Australian Politics Forum - Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)

thegreatdivide

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1260 - Oct 15^th, 2025 at 12:26pm

The collapse of democracy looms...all in the pursuit of delusional Neoclassical 'balanced government budget' orthodoxy.

France set for financial meltdown as Macron faces yet more humiliation over economic failure

France is set to go into a financial meltdown as president Emmanuel Macron faces yet another humiliation, after the country's independent fiscal watchdog said his government's budget plans 'may simply not materialise'.

Macron, 47, has been battered by crisis after crisis over the past few months, largely stemming from his attempts to control France's economy.

The euro zone's second-largest economy has a budget deficit nearly double the European Union's 3% limit last year and a debt-to-GDP ratio heading towards 118% - the third-highest in the EU after Greece and Italy, according to Eurostat.

Macron has tasked five different prime ministers in less than two years with reducing the deficit, the widest in the euro zone, to get the country's public finances back on an even keel.

But having lost control of parliament, and with opposition parties vehemently opposing his budget-squeezing plans, Macron's prime ministers have been toppled one after another, taking their fiscal plans with them.

Just last week, prime minister Sebastien Lecornu was reappointed to his role, having quit at the start of the week.

He presented a 2026 budget bill to parliament on Tuesday while facing the prospect of a no-confidence vote if his leftist opponents cannot stomach his budget plans.

Lecornu's budget, already submitted to the Haut Conseil des Finances Publiques for review, aims to narrow the deficit to between 4.7% and 5% of GDP — a modest improvement from this year's 5.4%, the fiscal watchdog said.

The plan hinges on a more than €30billion (£26.2billion) budget squeeze, including cuts to corporate tax breaks, tighter rules on social welfare contributions, and new levies such as a small parcel tax and an exceptional surtax on complementary health insurers, the Haut Conseil said.

It also clamps down on the taxation of holding companies used by wealthy people to lower their tax bills, stopping short of a 2% tax on wealth over 100 million euros as demanded by the Socialists.

'Overall, the public balance forecast for 2026 submitted to the Haut Conseil is weakened by an optimistic economic scenario and, more importantly, by the risk that the projected revenue and savings measures may be under-delivered — or may simply not materialise at all,' it said.

The government forecasts the economy will grow 1% next year, which the watchdog said was based on stronger private demand despite tougher belt-tightening. The watchdog does not issue its own forecasts.

The budget squeeze, equivalent to 1% of gross domestic product, is made up of 17 billion euros in spending cuts and nearly 14 billion in new taxes, the Haut Conseil said.

Financial markets are now increasingly sensitive to the political turmoil under Macron, with the risk premium on French bonds high and credit ratings under pressure, making the prospect of France getting its fiscal house in order seem ever more remote.

......

Meanwhile the US government shutdown continues because legislators can't agree on a government budget - a budget which is irrelevant for a currency-issuing government.

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thegreatdivide

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1261 - Oct 17^th, 2025 at 11:39am

Steve Keen writes:

See why Australian housing affordability collapsed in my new video:

https://youtu.be/M0aYmOBalJs?si=XQ_wTO_eC1gZ2aSg

Politicians say they want to help young buyers, but they're protecting the bubble. Here's what the data actually shows:

1. Price-to-income went from 4.5× to 12× since the 1970s: When today's politicians were young, housing was affordable. Now they want "sustainable price growth" to keep their wealth intact.

2. Mortgage credit acceleration drives prices, not shortages (ie supply): I ran 45 years of Australian data. The correlation between new mortgage lending and house price growth is undeniable.

3. Textbook economics is wrong about banks: Politicians learned that banks are intermediaries between savers and borrowers. The reality? Banks create money when they lend, and that inflates asset prices.

4. Private debt is the real crisis: Household debt went from 34% to 120% of GDP. Politicians obsess over government debt while private debt is what crashes economies.

I break down three solutions that could actually restore affordability: PILL (Property Income Limited Leverage), an Affordable Housing Authority that lends without interest, and a Modern Debt Jubilee.

Plus, see how Ravel visualizes these credit cycles in real time.

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« Last Edit: Oct 17^th, 2025 at 11:45am by thegreatdivide »

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thegreatdivide

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1262 - Oct 24^th, 2025 at 8:29pm

Karnal wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2025 at 4:30pm:

We have an independent Reserve Bank that handles all the money creation. One of its jobs is to create money on their computer to pay all the government's wonderful employees and programs. In turn, they use the cash to pay off their loans to the bank, and there you have it, the economy in action - a vast spiral of activity, promises to pay, and time.

"We have an independent Reserve Bank that handles all the money creation".

Mainstream error #1:

In the current obsolete Neoclassical economy, most money is created in private banks when they write loans - create deposits - for credit worthy customers.

(google)

Yes, most new money is created when private banks make new loans to creditworthy customers, a process often described as "credit creation". When a bank approves a loan, it creates a new deposit in the borrower's account, which is a form of electronic money that can be spent. This means the loan comes first, and the deposit is created to fund it..

Hence your assertion: "an independent Reserve Bank .... handles all the money creation" is vague; the central bank in our system is a semi-private entity which acts as a reserve bank for all the private banks; and:

(google)

The government borrows by issuing securities to the public and institutions at market interest rates. However, the RBA does provide a crucial function for the government by managing cash flows, and in very rare circumstances, it may provide a limited overdraft facility to cover temporary mismatches between spending and revenue.

Nothing about central bank money creation there.

You may be referring to QE, a rare process in which the government authorizes the reserve bank to issue money to banks , to increase liquidity in the banking system during an economic downturn.

(But QE is ineffective, because people don't want to borrow money from banks in a downturn).

Finally, the next paragraph in the google article quote above:

How the government funds itself

Borrows from the public: The government fully funds its deficit by issuing government bonds to the private sector and other investors.

Hence the notorious "taxpayer money" which funds government, either by taxes or bonds.

And there-in lies the cause of the impending collapse of democracy, ie government funding via "the private sector and other investors": the government can NEVER raise enough funds from the private sector to fund an economy which works for all because bond holders demand government's "live within their means" - remember Liz Truss's fate when bond vigilantes reacted badly to her "unfunded" budget.

While most people - even rich people - want LOWER taxes, and demand government 'balance the budget (like households must do).

(And btw, the PBofC is equally deluded by the Western mainstream government-debt-bad" narrative, so you can stop saying "... we do it this way in Oz").

Quote:

The march of compound interest, as Walt Rostow called it. It's how our economy works, interest adding to economic growth and more money, always on the up and up. Once economies get into the swing of this, there's no going back - until you get a financial crisis, but by then, you should have the savings to weather it out.

1. Compound interest only benefits savers; a large minority of the low-wage work-force and 'welfare' recipients can NEVER save.

2. Financial crises are a regular feature of neoclassical economies; and central banks with their absurd NAIRU dogma regularly ruin many lives while attempting to control inflation by wrecking the economy, and increasing unemployment.

Sure enough, a year or so ago when the unemployment rate was 3.5%, Bullock said "unemployment will have to increase to 4.5% to bring down inflation" - and here we are, with the latest unemployment rate just ticking up to 4.5%....job done!

Pity those now forced to join the ranks of those living on Job Seeker.

Add the involuntary under-employed and those who have givng up looking for work and are therefor not even counted in the stats, we have a million and half workers not being able to work to keep themselves out of poverty, in Oz.

(To be cont).

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« Last Edit: Oct 25^th, 2025 at 10:41am by thegreatdivide »

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Karnal

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1263 - Oct 24^th, 2025 at 11:46pm

thegreatdivide wrote on Oct 24^th, 2025 at 8:29pm:

Karnal wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2025 at 4:30pm:

[quote]We have an independent Reserve Bank that handles all the money creation. One of its jobs is to create money on their computer to pay all the government's wonderful employees and programs. In turn, they use the cash to pay off their loans to the bank, and there you have it, the economy in action - a vast spiral of activity, promises to pay, and time.

"We have an independent Reserve Bank that handles all the money creation".

Mainstream error #1:

In the current obsolete Neoclassical economy, most money is created in private banks when they write loans - create deposits - for credit worthy customers.

(google)

Yes, most new money is created when private banks make new loans to creditworthy customers, a process often described as "credit creation". When a bank approves a loan, it creates a new deposit in the borrower's account, which is a form of electronic money that can be spent. This means the loan comes first, and the deposit is created to fund it..

Hence your assertion: "an independent Reserve Bank .... handles all the money creation" is vague; the central bank in our system is a semi-private entity which acts as a reserve bank for all the private banks; and:

(google)

The government borrows by issuing securities to the public and institutions at market interest rates. However, the RBA does provide a crucial function for the government by managing cash flows, and in very rare circumstances, it may provide a limited overdraft facility to cover temporary mismatches between spending and revenue.

Nothing about central bank money creation there.

You may be referring to QE, a rare process in which the government authorizes the reserve bank to issue money to banks , to increase liquidity in the banking system during an economic downturn.

(But QE is ineffective, because people don't want to borrow money from banks in a downturn).

Finally, the next paragraph in the google article quote above:

How the government funds itself

Borrows from the public: The government fully funds its deficit by issuing government bonds to the private sector and other investors.

Hence the notorious "taxpayer money" which funds government, either by taxes or bonds.

And there-in lies the cause of the impending collapse of democracy, ie government funding via "the private sector and other investors": the government can NEVER raise enough funds from the private sector to fund an economy which works for all because bond holders demand government's "live within their means" - remember Liz Truss's fate when bond vigilantes reacted badly to her "unfunded" budget.

While most people - even rich people - want LOWER taxes, and demand government 'balance the budget (like households must do).

(And btw, the PBofC is equally deluded by the Western mainstream government-debt-bad" narrative, so you can stop saying "... we do it this way in Oz").

Quote:

The march of compound interest, as Walt Rostow called it. It's how our economy works, interest adding to economic growth and more money, always on the up and up. Once economies get into the swing of this, there's no going back - until you get a financial crisis, but by then, you should have the savings to weather it out.

1. Compound interest only benefits savers; a large minority of the low-wage work-force and 'welfare' recipients can NEVER save.

2. Financial crises are a regular feature of neoclassical economies; and central banks with their absurd NAIRU dogma regularly ruin many lives while attempting to control inflation by wrecking the economy, and increasing unemployment.

Sure enough, a year or so ago when the unemployment rate was 3.5%, Bullock said "unemployment will have to increase to 4.5% to bring down inflation" - and here we are, with the latest unemployment rate just ticking up to 4.5%....job done!

Pity those now forced to join the ranks of those living on Job Seeker.

Add the involuntary under-employed and those who have givng up looking for work and are therefor not even counted in the stats, we have a million and half workers not being able to work to keep themselves out of poverty, in Oz.

(To be cont).

True, but the RBA's held off recession for the past 30-odd years in Australia, dear.

I know you'll say, yes but that's just one measure of suffering, consider the effects of the Asian Financial Crisis, the GFC, and covid on countries without government stimulus packages.

Read your Walt Rostow in the link. Compound interest doesn't just apply to savers, it was the main theory of economic development in the 60s and 70s, prior to neoliberalism.

I'd be wary of applying macro economic solutions to the lives of the working poor, dear. While that's definitely a job for governments, those of us who've received benefits and lived poor may prefer to see themselves having a little more agency.

Who knows? We well may be wrong.

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thegreatdivide

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1264 - Oct 25^th, 2025 at 10:44am

Karnal wrote on Oct 24^th, 2025 at 11:46pm:

True, but the RBA's held off recession for the past 30-odd years in Australia, dear.

I know you'll say, yes but that's just one measure of suffering, consider the effects of the Asian Financial Crisis, the GFC, and covid on countries without government stimulus packages.

Correct. And only fools say the government shouldn't have supported locked down wokers during the pandemic, when no-one knew how deadly it would prove to be ....from my perspective, covid turned out to be piss-weak, and economies opened up quickly before public debt had become insurmountable: a 'decent' pandemic would have forced economists to admit currency-issuing governments can fund essential services without taxing, or borrowing their own currency from the private sector.

As for the mainstream narrative that government debt caused inflation: the post-covid inflation episode was caused by lingering supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic lockdowns and widespread illness among workers, not government debt

Quote:

Read your Walt Rostow in the link. Compound interest doesn't just apply to savers, it was the main theory of economic development in the 60s and 70s, prior to neoliberalism.

Rostow?

"Prominent for his role in shaping US foreign policy in Southeast Asia during the 1960s, he was a staunch anti-communist, noted for a belief in the efficacy of capitalism and free enterprise, and strongly supported US involvement in the Vietnam War. Rostow is known for his book The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (1960)

If you'll excuse me, in my MMT studies I have learned of many 'free-enterprise' ideologues intent on rejecting even the successes of post WW2 Keynesian 'welfare-state' economics, funded in part by deficit spending.

Here's another:

https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/

Powell Memorandum: Attack on the American Free Enterprise System.

Quote:

I'd be wary of applying macro economic solutions to the lives of the working poor, dear. While that's definitely a job for governments, those of us who've received benefits and lived poor may prefer to see themselves having a little more agency.

Ah - your (Western) 'individual freedom' ideology is showing again.

I'm sure the homeless remember the pandemic as the time when the government paid to house them in hotels....

Quote:

Who knows? We well may be wrong.

Is AGW/CO2 climate change real?

We will HAVE to know soon, so the BIS/IMF can be authorized to issue 'free money' to purchase and shut down the entire global fossil-fuel industry, while funding the transition to a green economy in all nations, ASAP.

The stakes are high....

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« Last Edit: Oct 25^th, 2025 at 12:32pm by thegreatdivide »

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thegreatdivide

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1265 - Oct 25^th, 2025 at 12:44pm

(cont. from #1262)

Quote:

To keep the whole thing going, you need an ever-increasing population, so we import people. Those people get in on the loan thing, the banks create more money to buy houses, and Australia stays afloat through the price of real estate.

Yes, as per the mainstream 'continuous growth' model - impossible on a finite planet.

Quote:

Now, far be it from I to lecture the Chinese on population, but you need to get the fundamentals right. If you people can't get the same trick happening in your country, don't blame us. You can't trust the government and their friends in big business to plan everything. They're hopeless.

(Ignoring the fact I'm not Chinese...); hopeless because of the "taxpayer money" delusion - apart from corruption and criminality which should decrease in a 'Public Money: Public Good' economy which works for all, whether in Oz or China.

Quote:

In Australia, you need to convince people first. You do this by creating desire. People have to want to buy in. You create desire by finding sneaky ways to get them to want things.

Nothing like a bit a humour....aka as 'junk consummerism"?

Quote:

Back in my day, the real estate part of the newspaper was always the biggest. The old print stalwart, Domain, was once a form of property porn. It's now online, of course, and it's equally pornographic. Nearly every home auction I've been to had a journalist lurking around. When I bought my house, they put the story on Domain, can you believe it? Guy buys house. It was a boring story, so they sugared it up with how it was the best time to buy property.

The CCP fell for the same 'housing as investment delusion' - which eventually failed in China (eg the Evergrande disaster) for reasons I already explained.

But will Oz democracy continue to thrive while an entire generation of new workers is locked out of home ownrship?

Quote:

Real estate ads were the print media's "rivers of gold". They were when the colony was first established, and still are today. The allegory of gold refers to the gold rush days, Australia's first population boom. Back then, anybody who wanted to come to Australia could - until the British racists kicked out the Chinese and established the White Australia Policy, but that's all by the by. Today, racists like that only exist online, so it's all good.

So, banks don't just create money out of thin air, dear, there's a bit of an art to it.

Yes, as noted by prof Steve Keen:

See why Australian housing affordability collapsed in my new video:

https://youtu.be/M0aYmOBalJs?si=XQ_wTO_eC1gZ2aSg

Politicians say they want to help young buyers, but they're protecting the bubble. Here's what the data actually shows:

1. Price-to-income went from 4.5× to 12× since the 1970s: When today's politicians were young, housing was affordable. Now they want "sustainable price growth" to keep their wealth intact.

2. Mortgage credit acceleration drives prices, not shortages (ie supply): I ran 45 years of Australian data. The correlation between new mortgage lending and house price growth is undeniable.

3. Textbook economics is wrong about banks: Politicians learned that banks are intermediaries between savers and borrowers.
The reality?
Banks create money when they lend, and that inflates asset prices.

4. Private debt is the real crisis: Household debt went from 34% to 120% of GDP. Politicians obsess over government debt while private debt is what crashes economies.

...

Steve continues with his solutions.

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thegreatdivide

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1266 - Oct 27^th, 2025 at 11:59am

The gruesome mainstream Conservative view on taxation, continuing Thatcther's dictum "there is no such thing as government money" :

(Daily Mail)

Ex-Bank governor Mervyn King slaps down Rachel Reeves' incoherent' mansion tax plot

Under the proposals, the owners of properties worth £2million and above would face a charge of 1 per cent of the amount by which the property exceeds that value – meaning that owners of a £3million property would face a bill of £10,000 every year.

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said: 'Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves promised not to raise taxes, now we know they are planning to do just that. If Starmer and Reeves introduce a so-called mansion tax, they will be punishing aspiration and hitting hard-working people. This isn't fairness, it's class war.

'If Rachel Reeves had a backbone, she'd get a grip of spending – including the welfare bill – instead of raising taxes again and chasing out the very wealth creators our economy depends on.

'Under Labour, nothing is safe – not your job, your home, your savings or your pension. Rachel Reeves will tax your children's future to pay for her failure.'

The plans come as exclusive new polling reveals the collapse in public confidence over the state of the economy.

......

Not "fair" for the "aspiration" of "hard-working" people who OWN properties worth more than 2 million UK pounds (more than 4 million Oz dollars)?

They are obviously failing to create enough wealth to eradicate poverty and fund essential public services.......

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thegreatdivide

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1267 - Oct 28^th, 2025 at 7:53pm

The IMF's economists should be sacked immediately.

(Euro News)

US borrowing expected to rival Europe’s most indebted states, says IMF

(skipping the garbage)

This accumulation of debt, ageing and higher borrowing costs is no longer a local concern. It is, as the IMF stated, a global systemic risk that could amplify vulnerabilities across financial markets.

A loss of investor confidence in one major economy could reverberate through bond markets, currencies, and banks worldwide.

The IMF has therefore urged governments to adopt credible medium-term fiscal frameworks to stabilise debt and rebuild buffers. But such discipline is increasingly politically toxic, as populists across Europe and North America on both left and right promise lower taxes, higher pensions, and more spending.

In short, the IMF report stressed that the era of limitless borrowing is over, and that economies cannot continue to draw on the public purse strings as before.

Current complacency surrounding debt could make it much harder for governments to weather future economic shocks and crises.

.........

Er ......what's wrong with governments paying off the bondholders and closing the bond markets forever?

The IMF dummies seem to be unaware that currency-issuing governments - by definition - don't NEED to borrow money.

Rather c-i governments need to limit spending to the purchase of available resources, to avoid inflation.

The IMF dummies even noted the "politically toxic" issues which governments are dealing with while trying to 'balance their budgets' and reduce debt - already causing political chaos in many nations, yet they offer more politically-enervating, painful 'toxicity' as the solution.

They should be sacked and forced to face the ire of the electors in these nations which aren't practising enough "discipline", according to these IMF ignoramuses.

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thegreatdivide

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1268 - Oct 29^th, 2025 at 2:40pm

Starmer wants more young people in work - but he's going the wrong away about it.

(Daily Mail)

Starmer vows to get jobless youngsters back into work 'by threatening to cut their benefits'

Keir Starmer has vowed to get young people working and off benefits by slashing welfare spending.

The Prime Minister is said to have admitted this week that the large number of people receiving the support is damaging as they may 'struggle to get off' it.

New figures showed there are now an additional one million people on universal credit since Labour took office.

Almost a million under-25s are not in either work, education or training but are instead dependent on state handouts.

Sir Keir told The Sun: 'We must get them back into work.

'Those that can should be in work, so everyone has that ability to get up, to earn to contribute and actually have the self-fulfillment and the self-respect that work gives so many people.'

'So we have to bear down on this to do more on welfare and I’m determined to do this.'

However the Labour leader twice declined to confirm whether the cuts would be in Rachel Reeves' November budget.

The Prime Minister has also said he hopes more young people will take up apprenticeships and that these may be on an equal footing with degrees - guaranteeing skilled work for many years to come.

This week it emerged Ms Reeves had suffered a fresh blow ahead of her Budget next month amid a larger-than-expected downgrade to official productivity forecasts.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) watchdog is now reportedly poised to cut its trend productivity forecast by about 0.3 percentage points in its upcoming projections.

It is estimated this will open a fresh hole in the public finances of more than £20billion as the Chancellor attempts to put together her latest fiscal package.

This will increase the size of Ms Reeves' task in balancing the books and will put Britons on alert for even bigger tax hikes on 26 November.

There has already been speculation she could break Labour's manifesto pledges and raise income tax, while the Treasury is also considering proposals for a 'mansion tax'.

.......

The government ought to consider the MMT 'Job Guarantee' proposal, then the problem of able people surviving on welfare wouldn't arise.

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thegreatdivide

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1269 - Nov 4^th, 2025 at 3:29pm

From Prof. Steve Keen:

.......

Watch my latest breakdown on why private debt, not government debt, is the real economic threat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQwhjn4H4Vc

Every pundit warns about government debt, but here's what the data actually shows:

Private debt is bigger than government debt: In the US, private debt stands at 170% of GDP while government debt is 120%. Yet we only hear warnings about the smaller number.

Economic crises come from private debt collapses: The 2008 financial crisis happened when credit plunged from 15% of GDP to -5%. The Great Depression followed the same pattern. Government debt didn't cause either crisis.

Mainstream economists ignore the real problem: Ben Bernanke claimed to be an expert on the Great Depression but completely missed the 2008 crisis. Why? Because neoclassical theory treats banks as mere intermediaries, not as creators of money and debt.

We need a Modern Debt Jubilee: With US household debt at $20 trillion, I propose using the government's capacity to create money to reduce private debt levels without crashing the money supply. This would give every working-age adult roughly $100,000 to pay down debt or buy Jubilee bonds.

I break down Irving Fisher's forgotten insights, why Bernanke's quantitative easing made things worse, and how we can fix this mess.

Watch the full analysis here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQwhjn4H4Vc

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Bobby.

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1270 - Nov 4^th, 2025 at 3:33pm

When Howard was in we owed no money:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-07/alberici-economic-comparisons/4672166

By 2007, the $96 billion in debt the Howard government had inherited in 1996
was entirely paid down and the budget was in surplus to the tune of $20 billion.

Now -

according to the Australian debt clock -
total Govt debt is over $2 trillion.

http://australiandebtclock.com.au

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Bobby.

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1271 - Nov 5^th, 2025 at 3:45pm

What happened in Venezuela from money printing?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_bol%C3%ADvar

From 2016 to 2019 and again in 2020, the currency experienced hyperinflation for a total period of 38 months.[7]

The rampant inflation prompted another two redenominations. The first occurred in August 2018, when Bs.F 100,000 were exchanged for 1 sovereign bolívar (bolívar soberano in Spanish, sign: Bs.S, code: VES).[8] The second one, dubbed the "nueva expresión monetaria" or new monetary expression, occurred on 1 October 2021, when Bs.S 1,000,000 were exchanged for 1 digital bolívar[a] (bolívar digital in Spanish, sign: Bs.D, code: VED),[9][10] thus making

one digital bolívar worth 100,000,000,000,000

(1014, or Bs. 100 trillion in short scale) of the pre-2008 bolívares.

Bank notes in rubbish bins:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/850763357627250

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thegreatdivide

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1272 - Nov 5^th, 2025 at 8:10pm

Bobby. wrote on Nov 4^th, 2025 at 3:33pm:

When Howard was in we owed no money:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-07/alberici-economic-comparisons/4672166

By 2007, the $96 billion in debt the Howard government had inherited in 1996
was entirely paid down and the budget was in surplus to the tune of $20 billion.

Now -

according to the Australian debt clock -
total Govt debt is over $2 trillion.

http://australiandebtclock.com.au

Yes.

The mining boom enabled Howard to eliminate government debt without raising taxes.

But fear not: the Oz treasury can make the current government debt disappear any time it likes; and notice - inflation is contained despite the $2 trillion government debt.

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thegreatdivide

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1273 - Nov 5^th, 2025 at 8:17pm

Bobby. wrote on Nov 5^th, 2025 at 3:45pm:

What happened in Venezuela from money printing?

Government income from oil collapsed, and the nation could no longer afford essential imports (unlike Oz) - hence the resulting hyperinflation as Maduro tried to maintain Chavez' (up to then, successful and popular) welfare state.

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Bobby.

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Re: Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Reply #1274 - Nov 5^th, 2025 at 8:23pm

thegreatdivide wrote on Nov 5^th, 2025 at 8:17pm:

Bobby. wrote on Nov 5^th, 2025 at 3:45pm:

What happened in Venezuela from money printing?

Government income from oil collapsed, and the nation could no longer afford essential imports (unlike Oz) - hence the resulting hyperinflation as Maduro tried to maintain Chavez' (up to then, successful and popular) welfare state.

They tried to print their way out of a recession - it failed.

What is Australia doing?

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