https://woodstock2023.eventive.org/schedule/finding-the-money-64e8d3a01609090047...

Finding the Money

ABOUT THE FILM: An underdog group of economists is on a mission to instigate a paradigm shift by flipping our understanding of the national debt, and the nature of money, upside down. We follow Stephanie Kelton on a journey through the controversial Modern Monetary Theory or "MMT", to unveil a deeper story about money, injecting new hope and empowering democracies around the world to tackle the biggest challenges of the 21st century: from climate change to inequality.


ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Maren Poitras’s feature documentary debut Finding the Money tells the story of Modern Monetary Theory, a burgeoning economic movement that will revolutionize our ability to tackle the climate crisis. Maren was associate producer on the feature documentaries Enemies of the State (which debuted at Toronto International Film Festival in 2020) and Reality Winner (2023). Based in the Bay Area, Maren studied environmental science and agriculture at UC Berkeley.

The Failure of Neoliberalism

https://profstevekeen.substack.com/p/the-failure-of-neoliberalism?utm_source=pos...

The disaster of indebtedness in overseas currencies:

https://www.newtimes.co.rw/article/10574/news/africa/nairobi-declaration-calls-f...

Fadhel Kaboub, an African economist commented: “While external debt is a serious problem that limits our economic and monetary sovereignty and reduces the fiscal policy space to act on climate and to invest in national priorities, it is important to recognize that external debt is a symptom of much deeper structural deficiencies: food deficits, energy deficits, and low value-added manufacturing.”

He reiterated that there were false solutions proposed in the Nairobi declaration like carbon markets, which simply amount to cheap pollution permits for Global North historic polluters who can pass on the cost of the permits to their customers, displace farmers and indigenous communities, enrich speculators and middlemen, and continue polluting while offering crumbs as climate finance.

‘Africa is owed a climate debt by the historic polluters. Climate reparations must be delivered in the form of debt cancellation (not debt restructuring), transfer of technology, grants (not loans) for adaptation and economic resilience, and transformation of the global trade, finance, and investment architecture,” he noted.

The end of the neoliberal free market, and its associated debt-based money,  is in sight, crushed by the reality of  climate change, and the need for intelligent (non-market-based) mobilization of resources.

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2023/09/09/lessons-the-us-ener...

Australia is about to embark on a response to the Biden administration’s signature climate legislation, the oddly named Inflation Reduction Act. In two parts in The Saturday Paper I will first unpack the underlying theory of change in the IRA and what it did and didn’t do well. The second instalment will discuss what Australia can do better or worse in response.

To start let’s consider the climate context. Activists such as Greta Thunberg use the word “emergency”. Behind that word is the fact the “free market” cannot move fast enough to hit either a 1.5 or a 2 degree target for warming. If we continue to slowly shift to electric vehicles, renewable electricity, and electrified homes at current rates we will likely wind up at 2.8 or more degrees of warming. In wartimes, governments can execute emergency powers that enable them to operate outside free market rules. The canonical example is the “Arsenal of Democracy”, the public–private partnership developed in the United States during World War II to produce the war matériel required to triumph. Fossil fuel companies and neoliberal ideologues recoil at the idea of such a step and would like to keep everything on the slow roll. I’m in the emergency camp, as are the vast majority of the world’s scientists.

Was America’s IRA an emergency-style response? Not quite, though it was used to finance some clean energy manufacturing under the Defense Production Act – the very instrument used to finance the Arsenal of Democracy. This component was only US$500 million of the US$369 billion act and was a late addition to the legislation justified as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These were incentives for American industry to produce the goods required to help Europe transition off Russian oil and gas faster. The IRA was also not Biden’s only legislation to address climate change. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will deploy another US$110 billion, albeit not all for climate. This act is more akin to the Labor government’s “Rewiring the Nation” investments in energy transmission infrastructure.

Governments have to find - ouside of the (greed-based) 'free market' - $billions of seed capital to fund the non-profitable bits of renewables,  like the grid and storage, while private capital will need to be directed to transitioning from fossils ASAP - a contradiction which will result in $trillions in stranded privately owned fossil assets. 


"Times are  a-changin'" ....

Exposing the errors of mainstream neo-classical economics, consequent to  deriving macro processes from micro behaviour.

https://profstevekeen.substack.com/p/the-anything-goes-market-demand-curve?utm_s...

The “Anything Goes” Market Demand Curve

The amazing dysfunction of global finance:

https://ellenbrown.com/2023/10/03/the-great-taking-how-they-plan-to-own-it-all/

“The Great Taking”: How They Can Own It All
Posted on October 3, 2023 by Ellen Brown

“’You’ll own nothing and be happy’? David Webb has gone through the 50-year history of all the legal constructs that have been put in place to technically enable that to happen.” [Oct 2 interview titled “The Great Taking: Who Really Owns Your Assets?]

"The derivatives bubble has been estimated to exceed one quadrillion dollars (a quadrillion is 1,000 trillion). The entire GDP of the world is estimated at $105 trillion, or 10% of one quadrillion; and the collective wealth of the world is an estimated $360 trillion. Clearly, there is not enough collateral anywhere to satisfy all the derivative claims. The majority of derivatives now involve interest rate swaps, and interest rates have shot up. The bubble looks ready to pop.

Who were the intrepid counterparties signing up to take the other side of these risky derivative bets? Initially, it seems, they were banks –led by four mega-banks, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America". .......

The Derivative Mushroom Cloud
A “financial derivative” is defined as “a security whose value depends on, or is derived from, an underlying asset or assets. The derivative represents a contract between two or more parties and its price fluctuates according to the value of the asset from which it is derived.”.......

Where to save your personal monies? Big derivative banks are risky, and Webb thinks credit unions and smaller banks will go down with the market if there is a general collapse, as happened in the Great Depression. Gold and silver are good but hard to spend on groceries. Keeping some emergency cash on hand is important, and so is growing your own food if you have space for a garden. Short-term Treasuries bought directly from the government at Treasury Direct might be the safest savings option, assuming the government doesn’t wind up in bankruptcy itself........"

[My comment on the last point: at least a currency-issuing government doesn't need to go bankrupt, if the government can maintain the nation's capacity to produce vital goods and services; money and bankruptcy are not a problem for a currency-issuer, unlike you and me.]    

https://theconversation.com/too-hard-basket-why-climate-change-is-defeating-our-...

Too hard basket: why climate change is defeating our political system

"Government can and must act.
Government is our ultimate risk manager and as extreme weather events proliferate, calls increase for it to bail people out – from floods, fire and drought, as well as from increased food and energy prices. All this after four decades of neoliberalism in which both the federal and state governments have surrendered capacity to the private sector.

But as the COVID crisis showed us, when faced with an emergency our governments can act decisively and put the lives of people ahead of the interests of business***. Assumptions that had guided monetary policy for three decades or more were overturned as both state and federal governments borrowed heavily to support people through the lockdowns and to buy and administer vaccines. If the political will is there, governments can find a way."


***But the author is a political scientist who doesn't understand why and how mainstrean economists - central bankers, specifically -  caused the current bout of post-covid inflation. 

Lisa Jones wrote on Oct 6^th, 2023 at 10:24am:


This thread is to serve an educational purpose.

Note the 'views' total, well over 40,000 - more than most threads on Ozpolitics.

As for 'atheism', you are following scripture made by men, so will have a crippled ability to say anything sensible about 'God'.