Some of you may recall that ten months ago, on May 3, 2019,
I had a go at telling you what I had learned of Modern Monetary Theory from a
book by L. Randall Wray. I was rather
taken by what I had read, although quite unfit to form a reliable judgment of
the book. The theory goes very much against
the grain of establishment Economics, and I have seen Paul Krugman refer
dismissively to it from time to time.
Yesterday, as I was listening to the reports of the
unanimous Senate vote and almost unanimous House vote for a 2.2 trillion dollar
stimulus, emergency, bail out, or whatever bill, it occurred to me that one of
the unanticipated side effects of COVID-19 has been to make MMT
mainstream.
Bill Mitchell (an Australian co-author and co-worker of Wray's) would agree. See his blog posts of the last week @ Bill Mitchell - Modern Monetary Theory.
ReplyDeleteStephen Darling
Well I doubt it will be mainstream. But anyone who really thinks about how the Federal Government can just spend 2.2 trillion dollars by a vote by Congress and then compares that to what MMT says is going to note how similar it is. It is certainly good evidence that MMT is not some kind of wacko idea.
ReplyDeleteBut then I already think MMT is the closest to the truth of how our money system operates. So I am biased that direction for sure.
You might also refer to the work of Prof. Stephanie Kelton regarding MMT.
ReplyDeletehttps://stephaniekelton.com