This paper examines the views of Hyman Minsky and Abba Lerner on the functional finance approach to fiscal policy. It argues that the main principles of functional finance were relatively widely held in the immediate postwar period. However, with the rise of the Phillips curve, the return of the...

1. The Basics of Modern Money Theory -- 2. The Basics of Macroeconomic Accounting -- 3. Spending by Issuer of Domestic Currency -- 4. The Domestic Monetary System: Banking and Central Banking -- 5. Fiscal Operations in a Nation That Issues Its Own Currency -- 6. Tax Policy for Sovereign Nations...

The worst global downturn since the Great Depression has caused ballooning budget deficits in most nations, as tax revenues collapse and governments bail out financial institutions and attempt countercyclical fiscal policy. With notable exceptions, most economists accept the desirability of...