Here is an Agenda For America.

1. Rebuilding Our Crumbling Infrastructure
2. Reversing Climate Change
3. Creating Worker Co-ops
4. Growing the Trade Union Movement
5. Raising the Minimum Wage
6. Pay Equity for Women Workers
7. Trade Policies that Benefit American Workers
8. Making College Affordable for All
9. Taking on Wall Street
10. Health Care as a Right for All
11. Protecting the Most Vulnerable Americans
12. Real Tax Reform

If you think you might be interested in having an agenda like this for this country, then follow the link to the Agenda For America to see a little detail about each one of the items on the agenda. I don’t know if you will be surprised or not at the candidate for President that is promoting this agenda, but following the link will show you who it is.

So the trick is, think about the agenda you want, and then think about finding a candidate who supports that agenda.

Thanks to Marden Seavey for posting the link to this on his Facebook page.

This is just a conjecture about whether or not using the mark-to-market method on any asset that you want to know the value of needs to be taken into account in MMT (Modern Money Theory).

My most recent post about MMT that was posted before I started thinking about this possible flaw was When Will the White House and OMB Ever Learn About Sector Financial Balances?

I haven’t figured out yet how to pose this question to MMT experts. Following the above link to learn what mark-to-market is, I am reminded that the issue is far broader than the example I am going to use to show the problem.

MMT has a nice theory that depends on their definition of what is and what isn’t external money and internal money. MMTers then describe how people and the economy must behave, based on these obvious definitions. The issue is not whether or not the definitions are logically consistent or not. The issue is how people and markets actually behave. The issue of stock value and mark-to-market, is that whether or not you, as an MMTer, believe the value of one’s stock holdings represents a fair account of real money or not, people and the economy to some extent behave as if it were real money.

The goal we are trying to achieve is not to come up with a logically consistent definition of money. That may or may not be a path to understanding how people, markets, and economies behave. Describing and understanding that behavior is the real goal. Intermediate achievements are only important if they get us to the ultimate goal.

My most recent posts that show what started me thinking along these lines are

A Critique of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and At INET Conference, Warren Adds Two Pieces to Her Financial Reform Framework.

Older posts that show that I have always had an interest in the ramifications of mark-to-market are Musings on Mark-To-Market and A Replacement For Mark-To-Market.

Naked Capitalism has the article Gaius Publius: Sanders Raises $3 Million in Four Days; Will He Split the Party?

Yves here. While I’m loath to take the site too much in the direction of politics (as opposed to finance, economics, and political economy), Bernie Sanders’ choice of Stephanie Kelton as economist to the Senate Finance Committee, his firm opposition to toxic trade deals, and his long-standing support of social safety nets and pro-middle class policies means his campaign is focused substantially on issues of economic justice. Moreover, I was bothered to see readers take up what I regard as a misguided post by the normally excellent Bruce Dixon of Black Agenda Report attacking Sanders as a what amounts to a progressive stooge for the Democratic party.

I am glad to see this article mention the BAR article. I had read it before and thought that it was a silly argument. If Bernie Sanders can’t win a Democratic primary, then it is pretty certain he can’t win a general election. Other people may want him to run just to send a message. If he refuses to run a campaign that even he is sure has no hope, refusing that option puts further credence to his claim to be in it to win it.