Today (July 26, 2024), MMTed releases Episode 2 in the second season of our Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money. Have a bit of fun with it while learning Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and circulate it to those who you think will benefit …
The Smith Family are a middle-class family living in a city somewhere in the world. The second-generation parents are university educated and have professional occupations. Their two kids attend the local public school.
In Season 1, we focused on the dynamics of the immediate Smith Family – Elizabeth, Ryan, Kevin and Emma – with some interaction from their friends.
In Season 2, the focus is on the school kids and their interactions with their new economics teacher Ms Allday.
After we learned that the economy was now in recession after some harsh austerity cutbacks by the government under advice from economists to get rid of the debt mountain, the focus in Episode 2 turns to the new school year with Ms Allday the new teacher keen for the students to ‘understand’ what is driving the current economic problems.
The new exchange student from Kyoto – Minako Ide – who is the niece of Mariko and Hiroshi Fujii (old friends of Elizabeth Smith) is introduced to the class.
Then attention turns to the textbook the students are using and Ms Allday wants Brian to summarise the main points in the chapter on fiscal policy.
He starts reciting the text, but then tries to challenge what is in the text book.
Ms Allday is having nothing of that and warns the students that to pass the examination at the end of the year they must be able to repeat what is in the book.
The students then challenge Ms Allday on the basis of things they have learned during the holidays about the capacities of the government which issues its own currency.
The students can easily understand that such a government faces no financial constraints and the class ends with Ms Allday in a spin and the students sensing she is in denial.
If you think you resemble any of the characters then either continue spreading MMT knowledge or get our textbook and get up to speed, depending on which character you might identify with.
If you have any feedback we will appreciate it, other than ‘this sucks’.
The manga is available in both English and Japanese.
Next episode – Episode 2 – will be available on August 9, 2024.
That is enough for today!
(c) Copyright 2024 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.
