What is Chartalism?

When I hear the word chartalism, I see “charter”.

My earliest recollection of the word “charter” was from history classes where we discussed “charter colonies”.

These are principles that have been part of public rhetoric for centuries, and are even taught to school children.

And yet, as soon as you try to say, “money is a charter” (a written grant by a legislative or sovereign power defining rights or privileges), everybody freaks out.

Inflation!!!

But it’s time to calm down people . . .

Real resources are limited, not money. Is that so complicated?

Some pretty smart, but apparently anti-social people, have trouble understanding this.

Smart people can be wrong sometimes, and don’t always take it well.

Government spending is a process whereby we allocate idle resources toward worthy causes.

If we try to allocate more resources than we have, it won’t work.

But until that point, we can do whatever we want: full employment, medicare for all, free college, space exploration. . . you name it! Just ask Kelton, Mosler, Wray, Minsky et. al.

In neoliberalism, we can’t appropriate culture or federal funds. Fuck that.

The only issue is how we politically organize claims, rights, and obligations. We do this by throwing around acronyms like TPP, TARP, TANF, PP, FDA, NSF, SNAP, FICA, EIC, FDIC, CCC etc.

That’s all well and good, but what about MMT and JG?