Macroeconomics

A young colleague recently asked why, given the prevalence in society of gold bugs, crypto bros, and the like, the Finding the Money documentary didn't spend any time on arguing for the merits of chartalism over metallism (or some form of belief in commodity money).

Personally, I'd watch the hell out of a documentary logically working through the consequences of the currency monopolist's role as price setter, but I think I'd be in the minority there. I suspect most people would find it tiresomely arcane. In fact, allow me to demonstrate with what follows.

"The price level is necessarily a function of prices paid by the government’s agents when it spends, or collateral demanded when it lends. 

I was chatting to my delightful friend and colleague Anne (co-host of the unmissable RadioMMT programme on 3CR — go listen to it now!) last night, and she asked me a question about the MMT Job Guarantee. I'd had a couple of pints (and a few hours of social interaction overwhelm) by then, so I'm afraid I didn't answer it adequately. And as I proceeded to have a couple of glasses of wine with a late dinner when I got home, I regret to say I now can't remember what the question was.

So I thought I'd quickly jot down what I think are the key general characteristics of public buffer stock programs — either existing, proposed, or just trapped in my muddled head struggling to get out — without cheating and looking anything up.