Tag Archives: MMT criticism

This is interesting from the point of view of evolution of MMT criticism.It's not the same old "printing money" argument but a refurbished one that at least attempts to get what MMT says, even though it fails. I think that it is more likely ill-informed rather than intentional caricature.But it does indicate that the opposition is realizing that it has to deal with MMT in a way that appears serious rather than back of the hand, just dismissing as "obvious" nonsense.So I would count this as...

It is my Wednesday blog post and my relative ‘blog day off’. But there has been an issue I want to write briefly about that has come up recently and has become a recurring theme. I am writing today to put the matter on the public record so that spurious claims that arise elsewhere have no traction. As our Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) work gains popularity, all manner of critics have started coming out of the woodwork. There is now, quite a diversity of these characters, reflecting both ends...

Gerald Epstein has written a book critiquing neochartalism from a policy perspective. On an initial look he seems to attack the neochartalists on two things: their reluctance to talk about rise in tax rates and the international aspect — the limited applicability of their ideas to a few rich countries.... Good. The debate is engaged. Having written a book about MMT, the author has no excuse for not knowing the MMT literature in detail and citing it where appropriate for a scholar. I am...

This is Part 2 (and final part) of my series on printing money, debt and power. The two-part series is designed to draw a line through all the misconceptions and errors that abound on the Internet about the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) treats deficit spending and bond issuance. The social media debate about MMT is at time nonsensical, thriving on falsehoods and fantasy. I get many E-mails after some robust Twitter exchange between some self-proclaimed expert who has found the latest fatal...

There are continual Twitter type debates and Op Ed/Blog-type articles going on about whether MMT says this, or that, or something else. The critics are refining their attacks by hammering on about “printing money” and hyperinflation, and, more recently that MMT ignores ‘power’ (whatever that is). The latter leads them to conclude that MMT is thus a naive approach and is inapplicable to a political agenda aiming at changing things for the better. These debates (if you can call them that) are...

In 2017 when a nurse pointed out that her wages had not increased for several years, then-prime minister Theresa May quipped: “There is no magic money tree.” Well, maybe Mrs May was wrong. I believe there is a magic money tree and it is coming to western economies very soon. I am talking about MMT. And strangely, MMT doesn’t stand for “magic money tree”; it’s Modern Monetary Theory.... The question, "Can we trust politicians," is really a question about the viability of democracy. The...

The epithets being used as put-downs for Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) are growing. But some of the good old terms – that one might actually apply to mainstream macroeconomics – are also in currency. An article in Project Syndicate (May 27, 2019) – Japan Then, China Now – declared MMT to be “the latest strain of voodoo economics” that is “alluring for the Trump administration”. The article by a Yale University lecturing staff member (and former investment banker) really just reminds us why...

There was an article in the Project Syndicate (July 1, 2019) – Does Japan Vindicate Modern Monetary Theory? – written by a Yale economics professor and advisor to Shinzo Abe, that reveals the extent to which the mainstream is becoming paranoid and is failing to understand what MMT is about. I won’t deal with it in detail because it is not my brief today. But it aims to disabuse readers of the notion that “Japan … [is] … proof that the approach works.”The approach he refers to is MMT....

Progress. The author admits that MMT makes sense economically and financially. However, Eric Winograd hopes it won't go mainstream based on expanding the size and role of government. So now it is ideology rather than theory or empirics.equities.comWill Modern Monetary Theory Go Mainstream? Eric Winograd

Last week, Thomas Fazi and I had a response to a recent British attack on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) published in The Tribune magazine (June 5, 2019) – For MMT. The article were were responding to – Against MMT – written by a former Labour Party advisor. In – Part 1 – we considered how the MMT critique was not really about MMT at all. We provided a more accurate summary of what MMT is and what it is not. In this second Part we consider the way the former advisor’s article misrepresented...