Bobby. wrote on Apr 7^th, 2022 at 12:00am:


Could government pay for all those things if taxes were sufficiently high?

But in any case you - like everyone -  recoil against the idea (unless it's someone else's taxes...)

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Not entirely fake, the economy produces many desirable things.

As to "unfunded", that gets us back to taxation, as noted above. 

But MMT teaches us government can create its own money  ("government money"), as opposed to "taxpayer money", the quantum of "government money" being constrained by the nation's resources and productivity, to avoid inflation. 

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Interestingly the Greens are now MMT-literate, though they don't advertise the fact, given the current level of ignorance re what is money and how it works (eg, most people still think government budgets are like their own household budgets).

And another   MMT-literate party is standing in the May election: TNL.

Should be an interesting election, with  cost of living, and housing/rent  going through the roof, and  poor wages growth resulting in people abandoning the 2 major parties. Albo can't explain how he intends to fund raising age-care workers wages.etc, apart from some vague measures re "cutting waste". 


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Fiat currencies (unlike Bitcoin) are not a ponzi scheme, because they are backed by the nation's productivity.

Your fiat currency video is nonsense based on the  obsolete gold standard era.

Speaking of which:

https://ellenbrown.com/2022/04/05/the-coming-global-financial-revolution-russia-...

" The Rise and Fall of the PetroDollar

First, some history: The U.S. dollar was adopted as the global reserve currency at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, when the dollar was still backed by gold on global markets. The agreement was that gold and the dollar would be accepted interchangeably as global reserves, the dollars to be redeemable in gold on demand at $35 an ounce. Exchange rates of other currencies were fixed against the dollar.

But that deal was broken after President Lyndon Johnson’s “guns and butter” policy exhausted the U.S. kitty by funding war in Vietnam along with his “Great Society” social programs at home. French President Charles de Gaulle, suspecting the U.S. was running out of money, cashed in a major portion of France’s dollars for gold and threatened to cash in the rest; and other countries followed suit or threatened to.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon ended the convertibility of the dollar to gold internationally (known as “closing the gold window”), in order to avoid draining U.S. gold reserves".


...hence the enforced demise of the gold standard.....

Your video attacking fiat currencies is mostly ignorance re the creation and function of money, with the usual old nonsense about Weimar and  Zimbabwe, which are examples of a collapse in resources supply, leading to excess demand.

thegreatdivide wrote on Apr 7^th, 2022 at 1:03pm:


I wish I had an answer.

Repeating what I posted:

I remember back in the mid 1990s -
our accountant at work was discussing our Super
and how necessary it was.
He said that future liabilities for providing pensions
and other social security were unfunded so Super
was needed and we should even salary sacrifice into it.

What he didn't explain was that the only way out was to print money.
Yes - pensions and social security are actually paid for
by money printing.
Even paying for all the gigantic army of public servants is unfunded.
We are stuck in a money printing rut forever.
It will never be paid off -
that's a dream from politicians to gullible voters.


Meantime - savings are destroyed and prices keep on going up.
Houses and shares went up over 20% in the last year or two.

Bobby. wrote on Apr 7^th, 2022 at 1:26pm:


I gave detailed  answers  (inc. explanation of fiat, gold etc)   which you have chosen to ignore (....."you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink'...)

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Your accountant is a micro economist who has no understanding of macro economics.

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Like I said, no understanding; future government liabilities can always be funded if the nation's productivity and resources base remain intact, over time.

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No, his explanation was that self-funding is the answer, for those  who can afford to salary sacrifice into Super.

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What's wrong with "printing money"? I've already explained that there is no problem so  long as the nation's resources/productivity constraints are observed.

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All courtesy of neoliberism; MMT could  eliminate price rises, via rationing and price controls when required, and maintain interest rates at zero, while maintaining full employment.   

Just to let you know there are alternatives.... 

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Yes, asset appreciation courtesy of greed-based neoliberalism, with its fake financialized  capitalism. 

Bobby. wrote on Apr 7^th, 2022 at 2:07pm:


Well of course the government does  borrow money, by purchasing bonds, so the term "printing money" is misleading. Private banks also "print money" when/if they write you a loan for, say, $500K.

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All already addressed in my previous posts to you.

Btw, how does Clive propose to deal with the $trillion debt, and keep mortgage interest rates low? (I missed his speech). 

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/clive-palmer-says-he-would-pr...


Clive Palmer,

“What matters is not how much money you spend, it’s what your solutions are. I’ve put forward solutions that are novel and are new.”

Mr Palmer attacked the government for rising debt brought upon by programs such as JobKeeper which have successfully insulated the Australian economy from extended recession and growing unemployment.

Instead he suggested Australia enforce a 15 per cent licence on iron ore exports which he claimed could dissolve all national debt in 20 years.

He also proposed that the housing loan rate be frozen at three per cent for the next five years to prevent a catastrophic national mortgage default crisis.

Senexx wrote on Apr 7^th, 2022 at 6:36pm:



What is wrong with MMT is that once the Govts. start printing money they can't stop.
There is always another urgent reason to print more.

First it was the GFC, then Covid and now it's the war in Ukraine and
the military expenditure to supposedly fight China - a superpower.
Of course there were always unfunded liabilities that the Govt. couldn't pay:
old age pensions, social security, armies of public servants, health, schools and roads expenditure
brought on by uncontrolled mass immigration
putting pressure on our services.

We invited millions of people here but they all
needed schools and hospitals etc. -
more unfunded liabilities.
It's like saying there's a party for 1,000 people at my place tomorrow
and having no money for the booze.
So - out comes the credit card.
The hangover is paying it off -
which they can't do.

In Australia we print money day and night.

In Zimbabwe they kept printing money
until you needed a wheelbarrow of money to buy a loaf of bread -
so they starting printing 100 trillion dollar notes.