The MMT Podcast with Patricia Pino & Christian Reilly #166 Dirk Ehnts: What Are Taxes For?
Taxes Create Currency Demand
- Tax liabilities were originally created to make people accept a new currency.
- This creates demand for money and the concept of unemployment as wanting work for money.
Multiple Roles of Taxation
- Taxation removes purchasing power from the private sector, creating fiscal space for government purchases.
- Taxes also have redistributive and behavioral incentive roles in the economy.
Inequality Threatens Democracy
- High income inequality threatens democracy as ultra-rich gain disproportionate political power.
- Fair income distribution and full employment are key to a liberal democratic society.
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