Not that I’m any sort of authority on Keynes or economics for that matter, but I don’t see much value in reading anything other than Chapter 19 of the General Theory.
Dear Bill,
You wrote: “The tax increase is serving a specific function – to deprive the private domestic sector of purchasing power, presumably, because the government wants extra real resource space available to pursue its own socio-economic mandate and/or exports are booming.”
Functions are not “served”. Functions of A are objective consequences of a beneficial kind of A for a particular, specified system B. (Those of a deleterious kind are dysfunctions).
A particular function of A, in the above sense, may be the purpose of an agent. A is the policy or instrument, and its function for B is the desired outcome, the purpose, the intended effect of an agent (individual or collective).
The problem we have here in the UK is that Keynes has become the ‘defunct economist’ that ‘practical men’ are slaves of.
The idea that Keynes failed to get it all right is heretical.
And again it is tied in with the deferential British attitude towards the elites. If somebody is/was from Oxbridge they are accorded far too much leeway by people, when if fact their suggestions should be questioned even harder because they come from the establishment.
Bring some sunshine with you Bill.
“Bring some sunshine with you Bill.”
Unfortunately, Andy, the weather forecast is for rain in the South East. Mind you they were wrong last Saturday. At least the London Underground strike has been called off which could have affected late tube trains on Thursday.
Totally agree!
Go Bill!
Go Bill!
Bit of a nit-picking technical point this, but here goes…
Bill makes a good point when he said that Keynes was no MMTer in that Keynes believed in balancing the budget over the cycle. On the other hand he did say (in a letter to Roosevelt in 1933) that recessions could be dealt with by simply creating new base money and spending it.
So presumably he’d have believed in subsequently WITHDRAWING that base money, so as to balance the budget over the cycle. But if you’d said to him “what if that withdrawl causes another recession”, then presumably he’d have said “create new base money and spend it”.
So my nit-picking technical point is that Keynes boxed himself into a corner there: a corner where has must logically admit to the validity of MMT and the nonsense that is the “balanced budget” idea.
Sadly, Neil is right, with possibly a few exceptions, about the British and Keynes. An exception from his own time would have been his own Treasury. With regard to the roots of MMT, possibly you might wish to consider Robert Malthus, the “inventor” of the concept of effective demand and to whom Keynes gave credit. I realize this goes rather far back but there is an interesting history in the conflict between the ideas of Malthus and those of his great friend Ricardo; and anti-Ricardoism, if I can refer to it as that, is part of the supplementary narrative of MMT. Of course, you may not wish to go that far afield.
Bill,
I don’t think that Keynes thought that simply issuing debt led to lower inflation. His compulsory saving program was simply to take some of workers wages and hand them government bonds in return. This was a precursor to modern day wage restraint policies — but was of a type that ensured higher spending power in the future; in this case, after the war. I think this was a very sensible proposal. And very progressive. He was all too aware of how the high debt levels in Britain in the 19th century were used to suppress workers’ spending power through VAT/vice taxes — ones that Marx railed against as workers being exploited to fund capitalist wars, mind you.
I’m also not convinced that his desire to balance the current budget was because he wanted fiscal balance over the cycle. The letters between Keynes and Harrod in the late-1930s show that, although he disagreed on some points, Keynes was well aware of the ‘Harrod knife-edge’ and that there was no reason why an economy should tend toward full employment. This is further buttressed by the paragraph in the GT where he distinguishes clearly between the ‘marginal productivity of capital’ and the ‘marginal efficiency of capital’. The former implicitly assumes that interest rates will distribute resources to full employment levels over the long-run; the latter places investment under the sway of the ‘state of long-term expectations’ and the ‘animal spirits’. I think you see this clearly in the way Keynes articulates his business cycle theory in the late chapters of the book.
Finally, there is the fact that Keynes ultimately fell in line with Lerner’s ‘functional finance’. His original objections were never about the theoretical merits of the approach. Rather they had to do with how the new economic policy should be ‘sold’ to policymakers. He thought that functional finance would be too shocking. But then he changed his mind and invited Lerner to do a seminar at the Treasury. Actually, this is the debate that still rages to this day around Corbyn.
Addendum:
I should have been clearer about the view of Keynes that the British Treasury of Keynes’ time had of him, which is that they didn’t think that he was necessarily the bee’s knees. While they agreed that he was a great economist, that didn’t mean that they thought he was always right or, sometimes, even mostly right.
Yes, Keynes is the New Galen.
Economics is a eccentric “science”. In Natural science Newton is a historical revered hero but as a science and profession no one would engage in debate to interpret if Newton was applicable on the problems facing Natural Science today. They would rely on the latest knowledge in Natural science.
But in economics old masters is scrutinized in minute as it was religious scholars interpreting holy books to see if the “religion” is valid.
But in economics old masters is scrutinized in minute as it was religious scholars interpreting holy books to see if the “religion” is valid.
Keynes was a very smart and clever fellow, if he had resurrected today he would of course analyzed with today’s environment and knowledge as base. And been a MMT.
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
Didn’t he in an open letter to FDR and USA recommend increased deficits, and said it could be done either by borrowing or by the “printing press”? As if it was irrelevant what they choose.
A very educational piece and interesting.
One of the problems with economics I feel is that people do not seem to want to recognise that theories evolve and develop, and that descendants of theories are like Einsteins quote that he “stood on the shoulders of giants.” He proved Newton wrong, who is still obviously considered a giant of physics. Darwin’s insights were ingenious, but he knew nothing about genes.
I see Keynes as laying some good ground work, but it would not be a good thing if people did not improve on it with even better insights, we would not make progress.
One of the problems with economics I feel is that people do not seem to want to recognise that theories evolve and develop, and that descendants of theories are like Einsteins quote that he “stood on the shoulders of giants.” He proved Newton wrong, who is still obviously considered a giant of physics. Darwin’s insights were ingenious, but he knew nothing about genes.
I see Keynes as laying some good ground work, but it would not be a good thing if people did not improve on it with even better insights, we would not make progress.
“Keynes….. certainly didn’t consider what an on-going external deficit would mean for the conduct of fiscal policy if the private domestic sector desired to net save.”
So, a key problem with Keynes, was that he didn’t incorporate the concept of sectoral balances into his thinking?
MMT is a very good set of tools for building the economy and providing jobs. Government spending is not inflationary but lack of resources would be if the money were created with no where to put it.
It makes me worry a little that at the moment we have an enormous amount of bank debt caused by inflated house prices, student debt and even wonga loans.
Deficit spending and OMF would help people to pay this off given the chance to earn government money, but is there a danger if productivity cannot rise to the level to pay it off? Many peoples mortgages are now eating into half or more of their income. Is there a case for debt jubilees as well. Elizabeth Warren has called for a student loan jubilee in the US. It seems like a good parallel policy to MMT.
It makes me worry a little that at the moment we have an enormous amount of bank debt caused by inflated house prices, student debt and even wonga loans.
Deficit spending and OMF would help people to pay this off given the chance to earn government money, but is there a danger if productivity cannot rise to the level to pay it off? Many peoples mortgages are now eating into half or more of their income. Is there a case for debt jubilees as well. Elizabeth Warren has called for a student loan jubilee in the US. It seems like a good parallel policy to MMT.
Very informative Bill and it makes me realise I have a lot more to learn about history. Have a safe flight! I can’t wait to hear how you go in London and I really hope we get some good videos on MMT soon as it will make my life a lot easier to help educate more people and get them as excited as I am about MMT.
As the commenters above have mentioned it’s interesting how humans hold on to previous information like Keynes as being infallible (like the bible) and needing to interpret and work everything else from that starting point. Keynes old style English I’m sure only adds to that mystique and interpretation. Science doesn’t work like that it just keeps moving forward. I see MMT as very much like economics as a science. As a chemistry major myself i think I’ve been drawn to MMT because it really just explains macroeconomics in a more scientific way than all the other psycho-political economics around. We still have some way to go on educating people but your work and other MMTers are incredibly exciting.
I’ve been enjoying Stephanie Kelton’s podcasts but sadly there’s not many. I must wrote her to encourage more if she has time. Are there any other podcasts on MMT out there?
Thanks for all you do. Hope u get over the jetlag ok. There’s a prescription melatonin which I find helps a lot called circadin which is the real deal for how the brain naturally regulates sleep.
Ann Pettifor called for a debt jubilee a number of years ago. This mechanism has ancient historical precedents. As for Keynes’ General Theory, I think we should not forget that he was revising the book as he went along and virtually after its publication considered producing a revised version. He never got around to it, as events, and his bad heart, caught up with him. It is likely that he published when he did because “the time was right”, not because he thought the book was in a finished state, because it clearly wasn’t.
This is excellent. What really comes across, here, is the *singularity* of the MMT synthesis. While MMT draws variously from heterogenous traditions, it is simply irreducible to any one of them–including Keynesianism!
Thanks for writing this, Bill.
Most interesting and important! – But I fear a rather big irony if one of the world’s best economic thinkers plan to publish a book with enormous progressive political potential. And then it might be that not many people will ever read it, because it will be (very) expensive. I certainly hope this will not happen.
It is not often remembered that, in a radio broadcast in 1933 with J. C. Stamp, Keynes memorably said, “Look after … unemployment, and the Budget will look after itself.”
petermartin2001,
I think it accurate to say Keynes wouldn’t have realized the external sector merited such consideration. He came from a time when central banks had closely coordinated in preventing and correcting balances of trade destabilizing to the then-existing gold standard and his own proposal for the Bancor reflected this. I’m guessing he would have thought mad the notion of some nations running more-or-less permanent external surpluses/deficits.
I love it when you slag off at the private rent seeking bond holders for their corporate welfare, while promoting “Overt Monetary Financing”. I find it quite appealing… As well as your point on the superfunds, I couldn’t agree more; it seems so logical. Also find it good how you keep reinforcing that the inflation risk is in the spending, while taxation is a tool to reduce inflation.
Though you could probably mention that “tax increases” as a means to make room for more govt spending – in a time when the deficit needs to shrinks – depends where the taxation is placed/targeted (for reducing inflation) and how cutting spending may or may not work as a substitute policy based on where that spending is cut. E.g. Obviously cutting healthcare funding is unlikely to reduce inflation in asset markets, whereas a tax targeted towards those markets is far more likely to be successful. The size of government is not just a matter of politics when you examine the allocation of taxes and spending from what I can gather…
On the more general topic of Keynes in relation to MMT, very interesting insights.
Though you could probably mention that “tax increases” as a means to make room for more govt spending – in a time when the deficit needs to shrinks – depends where the taxation is placed/targeted (for reducing inflation) and how cutting spending may or may not work as a substitute policy based on where that spending is cut. E.g. Obviously cutting healthcare funding is unlikely to reduce inflation in asset markets, whereas a tax targeted towards those markets is far more likely to be successful. The size of government is not just a matter of politics when you examine the allocation of taxes and spending from what I can gather…
On the more general topic of Keynes in relation to MMT, very interesting insights.
The problem does not lie within the memory of Keynes or his thought, but within the selective memory of the economic mainstream. Always see what they do, not what they say; Keynes was very pragmatic in that sense, I doubt it would be different today.
We still are dominated by the neoclassicals even when Sraffa debunked it, and it is because the entrenched academe and their masters (which are elitists and fascists which hate democracy). You simply can’t trust economists in the academe for reasons states by Schopenhauer (regarding philosophy) long ago.