Author Archives: Mark Kenyon

Q: Coronavirus state aid. Who pays the bill?

By Mark Kenyon | Thu 14th May 2020 - 3:22 pm

A: No one has to pay.

I can imagine the fog in an economist’s head confronted with my question and answer. This new thinking appears as alchemy to orthodox economists. Conversely, what they trot out appears to me as an outdated theology, an irrelevant contorting of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

Their hand wringing is hollow, “Things cannot go back to how they were. No More Austerity!” they cry, “The New Sense of Community will not stand for it!”

Chests puffed out quickly deflate as that thread of managerialism runs deep, doesn’t it? Someone HAS to pay for this Coronavirus aid package that Rishi Sunak has found tucked behind the sofa cushion! They sweat bullets feverishly calculating the final cost and devising ingenious ways for only the hated bankers and Richard Branson to pay for it, before finally acknowledging that maybe the darkest, quietest voices in the Tory Party have a point….maybe taxes do need to go up, maybe some services do need to be cut.

Any Liberal Democrat who carries on dancing to that Tory tune will lead us to our final death throes. So let me be clear.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged economy, Modern Monetary Theory and rishi sunak | 65 Comments

The best thing about the Green New Deal you never knew and why this could be our new superpower

By Mark Kenyon | Fri 14th February 2020 - 4:45 pm

Short of living under a rock since Greta Thurnberg started getting regular visits from her school attendance officer, everyone knows what the Green New Deal is; a government led transformation of our carbon intensive economy to a green one providing lots of well paid jobs in the process.

A few of you might have your suspicions about how it could be paid for ranging from:

hope (economic boom, so taxes!)
to panic (it’s the bees! We need to ignore the cost and just get on with it!)
to cynicism (ahhh, I remember the first Green Deal).

You’d all be wrong.

The Green New Deal should be paid for in the same way we pay for Quantitative Easing (or to give it its proper name, Enriching The Rich Because Trickle Down). At the stroke of a keyboard, money will appear in the government’s accounts, ready for spending into our hot little hands.

OMG! But what about the money we’ll owe China? Haven’t the boomers already screwed the planet? Don’t let them add to the debt mountain!

Keep Calm and Read On. Economics 101 has meant that you think about an economy like a household budget. Money is earnt, then spent. The difference every month is the deficit, the cumulative figure is debt.

Debt is bad. Debt needs to be paid back. Debt means higher taxes. Too much debt means higher interest rates! I don’t care what Ford Prefect says, PANIC!

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged green deal, green new deal and Modern Monetary Theory | 55 Comments