Stagflation Coming? MMT Good? QE Bad? Best Econ Books? | Q&A Summary

[@pridefulobserver3807]

Im just so glad that I found your channel, to have a counterpoint to mainstream alarmism that is so prevalent. Im not an economist and I was getting nervous about the lack of counterarguments, thank you

[@MoneyMacro]

Just to counteract myself a bit... I don't think our economies are just fine as they are. I think that most of our economies are imbalanced (specifically housing & other asset markets). So, I understand why there is fertile ground for all sorts of conspiracies. I will try to formulate a cohesive alternative in the future that does address the serious problems we have while taking into account the scientific method (data based if possible, listing sources, nuance, etc.)

[@hodldwon4536]

@@MoneyMacro Check out some of these topics: - Georgism / Land Value Taxation (LVT) - Citizen's Dividend (UBI specifically funded by Land Value Tax) - Multi-Body Sortition - Co-operatives / Syndicalism - Ethereum / Decentralization (Identities, governance in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, money) - Liberal Radicalism / Quadratic Voting - Approval Voting

[@NPrinceling]

@@MoneyMacro that's one thing I like about this channel. If someone says "Inflation!" You don't say "Nuh uh" you say "here's context and better arguments so... maybe inflation, but perhaps not for that reason because it's more nuanced than that." This isn't about scoring in an argument but understanding a complex topic.

[@henrygustav7948]

@@hodldwon4536 The Federal govt does not use taxes as a revenue source. A Land value tax is good, but not required to fund a UBI.

[@gwho]

@@MoneyMacro YES that's what's needed. just like how better speech is the solution to bad speech, better theories are the solution to bad conspiracy theories.

[@fcw2bom]

"He's more into conspiracy theories whereas I am more into stupidity theories" hah

[@oleggorobtsov1145]

"Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity" - Hanlon's Razor

[@gavasiarobinssson5108]

It can be both.

[@MoneyMacro]

@@gavasiarobinssson5108 sure and sometimes conspiracies do happen.

[@chubbymoth5810]

Most conspiracies are created by thoroughly stupid people with a lack of holistic overview. In general though the result is the same.

[@szurketaltos2693]

@@chubbymoth5810 most conspiracies that are true seem to be corporate cartels acting to keep prices high and labor cheap.

[@MoneyMacro]

Missed the stream? Or did I miss your question? Post in the comment section and I will do my best to answer :) Also, consider supporting the channel as a member or patron for more frequent Q&A's and acces to an exclusive Discord server. In this thread some nuances / corrections to what I said in the Q&A. (please don't post here to keep it clean)

[@MoneyMacro]

Quick nuance on the Sri-Lanka comment I made. This was informed by a sort of debt-trap narrative which popped up most in the sources I typically read to keep myself up to date (FT, Economist). Two people send me alternative opinions (thanks for that!): www.chathamhouse.org/2020/08/debunking-myth-debt-trap-diplomacy www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/02/china-debt-trap-diplomacy/617953/

[@Mkoivuka]

16:30 an amateur question: You say the limit is inflation. But inflation, as I understand as a relative layman, is simply prices rising. Money creation leads to prices rising only in the context that the effects are localized - many countries such as China print excess money in order to reduce the value of the currency, in order to be more attractive places to import from and to make it harder for locals to afford your exports. Wouldn't the limit on money creation be, the point at which other countries' geopolitical interests stop aligning? For instance with oil, gold, or other commodities. When you create "too much" money that other countries start limiting their trade with you? Something like this - again based on my limited understanding of economics and history - happened during mercantilism in the 1700's.

[@MoneyMacro]

@@Mkoivuka interesting angle. Yeah, the limit is inflation thinking very much had a domestic focus. In a domestic content, undervaluing your currency also has its limits in that it pisses other countries off at some point.

[@henrygustav7948]

@@Mkoivuka Saying printing money doesn't make any sense. When money is actually printed, banks have their reserves debited so there is no new money creation. When the Federal govt spends it does so by adding numbers to peoples bank accounts, taxes and treasury bonds are always collected/issued after the fact. All money that the US Govt spends are brand new US dollars being added to the money supply. When banks make loans they do so by creating the account and creating new credit money. When the Federal govt taxes, USD are removed from the money supply and when bank loans are repaid credit money is destroyed. The limit to spending, not just Govt spending is inflation and any spending can cause it not just the Federal govt. The limit to the Federal govt spending is inflation, that is if all available resources are being used ie full employment, after which inflationary pressures would rise. This is what happens with demand pull type of inflation. Its not about too much money, its about profit taking and monopolistic price setting behavior which causes the inflation.

[@ProgressiveEconomicsSupporter]

In case this comment reaches you. I just revisited a few of your videos on central banking, money masters in old Europe etc. Recently I saw again the 1996 documentary "The Money Masters" telling a very interesting story of the 18th to 20th century about private and purposeful influence on big credits, private national banking, wars and induced Boom and Bust cycles. Others tell the history a bit different e.g. the 18th centuries tries in the per-US colonies to get along with ("debt-free") paper fiat money. I wonder if you could make a kind of reaction to this old documentary (or it's 2013 remake, 1 hour shorter ;)

[@Osama_Abbas]

I really want to thank you for the detailed chapters (the timestamps thing). It is very helpful.

[@MoneyMacro]

Thanks! Yeah, that is why I did the edit :). I figured just re-watching the live stream on my home page was not user friendly :P

[@perfectlyfine1675]

When I heard you mention "unlearning economics" I was bewildered. If you do Collab, that would be AWESOME

[@AR15ORIGINAL]

Timestamp pls And this channel isn't leftist, right? Unlike U.E

[@MoneyMacro]

there should be timestamps :O ... there are on my pc anyway. Otherwise check out description. Especially: 1:03:43 My Ideology

[@FrancisBehnen]

@@MoneyMacro there are on phone too, no worries ;)

[@Hyperventilacion]

@@AR15ORIGINAL It depends of what you consider as left, like someone from the US who is might find it quite leftist comparing to their neocons, but also I think it's nearly impossible to be a social scientist and not lean some degree towards the left as the literature is just mounting evidence against neoliberal policies - which happen to be the vanilla economic policies applied across the globe.

[@TheRishijoesanu]

Unlearning Economics sucks

[@optimize.]

Fantastic content, love the authenticity and pure Dutch no nonsense approach. We need more Dutch culture in the world and on the Internet: honest, authentic, humble, smart. Thank you for all your hard work. It’s much appreciated.

[@teddybruscie]

From what I've heard and learned from you, you already know MMT, you just haven't found the time to dig deep enough to confirm your understanding of it's viewpoints. Of which I totally understand, you're a busy man. Keep up the great work.

[@sherrielacey7709]

Thanks

[@normtrooper4392]

Congrats! So glad your channel has been growing.

[@rainmaker2754]

@@andresaristizabal1643 not even a boomer with Alzheimer's could fall for that...

[@teejin669]

This was an awesome video. Im so glad you spend your precious time talking to us. I'll make sure to have a question for your next Q&A.

[@MoneyMacro]

I enjoyed it thoroughly. Thank you for supporting the channel!

[@timelston4260]

I'm glad to hear your opinion of Economics Explained. I used to subscribe to him, but some of the things he said seemed to be off the wall and I got tired of feeling like I was being misled. BTW, I discovered you tonight through your collab with The Plain Bagel. I look forward to being educated by your channel. I'm going to look to see what you've done on the topic of monetary policy; it seems to me that all the KZbinrs who make such a big deal about Jerome Powell "making the money printer go brrr" don't have the first clue about what monetary policy is. I'm no economist, but I've heard the Fed balance sheet doesn't actually flood the economy the way populists say it does, and I hope to find a video in which you teach about it. Also BTW, you're now the second Netherlander I'm subscribed to. I've been following Itchy Boots for about a year and love her channel. Ga, Nederland!

[@MoneyMacro]

Great to hear that. I think you will like my older video on how quantitative easing differs from money printing (my production quality was a bit less then though)

[@gregvanpaassen]

Wow, this video has to be the best way for any policy analyst to spend one hour and 30 minutes this year! Really looking forward to the housing market video! I often wonder how much is due to demographic life stage trends (i.e. childhood, borrower, saver, dis-saver stages), and also the lifespan increase trend, with the baby boomer generation. Will it sort itself out in another generation?

[@empalabolonya]

Its not easy to find a so good teacher of macroeconomics. Im also economist, ive seen too much bad economist around. You are a good one and you explain well the topics. Thx

[@MoneyMacro]

Thank you

[@orionbukantis6470]

I'd love to see all of the videos you mentioned wanting to make. Top 3 topic I would be interested in, and think would be popular: Cryptocurrency, China, and MMT Also, I appreciate that you take the time to explain jargon. If you, a domain expert, are even considering the possibility that we viewers might not all understand the jargon... then definitely, we do not all understand the jargon. :)

[@berendkooiker3538]

I'm really excited for your collaboration with unlearning economics as someone who's quite new to economics.

[@MoneyMacro]

Awesome. We just finished recording our conversation. I will still need to edit the rest of the video though.

[@Danny_6Handford]

Very refreshing listing to someone on KZbin talking and answering questions about the economy that is not warning or predicting some type of coming catastrophe or how you should be preparing for the “end times”. The idea and thinking that the economy always has to grow for humans to progress and to be able to survive may need to be reviewed and updated. Presently, if the economy is not growing, it is considered a failure. This type of thinking cannot continue uninterrupted on a finite planet with finite resources. There needs to be flexibility in the system for the economy to expand and contract and for a contraction to be considered normal and not a problem. Whether it’s the planet's population, the production of food and material goods or the expansion of urban development and infrastructure or the amount of carbon dioxide released, they cannot continue to increase forever. To stabilize these increases, there needs to be some new economic models developed based on sustainability not on growth! Everything in moderation can be made to work similar to the balanced cycles of nature on the planet. Pollution is also part of the natural cycles. If the fish use the lake as their toilet, it is not a problem unless you start getting too many fish. If we start some fires to cook some meat, it is not a problem. If we burn some coal to generate some electricity it is not a problem, if we burn some gasoline to move some vehicles around, it is not a problem. When we say that we have to keep doing more of these things every year because if we don't we are not growing and that is bad thing then it becomes a problem! When trying to develop economic systems we have to be honest with ourselves and understand something about historical human behavior. Ever since life first developed and evolved on earth, all life has had to compete for survival. Ever since humans started to dominate life on earth, they too had to compete for survival. There has also been a tendency for humans to compete in trying to conquer, dominate and control other humans and get them to be servants and slaves. Using force including beating, torture and killing to compete is also something that humans have had a tendency to do. To help them achieve these goals, humans tend to organize themselves into groups such as tribes, communities, societies, kingdoms, empires, dynasties and nations along with organizations and associations and yes even criminal gangs with a hierarchy and ranking level structure of command such as corporations and political parties. Humans have also created caste and class systems and have an amazing talent to tell fascinating and conflicting creation stories with an equal amazing ability or, should I say weakness, to believe the stories which have also been used to conquer, dominate and control other humans sometimes for the better but often times for the worse and to justify bad behaviors such as slavery and genocide. For most humans, life has always been a struggle and a competition for survival. If there is any chance for humans to live on earth in fair and peaceful ways without abusing, killing or dominating each other and destroying earth’s environment in the process, humans will have to learn that: conquering, killing, oppressing, discriminating and enslaving other humans along with, stealing, cheating, lying, spying, deception, greed, betrayal including violence, coercion, extortion, corruption are never beneficial in the long run. Humans also will need to learn and understand that the wellbeing of others benefits everyone and is the basis for morality and that reason, rationality, logic, honesty, trust and responsibility are the best ways we know of so far to live in peace and fairness. The idea of democracy with systems of law, order and justice also need to be encouraged and promoted and when trying to learn and understand the nature of things and solve problems the scientific method needs to be embraced. I am hoping that the explosion of information technologies like the internet can help and inspire all human life on earth to live together in fair, peaceful and sustainable ways. Unfortunately information technologies like the internet can also make it easier to spread false and fake information along with bad ideas to help inspire division and hatred against other humans, other cultures, or other nations.

[@d0cf0x4]

If there are any KZbin channels you recommend that cite sources or do a rigorous job on their research it would be great to make a video or blog post recommending them. I know Healthcare Triage is pretty good for healthcare for example.

[@MoneyMacro]

Awesome. At the moment, I know UE and Econoboi who I think do good work. Not entirely sure if they always list their sources

[@ZTanMURReneRs]

UE = Unlearning Economics

[@MoneyMacro]

@@ZTanMURReneRs yes

[@travcollier]

Wendover seems like the sort of channel which gets things wrong sometimes, but tries not to and would probably actually appreciate being corrected.

[@MoneyMacro]

@@travcollier that is the impression I had as well. Let's see :)

[@clytemnestra]

Would absolutely love an Argentina deep dive in the future!

[@inferno0020]

I am glad that I found your channel; you have discussed a lot of different misconceptions in the economy.

[@MrSupernova111]

I only found your channel recently and this is my third video so far. Finding youtube channels about economics that are well researched and purely educational in the sense that there isn't an agenda to pitch narratives or investments is incredibly rare. Thank you for calling out channels like Econ Explained or Jake Tran for publishing videos with inaccurate information. The production quality is very high in other channels but they are riddled with errors which I find disheartening and honestly can't be trusted. Keep up the good work and I hope your channel grows quickly! Cheers!

[@MoneyMacro]

Will do. I am trying to scale up a bit this year. I'm in it for the long term. Thank you for your words of encouragement!!

[@MrSupernova111]

@@MoneyMacro . Awesome! Looking forward to it! Cheers!

[@williamstephenson7942]

Yeah, your content is great - exactly what we need. Can I suggest making the audio for this and further videos available as a podcast?

[@MoneyMacro]

Yes. It is on my to-do list. But, it might take a while since that list is rather long

[@Cheddar2012]

Your videos are so good. You deserve a much higher subscriber count than you currently have!

[@MoneyMacro]

Thank you! 😊

[@jcd776]

Bureaucracy of academia ruins the subject sometimes.

[@Achrononmaster]

In the case of economics almost _all_ the time. The whole _academic_ econ field is based upon fraud & fantasy (rational agents, equilibrium markets, etc., all of which the empirical evidence contradicts). Show me any mainstream academic who can place good bets on the markets? The most successful hedge fund managers know MMT, they know how the money system works, just ok up Warren Mosler's record of trading on fixed income assets. In economics it is a highly empirical field of study, dominate din academic by non-empirical theory. So if you want anything close to verisimilitude you need to ask people who are paid to be right. They are the traders who know an increased government fiscal deficit creates private wealth and will raise GDP, and "belt-tightening" austerity does the opposite.

[@Merle1987]

This guy is the best economist on here. The only thing is you gotta be patient because he actually does research.

[@DesignAndRealize]

First of all, in a time of fear and misinformation, I`ve been finding your channel an excellent way to educate myself on topics that others will either poorly cover or explain in blatantly incorrect ways. Second, you`ve talked a few times in the video about the over-financialization of the economy and how it leads to non-productive capital allocation, which drains away the credit that should be used in the real economy. Are you planning to one day make a video about this financialization problem? Or maybe even a video about the problems with neoliberalism and the rent-extracting economy?

[@FrancisBehnen]

Can't believe you just blasted past 50k, bizarre how this blew up

[@THOMPJB008]

On MMT, good explanation, To provide more detail: MMT: an explanation of the constraints on government spending and currency issuance for a monetary sovereign: A monetary sovereign in the context of MMT: - Issues fiat currency - monopoly currency issuer - floating exchange rate policy - debt denominated in it's own currency The constraint on currency issuance, as you said, is inflation. Inflation will occur when spending increases when the economy is at full productive capacity. So the core constraint is actually real resources, inflation is what happens when you spend beyond real resources capacity. So why have taxes? - tax liabilities are denominated in the national currency, so this creates a demand for the currency and gives it's value - taxes also control inflation

[@parallaxcrafttale]

We don’t allocate value well. Too much value gets sucked up by owners and the financial sector that has the property rights to the equipment rather than the workers who produce and use the equipment.

[@Snowshowslow]

Or the unpaid laborers at home who keep everyone fed, cared for and mentally stable.

[@parallaxcrafttale]

@ger du the top 1% hold 40 trillion while the bottom 50% hold about 2.6 trillion, 16x less. And most newly created wealth is going to the top 1-10%. That’s good for millionaires who want to become billionaires, and billionaires who wanna be trillionaires, but not for 90% of people, especially the bottom 50% and lower (the further down the income scale, the less “trickle down” effects you see)

[@parallaxcrafttale]

@ger du I’m sorry I can’t do all the thinking for you.

[@travcollier]

A metaphor I like to use when talking about finance: Finance is like engine oil. Like a modem engine needs oil to lubricate and keep the parts running smoothly together, a modem economy needs finance. We run into problems when folks start mixing up oil and fuel though... You can have too much. Since about 1980, it seems like the policy answer to every economic question has been to incentivize more investment by making finance more.profitabe... basically dumping oil into the petrol tank. Anyways... I think you might be able to take that idea and do better with it than I can ;)

[@AM_SDG]

Dr. Schasfoort, Excellent videos and insightful analysis. Unbiased, rational and very pragmatic compared to what they teach in many economic schools. If you have some time, appreciate your thoughts (or a video) about decentralization and deregulation in western economies, impact on consumer welfare and inequality; and comparison to some economies where public services is more centralized and presence of higher level of regulations. Thank you so much.

[@sammolloy4275]

I am hoping to study Political Economy as a masters in Groningen, really cool that you work there!

[@Hyperventilacion]

Good luck! Glad to see that PE is becoming a path itself, I studied geography but essentially did PE during my masters and had to do a lot of interdisciplinary readings since political economist were always economists, historians, geographers, or political scientists, but I think they deserve a discipline of their own as they study a really important intersection in the social sciences.

[@ProgressiveEconomicsSupporter]

Thank you so much, Joeri, for finally giving hints to Simulation softwares!!

[@TheBandFiles]

Terrific channel! Your analyses seems to largely comport with MMT, would love to see you dive into that. May I recommend starting with Warren Mosler's short book, "Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy." Stephanie Kelton's popular book, "The Deficit Myth" nicely rounds out Mosler's introduction.

[@hectorjelly]

oh cool, i'd be very interested in your thoughts on liquity, i was one of the earliest users

[@MoneyMacro]

The crypto currency? I'm planning to do an interview with them

[@BobBogaert]

Moving to Belgium?! Welkom Joeri! Btw, I always wanted to see a video on the curved slope of the LM curve and its effect on recommended fiscal policy. Since at low input the slope is low, fiscal spending doesn't create higher interest rates and doesn't crowd out private investment. When output is high, more government spending would crowd out private investment and would not be advisable. When I was studying economics, that was an eye-opener for me, but I can't name 3 people who had the same liberating experience upon learning about it. Maybe it's too wonky for KZbin, but it's also a rare unifying insight.

[@MoneyMacro]

Thanks! Ik kijk er naar uit. The one problem I have with that model is that (as far as I can tell) it builds on a loanable funds framework... this is an outdated framework of thinking about money (see e.g. my videos on money creation). or this BoE / IMF working paper: ideas.repec.org/p/boe/boeewp/0761.html Crowding out makes a lot of sense if we treat money as a scarce resource / good. Not so much if we see it as tradeable debt.

[@TheRepublicOfUngeria]

My interpretation of MMT or just "neochartalism" to label the main point of it is: We owe ourselves to ourselves, a society will always owe itself to itself, that will never not be true. A currency is just a means through which to distribute and redistribute that overarching debt of society between people in society. A currency is basically like a corporate share system of sorts: The massive conglomerate corporation that is the sovereign territory of The United States is divided into what is, as of right now, equal to nearly 2.9 quadrillion shares called pennies. The shares have value because they are demanded as payment for taxes, and will have that value as long as The Federal Government of The United States exists. It also describes a blueprint for a state at all: if The Federal Government was somehow replaced by something else, that thing could create a similar sovereign indebtedness that its population has to that entity through taxes. A practical but not technical limit exists in money printing in that: monetary inflation acts as a tax on real value of each share: taking value away from old shares and giving it to new ones, so to do it too quickly is to imbue within existing shares an untenable demand on its populace. Technically, we COULD square the broad money supply in one year, but it would denote a very shitty demand on the populace that would create massive social agitation. But some monetary inflation is fine and preferable, and, it only really creates an aesthetic problem in the long term. Like: at an average of just over 2% inflation per year, something that costs $1 today, say, a can of soda, will cost $400 million in 3021. Obviously we would consolidate currency even before that point: consolidate these "sovereign shares" that are units of currency. We are going to eliminate the penny in, I think, 2022, maybe 2023, and eventually we will eliminate all sub dollar denominations, and then we will eventually probably do something like create a new "super dollar" that trades at a set multiple of old dollars, like 1 new dollar for 10 old dollars, and decrease the number of shares by 90%, and we will do that every 120 - 140 years if we maintain 2% as a consistent annual average rate of inflation. If you do that 8 times, then $4 in 3021 would be worth $400 million in todays money, but would make nominal prices easier to understand, so now that $400 million can of soda would only cost $4 in 3021. At the end of the day, a better notion of overall prices would probably be as proportions of GDP per capita. If GDP per capita is $60k today, a $60k car is pretty expensive in our society. But if GDP grows to $60m in hundreds of years, and that same car costs $30m in hundreds of years, that car would be half as expensive in real terms: it would go from costing all of the annual leverage of the average person, to costing half of the annual leverage of the average person, and this could only happen if real economic capabilities of the average human to produce such a car were doubled over that time period. Ultimately, this means that what actually matters is real abilities to produce real goods and services: how many calories and cars and computers can be produced per person, and the quality of each. If that remains high and goes even higher: people shouldn't much care about the total money supply, because the total money supply is nothing more and nothing less than the ink used to tell the story of our economy. It doesn't really matter how much ink you use: if the story is a good one, people will like it, if it is a bad one, people won't. This importantly reframes the debate around real supply. We can't run out of money for social security, but we can run out of social will to provide goods and services for old people.

[@travcollier]

That refocus on real goods and services is anathema to a lot of powerful people... the finance sector is way out of control. Rich folks make money by being able to borrow cheaper than normal people.

[@JonMarkSearle1]

Inflation is lumpy. Depending on the productivity and resource constraints; you can have deflationary pressures on some areas such as computers (historically but not now), and inflation on collage tuition, or imports from China (at present), a short time ago it was lumber.

[@TheRepublicOfUngeria]

@@nikhilnishant5360 This is the opposite of reality and it is evident in the mechanisms at play, part of which I mentioned. In regards to trade: a trade deficit is ideal for the country that has it, because you are pooling money outside of your country. This is deflationary, not inflationary. Unless the government issues treasuries that pay at or above inflation, what you owe the other country in real terms will decrease. Think about it: say that the trade deficit with China is $60 billion in a year and the GDP per capita is $60,000. In effect, you are paying the claim on the annual labor of 1 million average people of your society over that year. But say that the Chinese park that money in 1% treasuries, but at a 2% annual inflation and GDP growth. Next year, that claim will be worth $60,600,000,000, and GDP per capita would be $61,200, and would thus only owe them 990,196 of our peoples labor: a near 10,000 person reduction. And for that, we get many valuable goods and services, so they are subsidizing our society. As far as our own laborers: it sucks for people who lose a job that they can't get as good of a job with their skill set: but everyone else gets far cheaper goods. On a whole it is a net benefit. There are much better policies you can consider to actually reduce income inequality.

[@GreenLarsen]

Regarding global inequality. The main problem is distribution of the created wealth. We can get rid of cheap labour by using automation, but unless we also make sure to distributy the wealth created by automation, then we just end up with a tiny ruler class of owners and a huge working class with no power

[@nivekvb]

Fiat money is an amazing system. It's so cheap to produce, with no digging it out of the ground, and nowadays, it's produced on a PC. It's real money too, because it's tied to work. The bank creates the money, you then you borrow it, and then you work your nuts off to pay it back. When you do this, you turn the money into work, or you work to produce a product. Work and money are related, and are in fact the same thing. Money is how we exchange work with one another.

[@nivekvb]

Fiat money is real money, but the system can be abused if the bank creates too much of it and causes house price inflation (or any type of inflation). People will pay anything for a house because we all desperately need somewhere to live, and so we will keep borrowing to outbid the competition until we are maxed out. This causes a lot of suffering and often people become work slaves, in a world where you only get to live once.

[@nivekvb]

The elite can abuse the system too, by borrowing money very cheaply from banks - who can create almost as much of it as they want - and then they can use it to buy up the world. They can go into Africa to buy up all its fertile land and then poor Africans could end up owning nothing.

[@gavasiarobinssson5108]

@@nivekvb or poor Americans.

[@henrygustav7948]

@@nivekvb Its already been abused and there are no cops around to catch the criminals. There has been enourmous fraud comitted by banks and predatory loans, they have colluded with housing appraisers and state govt's to raise housing prices in order to get larger loans. This allows states to get higher property taxes and allows banks to profit more. Its the housing price inflation which causes the increase in the money supply.

[@foute90s]

I would love to see a trilogy of videos on climate change highlighting/integrating different perspectives. Something like: Geographic/food production/sea levels/weather from Atlastpro, the economic impact of it from Money & Macro and geopolitical implications from Caspian Report or Good Times Bad Times. I think you could all learn a lot from each other.

[@antoine.fontanille9948]

I think "Why nations fail" (Acemoglu & Robison, 2012) is a very good complement to "The narrow corridor"!

[@osirish8202]

Love your channel, love the way you explain concepts, it's very engaging. Thanks for this amazing channel. Not sure if I got all of them but here are some of the books recommended in the video: The book recommendations in the video: 1. Money Changes everything by William N Goetzman 2. Economics Rules by Dan Rodrik 3. The Narrow Corridor by Darren Acemoglu & James A Robinson 4. Adaptive Markets by Andrew W. Lo ______ Other books mentioned but not necessarily recommended: 5. Donut Economics 6. Good Economics for Hard Times 7. Tyranny of Experts 8. Democracy and Prosperity: Reinventing Capitalism 9. The Third Pillar 10. Capital in the Twenty-First Century

[@Herbwise]

The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy by Stephanie Kelton is a must read. Remember that MMT DESCRIBES how the economy work and does not PRESCRIBE how it SHOULD work. Any book or article by Warren Mosler is worth a read.

[@TheRyandahlgren]

@ger du I've always found MMT proponents to be strange, they make these sorts of claims when at its basis, its essentially advocating that the state can print and spend all it wants to fund big spending, and then just adjust taxes and interest rates when things go out of control , even though history has shown that no government has successfully pulled this off over the long run. it just seems like desperate hopium for people that don't want to accept that eventually our western economies cant keep spending the way they are and were heading towards a lower quality of life.

[@TheRyandahlgren]

@ger du I mean specifically the United States and other countries who have spent themselves into a corner. the nordic countries, germany, and switzerland etc, will likely be ok.

[@Rafi2002M]

Love the Primer channel! Glad you mention it👍

[@aaron159r2]

I love your "debunking" videos. We need more open forum discourse between opposing views that are well-informed and respectfully consider and either support or refute the points made with supporting references. Basically you need to take the "peer reviewed" process from the academic journals to the public forum of KZbin. Teach your followers how to appraise and critique economic claims. Teach the value of empiricism and make the scientific process accessible to commoners with diverse knowledge backgrounds. There is a channel called Common Sense Investing with Ben Felix would does this very well in the personal finance arena. Plain Bagel is another. Your material is excellent and I hope you can generate enough untethered financial support to grow your team and channel's production quality without third party financial incentives. Ads are fine as long as they are identified as such and not "advertorialized".

[@M0stlyHarmless9]

Would absolutely love a full video on MMT. Modern Money Theory: A Primer by Wray is the best intro book for people with at least some econ background.

[@MoneyMacro]

Yeah... I'm would like to interview him in a live stream at some point. I don't know if he does those... But, I know my current boss (Bezemer) knows him. So, that might help.

[@M0stlyHarmless9]

@@MoneyMacro I just read “Understanding Financial Crisis Through Accounting Models” by DJ Bezemer and it would seem you’re in good hands. MMT also uses accounting to model macroeconomic activity, particularly stock-flow analysis and accounting identities between sectors (government, private domestic, and international) known as the “sectoral balances model”. I think mainstream economists sometimes struggle with MMT because equilibrium models are so drilled into them. Wray has given many TV and podcast interviews so I expect he will be open to it.

[@leonardogranerole9423]

Ive just recently found your channel and found your videos to be of top quality. Can i ask you to some day whenever you can do a video on the economy of my country, Argentina which for what i know causes big disputes between economists making it difficult to actually know what to think of it

[@MoneyMacro]

Thanks! Yes I will. But, indeed I know how hotly debated the subject has been so I will need to do a lot of preparing first.

[@leonardogranerole9423]

@@MoneyMacro thank you for replying, ill be waiting for it, but take the time you need for I know how troublesome it can be to get and analyze data from a different country. keep up with the good work!

[@Achrononmaster]

@6:20 even credit issuance for real production cannot be sustained, the debt compounds (exponentially) while real production cannot (sigmoidal growth). This is why the monetary systems have really _always_ been MMT ("modern" in "MMT" refers to at least 4000 years ago). A monopoly currency issuer sets the price level, and issues _that which is required for redemption_ (aka. the currency) of tithes & fees and other redemptions (that was in the old days, these days it is tax that must be redeemed). No one can pay their tax (without taking out a bank debt) until the issuer spends their currency. No one can purchase a Treasury bond until the government first spends. Banks cannot issue net financial assets, their credit issuance is strictly limited by their prudential obligations to find a credit-worthy borrower, so again, government spending must preceded these credits "loans" (although nothing is actually loaned, since banks create money on balance sheets (q.v. Richard Werner) in the "lending" process. Mainstream econ has got it all backwards in other words.

[@kevynnightingale4121]

About 44:00: The United States Social Security system is largely Pay As You Go - there is no material savings element. The younger people pay in, and older people take out. It worked when there were lots of young people and not too many old people. It's about to go bankrupt (or cause a lot of money printing). It will be a great case study over the next 10 years.

[@CalCalCal6996]

Sorry I missed this, love your channel and the Netherlands! It's always been my dream to live there and enjoy your top notch infrastructure!

[@ypey1]

Just came across your channel and i love it! Big props, grunn

[@redrockcrf4663]

When you talk about rising debt under "worries", I urge you to look at Richard Koo's explanation of balance sheet recessions, which explains one of the risks, which certainly is stagnation of a type...

[@Kexchokladen22]

About CBDCs, i listened to the All Things Digital Assets podcast where they had Alexander Bechtel from Deutsche Bank on, he talked about the possibility about having privacy features in a CBDC Euro in what sounded like a possible way. I also think they went over the different ways a CBDC in general could be done in that episode. Would be interesting to see you dive into it sometime!

[@MoneyMacro]

Awesome. I'll check that one out

[@Rafi2002M]

Please do a video on MMT. The theory, supporting evidence, mechanisms to control/mitigate inflation, valid criques (if any)

[@IntrusiveThot420]

My problem with MMT is that I only see extremely ideologically driven + heterodox (or uneducated) people talk about it. Unlearning Economics is a good example; there are serious problems with a lot of their content to do with bending the many grey areas of the relatively new field of econ to fit a narrative. This tends to be a pretty big problem with all leftist content that focus on economics; the focus on ideology first and substance second. Hearing Money&Macro talk about the subject would do a lot for its legitimacy to me.

[@somethingfishy1088]

Thank you for what you do :) So much, I appreciate your work a lot.

[@aba1829]

Thanks for the video! About the pension. If you want a system that is a transfer from young to old, see Germany. It's exactly that!

[@nickb863]

Thoughts on Jeff Snider's Eurodollar Thesis?

[@nickshaffer8115]

Please try out Victoria 2 and, when it comes out, Victoria 3. It's a Victorian era geopolitical/economic simulator, would love to see a review/critique of its mechanics!

[@MoneyMacro]

Sounds interesting. I'll keep it in mind.

[@ivikoshengelia9441]

+

[@niklase5901]

Love to hear your thoughts on the efficient market hypothesis. I am a fan of the Ben Felixs rational investor channel. He talks about why index founds on average beats the returns of managed funds. And he references a lot of research based in the efficient market hypothesis. The arguments the Felix have makes a lot of sense.

[@Antowan]

Woo 60k next 100!

[@chilldude30]

Would definitely be interested to hear your thoughts on MMT after you looked into it thoroughly. I don't know enough about economics to be able to judge well but i like the sound of it if it is possible

[@skyleonidas9270]

the problem with mmt is that the time between when you print the money and the inflation sets in can be years, and so you could be printing hyperinflationary levels of money without noticing and then inflation hits, Argentina is currently going through this

[@arafat464]

Ever thought about starting a podcast? I would love to listen to a podcast with you and maybe a polysci person chatting. Would be really interesting.

[@e7venjedi]

In a reply to a top comment you wrote "I will try to formulate a cohesive alternative in the future that does address the serious problems we have". I would really appreciate hearing that because I don't find it very compelling to hear [what I think I hear -- I could certainly be wrong!] you give what sounds like non-answers to some of the big questions: MMT, fiat devaluation, crypto, asset bubbles, etc. Speaking for myself, as a millennial who gets to watch houses and financial assets inflate in price waaaay faster than my wages ever will, I am very invested in the narrative that there is a deflationary [or hyper-inflationary] reckoning coming for the boomers who hold those assets. How else do the younger generations have a chance at not being in debt our entire lives? I'll be spreading my aggressively collected savings between traditional indexes, cash equivalents, gold, crypto etc. regardless, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on where you actually stand. Either way it's always good to test one's views with counter-arguments and consider why there is agreement when that happens too. I consider myself someone who tries to be a centrist, to stay open to complexity, ambiguity, and multiple perspectives. But I would say that it doesn't feel meaningful to criticize 'alarmists' when you don't have any viable alternatives to propose. What can people who get screwed by the status quo do if no options or scenarios are offered as a way out?

[@MoneyMacro]

Very fair point. Such an alternative needs to be formulated. The problem if you try to be nuanced and scientific about it is that is takes you much much longer to come up with such as answer than of you are an alarmist that provides a simple answer now. So, I am working towards more cohesive answers in form of videos that address each of these topics in more detail.

[@Herbwise]

During WWII the MPS in Canada were concerned with the growing war “debt” and one of them tried to clarify it by saying that the so-called federal debt is in actuality a private sector asset. MMT says the same thing.

[@Acid31337]

Asset is always as good as heavy are liabilities. You can't change real liability to phony one and still call thing in opposite column "asset". MMT proponents should be less about words and acconting trickery to foolishly "prove" some ideological point, and more about understanding reality.

[@lucio9281]

thank you, the content on you channel is amazing. I really would like to know your opinion on the long term sustenability of the euro as a single currency

[@anonymous.youtuber]

Leuk dat je naar België komt !

[@jc2946]

Good question about a book list.

[@chrisgwen2526]

Pension systems that work by transfer between generations rather than by capitalisation like in the Netherlands are actually the mainstream. It's the Dutch system that stands out (it's the only one in the EU at least, though Denmark works (very) partially like this too). PS: this is by the way something you will have to keep your eyes open about when you will be moving to Belgium, because you will completely change the pension regime (though I guess you can take the Dutch one with you, but not sure how this will work with taxes)

[@ArabicLearning-MahmoudGa3far]

Thank you very much!👍🏼

[@raskalthefirst]

If you're doing a video on the Dutch housing market I'd find it very interesting if you investigate if there is an artificial scarcity due to for example city council's sitting on land marked for development

[@ally6438]

27:00 You called it

[@rapramix]

Speaking of heresy finance, can you do a video about the gold standard and on whether deflation can be good as he said?

[@VilleHyytiainenInvesting]

Can someone post link for the video ''Debt the good the bad and the ugly'' series. Can't find through youtube search.

[@MoneyMacro]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJCaeXyueMxnn9U&ab_channel=UniversityofGroningen

[@VilleHyytiainenInvesting]

@@MoneyMacro Thanks!

[@NimeshGadoya21582]

Can you walk us through your research process?

[@MoneyMacro]

For vids or for academic papers?

[@AchtungAffen]

A pension system that takes from the younger generation and gives to the older generation is exactly the system Argentina has. And it's been awful. I wonder if the cause is a flaw in that system itself or, well, Argentina...

[@slaphead3791]

How does that even work practically?

[@AchtungAffen]

@@slaphead3791 Wages get a tax called "social security perceptions" with which pensions are funded. So the working population supports the retired one.

[@borikero1]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. History repeats itself more than it should, because people insist "this time will be different".

[@peterlikesfriedrice]

I enjoyed watching this...more please :)

[@nick_g]

Congrats!

[@stefanm4326]

Great video

[@diocanaja]

Hey Joeri! I think you should consider eventually making a "rise and fall" type video on Italy, I think it makes for a pretty unique case study since it's underresearched and also super tricky to understand. Meanwhile, keep up the good work! And good luck with moving too

[@MoneyMacro]

Thanks! Yes true. I mean they had a spectacular rise after WW2 right? Very interesting story.

[@diocanaja]

@@MoneyMacro I think the more interesting part is actually how it all went to shit to be honest. The Italian economic miracle is substantially not very different from the German one. But Germany forged ahead, Italy just lagged behind and started losing steam. There's so much to talk about when it comes to this, from random currency devaluations to masonic lodges, high tax evasion, to the "too big to fail"/"they go down, we all go down" I'm an Italian studying economics in the Netherlands and personally it's been a bit surprising how every academic-level discussion on European economies will inevitably gravitate towards Germany, Greece or the UK. I guess that's normal though, since not even Italians seem to have any idea what's been going on

[@EduNauta95]

I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS ON MONETARY HISTORY, IE ATHENS, MEDIEVAL EUROPE, NOBODY IS DOING THIS, PLEASE KEEP AT IT

[@MoneyMacro]

Will do. History of Central banking in Europe in the making.

[@robertotomas]

What is going on in Turkey? I just read that they are trying to keep interest rates low.. but isn’t inflation by definition the opposite of that?

[@SelonNerias]

Would be nice if we could also get a link to debt: the good, the bad and the ugly. There are a lot of videos on youtube with that name in the title, so it's quite hard to find.

[@MoneyMacro]

Sorry it is tricky to find. Type debt Dirk Bezemer university of Groningen

[@SelonNerias]

@@MoneyMacro Thanks! Found it. kzbin.info/aero/PLdsMpUardfwrkORd5BSFWA9sRiteWeGOb

[@GhostOnTheHalfShell]

The point of inflation as I have heard the argument is simply provide a floor blockimg deflationary spirals. But the basic premise requires price instability when it is not needed. Wörgl or bractaeten historically demonstrated their ability to maintain the velocity of money in a price stable fashion. The also invert the superiority of money, because if you don’t use it, the note loses value (as a tax, you can only keep 75% of your holdings after a grace period). Investors then look to good uses or to keeping their hoards from”rotting”, instead of interest eternally inflating their wealth.

[@Alex-sr9pq]

One thing that I dont understand still is why when inflation is low doesnt a country cant just print money, dont bother with QE and just print and spend money, eg. spend on a big infrastructure project, surely this will devalue the currency because there is now more supply and will potentially help in the long term in the case of an infrastructure project. And low inflation is fixed right?

[@johndoes6706]

Because if you print money you can't reduce the overall stock in case of inflation whereas with QE you just have to wait for the bond to come at term to suppress the money.

[@pedroguedes278]

could you active the option for Portuguese translation if doesn't get a lot of your time ? Please.. For now, what a great video

[@MoneyMacro]

For this one sadly I cannot. Because this was live there are only auto generated subtitles and KZbin will not auto translate these.

[@pedroguedes278]

@@MoneyMacro yeah i understood. But in normal videos if u can will help a lot (like u did once in Lebanon video). Otherwise Your content have a lot of great information and you are so good for explain that, thanks for your dedication and work time for us!

[@ChocolateMilkCultLeader]

Enjoyed this

[@dreamlight7634]

If you want to look at that kind of transfer system for pensions you can look at germany. We have exactly that kind of system and in my opinion it kinda just collapses under the pressure of demographics when you get the ratio of working population to pensioneers gets too low

[@MoneyMacro]

I'll check it out

[@standardyoutubeuser8209]

Super interesting content! Can you share your thoughts on the Lebanese economy that has been collapsing due to foreign currency debts (and corruption and bad management)? what would you do to rebuild such an economy in a perfect world ?

[@MoneyMacro]

Thanks! Did you see my video on that subject?

[@standardyoutubeuser8209]

@@MoneyMacro Actually i did months ago and liked it but forgot as at that time was running through many on the videos on the subject! Definitely will rewatch and thanks for the response! Unfortunately it is becoming worse and worse! Cheers!

[@Jokkkkke]

So happy to hear you are collaborating with Unlearning Economics!!! He's my favorite economics-tuber alongside yourself

[@Snowshowslow]

What would you think about measures that limit speculation like a minimum hold term for assets? Speculation seems to my layman eyes to not add any value to society but to add a lot of risk, but I am curious if I am missing something there.

[@mahdi5796]

Thanks for this. Can you please share link for yiur serie, debt, good bad and ugly?

[@MoneyMacro]

Yesss (they changed the name): kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJCaeXyueMxnn9U

[@MoneyMacro]

By the way, thanks for joining the channel!!! Did you get access to the Discord server? It's quite difficult for me to tell since most people have different names in the server and on YT.

[@mahdi5796]

@@MoneyMacro joined on Patreon. dont have discord.

[@MoneyMacro]

@@mahdi5796 ah yes remember... hmmm but you also joined on YT it seems... since you now have the badge next to your name and I can see you as a YT member as well.... strange.. you sure you didn't double join? The other option would be that there is some integration between Patreon and YT that I wasn't aware off.

[@mahdi5796]

@@MoneyMacro nothing strange: firstly i joined on YT. Then I canceled it and joined on Patreon.

[@David95111]

Cool to see your channel doing so well! The courses global finance and growth & money, finance and the economy taught by Bezemer and both assisted by you in 2017 if I remember correctly, are actually what got me very interested in the workings of the financial industry. I’m currently working in asset management and studying towards my CFA, pretty sure I wouldn’t have done either without those courses being as good as they are, so a big shoutout for that! Thanks and keep it up!

[@MoneyMacro]

Awesome, very happy to hear that!

[@DanHaiduc]

44:30 In Romania, we have such a pension system, of taxing the young and paying the old. The problem is, wages including the minimum wage are so taxed, that >40% of your work goes to the state (25% is the "CAS" or social insurance). What people do is flee for work to other countries, or work through self-employment (PFA). As a consequence the state is reducing real pensions (by failing to match inflation), upping retirement ages, and going into debt.

[@daniilfedotov8922]

If you plan to do a series on national economies can you maybe make one about Russia? Recent state budget proposal is trying to cut spending and get a budget surplus, which is a bit strange for the covid times when the federal debt is low and trade balance is high.

[@MrEJJ93]

Is your thesis available? Are you willing to share it? Groetjes uit Den Haag

[@MoneyMacro]

Yessss: research.rug.nl/en/publications/agent-based-simulations-of-monetary-policy-and-financial-markets Hope you like it

[@krsnayas]

Sad that I missed this :(

[@MoneyMacro]

There will be more :)

[@krsnayas]

@@MoneyMacro Thank you! Any plans on making videos about countries other than China like India (closest possible rival to China) or Russia (climate change benefiting them).

[@MoneyMacro]

@@krsnayas yes for sure.... But it might take a while

[@MoneyMacro]

There will be more :)

[@RJKYEG]

I found your channel because of your rebuke of Economics Explained video on the Dutch economy. That same guy just did a video about the Nobel prize winners' publication about minimum wage, there are some amateurish pieces in that one oh boy.

[@Achrononmaster]

@19:00 certainly any sensible person would want moderate inflation, but from base demand (progressive inflation), _not_ from supply-shock and _not_ interest-income (regressive inflation). Inflation is not a simple phenomena, it can come from many sources, and is sometimes good, sometimes bad. Base demand driven inflation (a rise in the wage floor) is the _good_ type: it is (a) a tax on hoarded wealth that is inescapable, (b) encourages spending rather than thrift, (c) with an MMT understanding pensioners need not suffer, since the fiat currency issuer can alwyas pay the pension cheques when they come due, indexed to inflation if need be. The way central banks promote inflation is through higher interest rates on Treasury bonds = *_basic income but only for people who already have money._* You cannot get a more regressive source of inflation.

[@trixn4285]

Agreed, paying interest as the currency issuer is just another form of net money supply into the economy but in a very unequal way. It's by no means deflationary unless you push interest rates up to silly levels like Volcker did 1979. Of course this can kill any investment activity. Also interest rates just act as a markup that you have to beat in order for investments to be worthwhile. This makes it increasingly hard for smaller middle class companies to fund their investments which again drives inequality upwards.

[@ihaveaname7885]

Can someone provide a link to the series he mentioned about 'debt: the good bad and the ugly'. I'm having a hard time finding it.

[@MoneyMacro]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJCaeXyueMxnn9U&ab_channel=UniversityofGroningen

[@nivekvb]

Fiat money is an amazing system. It's so cheap to produce, and no digging it out of the ground. It's real money too, because it's tied to work. The bank creates the money, you then you borrow it, and then you work your nuts off to pay it back. When you do this, you turn the money into work, or you produce a product. See above for full version. I wrote this as a reply but then decided to post it as a comment.

[@ihaveaname7885]

@@MoneyMacro dang, just watched the first episode and so many things clicked. "money is just a debt claim"....bruh, that's deep.