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Close Encounters of a Green New Deal Kind — Douglas Holtz-Eakin

Summary:
In the end, MMT looks like an extreme version of conventional economics in which there is no independent monetary policy and there are a lot of unused resources. But when resources get tight, the reflex is command and control central planning. This cuts to the quick of it. The question is how much market state (where free markets determine outcomes, in theory at least) and how much welfare state (where the economy is managed based on desired outcomes). This is an ongoing dialectic among Libertarians, conservatives, liberals and progressives in the US.However, the GND is different in that it is a special case. The name indicates that it is being compared to the New Deal that addressed the effects of the Great Depression. Proponents also point to the American economic response in WWII, in

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In the end, MMT looks like an extreme version of conventional economics in which there is no independent monetary policy and there are a lot of unused resources. But when resources get tight, the reflex is command and control central planning.
This cuts to the quick of it. The question is how much market state (where free markets determine outcomes, in theory at least) and how much welfare state (where the economy is managed based on desired outcomes). This is an ongoing dialectic among Libertarians, conservatives, liberals and progressives in the US.

However, the GND is different in that it is a special case. The name indicates that it is being compared to the New Deal that addressed the effects of the Great Depression. Proponents also point to the American economic response in WWII, in which John Kenneth Galbraith played a major role. In the minds of the proponents of the GND, this is about government mobilizing resources and "taking charge" in order to meet an existential threat. Opponents view this as overreaction to a supposed threat that does not appear to exist, in their minds.

This is reminiscent of the lead up to WWII, where Americans in general preferred isolationism to preparation until events were forced on them at Pearl Harbor. Then the race to catch up.

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Mike Norman
Mike Norman is an economist and veteran trader whose career has spanned over 30 years on Wall Street. He is a former member and trader on the CME, NYMEX, COMEX and NYFE and he managed money for one of the largest hedge funds and ran a prop trading desk for Credit Suisse.

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