Modern Money Primer

Comments and responses on the Modern Money Primer Part 35.

Let’s finish up the discussion of Lerner’s functional finance approach addressing two issues: functional finance and developing nations and also the functional finance approach to trade deficits.

Comments and responses on the Modern Money Primer Part 34.

The US Dollar probably will not remain the world’s reserve currency. From the US perspective, that might be a disappointment. In the long view of history, it is inconsequential.

Comments and responses on the Modern Money Primer Part 33.

Applying a household “budget constraint” to government is obviously inappropriate—households are users of the currency, while government is the issuer. How could economics have become so confused?

Comments and responses on the Modern Money Primer Part 32.

Milton Friedman was a conservative economist and a vocal critic of “big government” and of Keynesian economics. Yet, in 1948 he made a proposal that was almost identical to Lerner’s functional finance views.

Comments and responses on the Modern Money Primer Part 31.

This week we begin a new topic: functional finance. Today we will lay out Abba Lerner’s approach to policy.