Blog - Page 3 of 15 - Philosophy of Money

Safe asset issuance & the discovery of oil

17th December 2017

(with guest author, Tristan Hanson) Last month, we made a proposal for a sovereign wealth fund (‘SWF’). It triggered a substantial debate. How would it operate in practice? Are we trying to fund investment o...

Rethinking Brexit, via Kilkenny & Oxford

Eric Lonergan

12th November 2017

Economic History, Money in Europe, Sample Of One

3

Mark Blyth and I have been arguing that nationalism is a global virus, filling the vacuum created by the erosion of political identity under neo-liberalism. The Cold War era now appears, almost nostalgically, a...

MMT part III – conclusion, and a conversation with Ben Bernanke

Eric Lonergan

20th October 2017

Definitions of Money, Economic History, Monetary Policy, Theory & Other Problems

22

My last two blogs have revisited the issue of whether or not base money is a liability of the state. The issue played a central role in a discussion over the future of monetary policy at the Brussels think-tank...

MMT part II: a synthesis, an olive branch, and a defence of Twitter

Eric Lonergan

11th October 2017

Definitions of Money, Economic History, Monetary Policy, Theory & Other Problems

26

This is a short follow-up to my previous post, ‘MMT - sophistry or substance?’, and Simon Wren-Lewis’s ‘Why is MMT so popular?'. Summarising, I suggest the two defining characteristics of MMT are: (1) a theo...

MMT: school of thought or set of personalities?

Eric Lonergan

7th October 2017

Definitions of Money, Economic History, Monetary Policy, Theory & Other Problems

28

MMT revisited Simon Wren-Lewis’s recent post on why MMT is so popular makes a number of important points. The Twitter response to Simon’s post was fairly representative - to its credit, MMT has a committed c...

Raising rates is a stimulus

Eric Lonergan

4th October 2017

Helicopter Money, Monetary Policy, Theory & Other Problems

There are two broad categories of monetary policy instrument: 1) measures which are aimed at influencing market interest rates, and 2) transfers from the central bank to the private sector. ‘Conventional’ m...

Money and language

Eric Lonergan

17th September 2017

Definitions of Money, Theory & Other Problems

8

The great Scottish philosopher David Hume may have been the first to understand that the economics of money is closest to that of language. Money is one of the most essential social conventions, the other t...

Language and money

Eric Lonergan

17th September 2017

Definitions of Money, Theory & Other Problems

Language is perhaps the most useful social convention, followed by law. Words are exchanged by humans to coordinate action, express thoughts and feelings, and to entertain. It is difficult to imagine much human...

More on Bitcoin (Part I)

Eric Lonergan

15th September 2017

Definitions of Money, Helicopter Money

1

Bitcoin proves that the 'interest' paid by central banks on bank reserves (IOR) is not an "interest rate" but a helicopter drop to banks. Imagine that Bitcoin came with an additional feature, that all holders o...

Intelligent money & valuing Bitcoin

Eric Lonergan

10th September 2017

Definitions of Money, Helicopter Money, Monetary Policy

12

The most significant innovation in Bitcoin is not blockchain, nor the fact that it is a non-state-backed electronic currency. It is truly ground-breaking because it is the first 'intelligent' money. An 'intelli...

Safe asset issuance & the discovery of oil

Rethinking Brexit, via Kilkenny & Oxford

MMT part III – conclusion, and a conversation with Ben Bernanke

MMT part II: a synthesis, an olive branch, and a defence of Twitter

MMT: school of thought or set of personalities?

Raising rates is a stimulus

Money and language

Language and money

More on Bitcoin (Part I)

Intelligent money & valuing Bitcoin

Reviews of Eric’s book

CNBC: market sell-off is ‘noise’

Monetary policy & babysitting: why rates are so low, and ‘what’s next?’