William Blair Santos Allen
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willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen
@willballen.bsky.social
510 followers 130 following 410 posts

Retired consultant in international macro finance and capital markets. Converted to MMT as truth.

Now humble second career as lover of all things nautical and USCG licensed Master Mariner.

Finally doing something socially productive? .. more

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Economics 76%
Political science 18%
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willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 4h
Claro que sim!

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 5h
Hope you will give a short review of these after you read them. I am particularly interested in books on Black Death and the Rothschilds in 1873.

Reposted by William A. Allen, Mark Rice, Iñaki Aldasoro

karl-schamotta.bsky.social
Karl Schamotta @karl-schamotta.bsky.social · 9h
Snippet from Michael Cembalest's (JPM) latest: "Tech capital spending in 2025 was roughly equal to the Manhattan Project, farm electrification, the Moon Landing, the Interstate Highway system and several FDR-era public works projects combined, measured as a share of GDP"

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 1d
Jo, I have studied MMT for many years now and I don’t see it as being “binary”. There are degrees of currency sovereignty for most countries. So not sure what you mean.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 2d
I for “worked up” about MMT so I studied it for several years. Now believe it is the best description of monetary economy.

Reposted by William A. Allen

rbreich.bsky.social
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 2d
Market concentration → Less competition → Higher prices for consumers → Corporate profits at 70-year high → Record stock buybacks → Higher shareholder value → More power for corporations and the rich.

How do we fight back? Break up monopolies and rebuild union power.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 4d
Bit of whale breath there I suspect. Usually a bit fishy.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 13d
“Equally tenuous fallacies are employed by "pop non-MMT" economics arguing against public spending, and "pop MMT" is a rhetorical response to that tradition of bad economics”

Shall we define the MMT of Mitchell, Wray, Kelton etc as “ Rigorous MMT”? I am a fan of this school.
peark.es George Pearkes @peark.es · 13d
I think this @jomichell.bsky.social is basically fair but is ignoring the context of *why* pop MMT approaches things this way.

Equally tenuous fallacies are employed by "pop non-MMT" economics arguing against public spending, and "pop MMT" is a rhetorical response to that tradition of bad economics
jdportes.bsky.social Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 13d
"Much of MMT is neither new nor wrong: it’s just standard economic theory presented in different language. The disagreement arises not over whether government can compel the central bank to finance its spending, but to what extent government should do this."

criticalfinance.org/2025/12/19/w...

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 13d
What we need is less monopolistic pricing power by big corps to inflict higher prices. Corp profits are running at near all time highs. Not sure Fed is the one to do something about this.

Reposted by William A. Allen

peark.es
George Pearkes @peark.es · 13d
I think this @jomichell.bsky.social is basically fair but is ignoring the context of *why* pop MMT approaches things this way.

Equally tenuous fallacies are employed by "pop non-MMT" economics arguing against public spending, and "pop MMT" is a rhetorical response to that tradition of bad economics
jdportes.bsky.social Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 13d
"Much of MMT is neither new nor wrong: it’s just standard economic theory presented in different language. The disagreement arises not over whether government can compel the central bank to finance its spending, but to what extent government should do this."

criticalfinance.org/2025/12/19/w...
What’s wrong with MMT?
As Marc Lavoie and John Quiggin have noted, there are ‘two MMTs’. Scholars such as Randy Wray, Eric Tymoigne and Scott Fulwiler have contributed to debates on monetary economics, instit…
criticalfinance.org

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 14d
“Pedantry is something up with which I shall not put”. Winston Churchill on being corrected on speech with a preposition dangling at the end of a sentence.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 14d
Not sure why this is so interesting? Looks like BoJ made a decision to target 2% for 10 yr yield and orderly acceded to markets taking it there. CB can peg anything if it wishes to use its balance sheet. Nothing seems panicked or out of control? Where is the problem?

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 15d
When I moved to Boston from the Deep South for grad school I was told to “get the magnolia out of my mouth”

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 15d
I lost my ass shorting Nvidia by selling calls over the last few years. Let us know how you do. Good luck!

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 15d
General Smedley Butler would agree with you.

Reposted by William A. Allen

brianromanchuk.bsky.social
Brian Romanchuk @brianromanchuk.bsky.social · 15d
I just responded to some political points about MMT.

open.substack.com/pub/bondecon...
MMT Wrangling (Again)
I am now being dragged back into Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) online wrangling, to respond to a few points in this post by Darren Quinn.
open.substack.com

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 16d
Any local update on MIT killing? Robbery? Nothing much on US national news. Seeing some coverage on Portuguese news channels.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 16d
Maybe another Great Depression could bring another FDR

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 16d
Another Minsky Moment?

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 17d
Don’t hold back now Adam. Tell us how you really feel! Running out of adjectives? I am.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 17d
Did Joe or Sarah finally get fired?

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 17d
Thanks for pointing out Harvey book. Did not know about it. . History of economic thought was one of my favourite university courses

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 20d
Cocos … pufff!

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 21d
We are seeing walk aways on auto loans now, right?

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 21d
“Sir, have you no decency?”

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 22d
2020 happy hour craft beer: $4. 2025 same beer, same bar: $8. Waiter saw only 20% pay rise. Cut my drinking in half though!

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 22d
Go back to Courier and pretend you are using an Underwood manual typewriter?

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 23d
Nice Keynes paraphrasing.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 23d
Thought he already had made his pick? I guess the grift is still on?

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 23d
Yes but it also means double powerful blow