Ep. 217 Murphy Critiques MMT TED Talk
Bob provides a running refutation of Stephanie Kelton’s recent TED talk on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).
Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:
- Stephanie Kelton’s TED Talk.
- Bob’s review of Kelton’s book explaining MMT.
- Kelton’s intro to MMT, The Deficit Myth. #Commissions Earned (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)
- Bob’s interview of a founder of MMT, Warren Mosler. Then Bob’s analysis of that episode.
- Bob’s Mises.org critique of a popular identity (equation) in the MMT literature.
- Help support the Bob Murphy Show.
The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.
About the author, Robert
Christian and economist, Chief Economist at infineo, and Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute.
Might be a better time to revisit your inflation bet.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=HFwb
If you look at 2015 and 2016 the PPIACO was in the negative growth region, but in the last few months it’s been sitting at 20% (pct change from year ago) and not a brief burst either, but looking quite sustained. I doubt anyone in the Obama or Trump governments took MMT seriously, but these days they have gone nuts.
Take a look at the Australian situation.
https://www.rba.gov.au/chart-pack/central-bank-balance-sheets-bond-purchases.html
That pale blue on the chart with the nondescript name “Term Funding Facility” is dumping money directly into the banks, and not a small fraction of the balance sheet either. The big grey bank on the chart is pure QE bond purchases … three hundred billion smackers … in one year. We have never had QE like this before, nothing even close.
My supermarket reference standard is the no-frills tin of mackerel which used to be a steady $2.50 and that recently stepped up to $2.70 — an 8% gain. I know, possibly not significant but at a time when the major cities in Australia are “locked down” and you can’t travel long distances, the fuel prices are still going up. This time last year Australian fuel prices were much lower, although they are volatile making it difficult to calculate a specific growth rate but I would make a gut estimate at around 10% increase, perhaps a little more.
Now I’m told that for “nett zero” there must be worldwide investment in Hydrogen in the trillions … from where? Tax receipts are down, and the climate “emergency” fruit loops are making the most of this situation, and you just know it’s going to be the biggest squander in history.
Haha, in the future Bob’s wikipedia page will read like this:
1. Born
2. Was off by 10 years about inflation
3. Died
Wow, thanks Tel, I hadn’t realized how high the PPI jump was.
Someone is tracking my tin of mackerel … God bless you sir.
https://www.yoomroo.com.au/groceries/view/78581/deep-cove-mackerel-in-tomato-sauce
He’s right … it has stabilized at $2.70 for the time being.