Today (March 14, 2025), MMTed releases Episode 12 in the Second Season of our Manga series – The Smith Family and their Adventures with Money. This is the final episode in Season 2. There is a lot going on in the community at present with an election approaching and the government in crisis over its deliberate recession. Have a bit of fun with it while learning Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and circulate it to those who you think will benefit. Season 3 will begin on May 23, 2025 and there will be some shocking developments revealed.
The Smith Family is 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.
Episode 12 opens with Ryan couch surfing at his brother’s apartment after Elizabeth had thrown him out over his drinking and gambling.
After years of believing in the dictates of Professor Noitawl who is the conservative TV network’s star commentator, Ryan is at a crisis point.
He has been unemployed for months and there is no hope for a job while the economy is so depressed.
He supported the government’s austerity strategy because the Professor said it would reduce the debt mountain, which Ryan had become convinced was a major problem for the nation and his family.
The Finance Show begins and Noitawl is at it again this time telling the anchor that the mass unemployment is not a problem because economic theory tells us that the jobless have chosen leisure over work because it gives them more satisfaction.
Ryan has had enough.
He didn’t choose to be unemployed – he was sacked.
He followed Noitawl’s advice and offered to work for lower pay which his boss just laughed at – no sales, no need for labour no matter how cheap it becomes.
Ryan reflects on what Elizabeth and son Kevin have been saying for ages about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and its application to the real world and starts softening his position.
He is basically confused.
In Season 3, Ryan makes some changes – we will see what they are when Episode 1 is published later in May.
Meanwhile, the major national election debate is underway and the Prime Minister and the Opposition leader are going head to head over fiscal matters and climate change.
The Opposition leader stuns the PM by announcing her party will scrap the issuance of government debt and introduce a Job Guarantee.
No debt issuance – no debt mountain.
Scare campaign nullified.
Elizabeth and Kevin are very excited by the Opposition’s promises and consider the PM to be delusional.
The Episode ends with the PM making a major national announcement about the state of fiscal affairs in the country.
Mrs Boff enters the scene and historians might detect some words from the PM that Denis Healey might have said back in 1976.
Confused? Read this H.M. Treasury document – The IMF Crisis: 40 Years On.
If you have any feedback we will appreciate it, other than ‘this sucks’.
The manga is available in both English and Japanese.
We are now taking a short Manga break before releasing Season 3 on May 23, 2025, where things are predicted to get really interesting.
A trailer for Season 3 might read like this:
TRAILER FOR SEASON 3
Who wins the election?
What is Ryan planning – a complete change of tack?
Will Elizabeth take Ryan back?
What will Professor Noitawl have to say about the current state of affairs.
The kids head to Japan on a school excursion.
A visitor from Africa gets the kids at school thinking.
George Jones gets out of prison and learns what Eva has been up to in the lambo.
That is enough for today!
(c) Copyright 2025 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.
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