Upcoming: Summary of book co-authored by MMT conference speaker Ndongo Samba Sylla
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James Keenan
Nov 21, 2019, 6:27:16 PM11/21/19
to Modern Monetary Theory
Over the next two weeks I'm going to be posting on this list chapter-by-chapter summaries of
But why, you may ask, should I read this book in any language?
Here's the short version.
Modern monetary theory is essentially a discussion of what a country can do if it has monetary sovereignty. Full monetary sovereignty means that a country issues its own currency, does not tie the value of that currency to another currency or to gold and does not have to incur debt in any foreign currency. Such a country can never become insolvent in its own currency. It can pursue macroeconomic objectives subject only to constraints in real resources -- not financial constraints.
But what if your country is nominally independent but lacks monetary sovereignty. You use a currency issued by some other country or authority. You have little control over monetary policy. Your currency is tied to another currency. In this case your macroeconomic policy is, to say the least, financially constrained.
And this is the case for the fifteen African countries which use the CFA franc, a currency originally tied to the French franc, now tied to the euro, managed -- according to Pigeaud and Sylla -- solely in the interests of France. A neocolonial currency; the antithesis of monetary sovereignty.
I'll be posting one chapter summary every two or three days. Note that my French is not good enough for me to be 100% confident that I understand all of the authors' arguments, but I think we'll get close enough for the purpose of this list.
Thank you very much.
Jim Keenan
L'Arme Invisible de la Françafrique: Une Histoire du Franc CFA by Fanny Pigeaud and Ndongo Samba Sylla. As mentioned previously on this list, Ndongo Sylla gave a presentation at September's Third International Modern Monetary Theory Conference at Stony Brook University -- a presentation favorably cited by Randall Wray.
In October I was in "Bookstore Heaven"and managed to locate a copy of Pigeaud and Sylla's book and use it as an incentive to resurrect my knowledge of French. The book will appear in English translation in July 2020, published by Pluto Press in both the UK and US. The upcoming chapter summaries will, I hope, whet your appetite for the English edition.
But why, you may ask, should I read this book in any language?
Here's the short version.
Modern monetary theory is essentially a discussion of what a country can do if it has monetary sovereignty. Full monetary sovereignty means that a country issues its own currency, does not tie the value of that currency to another currency or to gold and does not have to incur debt in any foreign currency. Such a country can never become insolvent in its own currency. It can pursue macroeconomic objectives subject only to constraints in real resources -- not financial constraints.
But what if your country is nominally independent but lacks monetary sovereignty. You use a currency issued by some other country or authority. You have little control over monetary policy. Your currency is tied to another currency. In this case your macroeconomic policy is, to say the least, financially constrained.
And this is the case for the fifteen African countries which use the CFA franc, a currency originally tied to the French franc, now tied to the euro, managed -- according to Pigeaud and Sylla -- solely in the interests of France. A neocolonial currency; the antithesis of monetary sovereignty.
I'll be posting one chapter summary every two or three days. Note that my French is not good enough for me to be 100% confident that I understand all of the authors' arguments, but I think we'll get close enough for the purpose of this list.
Thank you very much.
Jim Keenan
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