Abstract:

The COVID-19 induced recession are forcing central banks to adopt tools advocated by Modern Monetary Theory, financing their efforts to stabilize their economies with keystrokes. The keystrokes create claims, enabling governments to purchase assets and finance deficits in their attempts to stabilize their economies. COVID-19 reminds us that markets are not alert to threats: foreign, domestic, or microbial. Creating the rules and policies to provide people with needed goods and services falls to government, a role that government has only partly fulfilled. The tepid response also reflects a misapprehension of the possibilities of monetary and fiscal policies. There are two dimensions of the market economy, both related, both highlighted by the current pandemic. The first is the institutional basis of the market economy revealed in the promises we make to each other in the form of financial assets. The second is the dependence of people on employment for their livelihood. The inability to earn an income creates insecurity. It also impairs the ability of people to keep their promises. The move to fiat currency in 1971 ended the dollar’s link to gold, expanding the possibilities of both monetary and fiscal policy to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

摘要：

COVID-19 引发的经济衰退迫使中央银行采用现代货币理论倡导的工具，通过敲击键盘来为稳定经济的努力提供资金。击键创造了索赔，使政府能够购买资产并为赤字融资，以稳定其经济。COVID-19 提醒我们，市场不会对威胁保持警惕：外国、国内或微生物。制定规则和政策以向人们提供所需的商品和服务属于政府，而政府仅部分履行了这一职责。不温不火的反应也反映了对货币和财政政策可能性的误解。市场经济有两个方面，两者都是相关的，都在当前的大流行中突显出来。一是市场经济的制度基础，体现在我们以金融资产的形式对彼此作出的承诺中。二是人们对就业的依赖度。无法赚取收入会造成不安全感。它还损害了人们信守承诺的能力。1971 年转向法定货币结束了美元与黄金的联系，扩大了货币和财政政策减轻大流行影响的可能性。