Rohan Grey on Modern Monetary Theory and Intellectual Property

In this episode, Rohan Grey, a J.S.D. student at Cornell Law School and the founder and president of the Modern Money Network, discusses his work on the intersection of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and intellectual property theory. Grey begins by briefly explaining the fundamental premises of MMT and the job guarantee, observing that MMT is an extension of Keynesian economic principles, and that the job guarantee is a way of setting a floor on the price of labor. He also observes that MMT scholarship has not focused on the role of property, and explains why he thinks property is in tension with the social goals of MMT. In particular, the non-rivalry of the intangible goods protected by intellectual property rights should be unnecessary in an MMT framework. He argues that the job guarantee and other policies can make intellectual property unnecessary, and discusses several potential policy approaches. Grey's scholarship is available here, and his article "Who Owns the Intellectual Fruits of Job Guarantee Labor?", in M. Murray & M. Forstater (Eds.), The Job Guarantee and Modern Money Theory: Realizing Keynes's Labor Standard (2017) is available here. Grey is on Twitter at @rohangrey.

This episode was hosted by Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert Associate Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Frye is on Twitter at @brianlfrye.

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