Modern Monetary Theory: The Very Basics

James E Keenan

Henry George School of Social Science
May 4 2019

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Blue Dogs Want a Balanced Budget Amendment
3. Unprecedented Federal Budget Deficits!
4. We've Got to Get Serious and Make Tough Decisions
5. Utah Families Show the Way

6. The Household Budget Analogy
7. What Happens Without 'Sound Finance'
8. Identify Revenue Sources Before Spending
9. 'Sound Finance' Is Bipartisan

10. Economic and Political History
11. History
12. Remember Pearl Harbor!
13. How Did We Pay for the War (The Short Version)?
15. Abba Lerner
16. Functional Finance
17. Fast Forward to 1980s-2019
18. Democrats Fight with One Hand Tied Behind Their Backs

19. Summary
20. Bill Mitchell (April 23 2019)

21. End

23. Bonus Slides

24. The Job Guarantee
25. Government Purchases Unemployed Labor at Fixed Rate
26. Job Guarantee vs. "Priming the Pump"
27. Job Guarantee and Labor Markets
28. Job Guarantee versus Universal Basic Income

29. Taxation
30. "That with Which We Pay Taxes": Where Does It Come From?
31. Functions of Taxation
32. Richard Murphy: "The Joy of Tax"
33. Land-Value Taxation

34. Monetary Reform
35. What Is MMT Concerned With?
36. What Do MMTers Really Hate?
37. What Did MMT's Intellectual Ancestors Really Hate?
38. Economic Ancestor: John Maynard Keynes
39. Poltical Ancestor: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
40. What Do MMTers Really Want?
41. What Are Monetary Reformers Concerned With?
42. What Do Monetary Reformers Really Hate?
43. What Do Monetary Reformers Really Want?
44. The Fall from Grace
45. The Fall from Grace (compounded)
46. The Fed Is Not a Private Institution
47. Federal Reserve System Is Part of the State
48. Abolishing the Fed Is No Panacea
49. Fractional-Reserve Banking versus 100%-Reserve Banking
50. MMTer Bill Mitchell on Endogenous Money
51. Mitchell Favors Tougher Regulation
52. Mitchell Favors Tougher Regulation: The Details
53. MMTer L. Randall Wray on Monetary Reform
54. MMTer L. Randall Wray on Monetary Reform (cont'd)

55. Definitions
56. Angry Birds and Other Beasts

57. Hyman Minsky
58. Everyone Can Create Money, But ...
59. Minsky's Study of Banking
60. Financial Instability Hypothesis
61. Evolution of U.S. Capitalism
62. Employer of Last Resort (ELR)
63. Goals for Financial System