such as for a shortage of microchips) will increase overall inflation. But for the majority who have no plans to buy a used car, this particular inflation means little to them in real terms. However, this same inflation is used to stoke fear in everyone, regardless what they want to buy or not buy. Further still, inflation is a measurement. The idea of "reducing inflation" (such as by the Fed raising interest rates) is targeting something that serves as nothing more than a distraction from the real world and the underlying problems the measurement is referring to. Targeting low inflation is very similar to targeting a low deficit ("we must reduce deficit!"). This is targeting a measurement and sacrificing those at the bottom, in the real world, in order to do it. This is example of : when a measurement becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measurement. The difference is that a deficit is never inherently a bad thing, where inflation is generally, genuinely referring to a real problem in real world. However, targeting only the inflation measurements itself, almost always results in the underlying problem(s) being ignored and exacerbated. Basically, is your goal to lower the temperature on the thermometer, or to not be sick? And now, let's get right back to my conversation with John Harvey. Enjoy. Audio chapters 6:28 - Back to inflation 12:25 - Don't respond to market signals, make then go away 18:34 - Critique: overview and mischaracterization of MMT (air is free!) 24:23 - A currency can only depreciate against another 25:52 - Why he wrote the paper, how he ended up speaking and Levy summer session 30:33 - Answering the question 33:28 - "I never listen to myself" 34:47 -...

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War Spending Gives MMTers and the Left a Strong Talking Point

Audio Mises Wire

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2022

When conservatives applaud unlimited war spending, they not only harm our economy and body politic, but they give the Left a powerful talking point. Original Article: "War Spending Gives MMTers and the Left a Strong Talking Point" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

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War Spending Gives MMTers and the Left a Strong Talking Point

Mises Media

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2022

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Ep125[1/3,1/6] John Harvey: MMT, the UK, and pound sterling

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 3, 2022 56:51

Welcome to episode 125 of Activist #MMT. Today's the first in a six-part series with Texas Christian University (TCU) economics professor and Cowboy Economist, John Harvey. The first three parts are hosted by me, the final three by MMT researcher, Texas lawyer, and my previous guest, Johnathan Wilson. Jonathan and John talk about how MMT can apply to nations outside the US, using Russia as an example, and also some of the core theoretical and ideological differences between MMTers and mainstream economists, focusing on a recent critique of MMT by Drumetz and Pfeister. (You can hear my own interview with Jonathan in episodes 106 and 107.) (Here's a link to all six parts in this series: parts two and three with me, and parts four, five, and six with Jonathan. A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post. For a link to every Activist #MMT interview with John, go here.) Regarding parts one to three, John and I talk about his chapter in the upcoming book called Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers. The book will be published by the UK-based Gower Institute for Modern Money Studies, or GIMMS; it's edited by L. Randall Wray and GIMMS; and is scheduled for January 2023 release. John is one of 15 authors. John's chapter is called "Modern Monetary Theory, the UK, and pound sterling". He was asked to write the chapter for two major reasons: First because there is not enough MMT-specific analysis on exchange rate determination, and second, to address the reality of the so-called sterling crisis in the United Kingdom. John and I don't specifically discuss the latter topic, but it is addressed in the paper. It addresses the following criticism of MMT (this is a quote from the chapter): "MMT-inspired policies will cause high rates of price inflation which will, in turn, lower the international value of a domestic currency – perhaps catastrophically." Importantly, the critique is based on the following three assumptions: The false idea that we are already, or soon will be, at full employment A fantastical theory of exchange rate determination A terrible and lazy mischaracterization of MMT John and I spend most of our time discussing the reality of these three assumptions. Surprisingly, however, the main insight I take from this conversation is a much clearer understanding of inflation in general. I'm going to describe that insight in the introduction to part two. The heart of our conversation is on the above three assumptions, but we start and end with mostly unrelated subjects. Part one begins with John describing his experience as chair of the economics department at TCU, he discusses the Russian-Ukrainian conflict only as it relates to exchange rate determination, and he also answers a question from an Activist #MMT patron, regarding his opinion of our possibility of experiencing a recession. At the end of part three, we talk about how, for most of those that most of us directly interact with, mainstream economic theory is not, in fact, a big conspiracy. We end by discussing the good and bad of math in economics. Thanks to the recommendation of a patron, with every episode of Activist #MMT as of several months ago, you can pinpoint any part of this interview by referring to the full list of audio chapters, which can be found at the bottom of the show notes. So, for example, if you wanted to skip over this introduction and go right to the beginning of the interview proper, now you can know exactly what timestamp to go to. And now, on to my conversation with John Harvey. Enjoy. Resources My previous interviews with John: Episode 43: John Harvey on John Harvey, discrimination, and aliens. Episodes 45 and 46: On inflation: mainstream versus Post Keynesian (and the MMT job guarantee) Episodes 72 and 73: The Battle of the Bulge (and the nitty gritty of Exchange Rate Determination) Books: Fred Lee's A History of Heterodox Economics (2006) Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation (2001 edition, 1944) Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine (2007) Nancy Maclean's Democracy in Chains Audio chapters 6:02 - Attics, squeaky toys, dogs, and rats 8:51 - Economics chairmanship 16:21 - Being Post Keynesian chair in a mainstream department 21:04 - Patron question: Recession coming? 26:10 - Russia-Ukraine conflict 31:31 - My lawn mower runs out of gas 32:36 - Start of main questions 33:20 - Demand-pull inflation 44:39 - George Selgin 47:35 - Back to inflation 52:55 - Duplicate of introduction, but with no background music (for listeners sensitive to the opening music)

Ep125[1/3,1/6] John Harvey: MMT, the UK, and pound sterling

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 3, 2022 56:50

Welcome to episode 125 of Activist #MMT. Today's the first in a six-part series with Texas Christian University (TCU) economics professor and , John Harvey. The first three parts are hosted by me, the final three by MMT researcher, Texas lawyer, and my previous guest, Johnathan Wilson. Jonathan and John talk about how MMT can apply to nations outside the US, using Russia as an example, and also some of the core theoretical and ideological differences between MMTers and mainstream economists, focusing on a recent critique of MMT . (You can hear my own interview with Jonathan in episodes and .) (Here's a link to all six parts in this series: parts two and three with me, and parts four, five, and six with Jonathan. A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post. For a link to every Activist #MMT interview with John, .) Regarding parts one to three, John and I talk about his chapter in the upcoming book called . The book will be published by the UK-based Gower Institute for Modern Money Studies, or GIMMS; it's edited by L. Randall Wray and GIMMS; and is scheduled for January 2023 release. John is one of 15 authors. John's chapter is called "Modern Monetary Theory, the UK, and pound sterling". He was asked to write the chapter for two major reasons: First because there is not enough MMT-specific analysis on exchange rate determination, and second, to address the reality of the so-called sterling crisis in the United Kingdom. John and I don't specifically discuss the latter topic, but it is addressed in the paper. It addresses the following criticism of MMT (this is a quote from the chapter): "MMT-inspired policies will cause high rates of price inflation which will, in turn, lower the international value of a domestic currency – perhaps catastrophically." Importantly, the critique is based on the following three assumptions: The false idea that we are already, or soon will be, at full employment A fantastical theory of exchange rate determination A terrible and lazy mischaracterization of MMT John and I spend most of our time discussing the reality of these three assumptions. Surprisingly, however, the main insight I take from this conversation is a much clearer understanding of inflation in general. I'm going to describe that insight in the introduction to part two. The heart of our conversation is on the above three assumptions, but we start and end with mostly unrelated subjects. Part one begins with John describing his experience as chair of the economics department at TCU, he discusses the Russian-Ukrainian conflict only as it relates to exchange rate determination, and he also answers a question from an Activist #MMT patron, regarding his opinion of our possibility of experiencing a recession. At the end of part three, we talk about how, for most of those that most of us directly interact with, mainstream economic theory is not, in fact, a big conspiracy. We end by discussing the good and bad of math in economics. Thanks to the recommendation of a patron, with every episode of Activist #MMT as of several months ago, you can pinpoint any part of this interview by referring to the full list of audio chapters, which can be found at the bottom of the show notes. So, for example, if you wanted to skip over this introduction and go right to the beginning of the interview proper, now you can know exactly what timestamp to go to. And now, on to my conversation with John Harvey. Enjoy. Resources My previous interviews with John: : John Harvey on John Harvey, discrimination, and aliens. Episodes and : On inflation: mainstream versus Post Keynesian (and the MMT job guarantee) Episodes and : The Battle of the Bulge (and the nitty gritty of Exchange Rate Determination) Books: Fred Lee's (2006) Karl Polanyi's (2001 edition, 1944) Naomi Klein's (2007) Nancy Maclean's Audio chapters 6:02 - Attics, squeaky toys, dogs, and rats 8:51 - Economics chairmanship 16:21 - Being Post...

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Are we in the Mirror Universe?- Part 2 with Jackson Winter

historicly

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 19, 2022 55:30

Today's part two of my two-part conversation with Jackson Winter, on the 2001 edition of Karl Polanyi's 1944 book, The Great Transformation. This is also part two of a larger four-part series on the book. Jackson is co-writer and editor for PEGS Institute, which is a project to demystify and explain some commonly misunderstood realities of the modern world. Here's their YouTube channel.(A list of the "audio chapters" in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post. A link to all four parts in the series can be found in Part 1I'll summarize the book in next week's introduction. Even experienced MMTers can't know this stuff. You think you understand the foundation of our economy and society, but you don't. As described in The Great Transformation, there's another foundation underneath it.(Before we start the interview, I'm making an announcement at the request of a patron, and that is: the podcast Pod Save America, which is hosted by former Obama staffers, has millions of followers, many of who like to think of themselves as progressives. Unfortunately, although the hosts say many smart things, they still live solidly in a pay-for, scarcity, zero-sum world. Please consider contacting the hosts via Twitter and urging them to interview an MMT guest such as Stephanie Kelton, Warren Mosler, Bill Mitchell, and Randy Wray. The Twitter handles for the podcast and its hosts can be found in the show notes, and in the social media shares for this episode. Thanks for your help in spreading the word!Here at the Twitter handles for Pod Save America and its hosts: Dan Pfiffer: [@danpfeiffer], Jon Favreau: [@jonfavs], Tommy Vietor: [@tvietor08], Jon Lovett: [@jonlovett])And now, let's get right back to my conversation with Jackson Winter. Enjoy.Audio chapters4:31 - Choosing to commodify other humans is a gamble that you won't become one of them7:37 - The gold standard was the glue that held the (belligerent and greedy) world together13:53 - Individual balance of power17:41 - Fascism is a consequence of the neglect and deprivation of neoliberalism20:41 - Thinking of a better economic and political system (and if we should)27:17 - Unregulated versus regulated teenager29:58 - Childhood memories and how we change31:59 - Protecting privilege, at all levels38:35 - We are all doing tiny little evils (because it's necessary in order to survive), that add up to a lot of evil.43:22 - Haute finance and arms dealers (I win capitalism)46:15 - My upcoming online course with Asad Zaman48:11 - Closing thoughts50:41 - Polanyi was a proto-MMTer52:48 - GoodbyesOther updates:Sorry for the delays. Our editor Esha Krishnaswamy fell on the subway platform and broke her nose. She is out of the hospital now, but unfortunately her insurance does not cover fixing her broken nose. So we are going to have to crowd source this. If you have already not become paid subscriber, please become one: You can also do a one off donation via paypal orVenmo Get full access to Historic.ly at historicly.substack.com/subscribe

Ep117 [2/3]: Brian Romanchuk: The common tactics of bad-faith critics

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2022 50:05

Welcome to episode 117 of activist. Today's part two of my three-part conversation with author, financial analyst, and applied mathematician, Brian Romanchuk. Last week in part one, we talked about his journey to MMT, and his 2021 book, Modern Monetary Theory and the Recovery. Today, and next week in part three, we talk about the various techniques used by bad-faith critics of MMT. More broadly, these are some of the things simple bullies do, when they'd like their followers to think they're not bullies. This interview was inspired by chapter five of Brian's book, his recent appearance on MMT Podcast, and my own post of good-faith critiques. (A list of the audio chapters in today's episode can be found at the bottom of this post.) This interview inspired me to write a new post summarizing the techniques Brian and I discuss today, plus my own definition of a good-faith critique. These techniques are not exclusive to MMT, of course, but Brian and I share several anecdotes, and link them to actual MMT critiques and critics. And now, let's get right back to my conversation with Brian Romanchuk. Enjoy. Audio chapters 3:17 - Trillion dollar coin, needle in a haystack, institutionalism 6:43 - Good-faith critique- a definition 12:26 - Critiques come from the overwhelmingly dominant school (hrespecs) 14:48 - "MMTers ignore X" 21:39 - An MMT supporter was wrong (or a jerk) 27:40 - Newbies and "taxes don't fund spending". 30:12 - MMTers are deliberately deceitful and they keep changing their positions. (Calvinball) 39:42 - I will only view a child through their report card. 42:09 - Thomas Palley's household analogy 44:23 - MMT is wrong, because if it were right, it would be bad. (Just don't like the politics.) 48:28 - Duplicate of introduction, but with no background music

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Ep117 [2/3]: Brian Romanchuk: The common tactics of bad-faith critics

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2022 50:04

Welcome to episode 117 of activist. Today's part two of my three-part conversation with author, financial analyst, and applied mathematician, Brian Romanchuk. Last week in , we talked about his journey to MMT, and his 2021 book, . Today, and next week in part three, we talk about the various techniques used by bad-faith critics of MMT. More broadly, these are some of the things simple bullies do, when they'd like their followers to think they're not bullies. This interview was inspired by chapter five of Brian's book, his on MMT Podcast, and of good-faith critiques. (A list of the audio chapters in today's episode can be found at the bottom of this post.) This interview inspired me to write summarizing the techniques Brian and I discuss today, plus my own definition of a good-faith critique. These techniques are not exclusive to MMT, of course, but Brian and I share several anecdotes, and link them to actual MMT critiques and critics. And now, let's get right back to my conversation with Brian Romanchuk. Enjoy. Audio chapters 3:17 - Trillion dollar coin, needle in a haystack, institutionalism 6:43 - Good-faith critique- a definition 12:26 - Critiques come from the overwhelmingly dominant school (hrespecs) 14:48 - "MMTers ignore X" 21:39 - An MMT supporter was wrong (or a jerk) 27:40 - Newbies and "taxes don't fund spending". 30:12 - MMTers are deliberately deceitful and they keep changing their positions. (Calvinball) 39:42 - I will only view a child through their report card. 42:09 - Thomas Palley's household analogy 44:23 - MMT is wrong, because if it were right, it would be bad. (Just don't like the politics.) 48:28 - Duplicate of introduction, but with no background music

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Ep112[2/2,4/4]: Asad Zaman: Polanyi's Great Transformation

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2022 54:28

Welcome to episode 112 of Activist #MMT. Today's part two of my two-part conversation with Asad Zaman, on the 2001 edition of Karl Polanyi's 1944 book, The Great Transformation. This is also the final part in a larger four-part series on the book. Parts one and two are with Jackson Winter. Jackson and I are two smart layperson MMTers trying to come to terms with the depth of what we just read, and connecting it to our lives and MMT. Parts three and four are with Professor Zaman, who is a PhD economist with many lectures, papers, and posts on the topic (all of which you can find in the show notes to part one with Professor Zaman). (A link to all four parts in the series can be found in part one with Jackson. A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post.) Part one also contains a summary of the book. You think you understand the foundation of our economy and society, but as described in The Great Transformation, there's another foundation beneath it. If you like what you hear, then I hope you might consider becoming a monthly patron of Activist #MMT. Patrons have exclusive access to several full-length episodes, right now. A full list is here, each with a brief highlight. Patrons also get the opportunity to ask my academic guests questions (including my recent episode with Warren Mosler). They also support the development of my large and growing collection of learn MMT resources, and the course with Professor Zaman. To become a patron, you can start by going to patreon.com/activistmmt. Every little bit helps a little bit, and it all adds up to a lot. Thanks. And now, let's get right back to my conversation with Asad Zaman. Enjoy. Audio chapters 4:11 - Mercantilism 8:10 - Fascism is not something in and of itself, rather it's something to fill in the vacuum left by the wreckage of the self-regulating market 10:58 - The ideology and religion of greed 12:22 - Jane Austen- The poorest AMONG THE ARISTOCRACY (the movie Ever After) 15:43 - The importance of history to the study of economics. 22:28 - Those who benefit most from of capitalism want us to focus on the imaginary, not history. 24:08 - Entanglement- The methodology of Polanyi (history shapes our ideas which shapes history) 29:17 - "Government is bad", but the self-regulating market requires even more government to suppress the protestations of those suffering at the hand of the self-regulating market 34:47 - Average people serve as gatekeepers for the exploiters (protecting privilege) 39:21 - What do I tell my kids? 48:43 - Goodbyes 52:38 - Duplicate of introduction, but with no background music

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Ep112[2/2,4/4]: Asad Zaman: Polanyi's Great Transformation

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2022 54:38

Welcome to episode 112 of Activist #MMT. Today's part two of my two-part conversation with Asad Zaman, on the 2001 edition of Karl Polanyi's 1944 book, . This is also the final part in a larger four-part series on the book. Parts one and two are with Jackson Winter. Jackson and I are two smart layperson MMTers trying to come to terms with the depth of what we just read, and connecting it to our lives and MMT. Parts three and four are with Professor Zaman, who is a PhD economist with many lectures, papers, and posts on the topic (all of which you can find in the show notes to with Professor Zaman). (A link to all four parts in the series can be found in . A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post.) Part one also contains a summary of the book. You think you understand the foundation of our economy and society, but as described in The Great Transformation, there's another foundation beneath it. If you like what you hear, then I hope you might consider becoming a monthly patron of Activist #MMT. Patrons have exclusive access to several full-length episodes, right now. A full list is , each with a brief highlight. Patrons also get the opportunity to ask my academic guests questions (including my recent episode ). They also support the development of my large and growing collection of , and the course with Professor Zaman. To become a patron, you can start by going to . Every little bit helps a little bit, and it all adds up to a lot. Thanks. And now, let's get right back to my conversation with Asad Zaman. Enjoy. Audio chapters 4:11 - Mercantilism 8:10 - Fascism is not something in and of itself, rather it's something to fill in the vacuum left by the wreckage of the self-regulating market 10:58 - The ideology and religion of greed 12:22 - Jane Austen- The poorest AMONG THE ARISTOCRACY (the movie Ever After) 15:43 - The importance of history to the study of economics. 22:28 - Those who benefit most from of capitalism want us to focus on the imaginary, not history. 24:08 - Entanglement- The methodology of Polanyi (history shapes our ideas which shapes history) 29:17 - "Government is bad", but the self-regulating market requires even more government to suppress the protestations of those suffering at the hand of the self-regulating market 34:47 - Average people serve as gatekeepers for the exploiters (protecting privilege) 39:21 - What do I tell my kids? 48:43 - Goodbyes 52:38 - Duplicate of introduction, but with no background music

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The Intersection of Marx and MMT with 1Dime

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 12, 2022 61:02

Here's an episode for those Marxists curious about MMT and MMTers curious about Marxism. Steve's guest is comfortable identifying as both. Tony, better known as 1Dime on social media, believes MMT is not a threat to Marxism because it's like comparing apples to oranges. They are designed to explain two different things. “Modern Monetary Theory is about understanding monetary operations in a fiat currency world – how things are financed. It's a narrow theory.” He's careful about labeling himself, but in the marketplace of ideas, Tony says: “I find myself leaning the closest to Marxism in terms of its method because it sees things through the lens of class struggle and puts forth a first and foremost materialist view of history. I think that's very important because typically a lot of people will look at history as an evolution of ideas and will look at the individual as isolated from society. Marxism looks at things as an interconnected reality filled with contradictions.“ The ontology of Marxism is only part of the picture. “I think the word dialectical is often thrown around by Marxists. A lot of people don't know what it means … put simply, dialectics is looking at contradictions between things. You can't explain the world through one dimensional narratives. There are contradictions. For example, people often talk about the elites versus the people. You hear that a lot with both right and left populist pundits. Marxists wouldn't see it as so simple.” Class struggle is not always vertical. Covid revealed the contradictions within the ruling elite: some capitalists benefited from the pandemic, while others were hurt by it. MMT's explanation of the role of taxes gets pushback from some who call themselves socialists. If we don't need their tax dollars to pay for federal programs, are we letting the rich off the hook? Tony says taxing the rich can be used to reduce inequality, but it doesn't touch the root of the problem. We're not going to solve capitalism through taxation. The interview covers a range of topics, from cryptocurrency to Chris Hedges – all through the double lens of Marxism and MMT. (If you liked this episode, check out Steve'shttps://realprogressives.org/podcast_episode/episode-68-reframing-marx-through-modern-monetary-theory-with-nathan-tankus/ ( interview with Nathan Tankus). It's from 2017 and still relevant.) Bio: Tony runs the YouTube channel 1Dime, where he makes leftist video essays and short documentaries that use ideas from Critical Theory, philosophy, and political economy to deconstruct hot socio-political topics. Notable 1Dime videos include "The Deficit Myth: The Biggest Lie in Politics", "The Burnout Society", "Planet of the Robots: Four Futures of Automation", and "The Socialism of Warren Buffett: How the Stock Market Works." He also runs a podcast called 1Dime Radio with similar content in audio form. @TheRapNerd7 on Twitter

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Ep111[1/2,3/4]: Asad Zaman: Polanyi's Great Transformation

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2022 67:57

Welcome to episode 111 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with Asad Zaman about the 2001 edition of Karl Polanyi's 1944 book, The Great Transformation. Professor Zaman is a PhD economist based in Pakistan, with many lectures, papers, and posts on the topic. This is part one of a two-part episode, but it's also part three in a larger four-part series on Polanyi's book. Parts one and two are with Jackson Winter. Jackson and I are two smart layperson MMTers trying to come to terms with the depth of what we just read, and connecting it to our lives and MMT. (A link to all four parts in the series can be found in part one with Jackson. A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post.) As I briefly describe in part one with Jackson, Professor Zaman and I are developing a free online course called "Historical Context for Real-World Economics". It's almost entirely through an MMT lens, but mostly, it's history, not directly MMT. However, it provides critical context for those who want to understand MMT better. The course is produced by Activist #MMT, and hosted by Bill Mitchell's MMTed and Esha Krishnaswamy's Historic-ly. There are five lecture chapters currently being developed, and I look forward to sharing them with you. The next seven lectures are all on Polanyi's Great Transformation. Links to the seven lectures, plus several related sources by Professor Zaman can be found [in the show notes.] in the "Resources" section at the bottom of this post. (The below summary and resources have been collected into this post: A summary of Polanyi's Great Transformation (with many sources to learn more)) The Great Transformation reveals, essentially, that what we think to be a foundation of our economy and society is, in fact, an illusion. Specifically, Polanyi calls capitalism and its free or "self-regulating" market "a stark Utopia". By definition, a Utopia (an imagined place where everything is perfect) is impossible to achieve. However, the attempt to achieve it – to eliminate literally all market regulation – can result only in the complete destruction of all human life and the land they live on. This is evidenced by our increasingly likely extinction at the hands of a human-created ecological crisis, caused largely by unprecedented and still-growing levels of inequality and the mass exploitation of all natural resources, including most human beings. Here's Polanyi, on the first page of the first chapter: Our thesis is that the idea of a self-adjusting market implied a stark utopia. Such an institution could not exist for any length of time without annihilating the human and natural substance of society; it would have physically destroyed man and transformed his surroundings into a wilderness. Unfortunately, the only way to maintain the fiction of the self-regulating market, is to continue the mass exploitation of the poor. Instead of treating human beings as the infinitely precious and unique beings they are, they are rather treated as mere interchangeable and disposable cogs to run the Unending Greed Machines; most often under terrible conditions. Polanyi calls this grave maltreatment the commodification of labor. The only way to get human beings to submit to these terrible conditions, is to threaten them with an even more terrible condition: starvation and death. As quoted in the book, starvation "can tame even the wildest beast". Not even the strongest man can overcome it. How is this starvation made possible? By eliminating the possibility of self sufficiency. A major tool to do this was the invention of the concept of the private ownership of land. This justified the ejection of all former occupants, who must now, for example, in modern society, purchase our food at a distant store. We have to drive to that store, and the food, plus the car and its gas, must all be paid for with money, which in turn can only be obtained by laboring at the Greed Machines. What this all means is that the commodification of labor also requires the commodification of the land. Those being potentially annihilated by the destruction of the self-regulating market resist that destruction. This results in what Polanyi calls the double movement. This is the ideological battle that has raged for centuries, where one side tries to eliminate all market regulation, while the other tries to protect itself by imposing some. When the amount of regulations are only enough to moderately reduce that destruction, as is unfortunately most often the case, then the resistance can only perpetuate and further enable the pursuit of that stark Utopia. What underlies and justifies this horror is the most dominant religion in the world, which is greed. Without Polanyi's book and his work, this religion, and its byproducts of inequality and mass exploitation, are made to appear normal, inevitable, and unstoppable – in other words, natural. The truth that Polanyi's history reveals (and as is reinforced by my recent interview with Wesley Wiles)is that inequality, exploitation, and greed are not "unfortunate, but necessary", they're deliberate choices. Those who benefit most from the self-regulating market have incentive to deceive the rest of us into thinking that these terrible things are indeed natural. This is the role played by neoclassical economics: to provide that official, neutral, and natural-sounding justification. The core problem in our society is not "capitalism" or "the free market", per se, but rather the mass exploitation of the poor. Therefore, the core solution is to empower the poor. The nature of this empowerment is simple: provide them with what they desperately need: like healthcare, education, a job, un-poisoned water, and a world that doesn't threaten to collapse around them. These things all serve to empower the poor which ultimately reduces inequality – of both wealth and income. We will annihilate the fiction of the self-regulating market or it will annihilate us. There is no gray area. We will provide for those on the bottom or we will go extinct. The first step is to emancipate ourselves from the chains of false history and false economics, and from the idea that everything horrible is "unfortunate, but necessary". Only then can we take a step back and start thinking of alternatives. As a final note, you'll hear some of Professor Zaman's thoughts on the potential form a sustainable future society might take. These are not ideas from the book but his own, in an attempt to start a discussion on one of the greatest questions of our time: how do we resist and annihilate the self-regulating market, and what can and will society be like when we do? Perhaps you have some ideas of your own. Let's start that discussion. If you like what you hear, then I hope you might consider becoming a monthly patron of Activist #MMT. Patrons have exclusive access to several full-length episodes, right now. A full list is here, each with a brief highlight. Patrons also get the opportunity to ask my academic guests questions, such as my recent patron-question episode with Warren Mosler. (A Patron question was also asked of Professor Zaman.) They also support the development of my large and growing collection of learn MMT resources, and the course with Professor Zaman. To become a patron, you can start by going to patreon.com/activistmmt. Every little bit helps a little bit, and it all adds up to a lot. Thanks. And now, onto my conversation with Asad Zaman. Enjoy Resources Bill Mitchell's 2022 blog post, To reclaim the state, we have to start with ourselves, which contains a substantial comment from Professor Zaman. For a good, short and basic introduction to the flaws of capitalism and its economics, Professor Zaman recommends this 17-minute 2020 TED talk by Nick Hanauer. Here are the seven lectures by Professor Zaman that will be used in the course : Adv Micro L13: Entanglement of History with Social Theories Adv Micro L14: Emergence of Economics Theories in Economic Context Adv Micro L15: 19th Century European Economic Ideas In Historical Context. Adv Micro L16: Economics from Hunter/Gatherer to World War 2 Adv Micro L17: Polanyi Great Transformation Part 2 Adv Micro L18: Polanyi TGT cont - part 3 Adv Micro L19: Polanyi TGT- Concluding Lecture Here's the overall curriculum from which these lectures come: 21st Century Economics: An Islamic Approach More from Professor Zaman on Polanyi: Video lecture summary and a written summary of The Great Transformation The Methodology of Polanyi's Great Transformation: video lecture, 2014 paper, response by Anne Mayhew Not directly related to Polanyi, but as important context (and s were briefly discussed), below are sources from the Professor on the topic of redefining "the poor" to mean the poorest among the aristocracy, such as in Jane Austen novels. Iâve provided the Professorâs full comments for context: …EJ1083726.pdf These just came up on a search, there is a lot of stuff on it which I haven't read …/kuwahara.pdf This might be the best: …/jane-austen-family-slavery-essay-devoney-looser/ Search term "Jane Austen and Colonial Politics" -- but "imperialism" would have worked too There is chapter in Edward Said "Culture and Imperialism" called: Jane Austen and Empire. This is bound to be good. I have not read the book, but it is on my reading list. Audio chapters 10:55 - The commodification of labor - what it really means 15:01 - The fantasy of power, to vent the frustration of being powerless 17:21 - The self-regulating market is a fiction and a stark Utopia. The double movement 20:01 - Movies- Don't Look Up and Encanto 23:04 - How do you resist the self-regulating market and beat it, instead of perpetuate it? 26:49 - Whatever the answer, it starts with you 29:52 - Peace is a balance of power, but only in a belligerent world 38:39 - Peace is controlled violence - violence by, not against, the powerful 40:39 - Individual imbalance of power, fiction of nation states 44:58 - Corporations are more powerful than nation states 47:15 - The gold standard was the glue that held the world together but for a terrible reason (and mercantilism) 55:07 - Fascism is not something in and of itself, rather it's something to fill in the vacuum left by the wreckage of the self-regulating market 59:40 - Duplicate of introduction, but with no background music

Ep111[1/2,3/4]: Asad Zaman: Polanyi's Great Transformation

On The Brink with Castle Island

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2022 67:56

Welcome to episode 111 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with Asad Zaman about the 2001 edition of Karl Polanyi's 1944 book, . Professor Zaman is a PhD economist based in Pakistan, with many lectures, papers, and posts on the topic. This is part one of a two-part episode, but it's also part three in a larger four-part series on Polanyi's book. Parts one and two are with Jackson Winter. Jackson and I are two smart layperson MMTers trying to come to terms with the depth of what we just read, and connecting it to our lives and MMT. (A link to all four parts in the series can be found in . A list of the audio chapters in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post.) As I briefly describe in part one with Jackson, Professor Zaman and I are developing a free online course called "Historical Context for Real-World Economics". It's almost entirely through an MMT lens, but mostly, it's history, not directly MMT. However, it provides critical context for those who want to understand MMT better. The course is produced by , and hosted by Bill Mitchell's and Esha Krishnaswamy's . There are five lecture chapters currently being developed, and I look forward to sharing them with you. The next seven lectures are all on Polanyi's Great Transformation. Links to the seven lectures, plus several related sources by Professor Zaman can be found [in the show notes.] in the "Resources" section at the bottom of this post. (The below summary and resources have been collected into this post: ) The Great Transformation reveals, essentially, that what we think to be a foundation of our economy and society is, in fact, an illusion. Specifically, Polanyi calls capitalism and its free or "self-regulating" market "a stark Utopia". By definition, a Utopia ( where everything is perfect) is impossible to achieve. However, the attempt to achieve it – to eliminate literally all market regulation – can result only in the complete destruction of all human life and the land they live on. This is evidenced by our increasingly likely extinction at the hands of a human-created ecological crisis, caused largely by unprecedented and still-growing levels of inequality and the mass exploitation of all natural resources, including most human beings. Here's Polanyi, on the first page of the first chapter: Our thesis is that the idea of a self-adjusting market implied a stark utopia. Such an institution could not exist for any length of time without annihilating the human and natural substance of society; it would have physically destroyed man and transformed his surroundings into a wilderness. Unfortunately, the only way to maintain the fiction of the self-regulating market, is to continue the mass exploitation of the poor. Instead of treating human beings as the infinitely precious and unique beings they are, they are rather treated as mere interchangeable and disposable cogs to run the Unending Greed Machines; most often under terrible conditions. Polanyi calls this grave maltreatment the commodification of labor. The only way to get human beings to submit to these terrible conditions, is to threaten them with an even more terrible condition: starvation and death. As quoted in the book, starvation "can tame even the wildest beast". Not even the strongest man can overcome it. How is this starvation made possible? By eliminating the possibility of self sufficiency. A major tool to do this was the invention of the concept of the private ownership of land. This justified the ejection of all former occupants, who must now, for example, in modern society, purchase our food at a distant store. We have to drive to that store, and the food, plus the car and its gas, must all be paid for with money, which in turn can only be obtained by laboring at the Greed Machines. What this all means is that the commodification of labor also requires the commodification of the land. Those being potentially annihilated by the destruction of the self-regulating market resist that...

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Blake Masters on Inflation, CBDCs, and Setting a Pro-Crypto Agenda (EP.292)

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2022 38:16

We sit down with Blake Masters, COO at Thiel Capital, coauthor of Zero to One, and 2022 candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona. Why Blake is running for Senate in Arizona Blake's experience running Thiel Capital and what led him to politics today Does Congress need more business expertise? Where Blake falls on the spectrum of being pro vs anti crypto Where Blake gets his info regarding the crypto industry USA vs Chinese policy on Bitcoin Should the US pursue a strategic Bitcoin reserve? Does cryptocurrency impair the US' sanctions-making ability? Will the government maintain its sanctions-making ability in perpetuity? How crypto and Bitcoin could shore up the U.S. dollar Can the Fed solve climate or racial equity issues? Are the MMTers in power? Is the U.S. facing a genuine risk of default? Leftist explanations for inflation and why they are unsatisfying Where the Covid-related stimulus payments warranted? Dealing with Big Tech deplatforming and whether Section 230 is sufficient Can decentralized internet applications compete with Big Tech platforms? Are legislative solutions sufficient to Big Tech oligarchies? Blake's view on stablecoins and how they should be regulated Should the government be following China's lead on CBDCs? Learn about Blake's platform.

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Ep110[2/2,2/4]: Jackson Winter: Polanyi's Great Transformation (layperson discussion)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2022 59:05

Welcome to episode 110 of Activist #MMT. Today's part two of my two-part conversation with Jackson Winter, on the 2001 edition of Karl Polanyi's 1944 book, The Great Transformation. This is also part two of a larger four-part series on the book. Jackson is co-writer and editor for PEGS Institute, which is a project to demystify and explain some commonly misunderstood realities of the modern world. Here's their YouTube channel. Parts one and two with Jackson is two smart layperson MMTers trying to come to terms with the depth of what we just read, and connecting it to our lives and MMT. Parts three and four are with Asad Zaman, a PhD economist with many lectures, papers, and posts on the topic (links to which you can find in the show notes to part one with Professor Zaman, next week). (A list of the "audio chapters" in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post. A link to all four parts in the series can be found in part one.) I'll summarize the book in next week's introduction. Even experienced MMTers can't know this stuff. You think you understand the foundation of our economy and society, but you don't. As described in The Great Transformation, there's another foundation underneath it. (Before we start the interview, I'm making an announcement at the request of a patron, and that is: the podcast Pod Save America, which is hosted by former Obama staffers, has millions of followers, many of who like to think of themselves as progressives. Unfortunately, although the hosts say many smart things, they still live solidly in a pay-for, scarcity, zero-sum world. Please consider contacting the hosts via Twitter and urging them to interview an MMT guest such as Stephanie Kelton, Warren Mosler, Bill Mitchell, and Randy Wray. The Twitter handles for the podcast and its hosts can be found in the show notes, and in the social media shares for this episode. Thanks for your help in spreading the word! Here at the Twitter handles for Pod Save America [@PodSaveAmerica] and its hosts: Dan Pfiffer: [@danpfeiffer], Jon Favreau: [@jonfavs], Tommy Vietor: [@tvietor08], Jon Lovett: [@jonlovett]) And now, let's get right back to my conversation with Jackson Winter. Enjoy. Audio chapters 4:31 - Choosing to commodify other humans is a gamble that you won't become one of them 7:37 - The gold standard was the glue that held the (belligerent and greedy) world together 13:53 - Individual balance of power 17:41 - Fascism is a consequence of the neglect and deprivation of neoliberalism 20:41 - Thinking of a better economic and political system (and if we should) 27:17 - Unregulated versus regulated teenager 29:58 - Childhood memories and how we change 31:59 - Protecting privilege, at all levels 38:35 - We're all doing tiny little evils (because it's necessary in order to survive), that add up to a lot of evil. 43:22 - Haute finance and arms dealers (I win capitalism) 46:15 - My upcoming online course with Asad Zaman 48:11 - Closing thoughts 50:41 - Polanyi was a proto-MMTer 52:48 - Goodbyes 57:06 - Duplicate of introduction, but with no background music

Ep109[1/2,1/4]: Jackson Winter: Polanyi's Great Transformation (layperson discussion)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2022 64:39

Welcome to episode 109 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with Jackson Winter, about the 2001 edition of Karl Polanyi's 1944 book, . Jackson is co-writer and editor for , which is a project to demystify and explain some commonly misunderstood realities of the modern world. Here's . (A list of the "audio chapters" in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post. Here are links to all four episodes in the series about Polanyi's Great Transformation: with Jackson, and parts and with Asad Zaman.) (Here are my , after having read only the forward, introduction, and first chapter [be sure to see the show notes for a disclaimer]. It comes from an unreleased episode, with Jonathan Wilson.) This is part one of a two-part conversation with Jackson, but it's also the first in a larger four-part series on Polanyi's book. Jackson and I are two smart layperson MMTers, trying to come to terms with the depth of what we just read, and connecting it to our lives and MMT. Parts three and four are with Asad Zaman, a PhD economist with many lectures, papers, and posts on the topic. I'll summarize the book more at the beginning of part one with Professor Zaman, but very briefly: The Great Transformation is the centuries-long history of how our current rentier capitalism came to be, and what preceded it. It reveals that much of what we believe to be inevitable and unchangeable – natural – about our society is, in fact, a deliberate choice. Those who most benefit from this system (the rentiers, those who collect rent) would like nothing more than for the rest of us (those who pay rent) to believe this system – and their unending greed – to be natural, inevitable, unchangeable and, indeed, best for everyone. I'd like to describe my journey to the book and this interview. I first interviewed Professor Zaman in November 2020, in episodes and . Our topic was his personal story, and, after decades immersed in neoclassical economics, his journey to MMT and real-world economics. For the past year, I've been working with the Professor to create a free online course, centered around his many video lectures. Each lecture is split into fifteen-minute segments, and each segment is accompanied by a very substantial five-to-eight question quiz. I compose the quizzes with lots of assistance and support from my recent guest, Jonathan Wilson [episodes and ]. The course is titled "Historical Context for Real-World Economics", which is produced by Activist #MMT and hosted by Bill Mitchell's and Esha Krishnaswamy's . I look forward to sharing it with you. As we get closer, I'll release part three with Jonathan, where we spend the entire time talking about the course. (Patrons of Activist #MMT can hear the whole thing right now. .) The first five lecture-chapters for the course are completed, but four remain in draft form and still require a good amount of work. I'm currently resolving detailed feedback I've received from the Professor. However, we've already decided on the next seven chapters for the course, which are all on Polanyi's book. You'll find a link to the seven video lectures, plus several additional resources by Professor Zaman, in the show notes of part one with the Professor, coming in two weeks. I purchased the 2001 edition of the book and read the forward, introduction, and first chapter. It blew me away. What most of us think is the foundation of our society and economy is actually not the foundation. There's another one below it. A few days ago, I released , after having read only this much. At that same time, I saw Jackson on Twitter say he's studying the history of commodification of labor. (Very briefly, commodification of labor is threatening the poor with starvation and death unless they work the Unending Greed Machines of the rich.) I told Jackson to consider Polanyi's book as a critical source on the topic. Jackson said he would add it to his infinite reading list. I urged him just read the forward and intro. Two days...

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Ep109[1/2,1/4]: Jackson Winter: Polanyi's Great Transformation (layperson discussion)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2022 64:40

Welcome to episode 109 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with Jackson Winter, about the 2001 edition of Karl Polanyi's 1944 book, The Great Transformation. Jackson is co-writer and editor for PEGS Institute, which is a project to demystify and explain some commonly misunderstood realities of the modern world. Here's their YouTube channel. (A list of the "audio chapters" in this episode can be found at the bottom of this post. Here are links to all four episodes in the series about Polanyi's Great Transformation: part two with Jackson, and parts one and two with Asad Zaman.) (Here are my first impressions of the book, after having read only the forward, introduction, and first chapter [be sure to see the show notes for a disclaimer]. It comes from an unreleased episode, with Jonathan Wilson.) This is part one of a two-part conversation with Jackson, but it's also the first in a larger four-part series on Polanyi's book. Jackson and I are two smart layperson MMTers, trying to come to terms with the depth of what we just read, and connecting it to our lives and MMT. Parts three and four are with Asad Zaman, a PhD economist with many lectures, papers, and posts on the topic. I'll summarize the book more at the beginning of part one with Professor Zaman, but very briefly: The Great Transformation is the centuries-long history of how our current rentier capitalism came to be, and what preceded it. It reveals that much of what we believe to be inevitable and unchangeable – natural – about our society is, in fact, a deliberate choice. Those who most benefit from this system (the rentiers, those who collect rent) would like nothing more than for the rest of us (those who pay rent) to believe this system – and their unending greed – to be natural, inevitable, unchangeable and, indeed, best for everyone. I'd like to describe my journey to the book and this interview. I first interviewed Professor Zaman in November 2020, in episodes 56 and 57. Our topic was his personal story, and, after decades immersed in neoclassical economics, his journey to MMT and real-world economics. For the past year, I've been working with the Professor to create a free online course, centered around his many video lectures. Each lecture is split into fifteen-minute segments, and each segment is accompanied by a very substantial five-to-eight question quiz. I compose the quizzes with lots of assistance and support from my recent guest, Jonathan Wilson [episodes 106 and 107]. The course is titled "Historical Context for Real-World Economics", which is produced by Activist #MMT and hosted by Bill Mitchell's MMTed and Esha Krishnaswamy's Historic-ly. I look forward to sharing it with you. As we get closer, I'll release part three with Jonathan, where we spend the entire time talking about the course. (Patrons of Activist #MMT can hear the whole thing right now. Hint hint.) The first five lecture-chapters for the course are completed, but four remain in draft form and still require a good amount of work. I'm currently resolving detailed feedback I've received from the Professor. However, we've already decided on the next seven chapters for the course, which are all on Polanyi's book. You'll find a link to the seven video lectures, plus several additional resources by Professor Zaman, in the show notes of part one with the Professor, coming in two weeks. I purchased the 2001 edition of the book and read the forward, introduction, and first chapter. It blew me away. What most of us think is the foundation of our society and economy is actually not the foundation. There's another one below it. A few days ago, I released a snippet of my first impressions, after having read only this much. At that same time, I saw Jackson on Twitter say he's studying the history of commodification of labor. (Very briefly, commodification of labor is threatening the poor with starvation and death unless they work the Unending Greed Machines of the rich.) I told Jackson to consider Polanyi's book as a critical source on the topic. Jackson said he would add it to his infinite reading list. I urged him just read the forward and intro. Two days later, he finished the book. I was still only at chapter one! But now that he had thrown down the gauntlet, I was determined to finish. We scheduled an interview for five days later, on Wednesday morning my time. (He's sixteen hours ahead of me. I'm on the west coast of the US, he's in Australia. I was also on winter break.) Because reading the book was also in preparation for the course, I had to write lots of notes. By Monday morning, I knew there was no way I was going to finish. We postponed by fifteen hours, from 8 AM my time to 11 PM. I went into reading hibernation for two days straight, and my family slid pizza slices under my bedroom door every few hours. I finished the book at 9 PM, two hours before our scheduled start time. If you like what you hear, then I hope you might consider becoming a monthly patron of Activist #MMT. Patrons have exclusive access to several full-length episodes, right now. A full list is here, each with a brief highlight.Patrons also get the opportunity to ask my academic guests questions (including my recent patron-question episode with Warren Mosler). They also support the development of my large and growing collection of learn MMT resources, and the course with Professor Zaman. To become a patron, you can start by going to patreon.com/activistmmt. Every little bit helps a little bit, and it all adds up to a lot. Thanks. And now, onto my conversation with Jackson Winter. Enjoy. Audio chapters 8:20 - Jackson introduces himself 10:13 - Journey to the book and other reading 12:59 - First impressions 17:12 - Interview postponed 17:52 - Speenhamland 20:38 - Unemployed versus unemployable 26:43 - Speenhamland's place in history 31:11 - Threaten starvation – tame even the strongest beast (natural) 32:46 - The problem is not the Industrial Revolution but self-gain (greed, hedonism) 34:19 - "Anti-government" 40:14 - Commodification 43:23 - George W. Bush, Satanic mill 44:06 - Commodification of labor 47:49 - Every level commodities the level below (venting their frustrations) 51:39 - Cultural hegemony, the Queen of England 54:19 - Death to the few versus death to the many 59:20 - Duplicate of introduction, but with no background music

10 Signs America Is Headed for Certain Collapse

Surviving Tomorrow

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 25, 2021 12:49

Welcome to Surviving Tomorrow, a podcast, newsletter, and publication that helps you navigate life in an age of democratic destruction, ecological collapse, and economic irrelevance, available for FREE on Substack, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Facebook, and Youtube.Superpowers aren't impressive.Italy, Greece, Ethiopia, Egypt, Britain, Spain, Portugal; they've all ruled the world for a time before sliding back to just regular-ol'-nation status.Now it's America's turn.The United States is going to collapse.This isn't a fear-mongering statement.Just a fact.Everyone knows it.Whether in five years or fifty, the days of America-as-global-superpower are numbered.In the same way that Rome pulled back its troops from Alexandria in Egypt and the Scottish borders in Britain, the American military-industrial complex will continue the work started in Afghanistan and eventually withdraw its 800 global military bases in order to make a last-ditch effort to enslave its own people in a soft-totalitarian panopticon surveillance state.And then it will collapse.Diehard nationalists insist it could never happen, but the signs of American collapse are obvious:1. Wealth inequalityAmerican income inequality is growing, too.Higher than the Roman Empire's, in fact.The stats on wealth inequality are crazy. Please read them all.Nevermind the Gilded Age of corporate tyrants like Vanderbilt and Carnegie and Rockefeller — today's billionaires control more wealth and political power than the monopolists of the past could ever have dreamed.And while extreme right-wingers are quick to shout “Communism! Socialism!” they fail to realize we're not advocating central ownership or central control of the economy. That's what billionaires are working on.2. DebtThe numbers are staggering:America has nearly $29 trillion in federal debt.Total consumer debt sits at $14.9 trillion.Half a million American families are systemically forced into bankruptcy every year.Don't listen to those nutty Modern Monetary Theory boosters who think we can pile up debt forever and it will never destroy our society.The bell will toll, and it will toll for us.Don't get me wrong, the MMTers are technically right — we can print money forever. But every unbacked printed dollar erodes trust and purchasing power.When society is built on a literal lie, it's only a matter of time before it falls.3. Economic InstabilityBecause of how hyper-elites have structured the economy, we're stuck with permanent economic instability — insane asset bubbles, followed by massive crashes that hurt those who a.) didn't benefit in the good times, and b.) suffer most in the bad times.While it's never occurred to the corporations who control our countries, people want to live in economically stable places.Because America refuses to deliver on true, long-term economic stability for the majority, it's no wonder we're currently seeing a national strike, and why many of us with the power to do so have already moved overseas.4. Homeownership in CrisisRentership, too.I've been sounding the alarm on this one for a while — people have no idea the tidal wave that's about to shatter the American middle class once and for all.House prices are going to $10 million in our lifetime, and if we don't ban for-profit residential real estate investment and overthrow the corrupt zoning boards that keep young families from building homes they can afford, we will see a houselessness crisis never witnessed before in human history.5. Crony Corporate PoliticsDemocracy, of course, has never existed in America, but the corporate oligarchy now owns Congress lock, stock, and barrel.There's honestly no point in voting unless it's with your money.6. Environmental InstabilityWhen I was younger, my wife and I visited Tikal in Guatemala, the New York City of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization.They destroyed their environment, and then it destroyed them.It's really simple: Nations that don't protect people, wildlife, soil, water, and air eventually go extinct.It's not personal, it's science.As commenter Nikos Papakonstantinou put it:You can't eat, drink, or breathe money.It takes 1,000 years for nature to grow 3cm of topsoil, and America has managed to burn through several feet in the past century.Now, America only has sixty harvests left.(An excellent book on the topic is Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilization.)7. The Vampire EconomyLet's face it, the American productive economy is dead.Most of the major brands are zombie companies that burn cash and have never been profitable a day in their short-lived corporate lives.Rather than producing products and services of real value, corporate America is just a giant game of extractivism, a dung pile of rent-seeking skimmers who blood-suck time and wealth from the productive poor while contributing nothing of real value:LandlordsBankersStock investorsCrypto speculators who would rather treat Bitcoin as a Ponzi scheme instead of freedom money to stave off abhorrent central bank surveillance currencies.When a nation stops creating real value and starts eating itself like a snake, its days are mathematically numbered.8. Mass HysteriaLooking at you, anti-vaxxers.And Q-Anoners.And cancel culturists.And people who vote for Republicans and Democrats.America is now filled with conspiracy theorists and people who draw the line and refuse to dialogue with people outside of their own box. This signals a total breakdown in personal understanding, civic goodwill, institutional trust, and national unity.9. Screen AddictionThe invention of the smartphone will surely go down in history as one of the most destructive pieces of technology ever invented.Homo sapiens are in no way adapted for the super-stimulus of digital outputs.Between social media, streaming, porn, gaming, and shopping addictions, we're breaking our necks, frying our eyes, and shattering any sense of offline meaning or belonging.Just wait until Gen Z and Gen Alpha are in charge.10. IndividualismAmerica is a culture (from the Latin cultus, where we derive the word “cult”) built on the myth of rugged individualism, of “one for me, and all for me.”It's a dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest, winner-take-all, loser-dies-in-poverty cult where the rich prey on the poor and the masses suffer so the elites can live a little better a little longer.America is a piece of glass that has been shattered into 331 million shards, each stabbing the next in a frantic fight for survival.Only a hard fire can forge the pieces back together.There are those who believe a Canadian living in Europe shouldn't have the right to comment on America at all, but of course, those people are usually nationalists who fail to see we live in a hyper-connected world where everyone's choices affect everyone else. The failure to understand this is yet another symptom of hyper-individualism.America is a fractured, atomized nation, with each member so hell-bent on self-actualization, obsessed with concocting a singularly unique identity, and blinded by the idea that autonomy and freedom are the same thing.Because the nation cannot fathom it shares one common freedom, it simply cannot surrender any amount of selfhood to the collective, despite the fact that human togetherness is the #1 thing correlated to human happiness.The end isn't the endAll empires fall. It's a non-negotiable. It's just a matter of when, how, and how hard.Collapse doesn't mean disappearance.And it doesn't necessarily mean a total dystopian hellscape like the Book of Eli.But it does mean a loss of global superpower status and all the unfair advantages that came along with it, like currency supremacy and cheap goods. It means a country seriously diminished, greatly impoverished, wracked with crime and disease and exploitation, and subject to the whims of foreign corporatists hell-bent on extraction.You know, like much of the rest of the world.Normally, my articles outline a challenge facing society and offer some proposals for how to fix it. This is one of those rare posts that just points out the macro factors that will lead to the inevitable fall of America.Collapse shouldn't sit well with readers.Everyone needs to be working on solutions. (And yes, peacefully turning the American landmass into a dozen or so new nations is highly preferable to a bloody second civil war.)The goal, of course, shouldn't be to maintain a hyper-violent military empire and coercive global economic grasp on others. It's time for new ideas, and ancient ideas, and real servant-hearted leadership, and working together.We shouldn't mourn the loss of corporate-controlled America as the global superpower. It's a monstrous menace to global freedom and widest-spread wellbeing.Now, does that mean this is China's century?Maybe.They already own America's largest pork producer, and Canada's largest dairy farm, but a third of their domestic economy is a giant real estate bubble that could seriously slow their growth.China's rise to global super-power will all depend on their continued colonization of Africa and their ability to debt-trap the world via their Belt and Road Initiative — practicing capitalism abroad to enforce fake communism at home.Clearly, the world doesn't need or want a conformist culture to dictate global policy. People often say that America is still the world's “best hope for freedom.” But as billions of people who've endured the heavy hammer of the American military-industrial complex can attest, it's simply not true.Modern corporate America doesn't equal hope. No self-centered human institution can ever deliver the freedom that people truly need.Don't worry, America itself isn't going anywhereAfter all, Rome's as gorgeous as ever.And Athens is amazing, albeit under-maintained.America the superpower is waning, but that doesn't mean Concord won't always be a gorgeous place to visit.Texas will probably always be the BBQ capital of the world (or at least until the radical left bans meat or the radical right makes beef-raising an environmental impossibility.)Maybe Canada or Mexico will annex America and finally provide free healthcare to the poor?And if the fifty states decide to split up, which they almost certainly will in time, you never know if a united Maine and New Hampshire might rule a world in desperate need of lumber and freshwater.Or maybe we just don't need superpowers anymore.Maybe it's time for Tinyism and a million little democracies.Either way, the United States of America won't be around to see it happen. Get full access to Surviving Tomorrow at www.surviving-tomorrow.com/subscribe

10 Signs America Is Headed for Certain Collapse

Future Faith

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 25, 2021 14:42

Hello brothers and sisters, welcome to Future Faith, a podcast, newsletter, and publication about living faithfully in an age of democratic destruction, ecological collapse, and economic irrelevance, available for free on Substack, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. I'm your host, Jared Brock, and today we're going to discuss ten signs that America is headed for certain collapse.Superpowers aren't impressive.Italy, Greece, Ethiopia, Egypt, Britain, Spain, Portugal; they've all ruled the world for a time before sliding back to just regular-ol'-nation status.Now it's America's turn.The United States is going to collapse.This isn't a fear-mongering statement.Just a fact.Everyone knows it.Whether in five years or fifty, the days of America-as-global-superpower are numbered.In the same way that Rome pulled back its troops from Alexandria in Egypt and the Scottish borders in Britain, the American military-industrial complex will continue the work started in Afghanistan and eventually withdraw its 800 global military bases in order to make a last-ditch effort to enslave its own people in a soft-totalitarian panopticon surveillance state.And then it will collapse.Diehard nationalists insist it could never happen, but the signs of American collapse are obvious:1. Wealth inequalityAmerican income inequality is growing, too.Higher than the Roman Empire's, in fact.The stats on wealth inequality are crazy. Please read them all.Nevermind the Gilded Age of corporate tyrants like Vanderbilt and Carnegie and Rockefeller — today's billionaires control more wealth and political power than the monopolists of the past could ever have dreamed.Christians, of course, live by a different economic policy: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.And while extreme right-wingers are quick to shout “Communism! Socialism!” they fail to realize we're not advocating central ownership or central control of the economy. That's what billionaires are working on.2. DebtThe numbers are staggering:* America has nearly $29 trillion in federal debt.* Total consumer debt sits at $14.9 trillion.* Half a million American families are systemically forced into bankruptcy every year.Don't listen to those nutty Modern Monetary Theory boosters who think we can pile up debt forever and it will never destroy our society.The bell will toll, and it will toll for us.Don't get me wrong, the MMTers are technically right — we can print money forever. But every unbacked printed dollar erodes trust and purchasing power.When society is built on a literal lie, it's only a matter of time before it falls.Because only the truth can set us free.3. Economic InstabilityBecause of how hyper-elites have structured the economy, we're stuck with permanent economic instability — insane asset bubbles, followed by massive crashes that hurt those who a.) didn't benefit in the good times, and b.) suffer most in the bad times.While it's never occurred to the corporations who control our countries, people want to live in economically stable places.Because America refuses to deliver on true, long-term economic stability for the majority, it's no wonder we're currently seeing a national strike, and why many of us with the power to do so have already moved overseas.4. Homeownership in CrisisRentership, too.I've been sounding the alarm on this one for a while — people have no idea the tidal wave that's about to shatter the American middle class once and for all.House prices are going to $10 million in our lifetime, and if we don't ban for-profit residential real estate investment and overthrow the corrupt zoning boards that keep young families from building homes they can afford, we will see a houselessness crisis never witnessed before in human history. There is a massive opportunity for the real-estate-rich Western church to become a global leader on affordable homeownership, but sadly, the church is asleep at the wheel.5. Crony Corporate PoliticsDemocracy, of course, has never existed in America, but the corporate oligarchy now owns Congress lock, stock, and barrel, including the Federal Reserve which is in charge of the economy.There's honestly no point in voting unless it's with your money.6. Environmental InstabilityWhen I was younger, my wife and I visited Tikal in Guatemala, the New York City of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization.They destroyed their environment, and then it destroyed them.It's really simple: Nations that don't protect people, wildlife, soil, water, and air eventually go extinct.It's not personal, it's science.As commenter Nikos Papakonstantinou put it:You can't eat, drink, or breathe money.It takes 1,000 years for nature to grow 3cm of topsoil, and America has managed to burn through several feet in the past century.Now, America only has sixty harvests left.(An excellent book on the topic is Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilization.)Some Christians are starting to realize the importance of creation care and the huge opportunities it could afford us to connect with people on their way to God, but sadly, strong leadership has yet to emerge on this front.7. The Vampire EconomyLet's face it, the American productive economy is dead.Most of the major brands are zombie companies that burn cash and have never been profitable a day in their short-lived corporate lives.Rather than producing products and services of real value, corporate America is just a giant game of extractivism, a dung pile of rent-seeking skimmers who blood-suck time and wealth from the productive poor while contributing nothing of real value:* Landlords* Bankers* Stock investors* Crypto speculators who would rather treat Bitcoin as a Ponzi scheme instead of freedom money to stave off abhorrent central bank surveillance currencies.When a nation stops creating real value and starts eating itself like a snake, its days are mathematically numbered.There have been several seasons in history where Christian businesspeople have practiced nobless oblige — the obligation to help those in need, and we certainly need a renaissance of that holy task.8. Mass HysteriaLooking at you, anti-vaxxers.And Q-Anoners.And cancel culturists.And people who vote for Republicans and Democrats.America is now filled with conspiracy theorists and people who draw the line and refuse to dialogue with people outside of their own box. This signals a total breakdown in personal understanding, civic goodwill, institutional trust, and national unity.9. Screen AddictionThe invention of the smartphone will surely go down in history as one of the most destructive pieces of technology ever invented.Homo sapiens are in no way adapted for the super-stimulus of digital outputs.Between social media, streaming, porn, gaming, and shopping addictions, we're breaking our necks, frying our eyes, and shattering any sense of offline meaning or belonging.Just wait until Gen Z and Gen Alpha are in charge.10. IndividualismAmerica is a culture (from the Latin cultus, where we derive the word “cult”) built on the myth of rugged individualism, of “one for me, and all for me.”It's a dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest, winner-take-all, loser-dies-in-poverty cult where the rich prey on the poor and the masses suffer so the elites can live a little better a little longer.America is a piece of glass that has been shattered into 331 million shards, each stabbing the next in a frantic fight for survival.Only a hard fire can forge the pieces back together.It's quite telling that the period of largest church attendance in history — and the greatest period of peace and wealth and democracy — came out of the ashes of World War II.Naturally, there are those who believe a Canadian living in Europe shouldn't have the right to comment on America at all, but of course, those people are usually nationalists who fail to see we live in a hyper-connected world where everyone's choices affect everyone else. The failure to understand this is yet another symptom of hyper-individualism.America is a fractured, atomized nation, with each member so hell-bent on self-actualization, obsessed with concocting a singularly unique identity, and blinded by the idea that autonomy and freedom are the same thing.Because the nation cannot fathom it shares one common freedom, it simply cannot surrender any amount of selfhood to the collective, despite the fact that human togetherness is the #1 thing correlated to human happiness.God made us for each other.The end isn't the endAll empires fall. It's a non-negotiable. It's just a matter of when, how, and how hard.Collapse doesn't mean disappearance.And it doesn't necessarily mean a total dystopian hellscape like the movie The Book of Eli.But it does mean a loss of global superpower status and all the unfair advantages that came along with it, like currency supremacy and cheap goods. It means a country seriously diminished, greatly impoverished, wracked with crime and disease and exploitation, and subject to the whims of foreign corporatists hell-bent on extraction.You know, like much of the rest of the world.Normally, my articles outline a challenge facing society and offer some proposals for how to fix it. This is one of those rare posts that just points out the macro factors that will lead to the inevitable fall of America, and how Christians simply aren't rising to the task at hand.Collapse shouldn't sit well with Christians, because human beings who are made in the image of God will suffer.Everyone needs to be working on solutions for challenges big and small. (And yes, peacefully turning the American landmass into a dozen or so new nations is highly preferable to a bloody second civil war.)The goal, of course, isn't to maintain a hyper-violent military empire and coercive global economic grasp on others. It's time for new ideas, and extremely ancient ideas, and real servant-hearted leadership, and working together.We shouldn't mourn the loss of corporate-controlled America as the global superpower. It's a monstrous menace to global freedom and widest-spread wellbeing.I remember attending the Catalyst Conference many years ago. Dave Ramsey was speaking, and in a moment of passion he declared, “our allegiance is to the cross, not the flag!” Our small group of Canadians cheered — and we were the only ones in an audience of ten thousand Christian leaders.To Christ-centered people, nation-states are irrelevant. Jesus couldn't have cared less about a legal fiction called Rome. All he cared about was people, and we should do the same.Now, does that mean this is China's century?Maybe.They already own America's largest pork producer, and Canada's largest dairy farm, but a third of their domestic economy is a giant real estate bubble that could seriously slow their growth.China's rise to global super-power will all depend on their continued colonization of Africa and their ability to debt-trap the world via their Belt and Road Initiative — practicing capitalism abroad to enforce fake communism at home.Clearly, the world doesn't need or want a conformist culture to dictate global policy. People often say that America is still the world's “best hope for freedom.” But as billions of people who've endured the heavy hammer of the American military-industrial complex can attest, it's simply not true.Modern corporate America doesn't equal hope. No self-centered human institution can ever deliver the freedom that people truly need. That's why the church of Jesus Christ still is and always will be the hope of the world. 1 Peter 1:25 says that “The word of the Lord will endure forever.” Do you believe it? I certainly do. As Peter said to Jesus, “To whom else shall we go? Only you have the keys to eternal life.”This world belongs to God. America is just a temporary guest in His house.But don't worry, America itself isn't going anywhereAfter all, Rome's as gorgeous as ever.And Athens is amazing, albeit under-maintained.America the superpower is waning, but that doesn't mean Concord Massachusetts won't always be a gorgeous place to visit.And Texas will probably always be the BBQ capital of the world (or at least until the radical left bans meat or the radical right makes beef-raising an environmental impossibility.)And maybe Canada or Mexico will annex America and finally provide free healthcare to the poor?And if the fifty states decide to split up, which they almost certainly will in time, you never know if a united Maine and New Hampshire might rule a world in desperate need of lumber and freshwater.Or maybe we just don't need superpowers anymore.Maybe it's time for Tinyism and a million little democracies. It's certainly time for Christians to start building alternative societies by the thousands, like we did for 1,700 years, places that can give the world a glimpse of the life that is truly life, and the kingdom that is and is to come.Either way, the United States of America won't be around to see it happen.Thanks for listening to Future Faith. If you think this episode is important, please email the link to your friends or share it on social media.We are 100% follower-supported, so if you'd like to help us grow this community, please visit jaredbrock.com. Get full access to Future Faith at jaredbrock.substack.com/subscribe

Natalie Smith on the MMT Humanities and the political situation in Chile

Varn Vlog

Play Episode Play 30 sec Highlight Listen Later Jul 22, 2021 81:11

Please support our patreon. For early and ad-free episodes, members-only content, and more.Natalie Smith is a co-host of the Superstructure podcast. We discuss the appeal of MMT humanities and the political situation in Chile. We also discuss some of the tensions between Marxists and MMTers and the limits of methodological nationalism. Abandon all hope ye who subscribe here. We are affiliated with the Emancipation Network.Crew:Host: C. Derick VarnAudio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )Intro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesLinks and Social Media:twitter: @skepoetFacebookYou can find the additional streams on Youtube Support the show

social media situation political chile humanities marxists mmt natalie smith bitter lake mmters emancipation network

Ep82 [1/1, 1/7]: Richard Tye: The history of the U.K. Exchequer (and interdisciplinarity)

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2021 67:40

Welcome to episode 82 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with 10th-year MMT activist, Richard Tye (Twitter/@widespreadhaze). Richard is the co-author of – and historian for – the 2020 paper called An Accounting Model of the U.K. Exchequer, which is published by The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies (or GIMMS). This is the first of a seven-part series on the paper and its three authors. It starts with an individual and personal interview with each of the authors and ends with a two-part episode with all three jointly, where we discuss the paper in depth. Here are links to all other episodes in this larger series, in order: Part 2: Andy Berkeley, part one: Palestine and piano [NOT MMT] Part 3: Andy Berkeley, __PART_TWO__: Confirming the theory applies to the real world. Part 4: How Neil Wilson discovered MMT (and Reddit) Part 5: Neil Wilson: Real-world economics requires understanding dynamics. Parts 6 and 7: An Accounting Model of the U.K. Exchequer [parts __ONE__ and __TWO__] For the past 20 years, Richard has flown a helicopter for Search and Rescue, under perilous conditions on both land and sea, serving millions of U.K. citizens. For the U.K. Exchequer paper, he became a historian, placing today's economic and political systems into proper historical context. Using only the internet, he and his co-authors discovered original government documents from all the way back to the 11th century. Because of the COVID health crisis, writing the paper would have been an impossible task without the internet. Richard describes several historical concepts and events related to the U.K. economy, including the use of wood tally sticks as a primitive form of money, and the so-called "stop of the exchequer". We also discuss how history moves at a pace that's impossible to directly observe in a human lifetime. We consider this final concept especially in the context of the MMT project. (Before attempting to read the paper, I strongly recommend first listening to their @MMTpodcast interview, and watching co-author Andy Berkeley's forty-minute presentation [as organized by my previous guest, Asker Voldsgaard].) Before we begin, I have several observations to make about history. First, in part one of my previous episode with Andrew Chirgwin, and as inspired by Steven Hail, we discussed how neoclassical economists don't "stay in their lane". Those in power and the economists who advise them, have declared that "finding the money" (and preventing the boogeyman of inflation) is the primary prerequisite for doing anything and everything. If one can't find the money in a way that satisfies these economists, then they get to veto the entire project – sight unseen, and very likely, without understanding its intricacies or consequences at even a basic level. In other words, those in power and their economists have made themselves gatekeepers over every aspect of our lives, pretending that without money – their money – it's impossible to accomplish anything. (Note that this also implies that everything in life must have a precise financial cost applied to it.) In reality, the only reason it's impossible to accomplish anything without money is because we choose for it to be impossible. Knowing this, the resistance to the idea of making education and healthcare free at point-of-service (and therefore free of debt!), now becomes clear: without a price tag, it takes away the ability of those in power to gate-keep and veto. (Not to mention the cherry on top, of profit baby!) Providing education and healthcare for all is not just about making people smarter and healthier, it's about power. (Another related example is the reserve currency or "petrodollar". Nations must transact for oil in the US dollar, simply because the US has muscled its way into the OPEC cartel in order to make that the case. Without the reserve currency, the United States would lose a valuable barometer with which to monitor the behavior of most other nations. It would not change all that much in a financial sense.) Along with many other fields, such as science, sociology, and politics, history also illuminates connections that would otherwise remain hidden. As Richard says in today's episode, knowing something new and unknown happened to occur at around the era of another important event, provides valuable context and reveals a new avenue to pursue. History also provides a convenient method of organization, allowing one to confidently place a puzzle piece down in the correct spot and orientation, despite not yet knowing the location of any surrounding piece. In other words, it provides an anchor of sorts, making it clear in some contexts if we are being led astray. The fact that Modern Money Theory or MMT, and Post Keynesianism in general, are explicitly interdisciplinary, is a reflection of their attempts to ensure their theories apply to the real world. By imposing its money onto all other disciplines, neoclassical economics resists the idea of interdisciplinarity, which is yet a reflection of their decision to grasp onto assumptions that benefit an ideology, at the expense of empirical truth and caring for others. It is little more than further entrenching their power at all costs. Finally, being interdisciplinary is essentially a decision to have balance and to be aware of the world around you. It's not possible to care about the world if you refuse to recognize its existence. What this means to me personally, as out there as it may seem, is how our emotions and thoughts are considered separate from our physical existence. It's not unlike how "the economy" is considered separate from people. We're essentially told we can't help people if the economy is unstable. The news tells us that because the stock market is at an all-time high, "the economy is doing great!" And yet at the same time, millions of actual human beings are suffering in the real world, homeless and hungry, not to mention we're on the brink of global societal collapse. The truth is that the economy is us. It's all of us. We are the economy. So if the economy's doing well while millions are suffering, it can only be true by taking those who suffer, and defining them out of the economy. It's just as true that our mental and emotional existence cannot be separated from our physical existence. Our emotions and thoughts are greatly influenced by our physical condition and vice versa. If we are in physical pain, it can be minimized as much as is possible by managing our emotions. If we are an anguish, it can be minimized by taking care of our body, such as through nutrition, activity, and exercise (and by being lucky enough to have a home whose water supply isn't poisoned!). We're also not alone. We can't separate ourselves from our family, community, and society. By caring for ourselves, we help others. By caring for others, we help ourselves. It's up to us to find the proper balance between all these things, and to resist those who try and stop us. And yet, we as MMTers know more than most, that we exist in a world in which many believe wholeheartedly in these false dichotomies and ideas. We must rage against the system and be kind to individuals. My next interview is with co-author Andrew Berkeley and then after that, Neil Wilson, and then the joint interview. Now, onto my conversation with Richard Tye. Resources Naked Capitalism financial blog. General news through an MMT lens. Twice daily list of links.

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Ep78 [1/2]: Katrina Pilver: MMT for Newbies

Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2021 72:27

Welcome to episode 78 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with first-year MMT activist Katrina Pilver, about how she discovered the importance of economics and then MMT, and her unusually-intensive and -ambitious journey to learn MMT more deeply. Katrina and her partner own a soul food restaurant and ice cream truck in Connecticut, the former which they opened with her father-in-law in 2014. Here's a link to __PART_TWO__ After the Supreme Court made George Bush junior president in 2000, Katrina became disillusioned by politics. That changed upon the shock of witnessing Donald Trump become elected president in 2016. In June 2020, she watched a debate and discussion including T.I., Killer Mike, and Candace Owens (see screenshot at the bottom). it was there she got her first exposure to economics as a tool of politics – in other words, a tool to manipulate others out of power, in order to increase your own. At the suggestion of Killer Mike, the first economist she looked into was Thomas Sowell. Sowell is an alumnus of the Chicago School of Economics and two of his primary influences are Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. (Katrina and I spend several minutes gushing about Killer Mike, who I had the privilege to briefly interview at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. I was a state delegate for the Bernie Sanders campaign and he was a surrogate.) Katrina eventually entered the term "economics" into a search engine for Podcasts. The first result that struck her was Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer. While working long shifts at her restaurant (and no customers to disturb thanks to the health crisis), she binged on the podcast with a speaker in her apron pocket. The first economist that appealed to Katrina was Paul Krugman. She felt he was different because he offered hope that nice things are indeed possible. (Nice things like healthcare, education, clean water, and a livable planet.) What she didn’t understand, however, was how these things were possible, and so she purchased Krugman's book Zombie Economics in order to figure it out. She was unsuccessful. A later episode of Pitchfork Economics featured economist Stephanie Kelton. For the first time, Katrina felt not only hope, but actually understood herself exactly how it was possible to have nice things. She immediately of ordered Kelton's book, The Deficit Math, and while waiting for it to arrive, listened to every Kelton lecture she could find, all from her apron pocket. Stephanie Kelton's lectures and books served as the major turning point in Katrina's understanding. She has since consumed an extraordinary amount of content in the past several months, which is the major topic of today’s episode. You’ll find links to several of the sources from Katrina’s journey in the show notes. Finally, Katrina and I met in a Facebook group called MMT for Newbies. It was created in early 2021, in response to its sister group, Intro to MMT, becoming extremely active (now with more than 6000 members) and perhaps less of an introductory group than it once was. (I’ve been a moderator of the Intro group since September 2020.) Both groups are excellent and if you’re on Facebook, I highly recommend you join both. MMT for Newbies is specifically for questions, and only approved, experienced, and patient MMTers are assigned to answer those questions. Links to both groups can be found in the show notes. And now, onto my conversation with Katrina Pilver. This is part one of a two-part episode. Resources Podcasts Pitchfork Economics episode with Stephanie Kelton MMT podcast with Patricia Pino and Christian Reilly Videos Your Taxes Pay for Nothing by PEGS Institute https://youtu.be/RpyuqKLh6QU (YouTube channel: Stonybrook University) Warren Mosler - An Introduction to Modern Monetary Theory (YouTube channel: OXI - Wirtschaft anders denken) MMT: Sovereign Currency Governments Should Stop Selling Bonds (YouTube channel: Deficit Owls) Presidential Lecture Series: Stephanie Kelton (YouTube channel: Stonybrook University) L. Randall Wray - Modern Money Theory for Beginners (YouTube channel: St. Francis College) Debate with T.I., Killer Mike, and Candace Owens (see Twitter screenshot below) Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose (part 1 of 10). Books Deficit Myth, by Stephanie Kelton (2020) The case for a Job Guarantee, by Pavlina Tcherneva (2020) Democracy in Chains, by Nancy MacLean (2017) Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America, by Christopher Leonard (2019) Currencies, Capital Flows, and Crises, by John Harvey (2009) Contending Perspectives in Economics, by John Harvey (2020)

Ep78 [1/2]: Katrina Pilver: MMT for Newbies