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Richard J Murphy
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Comments by "" (@blackbulldog4897) on "What would a good fiscal rule look like?" video.
@antonyjh1234 The so-called "national debt" is simply the difference between all the £s govt has injected via buying things/spending and all the £s it's drained via taxation. In other words, it's the net money supply, the net financial assets in the private sector. "Paying it back" means draining the private sector of it's net financial assets. All money is debt.
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We need to get away from the idea of "fiscal rules" altogether as it's starting from the wrong place.
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@antonyjh1234 the "top of the bucket" or tap, if you like, is government injecting new £s into the economy by buying things aka spending. These new £s circulate around the economy and those which are spent attract taxation and are returned to the issuer. Those which are saved remain in the economy until they are spent. The hole at the bottom isn't plugged, unless you class those savings I referred to as being plugged.
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@antonyjh1234 that's exactly what I said.
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@antonyjh1234 I may have misconstrued the part of your post which said "then govt spending has to stop otherwise money builds up..."? Yes, agree, taxes are the method by which £s return to the issuer and drain demand but savings are a drain of a different kind.
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I'd agree, they are political objectives. However, fiscal rules are the wrong way of looking at things for a currency issuing govt like the UK. The only borrowing the UK government undertakes is via it's own bank, the BofE.
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@markmirfin4972 hmm, we'll have to go back to basics regarding how govt buys things/spends, DMO etc. Firstly, all govt spending is new £s. Simplified, here's the process: . Parliament authorises spending via the Supply and Appropriation Bills - normally. . HMT instructs BofE to mark up the reserve accounts of recipients retail bank . BofE must, by law, comply so it marks up the relevant reserve accounts . Retail banks of recipients then mark up the relevant deposit accounts . New £s every time Later, the DMO issues securities to ensure the level of reserves in the banking system remains the same. This is a policy choice.
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Going back to the gold standard almost certainly won't happen and, if anyone was stupid enough to do it it wouldn't survive contact with reality. The UK doesn't need permission from anywhere except it's own parliament to create it's own currency.
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Maybe he should have said "we will use our fiscal powers to provide, as far as possible, full employment".
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@nakodares5982 whats non specific about it?
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@nakodares5982 firstly, fiscal rules are ridiculous, the entire idea is starting from the wrong place. Secondly, the action necessary to provide full employment is to implement a Job Guarantee.
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@nakodares5982 Fair point, the video is nonsensical too in its focus on "fiscal rules". Starting from the position "how many £s shall we issue into existence" is ridiculous. The Job Guarantee isn't communism, it's a superior counter cyclical auto stabiliser to the "let's try to manage inflation by changing the price of money" narrative. In effect, we already have a Job Guarantee, it's called universal credit.
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Put simply, they are nonsensical ideas which politicians can then use as excuses for why they didn't do anything to benefit the lives of the electorate.
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