Publications

84 publications found, searching for 'Money '

• Working Paper No. 982 January 24, 2021

  The Economic Problem: From Barter to Commodity Money to Electronic Money

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  The success of alternative payment systems has led to discussion of various proposals to replace money with a new technology-based system, though many lack a clear idea of what exactly is the “money” they seek to replace. We begin by presenting the explanation of money’s role in the economy embraced by most mainstream economists and […]

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• Working Paper No. 979 November 20, 2020

  Is It Time to Eliminate Federal Corporate Income Taxes?

  L. Randall Wray, and Edward Lane
  Abstract

  As the nation is experiencing the need for ever-increasing government expenditures to address COVID-19 disruptions, rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, and many other worthy causes, conventional thinking calls for restoring at least a portion corporate taxes eliminated by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, especially from progressive circles. In this working paper, Edward Lane and […]

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• Working Paper No. 977 November 16, 2020

  A Note Concerning Government Bond Yields

  Tanweer Akram
  Abstract

  This paper relates Keynes’s discussions of money, the state theory of money, financial markets, investors’ expectations, uncertainty, and liquidity preference to the dynamics of government bond yields for countries with monetary sovereignty. Keynes argued that the central bank can influence the long-term interest rate on government bonds and the shape of the yield curve mainly […]

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• Working Paper No. 973 October 01, 2020

  The Trade-off between Inflation and Unemployment in an MMT World

  Emilio Carnevali, and Matteo Deleidi
  Abstract

  This paper is focused on Modern Monetary Theory’s (MMT) treatment of inflation from an open economy perspective. It analyzes how the inflation process is explained within the MMT framework and provides empirical evidence in support of this vision. However, it also makes use of a stock-flow consistent (open economy) model to underline some limits of […]

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• Working Paper No. 961 July 13, 2020

  The "Kansas City" Approach to Modern Money Theory

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  Modern money theory (MMT) synthesizes several traditions from heterodox economics. Its focus is on describing monetary and fiscal operations in nations that issue a sovereign currency. As such, it applies Georg Friedrich Knapp’s state money approach (chartalism), also adopted by John Maynard Keynes in his Treatise on Money. MMT emphasizes the difference between a sovereign […]

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• Public Policy Brief No. 150 June 03, 2020

  The Impact of Technological Innovations on Money and Financial Markets

  Jan Kregel, and Paolo Savona
  Abstract

  According to Senior Scholar Jan Kregel and Paolo Savona, attempting to maintain the status quo in the face of the introduction of some recent technological innovations—chiefly cryptocurrencies and associated instruments based on distributed ledger technology, the deployment of artificial intelligence, and the use of data science in financial markets—will create risks that increase instability and […]

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• One-Pager No. 63 April 10, 2020

  Are We All MMTers Now? Not so Fast

  L. Randall Wray, and Yeva Nersisyan
  Abstract

  As governments around the world explore ambitious approaches to fiscal and monetary policy in their responses to the COVID-19 crisis, Modern Money Theory (MMT) has been thrust into the spotlight once again. Unfortunately, many of those invoking the theory have misrepresented its central tenets, according Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray. MMT provides an analysis […]

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• Public Policy Brief No. 148 January 31, 2020

  Can We Afford the Green New Deal?

  L. Randall Wray, and Yeva Nersisyan
  Abstract

  In this policy brief, Yeva Nersisyan and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray argue that assessing the “affordability” of the Green New Deal is a question of whether there are suitable and sufficient real resources than can be mobilized to implement this ambitious approach to climate policy. Only after a careful resource accounting can we address […]

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• Testimony November 20, 2019

  Statement of Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray to the House Budget Committee, US House of Representatives

  L. Randall Wray, and Yeva Nersisyan
  Abstract

  On November 20, 2019, Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray testified before the House Committee on the Budget on the topic of reexamining the economic costs of debt: "In recent months a new approach to national government budgets, deficits, and debts—Modern Money Theory (MMT)—has been the subject of discussion and controversy. [. . .] In this […]

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• Working Paper No. 936 September 04, 2019

  Fiscal Reform to Benefit State and Local Governments

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  This paper will present the Modern Money Theory approach to government finance. In short, a national government that chooses its own money of account, imposes a tax in that money of account, and issues currency in that money of account cannot face a financial constraint. It can make all payments as they come due. It […]

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• Working Paper No. 932 June 26, 2019

  Rethinking China’s Local Government Debt in the Frame of Modern Money Theory

  Zengping He, and Genliang Jia
  Abstract

  Local government debt in China is increasing and presents a great threat to China’s financial stability. In China’s fiscal system, the central government often prioritizes reducing its fiscal deficit and can determine to a great extent the distribution of revenue and expenditure between itself and local governments. There is therefore a tendency for the fiscal […]

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• Working Paper No. 931 May 30, 2019

  How to Pay for the Green New Deal

  L. Randall Wray, and Yeva Nersisyan
  Abstract

  This paper follows the methodology developed by J. M. Keynes in his How to Pay for the War pamphlet to estimate the “costs” of the Green New Deal (GND) in terms of resource requirements. Instead of simply adding up estimates of the government spending that would be required, we assess resource availability that can be […]

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• Working Paper No. 928 May 13, 2019

  Democratizing Money

  Jan Kregel
  Abstract

  In the Western interpretation of democracy, governments exist in order to manage relations of property, with absence of property ownership leading to exclusion from participation in governance and, in many cases, absence of equal treatment before the law. Democratizing money will therefore ensure equal opportunity to the ownership of property, and thus full participation in […]

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• Book Series February 01, 2019

  Macroeconomics

  L. Randall Wray, William Mitchell, and Martin Watts
  Abstract

  This groundbreaking new core textbook encourages students to take a more critical approach to the prevalent assumptions around the subject of macroeconomics, by comparing and contrasting heterodox and orthodox approaches to theory and policy. The first such textbook to develop a heterodox model from the ground up, it is based on the principles of Modern […]

• Working Paper No. 916 October 02, 2018

  Unconventional Monetary Policies and Central Bank Profits

  Jörg Bibow
  Abstract

  This study investigates the evolution of central bank profits as fiscal revenue (or: seigniorage) before and in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008–9, focusing on a select group of central banks—namely the Bank of England, the United States Federal Reserve System, the Bank of Japan, the Swiss National Bank, the European Central […]

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• Working Paper No. 900 January 29, 2018

  Functional Finance

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  This paper examines the views of Hyman Minsky and Abba Lerner on the functional finance approach to fiscal policy. It argues that the main principles of functional finance were relatively widely held in the immediate postwar period. However, with the rise of the Phillips curve, the return of the Quantity Theory, the development of the […]

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• Working Paper No. 890 May 15, 2017

  On the Centrality of Redemption

  Abstract

  The paper presents a financial approach to monetary analysis that links the credit and state theories of money. A premise of the functional approach to money is that “money is what money does.” In this approach, monetary and mercantile mechanics are conflated, which leads to the conclusion that unconvertible monetary instruments are worthless. The financial […]

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• Working Paper No. 861 March 01, 2016

  Money, Power, and Monetary Regimes

  Pavlina R. Tcherneva
  Abstract

  Money, in this paper, is defined as a power relationship of a specific kind, a stratified social debt relationship, measured in a unit of account determined by some authority. A brief historical examination reveals its evolving nature in the process of social provisioning. Money not only predates markets and real exchange as understood in mainstream […]

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• Book Series September 29, 2015

  Modern Money Theory: A Primer on Macroeconomics for Sovereign Monetary Systems, Second Edition

  L. Randall Wray
  Abstract

  In a completely revised second edition, Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray presents the key principles of Modern Money Theory, exploring macro accounting, monetary and fiscal policy, currency regimes, and exchange rates in developed and developing nations. Wray examines how misunderstandings about the nature of money caused the recent global financial meltdown, and provides fresh ideas […]

• Working Paper No. 843 July 27, 2015

  Is a Very High Public Debt a Problem?

  Pedro Leao
  Abstract

  This paper has two main objectives. The first is to propose a policy architecture that can prevent a very high public debt from resulting in a high tax burden, a government default, or inflation. The second objective is to show that government deficits do not face a financing problem. After these deficits are initially financed […]

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• Working Paper No. 841 July 24, 2015

  Marx’s Theory of Money and 21st-century Macrodynamics

  Tai Young-Taft
  Abstract

  Marx’s theory of money is critiqued relative to the advent of fiat and electronic currencies and the development of financial markets. Specific topics of concern include (1) today’s identity of the money commodity, (2) possible heterogeneity of the money commodity, (3) the categories of land and rent as they pertain to the financial economy, (4) […]

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• Working Paper No. 839 June 01, 2015

  Inside Money in a Kaldor-Kalecki-Steindl Fiscal Policy Model

  Tai Young-Taft
  Abstract

  We hope to model financial fragility and money in a way that captures much of what is crucial in Hyman Minsky’s financial fragility hypothesis. This approach to modeling Minsky may be unique in the formal Minskyan literature. Namely, we adopt a model in which a psychological variable we call financial prudence (P) declines over time […]

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• Working Paper No. 832 February 11, 2015

  The Rise of Money and Class Society

  L. Randall Wray, and Alla Semenova
  Abstract

  This paper explores the rise of money and class society in ancient Greece, drawing historical and theoretical parallels to the case of ancient Egypt. In doing so, the paper examines the historical applicability of the chartalist and metallist theories of money. It will be shown that the origins and the evolution of money were closely […]

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• Working Paper No. 832 February 11, 2015

  Η άνοδος του χρήματος και της ταξικής κοινωνίας

  L. Randall Wray, and Alla Semenova
  Abstract

  Η παρούσα εργασία διερευνά την άνοδο του χρήματος και της ταξικής κοινωνίας στην αρχαία Ελλάδα, αντλώντας ιστορικούς και θεωρητικούς παραλληλισμούς από την περίπτωση της αρχαίας Αιγύπτου. Με τον τρόπο αυτό, η εργασία εξετάζει την ιστορική εφαρμογή της μεταλλικής θεωρίας του χρήματος και της θεωρίας του παραστατικού χρήματος (chartalism). Θα δείξουμε ότι η προέλευση και η […]

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