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Trump keeps telling us that unemployment is at an all-time low. Even if that were true, it wouldn’t stay that way. As our guest Scott Fullwiler explains, the private sector isn’t about creating jobs; it’s about profitability. So even if there were enough jobs for everybody who wants one, it would be a coincidence. And how can we design an economic policy around a coincidence?
In this special interview with host Steve Grumbine, Fullwiler says that we have a choice whether to have a buffer stock of the involuntarily unemployed or a buffer stock of the employed. He says that this is one of the revelations in Randall Wray’s seminal 1998 book, Understanding Modern Money: The Key to Full Employment and Price Stability. Another revolutionary concept was that the central bank is about interest rates, not the money supply, while government deficits are about money, not interest rates.
In a wide ranging conversation, Grumbine and Fullwiler revisit some of the key moments in MMT history — what Fullwiler calls the “hockey stick moments” — including Dr. Stephanie Kelton’s position as Chief Economist on the Senate Budget Committee, and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s public utterance of the phrase “Modern Monetary Theory.” As we all remember, after this was reported it was referred to in one article after another, carrying MMT, in name at least, into the public square.
Grumbine brings up the ongoing conflict between supporters of the Federal Job Guarantee and a Universal Basic Income. Fullwiler insists the two are not in competition. And because the UBI doesn’t have a solution for the guy who still wants to work but doesn’t have a job, we’re back at square one, with the choice of having an unemployed buffer stock or an employed buffer stock.
Professor Scott Fullwiler is in UMKC’s interdisciplinary program and a Research Scholar at the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity
Follow him on Twitter @stf18
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Trump keeps telling us that unemployment is at an all-time low. Even if that were true, it wouldn’t stay that way. As our guest Scott Fullwiler explains, the private sector isn’t about creating jobs; it’s about profitability. So even if there were enough jobs for everybody who wants one, it would be a coincidence. And how can we design an economic policy around a coincidence?
In this special interview with host Steve Grumbine, Fullwiler says that we have a choice whether to have a buffer stock of the involuntarily unemployed or a buffer stock of the employed. He says that this is one of the revelations in Randall Wray’s seminal 1998 book, Understanding Modern Money: The Key to Full Employment and Price Stability. Another revolutionary concept was that the central bank is about interest rates, not the money supply, while government deficits are about money, not interest rates.
In a wide ranging conversation, Grumbine and Fullwiler revisit some of the key moments in MMT history — what Fullwiler calls the “hockey stick moments” — including Dr. Stephanie Kelton’s position as Chief Economist on the Senate Budget Committee, and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s public utterance of the phrase “Modern Monetary Theory.” As we all remember, after this was reported it was referred to in one article after another, carrying MMT, in name at least, into the public square.
Grumbine brings up the ongoing conflict between supporters of the Federal Job Guarantee and a Universal Basic Income. Fullwiler insists the two are not in competition. And because the UBI doesn’t have a solution for the guy who still wants to work but doesn’t have a job, we’re back at square one, with the choice of having an unemployed buffer stock or an employed buffer stock.
Professor Scott Fullwiler is in UMKC’s interdisciplinary program and a Research Scholar at the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity
Follow him on Twitter @stf18
Coming Soon
Episode 110 - Taming the Megabanks with Art Wilmarth
Episode 109 - Institutions with Linwood Tauheed
Episode 108 - Knowledge is Power with Rev. Delman Coates
Episode 107 - We Are Losing the Media War with Jordan Chariton
Episode 106 - Reform or Revolution with Danny Haiphong
Episode 105 - The Case for Scottish Independence with Kairin Van Sweeden
Episode 104 - Focus on the Family with June Carbone
Episode 103 - Anatomy of a Job Guarantee with Fadhel Kaboub
Episode 102 - The Global Scourge of Neoliberalism with Patricia Pino
Episode 101 - Beat Back Better: Organizing in 2021 with Emma Caterine
Episode 100 - Flying with Sara Nelson
Episode 99 - A Modern Debt Jubilee with Steve Keen
Episode 98 - Imminent Collapse with L. Randall Wray
Episode 97 - Solidarity with Joe Burns
Episode 96 - Treasury's Gift To The Fed with Robert Hockett
Episode 95 - The Land Value Tax with Joshua Vincent and Rich Nymoen
Episode 94 - Political Sobriety with Rohan Grey
Episode 93 - The Public Banking Act with Rohan Grey
Episode 92 - Propaganda and the Vortex of Centrism with Esha Krishnaswamy
Episode 91 - Crisis Management with Warren Mosler
Episode 90 - The MMT Sequence with Warren Mosler
Episode 89 - Juxtapositions with Bill Mitchell
Episode 88 - Debt Deflation and the Neofeudal Empire with Michael Hudson
Episode 87 - A Just Transition Through Participatory Governance with Cindy Banyai
Episode 86 - 2020 with Margaret Kimberley
Episode 85 - Shadow Banking with Robert Hockett
Episode 84 - African Sovereignty and a Global Green New Deal with Fadhel Kaboub
Episode 83 - Mutual Credit and the War on Cash with Brett Scott
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