I was asked by an economics correspondent at a well-known organisation yesterday to provide them with some questions for a Q&A session they were going to be participating in. I was happy to do so, and then suggested that the session the organisation in question really required was on modern monetary theory (MMT), which I thought it misrepresented.
The reply that I got was:
I think convincing people (and everyone who has any influence over the opinion about finance) that everything they think about money is pretty much wrong is too tall an order.
Unsurprisingly, I found this a little depressing. My reply was as follows:
Galileo won.What would have happened if he had not?
Will we have a Galileo moment?
Or will it be the case that our media will persist with an economic story they know to be false because they are too frightened to admit that government spending really does create money, and that taxes exist to recover it from the economy?
Our economic well-being might depend on the answer to that question.
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Looking at recent history there have been significant changes in ‘the public domain’ the treatment of Women, Children and the Global Majority being a case to point.
It can and does happen
So depressing. Best not be thought of as trying to upset the apple cart in case no more invites arrive.
“Too tall an order”? It’s absolutely basic – and the rapid growth of this blog’s readership (and associated videos) surely indicates that the truth is beginning to dawn on a lot of people.
“Will we have a Galileo moment?”
Yes, the issue is whether we have it on the way to Beachy Head, or half way down the cliff face.
The British establishment had a Truss/Kwarteng moment and acted to deal with a part of the problem (sort of). Starmer/Reeves and neoliberal dogma are FAR more dangerous than Truss as we face the consequences of the criminal actions of the crooks in charge of rogue states, our “allies”, USA and Israel.
The British public are protesting against the war. The British state is locking up the protesters and appeasing the criminal warmongers and profiteers.
It really is a bit much when people who must know that MMT is an accurate description of reality turn away because they want an easy life. Quite revealing about human nature, and the mess we keep finding ourselves in.
Just a quick addendum. Easter!
‘Too tall an order’? Not really – a few mild questions such as ‘where did the £800bn come from to keep the economy running during the height of the pandemic?’, or ‘the £bns to bail out the banks in 2008?’ would remind people that they sort of already know in their bones that govt can create money <p>
Agreed
Galileo didn’t “win” per se. He was proven right long after his death.
However, whether the earth orbits the sun or vice versa doesn’t have an immediate impact upon the future of life on the planet. There is rather more urgency to convert the population on this matter.
As my long departed dear old grandad used to say ‘it’s always darkest before dawn’.
He would have got on well with my great grandmother: “There’s none so blind as those who will not see”.
I am not sure that those MMT ‘nay-sayers’ can be converted. I wonder if the Planck Principle applies here, but if it does all the more reason to persist and inform and educate those who still have open minds. KUTGW.
Thank you
It is very interesting, and in a way encouraging that someone in what is presumably a quite significant organisation acknowledged two things
accepted mainstream economic ideas are wrong (‘everything they think about money is pretty much wrong”)
those who see it is wrong feel unable to say so (‘…too tall an order”)
I wonder how prevalent that knowledge is.