Why is universalism losing?
There is a tension in all enlightened ‘identity politics’. How do we combat discrimination without accepting the premise that there is significant difference? And how do we promote universalism without denying ...
An intellectual virus, a bubble, or both?
The recent phase of market volatility precipitated by the February 2018 ‘flash crash’ has morphed into fears of a growth slowdown, phoney Trumpian trade wars, and real wars. But the initial crash itself may be ...
If you don’t like trade deficits – tax the rich?
Has the word ‘deficit’ done more damage than any other in economics? Deficits are bad, surpluses are good. In economics, nothing could be further from the truth. How can there be virtue, if every virtuous act r...
Values in economics
A philosophical aside
I feel obliged to declare my biases up front. I've spent almost as much time studying moral philosophy as economic theory. Somewhat ironically, I decided to study economics after I had re...
MMT part III – conclusion, and a conversation with Ben Bernanke
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
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?
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
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
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
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...