I spent much of yesterday travelling to and from, and then taking part in, an extended Novara Media interview with Aaron Bastani.
This will come out on Sunday as part of their Downstream series and will be about two hours 15 minutes after editing, I am told. That will apparently be their second-longest ever interview. We found a lot to talk about.
I was genuinely pleased to get this invitation, and I know many people have asked why this has not happened before now. Even Aaron did during the recording. I suspect my Channel 4 podcast, which has now got nearly 550,000 views, might have been a tipping point on this one.
What did we discuss? Essentially, the state of politics, the state of the economy, and how we might manage the crises coming our way in some way or another.
The Iran conflict, AI, food supply chain issues and climate change all get an inevitable look-in.
So, too, did reactions to the far right.
And, as I expected, since Aaron has previously made clear his difficulties with it, so did MMT. Here I was quite clear. I said MMT explains how money works, just as Newtonian physics explains how gravity works. MMT is not a belief system. It explains what is. Aaron seemed to buy that.
The key point I made, and this is where I markedly differ with some in MMT, is that it is not a political programme. Some claim it is. I disagree. The point is that MMT is a platform which explains money on which the foundations of economic policy can then be built.
We did, however, cover a great deal more than that, including a lot on my methodology, motivation and methods of campaigning.
The video comes out at 3pm on Sunday. I will share it here.
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This is good news. I subscribe to Novara Media because I value their journalism even when I disagree with them. You will join a long list of notable interviewees. MMT is no more political than the theory of gravity. It is just the way it is. Wearing my lawyer’s hat, MMT is evidenced and underpinned by the statutory framework governing the Bank of England and also its charter. This is another encouraging sign that the message is starting to get through. With yesterday’s US midterm results, and the willingness of the young across Europe to protest against the hardships caused by neoliberalism, for the first time in ages I feel a smidgen of optimism. Well done.
Thank you.
Brilliant news, I have a lot of respect for all the Novara team but their MMT blindness has definitely been an issue. Looking forward to hearing you putting the case, and hopefully they will collectively take it on board.
I can live in hope
I look forward to that. It is a while since I listened to that channel, but if they ‘get’ MMT then this will increase exposure to the concept. Excellent news.
Great news!
I note that some part of Novara Media’s funding comes from sales of merchandise. There are t-shirts saying “I’m literally a communist” and tote bags and caps saying “hate landlords”.
Politically they seem very much aligned with the Green Party membership.
I’d be wary of getting too close to them.
You are trolling.
I am wary of getting close to you.