Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

MMT and the Wealth of Nations, Revisited

Steve Roth  (at Asymptosis) I just had occasion, in replying to a correspondent, to reiterate much of the thinking in my recent MMT Conference presentation. I thought it might be a useful and comprehensible form for some readers, so I’m reproducing it here. I’ve also explained this at somewhat painful length here. Correct me if I am wrong […]

How Redistribution Makes Us All Richer

Modeling the numbers on bottom-up and middle-out economics. How Redistribution Makes Us All Richer, Wealth Economics, Steve Roth You hear a lot about bottom-up and middle-out economics these days, as antidotes to a half-century of “trickle-down” theorizing and rhetoric. You’re even hearing it, prominently, from Joe Biden. They’re compelling ideas: put more wealth and income […]

Total Income, and the Collapse of the Household Labor Share

The decline in workers’ share of the total pie is far more extreme than standard measures suggest. Total Income, and the Collapse of the Household Labor Share, Wealth Economics, Steve Roth The best way to start this post is with a graph that many will find surprising, even eye-popping. The graph kind of speaks for […]

Economic Origin Stories and the State of the World

Asymptosis » Economic Origin Stories and the State of the World, Steve Roth. Origin stories and creation myths pack a pretty hefty weight of import in human understandings of the world. Examples are too numerous to mention. What I’ve noticed in the field of economics is such origin stories are often taken (mistakenly) to fully […]

Personal Saving Makes More than 40% of Property Income . . . Invisible. Think Total Return

Personal income, so Personal saving, ignore a huge part of Total Return — the income-from-assets measure used by every modern portfolio investor. Guess what’s missing? Personal Saving Makes More than 40% of Property Income . . . Invisible. Think Total Return, Wealth Economics, Steve Roth Matthew Klein and Joey Politano have been singularly responsible in their discussions of […]

Actually, Only Banks Print Money

Asymptosis » Actually, Only Banks Print Money, Steve Roth I’m thinking this headline will raise some eyebrows in the MMT community. But it’s not really so radical. It’s just using the word money very carefully, as defined here. Starting with the big picture:  You can compare the magnitude of these asset-creation mechanisms here. (Hint: cap gains rule.) The […]

Government is Not the Problem. Bad Government is the Problem

Having gone from trump to Biden. a person who I thought would never make a good president makes Steve’s argument on Bad Government being the problem when trump was the president. Asymptosis » Government is Not the Problem. Bad Government is the Problem, Steve Roth. And the solution to bad government is … good government. […]

The Evolution of Ownership….get off my lawn.

By Steve Roth (originally published at Evonomics) You Don’t Own That! The Evolution of Ownership Get off my lawn.  (repost) In a recent post on the “evolution of money,” which concentrated heavily on the idea of (balance-sheet) assets, I promised to come back to the fundamental idea behind “assets”: ownership. Herewith, fulfilling that promise. There are a […]

Liberals Getting it Wrong on the Job Guarantee

I’ve been quite troubled lately by voices I’ve been hearing from my compatriots on the Left discussing the Job Guarantee — especially in relation to an alternative, Universal Basic Income. A new Jacobin article by Mark Paul, William Darity Jr., and Darrick Hamilton displays several of the aspects that make me uncomfortable. Get the Math Right. Right off the bat, […]