Video – Exploring the basic principles and myths surrounding MMT

It’s Wednesday and I am besieged with writing commitments. Luckily, I have a video to present and some other things that might be of interest. And a short musical offering with a difference.

Event – Exploring the basic principles and myths surrounding MMT, Brisbane, October 5, 2021

Here is a video of a presentation I made yesterday to a group of financial professionals in Brisbane. They are running a series on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and had originally invited me to debate a gold bug type from the US.

I declined given that the person in question had made a series of vapid (being generous) comments about MMT and spending time with that level of hostility would have been a waste.

So they decided to run the series over two weeks – with my presentation yesterday and his next week. The twain shall never meet!

The talk went for about 30 minutes and is quite elementary – more to give a feel for what a skeptic needs to keep under control before launching into an attack on our work.

Some questions followed.

Next event – Festival of Resistance, October 16-17, 2021

While I have several speaking engagements in the next few weeks, most are for private audiences and will not be made available to the general public.

My next public event will be at the – Festival of Resistance – which is a 2-day event being held at the City Conference and Banqueting (Kashmir) Centre, Carlton Road Nottingham, UK over the weekend October 16-17, 2021.

It being organised by Resist, which is a:

Movement for a People’s party is a grassroots movement with nationwide support, which aims to empower communities and workers through democratic, practical and political means

I am really happy to be part of this movement and able to contribute in some small way.

With the state of the British Labour Party at the moment it is really crucial for a new working class voice to emerge and build into a cogent vehicle to oppose the Tories in Britain, but also spread and become a truly global movement.

“From little things big things grow” (Paul Kelly, Australian musician – Source).

If you are in Britain or close by and can travel then you can get tickets to the Festival from the Home Page linked to above.

They have put together a great lineup of speakers including Lowkey, Alexei Sayle, Jackie Walker, Max Blumenthal, Abby Martin, Bob Gill, Gerry Maclochlainn, representatives from the Gillet Jaunes Movement, Tosh McDonald, Ilan Pappé, Nina Schild, John Dunn, Shamsher Chohan, Mike Sivier and the founder of Resist, Chris Williamson.

And we should not forget Carlos García Hernández.

As details emerge, I will post how you can participate remotely.

I am presenting or participating on both days and you can find the details via the – Schedule.

My appearances will be in the morning (UK time) to accommodate the fact that I am stuck here in Australia and there is a big time difference.

I was so hoping that Covid would have been in retreat by now and I could have been there in person.

But great work by Chris Williamson and the Resist Team to get this happening finally – after two major Covid-induced delays.

The person with no name

Last week, I wrote a two-part series:

1. Marx and MMT – Part 1 (September 28, 2021).

2. (Modern) Marx and MMT – Part 2 (September 30, 2021).

I began by noting that I gave a talk at the Resist Event in Brighton (UK September 26, 2021) and that on the panel was a person who dismissed Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) as irrelevant to the real challenges that arose under Capitalism and he invoked Marx a lot.

The reason I did not name the person was because I didn’t want the series to be about a person or become personal.

The comments he made were representative of a narrative that a group of self-identified Marxists make about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and so I was answering the criticisms in an impersonal, general way.

Evidentially, the person was miffed that I did not name him.

Bad luck I guess.

Music – RIP Matthew Berg

I pause my usual musical segment this week because on Sunday, October 3, 2021, the drummer in my band, Matthew Berg died.

He was a long-time friend and a great drummer.

We will miss him a lot and think of him often.

Here is a song that we often use to open our set – it gives us a chance to get our levels etc. It is about being at peace.

We are all very sad that Matt has gone now.

Our last gig with Matt was a live stream we did on December 18, 2020 which is available – HERE. He was unable to return for the few gigs we have done this year before the long lockdown restrictions began again.

That is enough for today!

(c) Copyright 2021 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.