I have almost no idea what to say about the atrocities being suffered in Ukraine today, so have to offer something else instead.
That something else is news that only a little over two months after mentioning a desire to write a new book on how the government could be funded I have now signed a contract with John Wiley to produce this book. It will be entitled “How will you pay for it? Solving the problem of funding government spending”.
I have to deliver the book by the end of July and it is hoped it will be out next January.
If you want to know why the blog is a little quiet this week, the exceptional situation in the world apart, this is the other.
A 7,000 word detailed chapter plan is in the contract. I never start writing without knowing exactly where I am going with such a project. The whole of this book is intended to answer the question in the title. I just have to write another ten words for each one in the plan now.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Great news Richard, really well done
Excellent. Much needed and eagerly anticipated.
It’s the constant question cited by politicians and journalists that usually ends up with politicians using the threat of huge tax rises, which of course we know aren’t necessary. Maybe if more journalist read your book they might just start asking the right questions….?
Looking forward to it Richard
Great news, Richard! I am looking forward to this very much.
I suspect many of our fellow citizens will be receptive to what you have to say if this year goes as predicted.
How about a crowd funder to buy a copy for each Lab/Lib/SNP/Green MP and election candidate?
🙂
I would gladly support that, hopefully to be able to stop shouting at the TV! A Kindle version that they could easily take into meetings would be good.
There will be electronic versions
If every MP and election candidate were sent a copy by recorded delivery, it would be very difficult for them to deny all knowledge of it.
🙂
See whether you like it when done
I looked into crowdfunding sending a copy of Stephanie Kelton’s Deficit Myth to every MP and the logistics are not easy. The House of Commons will only distribute items to MP letter boxes under a certain weight and books are over this weight. I could not find a list of MP constituency addresses, and IPSA could not help me with this.
An alternative could be crowdfunding and then recruiting and organising volunteers to deliver to their MP by hand; would increase advocacy also with a face-to-face meeting.
Interesting idea…..
It would also be useful to have someone, preferably from the local press, film the presentation.
I am impressed by the speed, well done. It would be lovely to see the chapter plan…. but I suspect that work would slow to a crawl if others started to pore over it and comment.
Sorry, but I think you are right
That would be excellent. I hope it would address issues like state pensions, NHS and social care very directly.
Really important news Richard – this is so needed. But that doesnt mean it will be read, such is the embedded politics against public spending – in political parties, in all media, including in the BBC.
I have tried drafting one-page summaries to try to stimulate discussion in Labour etc, but not very happy about them.
Would it be a good trailer if you produced a one or two page summary even now?
I will think about it
Glad you took my suggestion for the title. Good luck with this most important project.
Can you speculate where this book might differ from, or advance upon, The Joy of Tax?
It answers a different question in a different way
There will be a chapter on tax
But there will be much more, and candidly, I have learned a lot in the meantime
So it’s new thinking
Are you going to have a chapter on Zimbabwe, Argentina, Venezuela etc. I.e where turning on the printing presses has gone badly wrong?
Best also add a chapter on crypto as well when faith is lost in currencies through debasement, as we have seen in the Russia in recently as crypto volumes have shot up. Obviously as crypto grows and it will, quite dramatically, then so is lost MMT mechanism to control inflation.
So although we created currency for eleven years without delivering any inflation you think our economies are the same as those you note, without apparently being able to spot any of the differences.
The book assumes an intelligent reader.
You might find it hard.
Great news Richard. It’s good to have something positive to look forward to just now.
I think a cryptocurrency is what the Chinese government says it is: a digital gambling asset. You can use it as a currency if you can find someone to accept it but you can say that of virtually anything.
As to what is happening in Russia. First it is a bit of a special case which we hope will not be repeated very often. But there is nothing special about using crypto currencies. In the past such things as cigarettes or lima beans have been used when a currency collapsed.
“So although we created currency for eleven years without delivering any inflation”
But we have inflation now.. are you saying there is no link between the money supply and inflation?
Also what about Crypto bypassing MMTs only means of controlling it? …is the readership so intelligent they know the answer?
Yes
Have you not noticed the real causes?
And crypto is just a ponzi scheme
Richard,
Congratulations on your Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences and on getting this important project underway. It would be great to think we might one day hear an interview like this with the Chair of our Treasury Committee.
https://medium.com/@KellyGerling/rep-john-yarmuth-d-ky-03-talks-about-mmt-to-answer-what-do-the-american-people-need-us-to-do-da9a4f84ec98
Indeed
Go for it and count me in – great title BTW.
Never mind MP’s what about getting copies to Journalists?
I agree we should think about giving a copies to journalists. If we do it could be accompanied by a photo montage of well known politicians being presented with a copy together with a list of all politicians that had been presented with one. That way, in an interview, a politician could not deny having received a copy.
If each chapter ended with a short quiz that would help anyone who wanted to use it like a textbook and would provide a useful source of questions for journalists. I don’t think it would be a good idea to supply model answers as some text books do. It’s far better to stimulate people to think about the text, and it might be good idea to give the quiz a title along the lines of “Some questions about …. you might like to ask your MP”.
I like that……
I think my advice to most journalists would be to ‘Do your bloody job – research this and then start asking questions’. Too much journalism these days seems to be about reinforcing public opinion rather than informing it.
But I agree with the basic premise.
Richard, I share the views of the other commentators in welcoming news all of your fresh book. I have come to believe that the Overton window is one of the greatest problems in progressing politics. If people are not ready to think about something, they won’t, or at least they won’t until circumstances really force them. Here in deepest South Norfolk my MP is Richard Bacon. He is a former FT journalist who is a classic John Sohnian: The bad sort, who is intelligent enough to know better. If you try to contact him by email, and I can do no other because my MS means that I cannot write, and my printer is broken, he first tries to allege that you are not identifying yourself properly, and then ignores you. To use this new book as effectively as it deserves to be used, we are going to have to persuade people to think about what it says and insist that Conservative politicians engage with it. In my experience a lot of the men and women of goodwill Who could and would do this are so busy keeping their noses above the waves and finding more pleasant diversions, not least with their families that this kind of hard political graft is not attractive. Your correspondents Who consider the realities of clearly expressed, thoughtfully designed and persistent publicity are precisely right. I would be very glad of an opportunity to put my shoulder to such a wheel.
Noted
Thanks
And good luck with Richard Bacon
Thank you for progressing this so quickly. I am impressed that you have progressed so far already, given all the other work you do and the amount of effort you put into the blog. Obviously I’d rather the book was out before Christmas, so that all my Christmas present choices could be determined at a stroke, but I won’t let that detract from my enthusiastic anticipation.
Thanks Bill
A book for Christmas requires October publication and that is just not possible, realistically
As one of 13 Greens on Sheffield Council I am really forward to this.
My dilemma has been that I want to write or make amendments to “motions to Council”, challenging the current narrative. However I’m not 100% sure the wording or the technicalities are right and therefore will be shot down by our opponents.
Hopefully the book will give me and my collegues that confidence.
Also as a local Councillor I need clarity when talking to residents when I’m out door -knocking. A short, easily repeated message that resonates persuades is vital in making progress.
Thank you Richard.
I hope I will help….
I am working on local GND ideas as well….
Richard , I note that you are on the “confirmed faculty” list (what does that mean?) for the Levy Institute Summer Conference on MMT. Will you be going over, or Zooming in? Giving a paper?
I could not justify flying so I am zooming in
I will be giving a paper
I look forward to reading the book when published. I would have thought that the keen young team at WeOwnIt, who are well versed at getting people to contact their MPs about returning public services to public ownership, could be interested in helping promote the book to a wide audience.
https://weownit.org.uk/
I know them….
Check out what’s being done by a team of volunteers at thecarbonalmanac.org a lot could be learned from them.
Great news. Let us all know when it can be pre ordered please.
Reflecting on this issue a bit more, the false narrative of ‘debt that has to be paid back’ to some bogey man cum lender by the Government – many politicians seem to believe this and what I see is fear – fear of debt and its consequences in public service.
The whole ‘debt-bogeyman’ narrative is the real and ongoing ‘project fear’ well before BREXIT and has stunted positive action and problem solving for years.
This fear has to be confronted I think in your book head on.
It will be…
I’m sure it will.
But the point I’m making is also that by acknowledging fear, you are humanising some of the proponents of austerity as well as possibly the general public who area also made to be afraid of the ‘debt bogey man’ effect.
By acknowledging fear, you asking and answering ‘Why?’.