Tag Archives: MMT criticism

The second article in this series deals with Modern Monetary Theory’s (MMT) predictive and policy successes. The article has three, separately published, parts. Part 2A deals explains why predictive ability and policy success are so critical – and notes that MMT’s critics have been conspicuously unable to provide a record of predictive failure by MMT scholars. Part 2B deals with MMT successes in microeconomics. The MMT work on microeconomics constitutes a powerful refutation of the...

Ha ha. Noah Smith criticizes an MMT formal model expressed in words rather than equations (which he thinks is OK as a formal method and as a logician, I agree) based on, wait for it, unrealistic assumptions, which is exactly the same thing that heterodox economists accuse conventional economists of doing, that is, if one considered John Maynard Keynes himself to be a heterodox economist.MMT economists should not fall into the trap of trying to mimics the mainstream in creating formal...

Brad DeLong apparently missed the part about role of the job guarantee in mopping up residual unemployment after the implementation of fiscal policy based on functional finance and using automatic stabilization to maintain output close to an optimal level with respect to growth, full employment and price stability. This would be done using Godley-inspired SFC macro modeling rather than the conventional approach to econometrics. I mention DeLong's criticism even though it is getting...

Kill shot, or low ball?I say low ball. If that's all you got....Grasping Reality James Montier will soon have an answer to his question why people hate MMT. MMT is about to hate James Montier tooBrad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

The attacks on MMT continue full steam ahead. Janet Yellen (former Fed chair, but clueless on money and banking)—a centrist–has joined the fray. Jerry Epstein—on the official left–has ramped up his ridiculous claims, now associating MMT with “America First” and fascism (you knew that was coming—it has always been the refuge of critics who couldn’t come up with valid critiques). But there are some rays of light. Bloomberg published a more balanced assessment...

MMT is taking flak not only from the right over abandoning "sound finance," but also from the left for apparently advocating reduction in the welfare state through a job guarantee and opposing the attempt to reduce inequality through progressive taxation. What we are seeing now is the transition from MMT as a macroeconomic theory based on institutional analysis to MMT as a policy science advocating for a specific angle on policy formulation that appears to be centrist. First, is...

Gerald Epstein and V. Ramanan bring up potential objections to the MMT position based on the international financial situation, an issue that Wynne Godley had pointed out previously.Ramanan has brought up questions around balance of payments issues in the past as well. Now this may sound as a pessimistic view for any individual nation or the world as a whole. The real problem is free trade – the most sacred tenet of the economics profession. Another paradox of (bourgeois) liberalism, where...

A mainstream summary of MMT that is actually pretty fair and balanced and reasonably accurate, too. The tide is turning.This is a good pice to share with others curious about MMT. I am bookmarking it as a reference to pass on in the future.In a media world of sloppy journalism and outright propaganda, this article stands out. Kudos to Bloomberg for putting it up. Bloomberg BusinessweekA Beginner’s Guide to MMT Peter Coy, Katia Dmitrieva, and Matthew Boesler, New Economy Forum

Kenneth Rogoff's criticism of Modern Monetary Theory assumes that MMT advocates don't care about budget deficits or the independence of the US Federal Reserve. But these assumptions are wide of the mark, and Rogoff himself sometimes undermines his own arguments. Project SyndicateModern Monetary Realism James K. Galbraith | Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at...

For now a brief excursion into the Dutch press, which has decided to join the wannabees attacking Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). The scenario outlined in the article I read earlier today takes the criticisms to a new level. We are no longer worried about hyperinflation, crowding out, sky high interest rates. No, things are likely to get much worse than that. If any government takes on MMT (noting it is not a regime that can be taken on) to operationalise a Green New Deal then tax rates will...