I listened to your book with great interest, but I felt that you never fully described the policy choices in an inflationary period. (Maybe you have more recently, but I am new to this blog,) Isn't the policy choice to raise taxes in an inflationary environment? Doesn't reduced spending in turn reduce inflationary pressures? Inquiring minds want to know!!
Thanks, that is a good point. As an observer and an engineer I would say we need better control of our economy as it seems to overheat and crash regularly. It would be negative feedback in a electronic control device. Our automatic stabilizers seem to need help the economy on an even keel and proper heading.
I still have questions about the effectiveness and unintended consequences of a Federal Job guarantee: inflation impact, productivity, and political headwind.
I have wondered if anyone has proposed a variable income tax that would be keyed to inflation as an economic stabilizer. They could adjust personal and corporate taxes within a range (say + or - 4% or so) around a neutral base tax rate set by congress.
"...fiscal policy has become a major drag on economic growth."
OK, but what's so great about "economic growth" if it's always vertical and not horizontal? In other words, there's nothing intuitively moral or sensible about the economy growing when only the top 1% reaps all the benefits. A more sensible measure would calculate the change in the fortunes of each quartile below that 1%. "Economic growth," in and of itself, is merely a fetish. Think of true societal wealth as being "wide," not "tall."
It would take a lot of explaining of Modern Money Theory to make sense of this post. I have that understanding, but I know that most people don't Since Kelton puts her complete posts behind a paywall, I don't know if she explained this in the part that I was not able to read.
If Kelton is putting the justification behind a paywall, the parts of her posts that the public can read are certainly not helping the public discussion.
“from an MMT perspective, that’s a silly thing to say...”. thank god it is. if it wasn’t silly from an MMT perspective, i’d be questioning basic logic.
The powers that be are seeing rising costs for public debt, so they are shifting out of debt and into raising taxes. Yes, the effect is quite deflationary as the taxes increase the fines and penalties on worthy economic activity.
The government, the great wastrel, the corp that can make trillion$ disappear each year into a pit of waste, is now pushing greater expenditures and greater waste. If the government were to curb their atrocious spending habits, leaving funds in the hands of those that earned and conserved them, how much wealthier and more productive the nation would be.
But big government expenditure is all you advocate under your socialist MMT tenets. You never query what we get for our money, and never will. You only care that government is out and spending vast sums of money. It's the great socialist MMT way that thankfully shall soon end up on the dunghill of history.
Part of the answer is to incentivize spending towards public policy goals. The so called inflation bill that just got signed into law is a great example. By giving tax subsidies to expenditures that will benefit society as a whole, consumers will tend to spend more money on these items and have less to spend on others, driving down inflation in the unincentivized sectors. However, what is missing is adequate price regulation to prevent electric cars, solar panels and mini split heat pumps from becoming so expensive that the tax incentives are fully absorbed by increased costs because of over stimulated consumer demand. One great benefit that needs education, particularly in the South, is that Republicans can learn that clean renewable energy can save them money.
I listened to your book with great interest, but I felt that you never fully described the policy choices in an inflationary period. (Maybe you have more recently, but I am new to this blog,) Isn't the policy choice to raise taxes in an inflationary environment? Doesn't reduced spending in turn reduce inflationary pressures? Inquiring minds want to know!!
Thanks, that is a good point. As an observer and an engineer I would say we need better control of our economy as it seems to overheat and crash regularly. It would be negative feedback in a electronic control device. Our automatic stabilizers seem to need help the economy on an even keel and proper heading.
I still have questions about the effectiveness and unintended consequences of a Federal Job guarantee: inflation impact, productivity, and political headwind.
I have wondered if anyone has proposed a variable income tax that would be keyed to inflation as an economic stabilizer. They could adjust personal and corporate taxes within a range (say + or - 4% or so) around a neutral base tax rate set by congress.
"...fiscal policy has become a major drag on economic growth."
OK, but what's so great about "economic growth" if it's always vertical and not horizontal? In other words, there's nothing intuitively moral or sensible about the economy growing when only the top 1% reaps all the benefits. A more sensible measure would calculate the change in the fortunes of each quartile below that 1%. "Economic growth," in and of itself, is merely a fetish. Think of true societal wealth as being "wide," not "tall."
It would take a lot of explaining of Modern Money Theory to make sense of this post. I have that understanding, but I know that most people don't Since Kelton puts her complete posts behind a paywall, I don't know if she explained this in the part that I was not able to read.
If Kelton is putting the justification behind a paywall, the parts of her posts that the public can read are certainly not helping the public discussion.
“from an MMT perspective, that’s a silly thing to say...”. thank god it is. if it wasn’t silly from an MMT perspective, i’d be questioning basic logic.
The powers that be are seeing rising costs for public debt, so they are shifting out of debt and into raising taxes. Yes, the effect is quite deflationary as the taxes increase the fines and penalties on worthy economic activity.
The government, the great wastrel, the corp that can make trillion$ disappear each year into a pit of waste, is now pushing greater expenditures and greater waste. If the government were to curb their atrocious spending habits, leaving funds in the hands of those that earned and conserved them, how much wealthier and more productive the nation would be.
But big government expenditure is all you advocate under your socialist MMT tenets. You never query what we get for our money, and never will. You only care that government is out and spending vast sums of money. It's the great socialist MMT way that thankfully shall soon end up on the dunghill of history.
Part of the answer is to incentivize spending towards public policy goals. The so called inflation bill that just got signed into law is a great example. By giving tax subsidies to expenditures that will benefit society as a whole, consumers will tend to spend more money on these items and have less to spend on others, driving down inflation in the unincentivized sectors. However, what is missing is adequate price regulation to prevent electric cars, solar panels and mini split heat pumps from becoming so expensive that the tax incentives are fully absorbed by increased costs because of over stimulated consumer demand. One great benefit that needs education, particularly in the South, is that Republicans can learn that clean renewable energy can save them money.