Governments Are Not Households

This seminar will examine the legal and institutional structure of the current global monetary system, with a particular emphasis on the economic freedoms afforded to nations such as the U.S., U.K., Japan, Canada and Australia that use a non-convertible fiat currency with a floating exchange rate. Questions to be addressed include:

• How does a fiat currency with a floating exchange rate differ from other types of currencies?
• How does government spending and taxation work?
• Why is accounting important for understanding the economy?
• How can monetarily sovereign nations address their current economic problems?

• JONATHAN BRICE: Seminar Introduction 0:00
• THOMAS EDSALL: Opening Moderator Remarks 1:33
• WARREN MOSLER: Presentation – Warren Mosler 2:25
  • WARREN MOSLER: Background: Who Understands Monetary Operations? 2:25
    • WARREN MOSLER: “Where did the dollar in your pocket come from? Deficit spending.” 3:51
  • WARREN MOSLER: Introduction 4:37
    • WARREN MOSLER: What is the monetary system? A scorekeeping system. 4:37
      • WARREN MOSLER: If you paid your taxes in cash, the government would shred the cash. 5:20
    • WARREN MOSLER: How does the government make payments? 6:12
    • WARREN MOSLER: How do banks create deposits? 8:40
    • WARREN MOSLER: How do banks get reserves? 11:15
      • WARREN MOSLER: The Money Multiplier and Fractional Reserve Banking have been dead since 1934 12:32
      • WARREN MOSLER: All assets and liabilities net to zero 13:13
  • WARREN MOSLER: Government Deficit = Non-Government Surplus 15:18
    • WARREN MOSLER: What happens when the governmenty deficit gets too low? 20:43
      • WARREN MOSLER: Ever period of budget surplus in the U.S. has been followed by depression 21:09
    • WARREN MOSLER: What’s the right size for the government deficit? 24:12
• STEPHANIE KELTON: Presentation – Stephanie Kelton 26:25
  • STEPHANIE KELTON: Inroduction: We should be doing so much better 27:40
    • STEPHANIE KELTON: The only way out is for the government to spend money 28:50
  • STEPHANIE KELTON: Money is no object 33:19
    • STEPHANIE KELTON: The U.S. government is a currency issuer; households are currency users 34:14
  • STEPHANIE KELTON: The budget deficit is not our enemy 36:20
    • STEPHANIE KELTON: *A note on stock and flows 40:01
  • STEPHANIE KELTON: What is fiscal responsbility? Hawks, Doves, and Owls. 42:58
  • STEPHANIE KELTON: China is not our banker 48:14
    • STEPHANIE KELTON: Alan Greenspan checks Paul Ryan 49:32
    • STEPHANIE KELTON: Ben Bernanke on Fed Spending 51:58
  • STEPHANIE KELTON: We aren’t like Greece 52:28
  • STEPHANIE KELTON: We can have full employment and low inflation 55:26
• THOMAS EDSALL: Moderator Question: Why Don’t Politicans Embrace Modern Money? 1:00:40
• THOMAS EDSALL: Audience Questions 1:15:52
  • WARREN MOSLER: Do we need to tax the rich? Can we have low taxes for everyone? 1:15:56
  • WARREN MOSLER: What is the right level of inflation? 1:16:43
  • WARREN MOSLER: Can the U.S. become Weimar Germany? 1:19:25
  • WARREN MOSLER: What about imports and exports? 1:20:33
  • WARREN MOSLER/STEPHANIE KELTON: What about the foreign exchange rate? 1:33:30
  • STEPHANIE KELTON/WARREN MOSLER: What about speculation? 1:43:20