Oddbean

Both taxes and money-printing redistribute capital, but the difference is that money-printing does it less transparently. With money-printing, the effect works behind the scenes in ways that are harder to quantify. That's why when a government can't find a solution between hard spending choices, they print money. It's the easier method. People know their personal tax rate, they will riot if their taxes are too high, and they know exactly who is responsible for tax levels. But inflation is a more complex beast. It comes with a lag, for starters, since it takes time for printed money to work its way through the system. And when it comes, propaganda built on grains of truth is effective at making it unclear to people who is responsible. "It's the greedy corporations that are responsible for raising prices, not the fact that we increased the money supply 40% over the past two years!" And so money-printing effects people not directly based on their income, their need, or other things, but based on their level of awareness of what's happening. It rewards people who are aware of it, and are borrowing the devalued currency, owning scarcer assets, and denominating contracts in harder currency. It harms people who are not aware of it, who are earning wages in and keeping their savings in cash or bonds. Many of them are led to believe that CPI is the target to beat, which is a false low target. The real target is the money supply growth rate. And capital gains taxes, if the cost basis is unadjusted for the rate of money supply growth, further recoup some of that value from the various harder assets that aware people try to protect themselves with. A lot of MMT advocates act as though they found some grand formula. But really what they have re-identified is nothing new: it's that the less transparent that government spending is, the bigger it can be before people will complain. People will complain about taxes right away, but currency debasement is the sneakier method for which the consequences come with a lag. So it sidesteps hard decisions this year, and leads to bigger issues a year or two from now, when someone else can be blamed and the whole ordeal can be obfuscated. And it's not new, despite how some MMT advocates would spin it. Currency debasement has been occurring since the adoption of coinage. And even MMT-scale currency debasement has been occurring since World War I. It is turned to so frequently because its lack of transparency allows it to occur at times and magnitudes when more transparent taxes would not. https://m.primal.net/IDFd.png

🎯 https://m.primal.net/IDFd.png nostr:nevent1qqs2gw0tdeyangdug3xlgehcwru4wqyc97guedrhavt2r330jp3024gpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgq3qa2cww4kn9wqte4ry70vyfwqyqvpswksna27rtxd8vty6c74era8sxpqqqqqqzn0y8a2

If you want to defeat MMT, you’ve got to reframe it away from their control. I suggest labelling it as Midwit Monetary Theory as I do and humiliating anyone who advocates this lunacy. And recognising that it is simply postmodern Keynesianism. Keynesianism has already been ridiculed, explain on top of that what their postmodernist lens changes from the core ideology. MMT is woke economics. We all see that; make everyone else see it through our frame.

Several years back I went deep on understanding MMT and more specifically central bank monetary operations. It is a confidence game. The Treasury (government) discovered it could appoint a monopoly bank (central bank) who has control over the currency and mandates that all other banks settle through its ‘reserves’. These reserves are actually government IOUs as a result of the central bank lending to the government which can use this for spending. The banks in turn lend out in return for privately-issued IOUs which trade 1 for 1 with government IOUs. The condition of the banks is to have enough government IOUs on hand when someone actually wants to exchange private IOUs. The fact that the treasury and the central bank can effectively collude with one another to increase the money supply is the root of the problem. There is little incentive for government to stop spending because they can borrow whatever they need. What MMT says is that if the economy cannot absorb the money, inflation occurs, usually into assets such as real estate and eventually consumer goods. That’s exactly what has happened today. In the end, it’s not MMT’s fault, it just lays bare what is actually happening. IMHO, one way to fix it, is to enabling a competitive backing scheme - do you want your USD backed by the faith and credit of the government or by bitcoin. In some ways it would be going back to the gold standard in the late 1800s and a competitive bank note issuance scheme like what existed in Canada during that time.

The real problem, even for the well meaning MMT advocates(Chartelists), is that they can actually finess the inflation and tax levers to accurately control the monetary system and the allocation of resources. The Austrian School's foundation argument is that it is impossible to accurately do economic calculation because each actor in the economy has a personal goal that cannot be aggregated accurately. From that , ALL aggregated economic management is ultimately nonsense.

So true - share it, spread the word and let's call the money printing cartel what they are: GANGSTERS! nostr:nevent1qqs2gw0tdeyangdug3xlgehcwru4wqyc97guedrhavt2r330jp3024gprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68yct5dyhxxmmdqgsw4v882mfjhq9u63j08kzyhqzqxqc8tgf740p4nxnk9jdv02u37ncrqsqqqqqpn2y0k8

I agree (partially). The Bible states that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. The government love of money and control is the root of MMT and it certainly is evil. Here's the full verse: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. And grief for many is what is coming, sadly.

It’s very difficult to convince the average person why inflation is the result government spending not greedy corps. They rather boycott the grocery store than understand it’s the government & banks they should be directing their anger towards.

It’s a direct violation of our 13th Amendment rights causing Economic Servitude for millions of Americans. The 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution unequivocally states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Involuntary servitude, as defined by the United States Government, includes any condition where individuals are compelled to labor against their will due to coercion, duress, or constraints. Specific Violations: 1. Devaluation of Savings: Through inflation, the government has directly undermined the value of citizens' savings, compelling them to labor more for less real return. 2. Debt Enslavement: The promotion of debt as a means of economic survival has led to widespread financial bondage, where individuals must work not to improve their lives, but to repay escalating debts. 3. Economic Coercion: The centralized control over the financial system has coerced individuals into economic conditions against their will, violating their right to economic autonomy and security. The current financial system has created conditions that violate the 13th Amendment's protections against involuntary servitude. We must hold the government accountable and demand immediate action to rectify these violations and to adopt a decentralized financial system that upholds our constitutional rights and ensures true economic freedom for all Americans. (Bitcoin)

What comes after it? I recall in the 90s and 00s it seemed like the tax thing was stalemated but what you're saying is that just escalated things. Is there something between this and hyperinflation?