Comments by "" (@blackbulldog4897) on "Richard J Murphy" channel.

  1.  @mikebrough3434  oh right, I understand what you mean. Pretty much every anti MMT "article" I've ever read is a strawman. The thing is, all of the people who have been supporting the "tax/borrow", "there's no such thing as public money, there's only taxpayers money" narratives (which are obviously completely false) all their professional lives simply don't have the capacity to admit they have been wrong their entire professional lives. Plus, they wouldn't have the jobs they have if they didn't support those nonsensical ideas. Hence the farcical attempts at "pushback" against what is observable fact.
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  2. Debt (£s still in the economy) does matter, more in terms of who has them and why than overall size. If one country has less govt "debt" than another it simply means there's less of one countries currency in that economy than the other.
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  3. What's the mechanism for the World Bank overruling the UK parliament?
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  4. MMT isn't something that's subscribed to or not, it describes how our fiat money system works, now, today.
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  5.  @Redf322  UBI is a truly dreadful idea. It's a direct transfer from govt, a state benefit for everyone, it would be absorbed into higher prices. That means poor people are still poor, they simply have bigger numbers in their bank account.
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  6.  @adenwellsmith6908  And ... your assertion displays a fundamental misunderstanding of how fiat money systems work as the observable reality is ... the government can never run out of purchasing power (£s), it's the sole issuer of the currency, it can never run out of £s. You are confusing real resources with £s.
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  7.  @charliemoore2551  It wouldn't, it's a completely daft idea.
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  8. When govt pays interest on its debt then the Gilt holders receive the payment. If the Gilt holder happens to be the govt own bank, the BofE, then it's the BofE receives the payment. It's a wash as the BofE has to submit all profits to HMT.
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  9. QE doesn't pay for anything, it's an asset swap; Gilts for reserves. It reverses the original transaction which swapped reserves for Gilts.
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  10. It's observable fact, it's how govt fiscal ops work every day. No need for any kind of belief system unless, of course, you are attempting to deny observable reality.
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  11. Couple of things to note: 1. Interest rates on debt and issuing debt itself is a purely political choice 2. The "debt" is simply the amount of £s govt has spent into the economy but not yet taken back via taxes. It's the net money supply. 3. The only "borrowing" the UK govt undertakes is via it's own bank, the BofE.
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  12.  @stephenhookings1985  £s can never leave the Sterling area. The name tags on them may change but they can never leave unless they are taxed out of existence. As for how they are eventually distributed, well, we all know the answer to that, don't we.
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  13. The £ is a fiat (not commodity), floating (not fixed/pegged) currency.
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  14.  @kevinsyd2012  No, it's not. The MMT view is the primary purpose of taxation is to free up resources for the public sector to use.
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  15.  @kevinsyd2012  Well, taxation/fines etc offset govt spending. "Taxes in MMT, in addition to their redistributive and allocative functions (dissauding people from smoking etc), are an essential tool in allowing governments to pursue a spending program without pushing nominal spending growth ahead of the real productive capacity of the economy." The BofE creates £s, via balance sheet expansion, every time govt buys something/spends whether it's for public services or not.
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  16.  @kevinsyd2012  Well, taxation is paid into the Consolidated Fund so it offsets govt spending. Read some Bill Mitchell on the MMT view of the purpose of taxation.
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  17. MMT describes how fiat money systems work, now, today. The BofE is not independent in any way from govt.
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  18.  @theolddog5129  It addresses your statement regarding interest payments "going out of the UK"; truth is, £s can never leave the Sterling Area. Yes, we import more from China than we export to them, that's true. However, for a Chinese company to be able to sell it's products to the UK market it must accept £s and it must have a sterling account at a retail bank to be able to accept these £s. There's no "borrowing" from China going on here, all that's happening is Chinese companies are swapping their real resources for our digital tokens i.e £s.
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  19. Check the Whole of Government Accounts.
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  20. our government creates new £s every time it bus something/spends, that's every day.
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  21. Gary would be more useful if he understood how the money system works; he still thinks taxes fund government.
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  22.  @alexjeffrey3981  Austerity doesn't necessarily mean spending cuts in the aggregate; it's primary purpose is to discipline the workforce.
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  23. ​ @alexjeffrey3981  It doesn't seem to like my comments as yt has deleted them three time now I think. try again in shorter form ... The UK govt is the sole issuer of it's own fiat, floating currency - Sterling, the £. It can never run out of £s, it issued them into existence every time it spends.
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  24.  @colincampbell4261  this is correct, it's a direct transfer from those under a certain age to those over a certain age.
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  25. @garethhumphries4039  the BofE isn't independent, have a look at the Bank of England Act 1998. MMT is a framework, part description of fiat money systems, part prescriptive (Zirp, JG) part "lens" for analysis of policy choices.
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  26. Which parts of the core MMT literature led you to believe MMT has anything to do with "printing boundless money to solve every ailment in the economy" ?
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  27. Imports may become more expensive if the value of the £ falls, it's not guaranteed and assumes the UK always has to be a price taker.
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  28. MMT doesn't predict anything at all. It's a framework for understanding and explaining the capacity of the currency issuing state.
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  29.  @jardenc  The fact is, the government can never run out of £s. It issues them into existence every time it buys something.
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  30. Try to think of things in terms of stuff (real resources) rather than £s. For example, how would simply handing out £s to people in poverty make more stuff available?
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  31. Tax revenues (from the French "return") aren't redistributed, taxation drains previously issued £s from the economy.
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  32.  @enjoyyourclassicbyrg2319  please explain how it's totally incorrect, reference any legislation you believe supports your argument, be specific.
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  33.  @enjoyyourclassicbyrg2319  ok, so you can't explain how it's incorrect or provide any supporting legislation. Fair enough. To address your points: 1. The point of taxation is to drain demand from the economy. 2. Only the BofE, under instruction from HMT, can issue the currency into existence (retail banks are licensed to issue credit denominated in £s) 3. It means when govt buys something/spends it issues £s via it's own bank into existence (an injection of £s into the economy), when it taxes it drains £s from the economy. If you don't understand what injections and drains are then I don't know what to say to you. 4. The Supply and Appropriation Acts (Main Estimates), Supply and Appropriation Act (Anticipation and Adjustments), Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866. Honestly, please stop digging yourself into a silly place.
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  34.  @enjoyyourclassicbyrg2319  1. No, taxation isn't redistributed. It's paid into the Consolidated Fund where it offsets govt spending. 2. The BofE issues £s under direction from HMT. 3. Economics 101, govt spending injects, taxation drains. If you don't understand what that means you shouldn't be in discussions like this. 4. Legislative architecture is the Supply process (2 Acts of Parliament) and the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866. Honestly, please stop digging yourself in a silly place.
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  35. The Bank of England is wholly owned by the UK govt.
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  36.  @davideyres955  Can you explain how MMT scoots around this?
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  37.  @stephendavis5530  It's true that some inflation has been caused by price gouging post covid, ukraine etc. but inflation is rarely a simple matter. Interest rates merely transfer wealth upwards and increase the amount government spends so, in effect, they add £s to the economy. Generally, the relationship between rates and inflation isnt straightforward, blairfix has written extensively on the subject.
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  38. The Bank of England Act 1946 & the Bank of England Act 1998 disagree with you.
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  39. @jasonbradley7365  our government thinks it's a good idea to manage the economy via the price of money (interest rates); it's not. To that end, it tells it's own bank to set a floor interest rate, the bank rate. This is the rate it wants to maintain to, as it thinks, best manage the economy. To maintain this rate it decides to ensure that govt spending has no net effect on the level of reserves in the banking system. So, on days where it injects more reserves than it drains it issues securities (at a higher rate) to drain the excess reserves.
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  40.  @theolddog5129  the impact of not balancing govt spending with taxation is the ability of the private sector to save.
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  41. @theolddog5129  I'll take one thing at a time: . It really isn't any more than that. For example, govt buys something for £100 today that £100 circulates around the economy, I save £10, the rest is spent and returns to the issuer via taxation So, govt spent £100, I saved £10 of it £90 was returned via taxation; net effect is govt deficit increases by £10. . External lending for what? The UK govt only ever "borrows" from it's own bank, there's no dramas there. . Why would the fx rate or inflation rate fluctuate based purely on the amount of net financial assets (savings) in the private sector?
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  42. Why do you mention rolling over debt?
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  43. @adb9125  it's not "borrowing" in the sense we normally understand it, it's simply the govt being in debt to it's own bank. How do you think the above can "devalue" £?
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  44. @JibbaJabber  what £1 will buy you at any particular time depends on multiple factors, in terms of imports it's a floating currency. However, £1 will always be worth £1 in terms of your tax liabilities.
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  45. @adb9125  I can understand why you might think that but it's not an appropriate way to frame things. By that logic the $ should be worthless (as there's far more of them in existence than any other currency) shouldn't it? Also, don't forget about the endogenous credit money creation by the private sector - it increases and decreases all the time.
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  46. @adb9125  why would it?
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  47.  @JibbaJabber  the £ and, for example, the $, ¥ etc. are floating currencies. The rate of exchange between them depends on demand between any pair. Something like 90% of FX activity is speculation. Do you think, for example, currency traders look at M1 (or whatever series they decide upon) and think "there's more of of those this week/month so I'm going to short them?"
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  48.  @adb9125  every country with its own fiat floating currency operates in the same way. The institutional arrangements may differ but it's all the same kind of operation.
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  49.  @JibbaJabber  You are making some category errors. Firstly, fiat currencies are not commodity based, therefore they cannot be "devalued". Secondly, floating currencies float; they aren't pegged as, if they were, they wouldn't be floating currencies would they? What tools do you think, in the age of fiat floating currencies, the BoE uses to manipulate/peg the exchange rate?
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  50. @JibbaJabber  it's not I who is confused, if they are "given", why are you talking about "devaluing" a fiat currency and the BoE manipulating/pegging the fx rates. You seem to have forgotten we left the gold standard in 1931 and BW ended in 1971. Traders? Who knows what they think. I suggest you read some Oberlechner and the investigations on fx traders "habits".
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