As I mentioned before Christmas, I have been working on a summary of modern monetary theory to be published in our PDF shop.
I initially assumed that this summary could be based on blog posts that had been published here over time, plus transcripts of videos on this subject and some material from the Taxing Wealth report.
However, after involving three people in appraising all the material in question, more than 70 posts appeared worthy of inclusion. Without any additional explanatory or linking material, those posts come to more than 93,000 words, and the text is more than 300 pages long.
I will be honest and say that this does not feel like a summary, and I am not sure it will be particularly helpful. That feeling is heightened because there is some duplication in that content and, on occasion, a lack of structure in the resulting document despite our best efforts to create a flow through the material.
The result is that I am now wondering where to go next, and would appreciate your opinion.
Do we put out all this material?
Or do we start again, using it as the basis for a shorter, 30,000-word (or thereabouts) summary?
Alternatively, might we do both, with the blog post summary available alongside the shorter publication for those seeking a more detailed explanation?
There is a poll below:
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Publishing a series of “stand alone” blog pieces that totals 100,000 words doesn’t make any sense. Each was written in response to a specific issue at a particular moment in time. (Having said that, if you have “done the work”, an archive of posts that are MMT related that is flagged “MMT” might make sense).
On the other hand, a summary is a huge undertaking – in effect, writing from scratch. This would be more useful…… but is it worth it?
I suspect you will get a greater impact if you do another 70 blog posts/videos over the next year or so as/when the mood takes you – or in response to specific things. These might well be re-hashes of existing pieces but, I think would get a bigger audience and greater impact.
Noted
TBH a very short summary would be useful for both my local Greens (as they are getting mixed messages) and for my students when they need to know how policy is funded (again, because they’re fed ‘taxpayer pays’. I’m capable of generating one, thanks to this blog, but you’re considerably more authoritative than me.
I think version 3 might be needed then.
I wonder whether to go straight to it.
Would it be helpful to identify your target audience. All those options you offer sound very helpful but perhaps overpowering for the uninitiated. By focusing on specific points perhaps the message will be better understood. I am thinking here of the debunking of the idea that the economy is like the household budget. That message is starting to gain traction.
A guide to the hiusehold analogy then
Or rather “Why government is nothing like a household??
Richard
You are an academic so you know how to ‘tell the story’
I suggest we need something that the proverbial ‘Man (woman) in the Clapham Omnibus’ can easily understand
That may be the third version
I think that gaining a reasonable understanding of MMT takes some time and it was not until quite recently that I came across the number 0 and its history as well as its fundamental importance in our understanding of the world. It took some time to be embraced by western thought and plays a key role in double entry accounting as well as the whole digital world. I think that trying to get to grips with MMT is similar to this and needs clear explanation. Therefore having both shorter and longer formats would be really helpful imo.
Thanks
I voted for a 30,000 summary – something I can give to friends – something we can read together and try to understand. I don’t know where you get the energy for all the work you do! 🙂
Would 10,000 be better?
Alternatively, does a summary, whose description you agree with, already exist for you to link to at the top of your blog?
No…
I have not found it
I have my own twists on this
I think it should be for you to decide as it is your time and and energy that’s needed.
However, I wonder if you have used NotebookLM?
I suggest trying to make it do the work. Open a new notebook and input the current report then ask it to produce a new version having removed the duplications but keeping the structure and all the information. There is a setting where you define just what you want.
I haven’t tried it on anything this long so it may not work. But it may work….
Good luck and thanks
I am told Claude AI does it better….
But it would still need editing.
A sentence got missed when I copied this over. It will also produce summaries for you.