Statement of the EuroMemo Group, 2 April 2020

In the face of immense human suffering all across Europe, the COVID-19 crisis is without doubt a critical test of solidarity for the European Union, and also for the world. After the inadequate economic policy response to the 2008 global financial and economic crisis, another failure to reach effective and cooperative responses might exacerbate social and political tensions between Member States. In that case, a further stagnation if not collapse of the project of European integration would be unavoidable. [Originally published at http://www.euromemo.eu/]

In the wake of tendencies toward under-consumption and overproduction, unemployment and precarious employment, stagnating prices, social problems and political reactions, the quest for solution has given way to a rising popularity of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), which maintains that a state can never run out of money if it is in debt in its own currency – but which also seems to point to deglobalisation as a solution. “The radical idea is that each state can go alone and adopt rational full-employment policies at home.” The problem is that MMT neither guarantees any sort of progressive policies nor resolves the dilemmas and contradictions of the world economy. At the same time, MMT shows that money creation can potentially be organised on other levels than the state – and even globally. Even though evident political obstacles stand in the way of a transformation toward a cosmopolitan direction, a rational direction to world history points that way. Our sustainable future lies in alter-globalisation, global solidarity, and better common institutions. This blog was originally published by FEPS / The Progressive Post on 17 March 2020.

One Question is a regular series in which leading thinkers are asked to give a brief answer to a single question. This time, at the beginning of 2020, the question is: Are you optimistic about the new decade? Here is my answer. The entire One Question with multiple answers can be found here.

Modern monetary theory (MMT) has gained increasingly widespread academic and political interest. Its upward popularity trend seems to follow the formula “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”[1]. Or so, at least, an MMT-optimist might think. This blog was first published by Brave New Europe on 1 January 2020.