3min chapter

#166 Dirk Ehnts: What Are Taxes For?

The MMT Podcast with Patricia Pino & Christian Reilly

notes

CHAPTER

Introduction

In the very beginning of paper currency systems, you had governments creating tax liabilities per capita. This means the idea of tax liabilities is prior to spending money. So there's a very important role for tax liabilities because you need to make people accept your currency. You create a demand for currency, which means also that you create unemployment in the sense that we are using the concept ever since. Christian Riley and Patricia Pino will be joined once again by our friend, economist, author and organizer of the 2023 European MMT conference.

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Transcript

Episode notes

For currency-issuing governments, taxes for revenue are obsolete, so what *are* they for? Patricia & Christian talk to economist and author Dr Dirk Ehnts about the role of taxation in modern money systems, banking regulation, inflation, new eurozone fiscal rule proposals, and more.

Please help sustain this podcast!

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

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

Website of the 3rd International European MMT Conference (September 9-10: https://www.mmtconference.eu/

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

Free tickets for the launch of “Modern Monetary Theory - Key Insights, Leading Thinkers”, in London on 20th April: https://gimms.org.uk/event/book-launch/

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 Dirk Ehnts: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44467243

Dirk Ehnts’ website: https://www.dirk-ehnts.de/

Dirk Ehnts on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DEhnts

Relevant to this episode:

For more on the interplay between commercial bank money (deposits) and central bank money (reserves), listen to our Episode 126 - Dirk Ehnts: How Banks Create Money: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62603318

For more on the endogenous money view (the non-fringe, very mainstream view that bank loans create deposits, not the other way around), listen to:

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

“Is Paper Money Just Paper Money? Experimentation and Variation in the Paper Monies Issued by the American Colonies from 1690 to 1775” by Farley Grubb: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2039611

“What Are Taxes For? The MMT Approach” by L. Randall Wray: https://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/05/taxes-mmt-approach.html

“Taxes for Revenue are Obsolete” by Beardsley Ruml https://realprogressives.org/taxes-for-revenue-are-obsolete/

“COVID-19 and its economic consequences for the Euro Area” by Dirk Ehnts and Michael Paetz: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40822-020-00159-w

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

More on Silicon Valley Bank and bank runs:

Episode 162 - Warren Mosler: Anatomy Of A Bank Run: https://www.patreon.com/posts/80157783?pr=true

Episode 163 - L. Randall Wray: Breaking Banks - The Fed’s Magical Monetarist Thinking Strikes Again: https://www.patreon.com/posts/80479169?pr=true

Episode 165 - Robert Hockett: Sparking An Industrial Renewal By Building Banks Better: https://www.patreon.com/posts/81084983?pr=true

MMT founder Warren Mosler’s Proposals for the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and the Banking System: https://neweconomicperspectives.org/2010/02/warren-moslers-proposals-for-treasury.html

Details of the Finnish translation of Dirk Ehnts’ “MMT essentials”: https://talousdemokratia.fi/kirjat/johdatus-moderniin-rahateoriaan/

Dirk talks about price-setting power being one of the causes of inflation, for Warren Mosler’s view of the state as price-setter listen to this episode - Episode 123 - Warren Mosler: Understanding The Price Level And Inflation: https://www.patreon.com/posts/59856379

Details of the next MMT Summer school in Poznań, Poland (September 5th-7th) will be available on this page when confirmed: https://fundacjalipinskiego.pl/wydarzenia/

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

Quick explanation of government debt and deficit: “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 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

Our 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

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

MMT Events And Courses In 2023

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

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/

Details of the next MMT Summer school in Poznań, Poland (September 5th-7th) will be available on this page when confirmed: https://fundacjalipinskiego.pl/wydarzenia/

Website of the 3rd International European MMT Conference (September 9th-10th: https://www.mmtconference.eu/

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/81501115?pr=true