Sundays beginning March 1st at 2 PM EST.

To register, sign up for the group’s mailing list here. This reading group is open to the public.

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Pressing economic concerns face everyone at present and give rise to social and political problems that define our times. Many on the left neglect economic theory in favor of social, political and cultural questions, while nevertheless espousing policies associated with certain economic theories (e.g. the Green New Deal, a federal Jobs Guarantee, economic stimulus: MMT). Should we leave the task of understanding the modern economy to others? Can we change capitalist society without understanding it first?[1] Clearly not. A firm stance on economy distinguishes Marxian or materialist socialism from utopian socialism or radical liberalism. And so, the purpose of this study group is to develop an understanding of macroeconomics and the contemporary economy as a totality from a realistic, non-dogmatic, and critical perspective.

Starting from the basics, we will discuss labor, currency, finance, capital, policy, and many other topics. But we will also pay special attention to the difference between the perspective of mainstream, orthodox economics—the ‘neoclassical school’—and more realistic or critical, heterodox perspectives—institutionalism, post-Keynesianism and Marxism. Consider, for example, the following very different definitions of what economics is, seen from these two different perspectives. The mainstream view defines economics as “the study of the allocation of scarce resources among unlimited wants”. The heterodox view defines economics as “the study of social creation and social distribution of society’s resources” (Mitchell, Wray, Watts, 2019, 5 & 7). We will try to not only understand the economy as a totality, but also the conflict between perspectives on it, which inform the political conflicts that arise from it.

We will meet weekly to discuss two chapters of introductory material per session. Our aim is simply to understand macroeconomic theory and the broader extent of its implications for contemporary purposes. In order to facilitate discussion, members will take turns adopting the responsibility of summarizing and presenting the core of the readings under consideration in a given week’s meeting.

All readings will be provided as PDFs. Required and recommended (not-required) readings will be marked accordingly.

Texts

• REQUIRED: William Mitchell, L. Randall Wray, Martin Watts, Macroeconomics (London: Red Globe Press, 2019)
• REQUIRED: Wayne Label, Accounting for Non-Accountants (2nd Edition, 2010)

Reading Schedule:

First Session: Introduction and Economic History of the World

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • OPTIONAL: Appendix only of Chapter 2: The Buckaroos Model (pp. 36-37)
  • OPTIONAL: Chapter 3: A Brief Overview of Economic History and the Rise of Capitalism (pp. 38-49)

Second Session: GDP, Growth, and Other Economic Metrics

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • Chapter 4: The System of National Income and Product Accounts (pp. 50-65)
  • Chapter 5: Labour Market Concepts and Measurement (pp. 66-82)

Third Session: Business Accounting at the Firm Level

• Label, Accounting for Non-Accountants.
  • Chapter 3: The Balance Sheet and Its Components (pp. 25.44)
  • Chapter 4: The Income Statement (pp. 45-64)

Fourth Session: Sectoral Accounting and Flow of Funds

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • Chapter 6: Sectoral Accounting and the Flow of Funds (pp. 83-103)
  • Chapter 8: The Use of Framing and Language in Macroeconomics (pp. 118-133)
• OPTIONAL: Label, Accounting for Non-Accountants
  • Chapter 5: Preparing and Using a Statement of Cash Flows (pp. 65-74)

Fifth Session: Money and Banking

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • Chapter 9: Introduction to Sovereign Currency: The Government and its Money (pp. 134-146)
  • Chapter 10: Money and Banking (pp. 147-167)

Sixth Session: Schools of Thought

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • Chapter 11: The Classical System (pp. 164-178)
  • Chapter 12: Mr. Keynes and the ‘Classics’ (pp. 180-192)

Seventh Session: Economic Demand

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • Chapter 13: The Theory of Effective Demand (pp. 193-203)
  • Chapter 14: The Macroeconomic Demand for Labour (pp. 204-215)

Eighth Session: Economic Supply

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • Chapter 15: The Aggregate Expenditure Model (pp. 216-238)
  • Chapter 16: Aggregate Supply (pp. 239-252)

Ninth Session: Unemployment and Inflation

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • Chapter 17: Unemployment and Inflation (pp. 254-267)
  • Chapter 18: The Phillips Curve and Beyond (pp. 268-288)

Tenth Session: Full Employment Policy and Politics

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • Chapter 19: Full Employment Policy (pp. 290-311)
• Kalecki Reading TBD

Eleventh Session: Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Part 1

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • Chapter 20: Introduction to Monetary and Fiscal Policy Options (pp. 314-329)
  • Chapter 21: Fiscal Policy in Sovereign Nations (pp. 332-347)

Twelfth Session: Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Part 2

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • Chapter 22: Fiscal Space and Fiscal Sustainability (pp. 349-359)
  • Chapter 23: Monetary Policy in Sovereign Nations (pp. 360-372)

Thirteenth Session: Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Part 3

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • Chapter 24: Policy in an Open Economy: Exchange Rates, Balance of Payments and Competitiveness (pp. 374-391)

Fourteenth Session: Investment, Profit, and Stability

• Mitchell, Wray, Watts, Macroeconomics.
  • Chapter 25: The Role of Investment in Profit Generation (pp. 394-429)
  • Chapter 26: Stabilising the Unstable Economy (pp. 419-429)

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[1] The young Marx, before the failure of the 1848 revolutions, famously wrote: “Philosophers [like Feuerbach] have only interpreted the world; the point is to change it”. The mature Marx later wrote of passionate critics of capitalism: “Sismondi… forcefully criticizes the contradictions of bourgeois production but does not understand them, and consequently does not understand the process whereby they can be resolved”.