Stephen Darling points me to this blog post by Bill Mitchell, Wray's co-author [but not of the book I am reading], responding to Marxist critics of MMT. I found it extremely interesting. Three quick thoughts: One, Mitchell gets Marx right; Two, this is deeper into the weeds than I want to go; Three, it looks to me as though Marxists and MMT defenders ought to be natural allies, not opponents. They both criticize mainstream economists for the same fundamental failing.
United Front, anyone?
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A Commentary on the Passing Scene by Robert Paul Wolff rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
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4 comments:
You might be interested in Doug Henwood's critique of MMT ( https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/modern-monetary-theory-isnt-helping )
Michael,
Thanks. It looks like it's well worth reading.
I agree. They should be allies. Thanks for the correction about Wray's book. I shall look it up.
The problem is that MMT theorists, in how they often talk when they face the public at least, seem to eliminate a class analysis that names expropriation and exploitation as the problem and class struggle as the solution.
Instead, they frame the issue as one of having a misguided abstract theory of money—to which they propose their own abstract theory. The solution, for them, seems to be a simple matter of implementing the properly rational policies. Want Medicare for all? The solution is to just implement it and pay for it—as if politics is about technocratic management rather than struggles for power.
It’s also no accident, then, why Wall St billionaires tend to like MMT. It’s a theory that seems to imply that the masses can be fed all they desire without the rich having to give up anything to pay for it.
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