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In the big picture, we often think about the economy in terms of flows. How much "stuff" is being produced and consumed over time? These are both examples of flows. But if we produce more than we consume, the flow accumulates into a stock of wealth. People get wealthier, as does society as a whole. Our net worth (assets-liabilities) increases.

And just as flows accumulate into stocks, stocks of productive capital and interest-bearing investments can generate flows of their own. Flows beget stocks beget flows. How does it all connect up? What can we understand about the functioning of the economy by looking at net worth? Where does basic income fit in? Can we think of basic income as a flow of money that's generated by the collective wealth of society?

Our guest, Chris Rimmer, has spent the last several years developing a framework for systematizing how we think of the economy by examining changes in the net worth of people, firms, and the economy as a whole.

This week's reading is a paper by Chris entitled, "Re-thinking Economic Modelling: The Importance of Net Worth"

http://www.bluehydra.co.uk/misc/intro-model.pdf

Chris has also developed a convenient pictorial notation for representing changes to balance-sheet assets and liabilities, which we recommend taking a look at.

http://www.bluehydra.co.uk/misc/notation.pdf

Previous related Boston Basic Income topics have included:

BBI #49: Debt and Credit
https://youtu.be/iwSNkGTJYts

BBI #117: Sovereign Money
https://anchor.fm/bostonbasicincome/episodes/117--Sovereign-Money-ej3tf6

By default, audience cameras and microphones will remain disabled. To ask a question, type it in the Zoom chat.

If you'd like to ask your question aloud, also click the "Raise Hand" button on the "Participants" tab. The hosts will unmute you when it's your turn.

The discussion will be streamed live at this URL:
https://www.youtube.com/bostonbasicincome/live

It will also be available in podcast form in the following days:
https://anchor.fm/bostonbasicincome

Image from Chris Rimmer's Pictorial Notation Paper

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