What's Happening?
Relax. This isn't about the debt ceiling, budget reconciliation, or any of the beltway drama. Just a personal update.
Good morning! And apologies for taking a short break. The last couple of weeks have been incredibly busy. I’m back to doing in-person events, which is something I’ve really missed. And I’ve got a new podcast to tell you about. Here’s what I’ve been up to.
In early September, I was one of two speakers at an event in Amsterdam organized by the CFA Society VBA Netherlands. The other speaker was Vítor Constâncio, former Governor of the Bank of Portugal who also served as Vice President of the ECB (2010-2018). As you might expect, Vítor focused primarily on monetary policy and the inflation outlook, while I mostly talked about the importance of maintaining fiscal support, both in the US and throughout Europe. We broadly agreed on most things, including the serious risk of a premature withdrawal of fiscal support and the urgent need to commit substantial funding to deal with the climate crisis.
A few weeks later, I gave the opening keynote at the Man Alternative Investing Symposium in Oxford, England. The event was held in the historic Debating Hall of the Oxford Union.
Debating Hall, 17th December 1938: Inside the famous debating hall of the Oxford Union Society. Original Publication: Picture Post - 35 - The Oxford Union - pub.1938 (Photo by Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
After the event, one of the attendees wrote to thank me for “the high-energy gallop through the theory of MMT.” He also wrote:
“It feels like we’ve reached a stage where even the most strident dissenters are beginning to recognise that their arguments around fiscal responsibility and the moral necessity of austerity are more about identity politics and partisanship than sound economic theory.”
Someone please tell Senators Manchin and Sinema.
Next week, I’ve got three events, two in-person and one virtual. First, I’ll be in Chicago, addressing the International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen. Then, on October 7, I’ll deliver a keynote at the 14th Bolivian Economists’ Annual Meeting. The talk will focus on “Monetary, exchange, and fiscal policies for economic recovery.” Wrapping up the week, on October 9, I’m giving a keynote for the Society of Automotive Engineers in West Virginia. I decided to have some fun with this one, so the entire talk is geared around automobile metaphors. (See what I did there?)
The following day I’ll relax at The Greenbrier (where the event is being held) and celebrate another birthday.
In addition to the talks and travel, I’m now co-hosting (with the amazing Jeremy Olshan) a podcast called Best New Ideas in Money. We’ve spent countless hours recording the first few episodes, and we’re recording two more this afternoon. There’s a big team of incredible people at MarketWatch working with us to produce content for the show. The first episode went live yesterday. You can listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. We’re recording two more episodes this afternoon.
I’ll share the Greenbrier slides after the event. And I’ll be back—as promised—with the follow-up to my last Substack post. Going forward, some of the posts will be available only to paid subscribers. If you’re already one of them, THANK YOU! You will continue to see everything I write here. If you’re not and you don’t want to miss anything, please consider taking out a paid subscription. Don’t worry if you can’t. There will be free content each week.
Happy Friday!
It should be pointed out that the car in the image is a Mosler MT900.
Your tireless effort is appreciated. Especially when this latest nonsense like this from the Banque de France—https://publications.banque-france.fr/en/meaning-mmt —continues to get published. Hat tip to Brian Romanchuk who talks about it in his newsletter. You'd think by now the neoclassicals would have learned to make better arguments. This latest is a comical attempt to sound like they are engaging directly with the MMT lens in the narrow sense—how government finance and fiat money actually work—and in the broader sense of policy.
Some years ago while reading Wray's book and your first MMT article from 1998 the Ptolemaic-Copernican-Keplerian trichotomy occurred to me and it amazes me how apt the comparison is.
These guys—why is it usually guys?—mostly cannot let go of their Ptolemaic geocentric models (in the trichotomy they are Smith, Ricardo, Say). They can't. They WON'T.
And when they finally do they go to Copernican models full of epicycles (the neoclassicals: Walras, Wenger, Jevons, Bates-Clark).
Kepler comes along and gives a better model—broadly speaking Minsky, Godley, Wray, Mosler, Kelton, et. al.—with the three laws of planetary motion and the neoclassicals refuse to let go of their models.
Every talk you give, every interview, every article, is another chip at the foundation of neoclassical nonsense. I thank you for it. I wish I could do more than send copies of your book to some legislators and friends.