#160 Stuart Medina Miltimore: The Euro Is The Problem

Patricia & Christian talk to Stuart Medina Miltimore, economist and founder of the Spanish advocacy group Red MMT about his chapter (co-written with Bill Mitchell) in the major new academic collaboration “Modern Monetary Theory - Key Insights, Leading Thinkers”, which lays out how the euro has driven austerity and the depoliticisation of European democracies.

 

Whether they know it or not, currency union members (and prospective members) have a choice: status quo, reform, or exit? Understanding modern money - as a policy tool designed to mobilise resources, rather than as an inert medium of exchange - is key to understanding the human stakes of that choice.

 

Please help sustain this podcast!

Patrons get early access to all episodes and patron-only episodes: https://www.patreon.com/MMTpodcast

 

Order the Gower Initiative’s “Modern Monetary Theory - Key Insights, Leading Thinkers” (2023): https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/modern-monetary-theory-9781802208085.html

 

 

For an intro to MMT:

Our first three episodes: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41742417

Episode 126 - Dirk Ehnts: How Banks Create Money: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62603318

 

All our episodes in chronological order: https://www.patreon.com/posts/43111643

 

All our episodes with Stuart Medina Miltimore: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44400459

Stuart Medina Miltimore on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SMiltim

 

The website of Stuart’s organisation, Red MMT (contains many MMT resources in Spanish, and site can also be translated into other languages using browser functions): https://www.redmmt.es/

 

Red MMT YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@redmmt5253

 

Relevant to this episode:

For more on Eurozone Job Guarantee proposals:

“Maximizing Price Stability in a Monetary Economy” by Warren Mosler & Damiano Bruno Silipo: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2775400

“Completing the Euro: The Euro Treasury and the Job Guarantee” by Esteban Cruz Hidalgo, Dirk Ehnts and Pavlina R. Tcherneva: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334226761_Completing_the_Euro_The_Euro_Treasury_and_the_Job_Guarantee

For more on the MMT Job Guarantee in general :

Episode 4 - Fadhel Kaboub: What is the Job Guarantee?: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41742701

Episode 47 - Pavlina Tcherneva: Building Resilience - The Case For A Job Guarantee: https://www.patreon.com/posts/36034543

Episode 148 - Pavlina Tcherneva: Why The Job Guarantee Is Core To Modern Monetary Theory: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-148-why-73211346

Pavlina Tcherneva’s Job Guarantee FAQ page: https://pavlina-tcherneva.net/job-guarantee-faq/

Curried EMU - the meal that fails to nourish by Wynne Godley: https://www.concertedaction.com/2011/11/07/curried-emu/

Our episode 103 - with Ndongo Samba Sylla on The CFA Franc & The Movement For Monetary Sovereignty In Africa: https://www.patreon.com/posts/51864583

Warren Mosler tells the “Dogs & Bones” story: https://youtu.be/2vTjLwYCi24

Overview of automatic stabilisers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_stabilizer

We talk about what caused the pension fund crisis during the Truss government (or mini-government?) here: Episode 147 - Dirk Ehnts: Do Markets Control Our Politics?: https://www.patreon.com/posts/72906421?pr=true

 

 

Quick MMT reads:

Warren’s Mosler’s MMT white paper: http://moslereconomics.com/mmt-white-paper/

Steven Hail’s quick MMT explainer: https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-modern-monetary-theory-72095

On government debt: “Some Numbers Are Big. Let Me Help You Get Over It”: https://christreilly.com/2020/02/17/some-numbers-are-big-let-me-help-you-get-over-it/

 

For a short, non-technical, free ebook explaining MMT, download MMT founder Warren Mosler’s “7 Deadly Innocent Frauds Of Economic Policy” here: http://moslereconomics.com/wp-content/powerpoints/7DIF.pdf

 

 

Episodes on monetary operations:

Episode 20 - Warren Mosler: The MMT Money Story (part 1): https://www.patreon.com/posts/28004824

Episode 126 - Dirk Ehnts: How Banks Create Money: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62603318

Episode 13 - Steven Hail: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Banking, But Were Afraid To Ask: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41790887

Episode 43 - Sam Levey: Understanding Endogenous Money: https://www.patreon.com/posts/35073683

Episode 84 - Andrew Berkeley, Richard Tye & Neil Wilson: An Accounting Model Of The UK Exchequer (Part 1): https://www.patreon.com/posts/46352183

Episode 86 - Andrew Berkeley, Richard Tye & Neil Wilson: An Accounting Model Of The UK Exchequer (Part 2): https://www.patreon.com/posts/46865929 

 

Episodes on inflation:

Episode 7: Steven Hail: Inflation, Price Shocks and Other Misunderstandings: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41780508

Episode 65 - Phil Armstrong: Understanding Inflation: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40672678

Episode 104 - John T Harvey: Inflation, Stagflation & Healing The Nation: https://www.patreon.com/posts/52207835

Episode 123 - Warren Mosler: Understanding The Price Level And Inflation: https://www.patreon.com/posts/59856379

Episode 128 - L. Randall Wray & Yeva Nersisyan: What’s Causing Accelerating Inflation? Pandemic Or Policy Response?: https://www.patreon.com/posts/63776558

 

More on government bonds (and “vigilantes”):

Episode 30 - Steven Hail: Understanding Government Bonds (Part 1):https://www.patreon.com/posts/29621245

Episode 31 - Steven Hail: Understanding Government Bonds (Part 2): https://www.patreon.com/posts/29829500

Episode 143 - Paul Sheard: What Is Quantitative Easing?: https://www.patreon.com/posts/71589989?pr=true

Episode 147 - Dirk Ehnts: Do Markets Control Our Politics?: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-147-dirk-72906421

Episode 144 - Warren Mosler: The Natural Rate Of Interest Is Zero: https://www.patreon.com/posts/71966513

Episode 145 - John T Harvey: What Determines Currency Prices?: https://www.patreon.com/posts/72283811?pr=true

 

Job Guarantee episodes:

Episode 4 - Fadhel Kaboub: What is the Job Guarantee?: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41742701

Episode 47 - Pavlina Tcherneva: Building Resilience - The Case For A Job Guarantee: https://www.patreon.com/posts/36034543

Episode 148 - Pavlina Tcherneva: Why The Job Guarantee Is Core To Modern Monetary Theory: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-148-why-73211346

 

 

MMT Events And Courses In 2023

Apply for Professor Bill Mitchell’s short, free online course in Modern Monetary Theory (February 15th - March 14th) here: https://www.edx.org/course/modern-monetary-theory-economics-for-the-21st-century

More information about Professor Mitchell’s MMTed project (free public online courses in MMT) here: http://www.mmted.org/

Tickets to the very first Scotonomics festival (online or in-person, Dundee, Scotland 24th-26th March) are available here: https://scotonomics.scot/live-events/

Apply for Dr Dirk Ehnts’ Modern Monetary Theory and European Macroeconomics course at Maastricht University (July 31st - August 4th) here: https://maastricht.dreamapply.com/courses/course/183-modern-monetary-theory-and-european-macroeconomics

Details of Modern Money Lab’s online graduate and postgraduate courses in MMT are here: https://modernmoneylab.org.au/

 

 

 

MMT Academic Resources compiled by The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies: https://www.zotero.org/groups/2251544/mmt_academic_resources_-_compiled_by_the_gower_initiative_for_modern_money_studies

 

MMT scholarship compiled by New Economic Perspectives: http://neweconomicperspectives.org/mmt-scholarship

 

 

 

 

 

A list of MMT-informed campaigns and organisations worldwide: https://www.patreon.com/posts/47900757

 

We are working towards full transcripts, but in the meantime, closed captions for all episodes are available on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEp_nGVTuMfBun2wiG-c0Ew/videos

 

Show notes: https://www.patreon.com/posts/79507827?pr=true