MMT and the new social contract: Lessons from Covid-19

After the year-long Covid-19 crisis it is clear that - contrary to the catchphrase that became a popular message of hope early in the pandemic - we’re definitely not all in this together.

Inequalities both old and new have been exacerbated due to the inadequate policy response by many governments to the individual and societal effects of Covid-19: hundreds of millions of people are now underemployed or out of work; job destruction has disproportionately affected low-paid and low-skilled jobs; people in low paid, insecure undervalued jobs – teachers, care workers, service staff, transport staff, our essential workers - are more likely to die from the virus. All the while, the ultrarich have enjoyed soaring wealth - the combined wealth of the world’s 10 richest men rising by more than 500 billion since the crisis began. Evidently, the prevailing social contract still serves the few not the many.

Our guests for the first webinar of 2021, Pavlina Tcherneva and Bill Mitchell, both leading MMT academics, will set forth a powerful and hopeful vision for a new social contract - founded on a real world understanding of the policy potential of monetary sovereign governments – that will be better able to foster the genuine ‘we’re all in this together’ effort required to tackle the immediate Covid-19 crisis and the ongoing and looming threat to our planet from the climate crisis.

PAVLINA R. TCHERNEVA, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Economics at Bard College and a Research Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute, NY. She specializes in Modern Monetary Theory and public policy. Tcherneva is the author of recently published and highly acclaimed book, “A Case for A Job Guarantee”.

WILLIAM MITCHELL is Professor of Economics at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia and Docent Professor of Global Political Economy at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is one of the founding developers of Modern Monetary Theory. He is also the Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), an official research centre at the University of Newcastle and President of MMTed, a private educational provider. He has published many books including ‘Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World’ and co-authored the best-selling text book, ‘Macroeconomics’.