Modern Money Lab

Today's end of term message from another one of our online Masters students (#MMT).

"I really can't express how awesome the whole masters has been so far."

modernmoneylab.org.au/courses/

Yes, an understanding of currency issuance and monetary sovereignty changes the game, and opens up the range of policy options. But it does not remove the constraints, and - responding to famous neoclassical economist Roger Farmer – it very much does not mean free money for all.

MMT is not a free for all. Not everything can be done at once. Real resource constraints must be respected. Investments must target priority areas, including bottlenecks and investments vital for ecological sustainability and social stability.

The kinds of things MMT advocates push for must be located in a more general policy framework which addresses these issues, as well as including the well-known job guarantee as an efficient use of real resources to achieve non-inflationary full employment.

To advocate for improved public services does not remove capacity constraints in those sectors or in the economy generally.

An MMT-informed government will not be a push-over in wage negotiations. To say, a zero-interest rate policy is an option is to say that the drivers of asset prices more generally will need to be addressed, and implications for pension funds and other institutions addressed.

To say modern governments have price-setting power is to say that the avoidance of increases in the price level requires governments to limit paying higher prices when it buys, including for labour services.

In a number of high-income countries, we will before long see MMT-informed governments in power. They will need to be tough and parsimonious with real resources to be successful.

Your job, if you are UK MMT, is to create a safe-space for brave & talented politicians like Polanski to discuss policies which will offer economic security to all. If you are able, and lack academic credentials, come and achieve some. It will help a lot.

It is my belief that the first step, when a well-informed (about the monetary system) government comes to power, is to ensure economic security for all, with all that implies. Once achieved, you can plan for a future genuinely sustainable, well-being, post-capitalist economy.

Any economist whose work is approved of by Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell is part of the problem. Stewart and Campbell are, I am sure, essentially good people, but the things they have mistakenly taken for granted have helped create Donald Trump and Nigel Farage.

We are thinking of doing a one-day afternoon/evening MMT bootcamp in or near Brighton (England) in late June, in case anyone is interested.

I recently mentioned scholarships for exceptional women applicants under 40yrs. We will receive more such applications than we can fund, in case anyone with AUD10,000 to spare is there and would be keen to help,

Always grateful for any help: steven.hail@modernmoneylab.org.au

So it looks like this for Aus. For comparability, I will use this calibration for the other 207 countries I am examining.

The black line going down indicates that I think Australia's provision of sustainable well-being is going backwards, even as its estimated domestic emissions are falling.

I have the freedom to calibrate a bit, so I thought I'd calibrate to make the GEP track GDP in Australia, until the global social costs of our fossil fuel (and other material) exports drove a wedge between them.

I'm playing with this very simple USD indicator, presently called a GEP (Gross Economic Product) as it is too simple to dignify it with the acronym GPI, which values inequality, domestic labour, underemployment, emissions and material footprint in conventional ways.

Warm old man in a cool t-shirt on a hot early (southern hemisphere) summer's day.

New t-shirts, courtesy of a benefactor.

www.torrens.edu.au/courses/busi...

Economics of Sustainability 2026 Lecture Series Free online talks with world leading experts in #MMT and ecological economics.

Hear from seven world-leading experts in our January 2026 Economics of Sustainability free lecture series, hosted by Modern Money Lab and TUA.

That's Maryam H'Madoun, Stephanie Kelton, Pavlina Tcherneva, Tim Foxon, John Harvey, Scott Fullwiler and Phil Lawn.

events.humanitix.com/economics-of...

Name omitted, as it could be any our lecturers, but another such message today...

"Gabie and Steven - you already know this & want to reaffirm - (name omitted) is a gem & absolute asset to the Masters!"

Teach relevant economics well & this happens.

steven.hail@torrens.edu.au

3) Suggest the podcasters enrol on the Torrens University Masters degree in Economics, which includes a realistic and detailed description of modern monetary systems.

d) If we must stay as we are, realise these interest payments mostly depend on central bank interest rate decisions over time, are only mildly stimulative (for domestic currency bonds) and add to income inequality at higher rates. They do not stop you providing public services.

c) Preferably with international co-operation, shift to zero policy interest rates, and adopt other ways of managing inflation (MMT authors and others have written about these). Then just don't ever issue debt securities and leave zero interest reserves in the system.

b) Return to a system of treasury security issuance by tap, at interest rates determined by the central bank and government. If investors don't want to buy, leave them on the central bank balance sheet.

a) Have the central bank (Bank of England) issue these securities and sit with non-marketable government liabilities on its balance sheet or just run with 'negative equity' there instead.

Treasury securities are issued to provide safe assets to fund managers; to provide benchmark yields for private debt securities; and (in some circumstances) to drain cash from the money market for monetary policy purposes. Not to pay for anything. It would be better to do some of the following -

Currency issuers spend via currency issuance every day. They do not need to issue debt securities at all, from the point of view of paying for their spending.

Next time Mr Polanski is asked a childish 'gotcha' style question about debt interest, he should say these things, though not perhaps in this order.
1) Google it (apologies to A. Bandt).
2) Debt issuance by the UK Govt is a choice, not a necessity. It is not to fund deficits...

For more information, email steven.hail@torrens.edu.au

2) A one-off scholarship, for up to 3 students, covering 100% of tuition fees for the part-time 12-subject Masters degree, open ONLY to women under the age of 40, funded by a (very recent) one-off special-purpose donation, for students starting in February 2026.