For me the biggest insight regarding #MMT isn't that taxes aren't needed prior to spending but that bonds are for monetary policy not fiscal. The big scary borrowing everyone hammers on about so much is nothing more than savings opportunities with an interest rate set by the BoE.
This realisation opens up important discussions about whether these savings opportunities are being provided on a fair and equitable basis, or indeed, whether they should exist at all in this format given the misinterpretation of their function.
Whilst eliminating interest on government "debt" may well be desirable, it would also eliminate safe savings opportunities for those in the private sector. For me personally, if a ZIRP were to be implemented then an offer should be made for individual savers. This may be in the
Form of a regular pensions savings account for each citizen, criteria based savings for the financial sector and fund managers, and perhaps a baby bond program to alleviate at least some elements of inequality and social mobility.

By restructuring private savings and
Reframing them as the obvious savings opportunities they are we accomplish two important things.

1. Remove the political tool of fearmongering the national debt and interest payments.
2. Create a counter conditioning narrative so that people can start to view the debt positively
Point 2 is incredibly important in order to shift public consciousness and vaccinate future generations against committing grave errors in the name of "reducing the debt burden". It would also allow a positive emotional attachment to be made to the national savings figures.
This would be akin to the emotional attachment some of us in the UK feel towards NI and taxes for services such as the NHS as we feel we have a stake in the game because of them, incidentally this is one of the reasons many deem the NHS "ours" more than say public land/services.

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More from @consbyname

Jul 5, 2018
When discussing the #NHS in terms of privatisation I always think it's useful to equate what neoliberals and the private sector are doing to it as akin to a parasite infecting its host. The goal of a parasite isn't to kill its host but to extract energy to allow it to grow. 1/11
Ultimately the parasite seeks to reproduce and spread, much the same as private providers offering and supplying public services has spread and increased over the years. So what is the "energy" these parasites are extracting, and how do they know they won't kill their host? 2/11
The energy source in the case of the NHS is the Treasury, the "energy" itself is the national currency. These parasites know that the currency issuer (government) has an unlimited ability to create the currency, and provided the public doesn't learn this fact, they can 3/11
Read 11 tweets
Mar 23, 2018
No problem, will take a while so bear with me.

As the issuer of the pound sterling, all £s originate via the UK government. In order for the UK to be able to claim back £s for taxes it must have spent those £s into existence by purchasing goods/services for use by gov. 1/?
In the UK our unit of account is denominated as the £, the US the $, Japan the ¥. Via the Treasury and Central Bank, the UK government controls and owns the unit of account. The £ is simply a measure of a relevant obligation/debt in relation to a good or service in that unit. 2/?
In laymans terms, we price things in our unit of account. A TV is not priced as 700, it is £700 or equivalently if we were measuring in dollars $990. The TV is a real thing, the obligation attached to it however is not, it is a measure of the price in the required unit 3/?
Read 22 tweets

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