William F. Mitchell > Quotes

“For less developed countries, a currency-issuing government faces different issues to that of an advanced nation, especially where essentials like food and energy must be imported. In the case of less developed countries, specific problems cannot be easily overcome by just increasing fiscal deficits.”
― William F. Mitchell, Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers

“Wage changes occur at infrequent intervals and condition the behaviour of the parties concerned for the ensuing economic period (sometimes months, usually years).”
― William F. Mitchell, Macroeconomics

“An MMT understanding allows us to appreciate that there would be no financial impediment for a government building national industries, funding research and development, providing first-class universities and apprenticeship training and the rest. If a nation with its own currency slides into oblivion by closing its manufacturing sector, cutting career public sector jobs and relying on low-paid and precarious service sector jobs for employment creation, then that has little to do with running external deficits, and everything to do with political choices.”
― William F. Mitchell, Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers

“While export spending boosts national income, we consider exports to be a cost in the sense that they deprive the domestic population of the use of the real resources that are used up in the production of the goods and services sold abroad.”
― William F. Mitchell, Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers

“An MMT understanding allows us to appreciate that there would be no financial impediment for a government building national industries, funding research and development, providing first-class universities and apprenticeship training and the rest. If a nation with its own currency slides into oblivion by closing its manufacturing sector, cutting career public sector jobs and relying on low-paid and precarious service sector jobs for employment creation, then that has little to do with running external deficits, and
everything to do with political choices.”
― William F. Mitchell, Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers

“A vision of national sovereignty which offers a radical alternative to that of both the right and the neoliberals – one based on popular sovereignty, democratic control over the economy, full employment, social justice, redistribution from the rich to the poor, inclusivity, and more generally the socio-ecological transformation of production and society – is not only necessary, it is possible.”
― William F. Mitchell, Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World

“Nations do not exist in isolation. Peoples have always roamed the globe in search of different opportunities. Nations principally trade to expand their consumption possibilities. In a world where we produce to consume, receiving goods and services is better in material terms than sending them elsewhere.”
― William F. Mitchell, Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers

“While export spending boosts national income, we consider exports to be a cost in the sense that they deprive the domestic population of the use of the
real resources that are used up in the production of the goods and services sold abroad.”
― William F. Mitchell, Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers

“For a quarter-century we were told that monetary policy was a technocratic, rules-driven process, best governed by so-called ‘independent’ central banks, immune from political pressures. Of course, those central banks were never independent: their role, and the policy edifice they oversaw, was always profoundly biased in order to elevate the interests of financial wealth (through strict inflation control) over other economic and social priorities.”
― William F. Mitchell, Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World

“The main thing to keep in mind about taxes is that they reduce liquidity in the private sector. Fiscal deficits increase the financial wealth of the non-government sector. Fiscal surpluses, clearly, have the opposite effect: they destroy net financial assets and financial wealth in the non-government sector.”
― William F. Mitchell, Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World

“The multilateral institutions that were introduced in the Post World War II period to coordinate international aid – the IMF and the World Bank – have failed in their respective missions. They became agents for the ‘free market’ ideology and through their structural adjustment packages and related policies have made it harder for a nation to develop.”
― William F. Mitchell, Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers

“There is a parable that allows us to understand better the relationship between the government and non-government sector. Imagine a small community comprising 100 dogs. Each morning they set off into the field to dig for bones. If there are enough bones for all the dogs buried in the field then they would each succeed in their search no matter how fast or dexterous they were. Now imagine that one day the 100 dogs set off for the field as usual, but this time they find there are only 90 bones buried. As a matter of accounting, at least ten dogs will return home bone-less. Now imagine that the government decides that this is unsustainable and decides that it is the skills and motivation of the bone-less dogs that is the problem. They are not skilled enough. They are idlers, skivers and just need to ‘bone-seek’ harder. So, a range of dog psychologists and dog trainers are called in to work on the attitudes and skills of the bone-less dogs. The dogs undergo assessment and are assigned case managers. They are told that unless they undergo training they will miss out on their nightly bowl of food that the government provides to them while bone-less. They feel despondent. Anyway, after running and digging skills are imparted to the bone-less dogs, things start to change. Each day, as the 100 dogs go in search of 90 bones, we start to observe different dogs coming back bone-less. The composition of the bone-less queue changes. However, on any particular day, there are still 100 dogs running into the field and only 90 bones buried there. At least ten dogs will always return bone-less. The only way for all dogs to get a bone is for the government to increase the number of bones.”
― William F. Mitchell, Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World

“For example, they have accepted without question the so-called household budget analogy, which suggests that currency-issuing governments, like households, face financial constraints and thus must limit their spending or face sanctions from private bond markets.”
― William F. Mitchell, Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World