Warren Mosler: What Modern Monetary Theory Tells Us About Economic Policy

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1. Deficits don't matter. Awesome, let's abolish taxes then in the first place and let govt. just print the money they use.
2. right wing psdueonomics = depopulation eugenics
3. The second email notice comment from g is below .... again, seeming not the complete text.
   
   gergenheimer+joe bongiovanni
    Oh, and the claim that "ALL money MUST be created out of nothing …. It is
   strictly a legal, social construct" - is nonsense. Nice try. You confuse
   the issue (and yourself?) by conflating the the terms "legal" and
   "social" into one conveniently vague platitude. In all societies
   throughout history, money originated in the marketplace first (that is
   "socially") and was later co-opted by the parasitic political class
   (that is "legally") later. In point of fact, it would be logistically...
4. OK, so a few days ago I got an email notice of a couple of comments from gergenheimer and when I hit the 'reply' button, it takes me back to this page and ends there. I have scrolled down through all of the comments I can find as far back as two years ago when it was all Vilhelmo and Serban back-and-to. Cannot find the below comment to reply to. But I hope to reply below this comment myself.
   BTW - these seem like not the complete text of g's comment.
   
   gergenheimer+joe bongiovanni
   you
   obviously don't understand the difference between the concepts of
   arbitrary rule-making and the immutable laws of basic economic reality.
   The laws of economics (which are grounded in deductive reasoning and an a
   priori acceptance of cause and effect) precede and supercede arbitrary,
   politically-motivated law-making. In other words, man cannot flap his
   arms and fly simply because he passes a law against gravity. You claim
   that prosperity can indeed be increased (by all manner ...
   
   I doubt guggenheimer ended with a dot string.
   (g) you can email me any comment at joebhed at verizoon dottt net
5. This is a great video. I think people are nitpicking some of the language in a 26 minute video. However, I think MMT should be explained in greater than one sentence. He also draws a great comparison between political staffers and actual workers who are elbow deep in the thick of it. His points on the jobs program is common sense, and is certainly an intersection of political economy which is a completely different issue. Ultimately, Warren believes in lower taxes and greater government deficit spending. And , like quite a few economists at the time, he saw the stimulus and the tax structure as inefficient during 2008.
6. Fiat debt backed currency only gives the illusion of available resources. For practical reasons, this means price controls, then shortages.
7. Mosler implies the structure of production is static, therefore productivity is equal to the velocity of dollars spent.
8. shocking ignorance and tone-deafness from someone who is (supposedly) a thought leader in the field of economics. In Mosler's own words "there is no morality assigned to a deficit" To make this statement, Mosler must be either ignorant of what a deficit is or is being intellectually/ethically dishonest. A deficit is the accounting book manifestation of the practice of consuming goods and services in the short term without having given goods and services in return. To claim, as Mosler does, that any debt/deficit by government can be satisfied by simply creating any amount of currency needed, is to claim that government is under no obligation (legally or ethically) to actually pay for the goods and services it consumes. To make this clear, imagine if I were printing money in my basement. My counterfeit bills are so good that they are indistinguishable by anyone else. I use these bills to "pay" my mortgage, my car loan, buy my groceries and anything else I want. Anyone with any sense can see that this is inherently harmful and fraudulent, independent of the fact that it is prohibited by law. I would be using the "money" I created to consume goods and services without having provided any goods and services in return. The only difference between this hypothetical situation and what Mosler promotes government doing, is that government has passed laws that make their version of counterfeiting "legal".
9. Mosler Wrong facts again. - Before 1934 the price of gold was considerably less. The price of gold that the Government set was only $20:67. Then several years later they allowed people to Buy it back at $35 an ounce. Effectively they took the difference in price as a profit from the confiscation and then lamented why there was still a depression and people had less money or incentive to spend on goods or to invest in new business.
   Again before 2008 government has been propping up real estate prices with their policy of underwriting mortgages ( e.g. the Fannie and Freddy program ) and promoting people to take on new loans. This contrasted with the lack of similar support for other industry.
   Mosler again forgets what will happen if the Chinese investors in the dollar just decide to sell those treasuries for their cash value and buy up US companies and land or buy up US assets held in other countries. Then there will be a big crash of company profits from those purchases. The US will also then have a lot of treasuries that people will be much less willing to buy so the exchange value (price) of those treasuries will fall along with the value of all other treasuries along with the exchange rate for US dollars due to their drop in value.
10. Mosler at about 3:40 in
    does some typical, though fantastic , monetary obfuscatioI
    
    in advancing his WAN theory of how money systems work. .... at about 3:40 min. in .....
    
    ""If you look closely at the accounts, and as a simple point of logic....
    Government has to spend first, and then tax.
    Government has to spend first, and then borrow.
    
    Otherwise, how are the dollars going to be out there?""
    
    'It's like at the football stadium.
    First they have to put the tickets out there ..... and then they can collect them.'
    
    Warren asks us all to ignore, science, law, mathematics and reality.
    When the government taxes its citizens, it collects NOTHING of government issue. Ever.
    It collects privately issued (electronic) bank credits from the taxpayers checking accounts.
    
    When that same government borrows from the private sector, the private sector doesn't hand in government issued monies, but rather more privately issued bank credits, either from existing accounts, or the banks merely create new balances with which to fund the gov debt - with private bank-credit that the government spends.
    
    Taxes and borrowing are funded by the PRIVATE money power.
    This is the Bankers Money System.
    To claim otherwise is a sham.
11. Just 46 seconds in, Warren tries to explain what MMT is - as the godFather of MMT -
    
    ""The government is the only legal issuer of the thing that it demands in payment of taxes.""
    
    Were Marshall other than a friend, admirer and follower of Mosler-speak, he would obviously have said .... "Hey, wait a minute, I pay my taxes always with privately issued bank credit from my checking account, so you must be full of it, Warren".
    He didn't.
    So, I will.
    Warren is full of it.
    More after the 50 second mark.
12. clarification of "they"
    @4:45, when US Treasury spends, as per budget of Congress and spending bills, or automated programs established by Congress, or Defense Dept or other dept based on allocations by Congress, then the Fed marks up accounts.
    Fed alone cannot mark up private accounts, except upon orders from Treasury & Congress. Fed can't just "pour" money into the private sector. Fed can't "force" banks to lend, or "push" lending via reserves.
    Treasury alone can write checks or order payments, but Treasury doesn't mark up checking accounts. Adding sums to private sector bank accounts is the Fed's job --- back room ops on banks' reserve accounts).
13. One of the things I love about MMT is that actually it's blissfully simple and easy to understand. It's not intuitive, but it's simple once you understand it. The reason economics seems so dense and complicated appears to me to be because it's essentially corrupted by misinformation due to its intensely political nature. Take QE as an example of something that's so complex it's virtually impossible for most people to understand; coincidentally, it's totally ineffective. Basic MMT could be taught in high schools.
14. This is not good. Check out Mises dot org for good economic education.
15. People need to be motivated to get out of bed and earn money so they can feed their families and enjoy the life style they seek.  The free market provides for that. The idea that the state will take care of you will turn the population into ungrateful slobs, ergo democrat voters.
16. Mosler makes so much sense. If governments listen to him we can eliminate Greek, Porto Rico and other national crises and bring hope and livable conditions to working and retired people. It is a pity that governments listen only to orthodox economists that had brought poverty and inequality to this world. Hope someone would tell Mosler to speak bit louder. We can hear the host well but can hardly hear Mosler.
17. interesting that his prescriptions for how to deal with the initial recession in 2008 is a fiscal stimulus and larger deficit, basically the same conclusion that Krugman came to at the time and that Keynes came to almost a century ago.
18. We need a very large deficit that just keeps getting larger!
19. Everyone should be able to see with the advent of warehouses which are 100% automated where no human is allowed in and cars, planes, lorry that drive themselves the hatred metered out to the unemployed will dissolve because we  will all be unemployed!. The news that the fed can just print us all an income is a big relief! The only question being what is wrong with these people that they allow such disgraceful poverty to exist in their population when they don't need to. It is possible that some time in the future everyone connected to this global scam of preventing relief from poverty and refusal to help in situations such as Haiti and others slum areas may well be arrested for their political policy that is responsible for the demise of so many. We need our global governments to work out how to deliver a guaranteed basic income for every one. It shouldn't be difficult, a quick lesson in how to use a keyboard should be enough.
20. Does Mosler have an Angel Sleeping on his tounge ? If not speak up!  Who are you whispering to?