Publications

e-pamphlets

• e-pamphlets | August 2021

  What Is MMT’s State of Play in Washington?

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  Modern Money Theory (MMT) has been frequently mentioned in recent media—first as “crazy talk” that if followed would bankrupt the nation and then, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, as a way to finance an emergency response. In recent months, however, Washington seems to have returned to the old view that government spending must be “paid for” with new taxes. This raises the question: Has MMT really made headway with policymakers? This e-pamphlet examines the extraordinary interview given recently by Representative John Yarmuth’s (D, KY-03), Chair of the House Budget Committee, in which he explicitly adopts an MMT approach to budgeting. Chairman Yarmuth also lays out a path for realizing the major elements of President Biden’s proposals. Finally, Wray summarizes a recent presentation he gave to the Congressional Budget Office’s Macroeconomic Analysis section that urged reconsideration of the way that fiscal policy impacts are assessed.

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  e-pamphlet, August 2021

  Associated Program(s):

  Monetary Policy and Financial Structure Economic Policy for the 21st Century The State of the US and World Economies

  Author(s):

  L. Randall Wray

  Related Topic(s):

  Federal budget policy Fiscal policy Functional finance Modern Money Theory (MMT)

  

• e-pamphlets | March 2016

  Rising Corporate Concentration, Declining Trade Union Power, and the Growing Income Gap

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  American Prosperity in Historical Perspective

  Jordan Brennan, of Unifor and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, examines the rise of income inequality and the deceleration of economic growth in the United States in this two-part analysis. The first section explores the consolidation of corporate power, through mergers and acquisitions, between 1895 and 2013, and finds that reduced competition, declines in fixed asset investment, and the rise of practices such as stock buybacks have shifted investment away from the real economy, leading to weak economic growth and rising income inequality. The second section of Brennan’s analysis examines the interplay of labor unions, inflation, and income inequality. The author observes that the decline of unions as a countervailing force to corporate power and anti-inflationary monetary policy have shifted income away from middle- and lower-income groups. Similarly, he observes that over the past century inflation has tended to redistribute income from capital to labor—from the upper to the lower income strata. In this context, he observes that anti-inflation policy is a use of state power to effect a regressive redistribution of income.  

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  e-pamphlet, March 2016

  Associated Program:

  The State of the US and World Economies

  Author(s):

  Jordan Brennan