Recommended Reading: Elgar Companion to Modern Money Theory
James Keenan
Three years ago this month I and some other readers of this list had the opportunity to attend the Levy Institute's 2022 Summer Seminar on Modern Monetary Theory, Minsky and Godley. I wrote a series of posts on this list (starting here about the Summer Seminar. Over an eight-day stretch more than forty MMT scholars made presentations, mostly in person, to an audience of 65 students from around the world. In advance of the seminar we were asked to read papers authored by these scholars. I filled several binders with these papers for which I ran up quite a tab at Staples for photocopying.
A year ago I got an email promoting the book I'm discussing today. I looked at the table of contents and thought to myself, "Oh, they put out a volume of papers from the Summer Seminar. I have to get this, at least as a keepsake."
Well, it turns out that this book, The Elgar Companion to Modern Money Theory, edited by Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray, is not quite -- or not just -- a collection of papers from the 2022 Summer Seminar. Of twenty-seven contributors to this volume, thirteen were speakers at that event. Some of the other contributors are familiar to MMT advocates; some are people whose work I'm reading for the first time here.
Nonetheless, this is a book which serious students of MMT should have in their libraries. If I were teaching a graduate level course in MMT, this would be on the reading list. I should note, however, that this volume is -- how should I phrase this? -- priced for the academic library market. So if you're teaching or studying at the college level, you should definitely pressure your school's library to make the acquisition for you.
I'm listing the book's contents here. If you have an interest in particular chapters and want to learn more about them, please email me off-list and we'll have some dialogue.
Contents
Introduction to Modern Money Theory, Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray
SECTION I THE NATURE AND ORIGINS OF MONEY
1 On the nature and origins of money, Alla Semenova
2 Civic and temple origins of Greek coinage, Michael Hudson
3 Modern Money Theory: sociology and economics, Geoffrey Ingham
4 Redemption, Eric Tymoigne
5 The paper money of colonial America, Farley Grubb
6 Monetary dissent and the erasure of state power in American history, David M. P. Freund
7 Modern Money Theory and international law working together, John D. Haskell
SECTION II MODERN MONEY THEORY FUNDAMENTALS
8 Modern Money Theory and economic theory, Eric Tymoigne
9 Consolidation technique, Eric Tymoigne
10 Sector financial balances and Modern Monetary Theory, Robert W. Parenteau
11 Financial balances, Gennaro Zezza
12 Government debt in the modern money system, Joelle Leclaire
13 Unpacking the dynamics of fiscal deficits and debt, Martin Watts
14 Buffer stock approaches to inflation control, William Mitchell
15 The Job Guarantee: Modern Money Theory's proposal for full employment and price stability, Pavlina R. Tcherneva
16 Why Hyman Minsky matters for Modern Money Theory, L. Randall Wray
SECTION III RESOURCE CONSTRAINTS
17 Resource constraints, Sam Levey
18 Resource constraints and economic policy, Yeva Nersisyan
19 Why Social Security can't go "broke", Kerry Pechter
20 The Modern Money Theory approach to provisioning for an aging population, Yeva Nersisyan, Xinhua Liu and L. Randall Wray
SECTION IV MODERN MONEY THEORY AND THE EXTERNAL SECTOR
21 The Modern Monetary Theory perspective on the external economy, William Mitchell
22 Modern Money Theory and exchange rates, John Harvey
23 Money, foreign exchange and the balance of payments, Michael Hudson
SECTION V MODERN MONEY THEORY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
24 Modern Monetary Theory as an analytical framework and a policy lens: an African perspective, Ndongo Samba Sylla
25 Harnessing sovereign money for development finance and solving the debt conundrum: the case of China, Yan Liang
26 Job Guarantee as sustainable development policy: balancing China's economic development and ecological civilization, Yijiang Huang
SECTION VI MODERN MONEY THEORY AND ECONOMIC POLICY
27 The politics of apolitical money: Paul Volcker and monetary policy in action, David Stein
28 Fiscal policy in the Eurozone, Dirk Ehnts
29 Sovereign currency and non-sovereign budgets: the Modern Money Theory approach to provincial, state, and local government budgets, L. Randall Wray
30 Is Overt Monetary Financing a viable option in the post-pandemic era?, Martin Watts
31 Electricity provisioning under the Green New Deal: a Modern Monetary Theory approach, Avraham I. Baranes and Mitchell R. Green
32 The regional Job Guarantee: fostering economic democracy and promoting public participation, Michael J. Murray
SECTION VII RESPONSES TO CRITICS
33 Modern Money Theory and the monetary system: a response to critics, Eric Tymoigne
34 Modern Money Theory policymaking praxis: a response to critics, Eric Tymoigne
35 Modern Money Theory policymaking praxis and financial and economic stability: a response to critics, Eric Tymoigne