Jamie Smith
jgs952.bsky.social
Jamie Smith
@jgs952.bsky.social
Physicist, engineer, amateur economist.
Incomes policies such as UBI are a favourite of many.

But here I argue you can achieve most of the social goals these policies seek to meet while also providing macroeconomic stabilisation via the labour market with a Job Guarantee.

open.substack.com/pub/jgs952/p...
January 16, 2026 at 1:29 PM
I've written here about the nature of money and why understanding money properly has far-reaching implications for modern policy making, how we all think of the economy, and what we believe is possible.

open.substack.com/pub/jgs952/p...
January 6, 2026 at 4:10 PM
Interest rates are a terrible way to control inflation.

open.substack.com/pub/jgs952/p...
Why interest rates are a terrible tool for controlling inflation
And what is the alternative?
open.substack.com
December 20, 2025 at 9:13 PM
I'd throw this one into the ring too as what's underlying much of our productivity malaise.

But increasingly, it's the highly unequal distribution of a stagnant nat. income that is contributing to political and social instability, particularly when combined with public sector austerity and housing
December 15, 2025 at 7:18 PM
I've long realised that a significant portion of

"it's complicated, there are serious pragmatic reasons why we can't do such and such good policy to improve people's lives"

takes are actually just false excuses because doing so would disrupt the established powers in society.
The older I get, the more my politics mature from childish, naïve beliefs like "the world is complicated and leaders have to make hard decisions" to more serious, adult principles like "hurting people is bad and helping people is good."
December 15, 2025 at 7:12 PM
I wrote a shorter version of this (<1000 words) that's more readable.

open.substack.com/pub/jgs952/p...
December 14, 2025 at 5:55 PM
I wrote about the feasibility and implications of changing our macroeconomic management to a ZIRP+JG+Banking Reforms approach, using the insights of the MMT framework lens.

open.substack.com/pub/jgs952/p...
Zero-Interest Rates, Job Guarantee, and MMT in the UK
Feasibility and Implications
open.substack.com
December 12, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Jamie Smith
Next time Mr Polanski is asked a childish 'gotcha' style question about debt interest, he should say these things, though not perhaps in this order.
1) Google it (apologies to A. Bandt).
2) Debt issuance by the UK Govt is a choice, not a necessity. It is not to fund deficits...
November 30, 2025 at 7:30 AM