{"id":91674,"date":"2026-04-16T06:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=91674"},"modified":"2026-04-16T06:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:41:10","slug":"my-first-day-in-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/04\/16\/my-first-day-in-office\/","title":{"rendered":"My first day in office"},"content":{"rendered":"

A commentator on this blog<\/a> called Jeremy Holmes posted this question yesterday:<\/p>\n

As a non-economist I am totally \u00a0\u2013 but perhaps naively \u2013 persuaded by the MMT argument you and Stephanie Kelton put forward. \u00a0My wife and I listen to your engaging and persuasive \u00a0vlogs every morning after breakfast.<\/p>\n

My question: you are Chancellor in a forthcoming Labour-Green Party coalition that has just won power. \u00a0What are the three specific and practical first steps you and your civil service team will instigate to re shape the economy along MMT lines?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First of all, I have to apologise for the amount of time I take up in your day. When I look at our YouTube statistics, I often feel a little shocked, surprised and flattered at the total number of hours people spend watching my channel.<\/p>\n

Then, let me turn to your question. The first thing to say is that I think you were a little mean by restricting me to three choices. I would have many more things than that that I wished to undertake on my first day in office, not that this will ever happen,\u00a0 I stress. However, let me restrict myself to five, having noted that the point is not to \u201cimplement MMT\u201d, but to use its insights to change how policy is made. I would prioritise the following.<\/p>\n

First, I would replace existing fiscal rules<\/span> with a framework for economic management based on sustainable real resource use, inflation management and a policy of full employment, with a focus on removing artificial constraints on necessary investment.<\/p>\n

Second, I would launch a programme of targeted public investment<\/span> in sustainable energy, energy saving and sustainable transport, housing, health and care, and associated educational needs to mobilise underused capacity and address structural weaknesses in our economy. Call it a Green New Deal, if you like.<\/p>\n

Third, I would introduce a job-creation programme targeted at areas with persistent unemployment and underemployment to ensure full employment and support local economies. This would obviously be linked to my second objective.<\/p>\n

Fourth, I would reform the relationship between the Treasury and the Bank of England to ensure coordinated fiscal and monetary policy<\/span>, rather than over-reliance on interest rates. I would initiate reform of central bank reserve account interest payments.<\/p>\n

Fifth, I would start a redesign of the tax system<\/span> to manage inflation, reduce inequality and discourage rent extraction, rather than pretending it funds spending. This would embrace the need for the greater redistribution of income and wealth in our economy.<\/p>\n

The objective of all of these is straightforward: they are designed to manage the real economy in the public interest, rather than constraining it with myths about money.<\/p>\n

And the next day, I would start reconstructing tax relief for the UK's savings and pension systems to ensure funds are redirected to productive investment within the economy. Tax subsidies to pointless speculation must end.<\/p>\n

Will that do?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A commentator on this blog called Jeremy Holmes posted this question yesterday: As a non-economist I am totally \u00a0\u2013 but perhaps naively \u2013 persuaded by
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-modern-monetary-theory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91674"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91689,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91674\/revisions\/91689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}