Alex Howlett
@alexhowlett.bsky.social
Basic Income — Money View
People need money, not jobs.
People need money, not jobs.
The Money View Reading Group is starting a new book! Our first session on Calomiris and Haber's "Fragile By Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit" (2014) is this coming Monday, November 17th, at 2pm EST.
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
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Money View Reading Group - YSI INET
The Money View Reading Group reads and discusses writings on money, banking, and finance. We are a self-directed group. Anyone interested in money and banking can read the readings, join […]
ysi.ineteconomics.org
November 16, 2025 at 5:44 AM
The Money View Reading Group is starting a new book! Our first session on Calomiris and Haber's "Fragile By Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit" (2014) is this coming Monday, November 17th, at 2pm EST.
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
Come join!
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
Come join!
The Money View Reading Group is starting a new book! Our first session on Giovanni Arrighi's "The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times" ([1994] 2010) is next Monday, October 20th, at 2pm EDT.
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
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ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
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October 16, 2025 at 5:19 AM
The Money View Reading Group is starting a new book! Our first session on Giovanni Arrighi's "The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times" ([1994] 2010) is next Monday, October 20th, at 2pm EDT.
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
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ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
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Reposted by Alex Howlett
Latest piece on UBI here:
www.greshm.org/blog/we-must...
@alexhowlett.bsky.social @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @scottsantens.com @theubiguy.bsky.social
www.greshm.org/blog/we-must...
@alexhowlett.bsky.social @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @scottsantens.com @theubiguy.bsky.social
We Must Challenge the Job Ethic
I recently co-authored an essay arguing that a Universal Basic Income (UBI) might attain the goals of Guaranteed Income advocates better than a targeted Guaranteed Income would. I stand by the points ...
www.greshm.org
September 21, 2025 at 6:32 PM
I have a new blog post on the difference between Guaranteed Income and Universal Basic Income.
"Treating the symptoms of a broken system is a far different project from radically restructuring the system itself."
www.greshm.org/blog/guarant...
"Treating the symptoms of a broken system is a far different project from radically restructuring the system itself."
www.greshm.org/blog/guarant...
Guaranteed Income Is Not UBI
In his final book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Martin Luther King, Jr. called for direct cash as a solution to poverty. He wanted to guarantee that every person had sufficient incom...
www.greshm.org
September 7, 2025 at 1:58 AM
I have a new blog post on the difference between Guaranteed Income and Universal Basic Income.
"Treating the symptoms of a broken system is a far different project from radically restructuring the system itself."
www.greshm.org/blog/guarant...
"Treating the symptoms of a broken system is a far different project from radically restructuring the system itself."
www.greshm.org/blog/guarant...
Next Tuesday, August 12th, at 4 pm EDT, The Money View Reading Group is starting Kenneth Rogoff's new book, "Our Money, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance."
Come join!
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
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ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
August 8, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Next Tuesday, August 12th, at 4 pm EDT, The Money View Reading Group is starting Kenneth Rogoff's new book, "Our Money, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance."
Come join!
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
Come join!
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
Does UBI solve a problem, or does it serve a function? UBI allows us to distribute money while allocating labor more efficiently.
"The more efficiently we can exploit people, the less we have to exploit them."
"The more efficiently we can exploit people, the less we have to exploit them."
What Problem Does UBI Solve?
Ask ten different people what problem Universal Basic Income solves, and you’ll get ten different answers. Scott Santens could probably give you a hundred. This is understandable: A world with UBI dif...
www.greshm.org
June 28, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Does UBI solve a problem, or does it serve a function? UBI allows us to distribute money while allocating labor more efficiently.
"The more efficiently we can exploit people, the less we have to exploit them."
"The more efficiently we can exploit people, the less we have to exploit them."
If you're serious about environmental impact, then you should be serious about UBI.
"Have we unwittingly been overemploying ourselves and overworking our economy, incurring costs to markets and our environment, yet receiving fewer benefits in return?"
www.greshm.org/blog/ubi-and...
"Have we unwittingly been overemploying ourselves and overworking our economy, incurring costs to markets and our environment, yet receiving fewer benefits in return?"
www.greshm.org/blog/ubi-and...
UBI and the Environmental Cost of Overemployment
Imagine for a moment that we paused all economic growth. The pie isn’t getting bigger, but it isn’t getting smaller either.
Now, imagine we invent an efficiency improvement—some new technology. This ...
www.greshm.org
June 3, 2025 at 6:42 PM
If you're serious about environmental impact, then you should be serious about UBI.
"Have we unwittingly been overemploying ourselves and overworking our economy, incurring costs to markets and our environment, yet receiving fewer benefits in return?"
www.greshm.org/blog/ubi-and...
"Have we unwittingly been overemploying ourselves and overworking our economy, incurring costs to markets and our environment, yet receiving fewer benefits in return?"
www.greshm.org/blog/ubi-and...
"Everyone has their own individual balance of payments: the time pattern of locked-in cash flows and cash commitments. When money is tighter in the market as a whole, those with payments deficits drive up the money rate of interest by bidding for funds."
1:1 The Money Market
Smoothing Over Payments Deficits
www.survivalconstraint.com
May 20, 2025 at 4:54 AM
"Everyone has their own individual balance of payments: the time pattern of locked-in cash flows and cash commitments. When money is tighter in the market as a whole, those with payments deficits drive up the money rate of interest by bidding for funds."
The Money View Reading Group is starting a new book! Our first session on Fernand Braudel's "The Wheels of Commerce" (1982) is this coming Tuesday, May 6th at 4pm EDT.
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
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ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
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May 3, 2025 at 2:25 PM
The Money View Reading Group is starting a new book! Our first session on Fernand Braudel's "The Wheels of Commerce" (1982) is this coming Tuesday, May 6th at 4pm EDT.
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
Come join!
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
Come join!
Reposted by Alex Howlett
And this piece I co-authored with my "roommate" appears in it
rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/an-equa...
@karlwiderquist.bsky.social @alexhowlett.bsky.social @scottsantens.com @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social @amycastro.bsky.social
rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/an-equa...
@karlwiderquist.bsky.social @alexhowlett.bsky.social @scottsantens.com @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social @amycastro.bsky.social
An Equal Playing Field: Why UBI Is Preferable to GI - Roosevelt Institute
Given the current climate, one might wonder whether this is the time for a report on universal basic income (UBI). But speaking as two people who’ve advocated UBI since the early 2000s: Current prospe...
rooseveltinstitute.org
April 30, 2025 at 7:17 AM
And this piece I co-authored with my "roommate" appears in it
rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/an-equa...
@karlwiderquist.bsky.social @alexhowlett.bsky.social @scottsantens.com @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social @amycastro.bsky.social
rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/an-equa...
@karlwiderquist.bsky.social @alexhowlett.bsky.social @scottsantens.com @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social @amycastro.bsky.social
"Individual countries want to believe that they can control their own monetary systems, but they don't have their own monetary systems. There is one system: a global system."
1:1 Money Is Global
The Myth of Monetary Sovereignty
www.survivalconstraint.com
April 18, 2025 at 1:48 AM
"Individual countries want to believe that they can control their own monetary systems, but they don't have their own monetary systems. There is one system: a global system."
"As long as cash commitments are easy to meet, people will continue entering into new cash commitments. The web will grow more tangled. The dominos will get closer together. This continues right up to the point of financial crisis."
The System Is Fragile
Promises Breed Instability
www.survivalconstraint.com
April 8, 2025 at 9:36 PM
"As long as cash commitments are easy to meet, people will continue entering into new cash commitments. The web will grow more tangled. The dominos will get closer together. This continues right up to the point of financial crisis."
My colleague Derek Van Gorder has written a new working paper explaining the idea of Calibrated Basic Income. There's a level of UBI that maximally helps the economy serve the people. Let's find it.
www.greshm.org/files/2025-0...
www.greshm.org/files/2025-0...
www.greshm.org
April 3, 2025 at 4:06 AM
My colleague Derek Van Gorder has written a new working paper explaining the idea of Calibrated Basic Income. There's a level of UBI that maximally helps the economy serve the people. Let's find it.
www.greshm.org/files/2025-0...
www.greshm.org/files/2025-0...
"Money, in its ideal platonic form, is a credit claim. Commodity monies such as gold are merely an approximation of that ideal."
Money as Credit
The Purest Money Is Paper
www.survivalconstraint.com
March 23, 2025 at 10:23 PM
"Money, in its ideal platonic form, is a credit claim. Commodity monies such as gold are merely an approximation of that ideal."
The Money View Reading Group is starting a new book! Our first session on "The Empire of Value" by André Orléan (2014) is Tuesday, March 25th at 4pm EDT.
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
Come join!
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
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March 19, 2025 at 4:20 AM
The Money View Reading Group is starting a new book! Our first session on "The Empire of Value" by André Orléan (2014) is Tuesday, March 25th at 4pm EDT.
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
Come join!
ysi.ineteconomics.org/event/money-...
Come join!
"The emergence of banking is the emergence of hierarchy."
Banking Implies Hierarchy
A Natural Money Structure
survivalconstraint.substack.com
March 18, 2025 at 4:12 AM
"The emergence of banking is the emergence of hierarchy."
"Centralization is natural. Money and banking connect everything. Labeling the economy as distinct public and private sectors doesn't change that. Beneath the labels, the monetary system is all one thing."
Public-Private Monetary Hybridity
Money as a Creature of the Market
survivalconstraint.substack.com
March 9, 2025 at 6:14 PM
"Centralization is natural. Money and banking connect everything. Labeling the economy as distinct public and private sectors doesn't change that. Beneath the labels, the monetary system is all one thing."
Phil Jackson's Talk from BIEN Congress 2024: Why Basic Income Is Cooler Than You Think
"If automation is hurting people, then that has to mean that there is something wrong with the economy itself."
"If automation is hurting people, then that has to mean that there is something wrong with the economy itself."
Why Basic Income (UBI) Is Cooler Than You Think — Phil Jackson @ BIEN Congress: — August 31, 2024
YouTube video by The Greshm Institute
youtu.be
March 8, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Phil Jackson's Talk from BIEN Congress 2024: Why Basic Income Is Cooler Than You Think
"If automation is hurting people, then that has to mean that there is something wrong with the economy itself."
"If automation is hurting people, then that has to mean that there is something wrong with the economy itself."
Banks are in the business of "monetizing" debt.
The Alchemy of Banking
Transmuting Promises into Money
survivalconstraint.substack.com
March 1, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Banks are in the business of "monetizing" debt.
It takes two (at least) to transact. If we want to wrap our heads around money and banking, we need to learn how to think in terms of transactions.
Transactions
It Takes Two
survivalconstraint.substack.com
February 24, 2025 at 8:00 PM
It takes two (at least) to transact. If we want to wrap our heads around money and banking, we need to learn how to think in terms of transactions.
New Post!
The four payment types are the fundamental building blocks for understanding all balance sheet operations.
The four payment types are the fundamental building blocks for understanding all balance sheet operations.
Four Ways to Pay
Representing Payment Types
survivalconstraint.substack.com
February 23, 2025 at 7:55 AM
New Post!
The four payment types are the fundamental building blocks for understanding all balance sheet operations.
The four payment types are the fundamental building blocks for understanding all balance sheet operations.
Nobody should be entitled to a job or a wage. Not even physicists.
I was asked to keep this confidential
YouTube video by Sabine Hossenfelder
youtu.be
February 20, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Nobody should be entitled to a job or a wage. Not even physicists.
"Prices come from markets made by market-makers providing liquidity. And liquidity lets people meet their payment commitments to satisfy their survival constraint."
Market-Makers Make Markets
Rethinking Supply and Demand
survivalconstraint.substack.com
February 17, 2025 at 2:57 PM
"Prices come from markets made by market-makers providing liquidity. And liquidity lets people meet their payment commitments to satisfy their survival constraint."
New post!
We can compensate for a payments deficit by dishoarding money (monetary liquidity), borrowing (funding liquidity), or liquidating assets (market liquidity).
We can compensate for a payments deficit by dishoarding money (monetary liquidity), borrowing (funding liquidity), or liquidating assets (market liquidity).
Gap Liquidity
Money, Funding, and Markets
survivalconstraint.substack.com
February 13, 2025 at 9:12 PM
New post!
We can compensate for a payments deficit by dishoarding money (monetary liquidity), borrowing (funding liquidity), or liquidating assets (market liquidity).
We can compensate for a payments deficit by dishoarding money (monetary liquidity), borrowing (funding liquidity), or liquidating assets (market liquidity).
New post! Perry Mehrling's money view perceives assets and liabilities as time patterns of future cash flows and commitments. We lose this information when we try to calculate the net worth of a balance sheet or aggregate balance sheets into sectors.
survivalconstraint.substack.com/p/balancing-...
survivalconstraint.substack.com/p/balancing-...
Balancing Act
Lining Up Cash Flows in Time
survivalconstraint.substack.com
February 11, 2025 at 3:23 AM
New post! Perry Mehrling's money view perceives assets and liabilities as time patterns of future cash flows and commitments. We lose this information when we try to calculate the net worth of a balance sheet or aggregate balance sheets into sectors.
survivalconstraint.substack.com/p/balancing-...
survivalconstraint.substack.com/p/balancing-...