mmt

Two titans of UK politics face off over government interest payments, while completely missing the obvious answer: stop giving rich people free money

Spending only happens if there was something to buy. If that spending is then deficit spending it has a lower inflationary impact than spending that is tax-matched.

Time for another exercise in mythbusting. It turns out it is very difficult for something that cannot move to fly. Who knew?

There is no risk that interest rates on UK government debt will reach crippling levels. Interest rates are policy variables. Paying interest is a political choice. Betteridge’s law of headlines applies.

Here’s the real reason ‘asset managers’ object to ‘printing money’

The Asset Purchase Facility has landed HM Treasury with a ~£90 billion bill over the next two year. This paper lays out an approach that requires no further vote funding from Parliament, no additional debt interest payments, and restores “postive cash flow” from the APF for the remainder of this Parliament.

Once intra-government transactions are eliminated, QE represents an exchange of gilts (liabilities of the National Loans Fund) for central bank reserves (liabilities of the Bank of England)

The public debt markets add less value to national prosperity than their opportunity costs. A proper cost-benefit analysis would conclude that the market should be terminated.

The government borrows at a price of its choosing. Here’s how.

My favourite BBC article has been rewritten again and more inaccuracies added. Let’s go through them.