Articles by L. Randall Wray
We found 5 results.
Why Does Everyone Hate Modern Money Theory?
L. Randall Wray | New Economic Perspectives – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jul 2019
Money is a creature of the state. Money is effectively an IOU. Anyone can issue money; the trouble is getting it accepted. The ability to impose taxes (or other obligations) makes a country’s ‘money’ valuable.
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Tax Bads, Not Goods
L. Randall Wray | New Economic Perspectives – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jun 2019
We’ve long taxed various sins. While some confuse the purpose of sin taxes, it should be clear that the purpose of taxing bads is not to “raise revenue” but to “reduce sin”. We want to reduce the sin of smoking. Of polluting. Of high-speed trading. I’m always surprised when my progressive friends see the “Tobin Tax” (financial transactions tax) as a potentially great source of tax revenue to “pay for” all the goodies they’d like government to provide.
→ read full articleModern Money Theory: The Basics
L. Randall Wray | New Economic Perspectives – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jun 2019
So here’s an attempt to put the fears of Krugman and Post Keynesians to rest. There is a symmetry between bank lending and government spending. I also hope to help clarify things for a third group—the “debt-free money” folks who want Uncle Sam to spend “debt-free money”. Short answer: depending on how you look at it, he either already does, or cannot ever do so.
→ read full articleCreationism versus Redemptionism: How a Money-Issuer Really Lends and Spends
L. Randall Wray | New Economic Perspectives – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jun 2019
I will examine three analogous questions (each of which has the same answer):
1. Does the government need to receive tax revenue before it can spend?
2. Does the central bank need to receive reserve deposits before it can lend?
3. Do private banks need to receive demand deposits before they can lend?
How to Pay for the War
L. Randall Wray | New Economic Perspectives – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2019
16 May 2019 – I’m going to talk about war, not peace, in relation to our work on the Green New Deal—which I argue is the big MEOW—moral equivalent of war—and how we are going to pay for it. So I’m going to focus on Keynes’s 1940 book— How to Pay for the War—the war that followed the Economic Consequences of the Peace.
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