Curbs on capitalism in the 21st century

Controls can include monetary policy, writes Mike Ellwood; Yugo Kovach recommends restricting migrant labour; and there's always revolution, points out Gareth Reeves

I am delighted that Larry Elliott (Think our governments can no longer control capitalism? You've been duped, 14 December) has discovered Professor Bill Mitchell's book Reclaiming the State.

Mitchell is a respected "heterodox" economist who specialises in modern monetary theory, and writes an almost daily blog in which he explains MMT and its political and economic implications. If Elliott were to fully learn the lessons of MMT from Mitchell's book and/or blog, then perhaps he would not write (as he recently did) about governments of countries like the UK (which issues its own currency in a floating exchange rate system) having to "borrow" in order to run a fiscal deficit. The "borrowing" that does take place is a "voluntary" restriction placed upon the government's freedom to spend, for reasons that are no longer valid (if they ever were), as Mitchell expertly explains, and could be dropped, if the government so willed.

Continue reading...