Tag Archives: MMT critics

The iconic business magnate and philanthropist also dismissed “modern monetary theory” as “crazy talk”. The theory has been embraced by progressive US politicians such as Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, and, curiously, President Donald Trump. It dictates that governments should not be concerned about deficits because they control the printing of their own currency. This leads to the conclusion that inflation should instead be managed with interest rates. Does Bill Gates implicitly advance...

Nassim Taleb gets the smackdown. Bill Mitchell – billy blogThose Imbecilic Keynesianisticists are loose – lock up your … whatever!Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

It occurred to me recently that everything has gone wrong since Milton Friedman died in 2006. Enuff said. PowerLineThe Laffer Curve of the Left? Steve Hayward

Gates also took exception to “modern monetary theory,” which is an economic theory with growing prominence on the policy teams of Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and others. MMT, as it’s known, suggests that governments need not worry about deficits because they can simply print their own currency, and should instead manage inflation with interest rates. (You can read more about it in this Vox explainer.) What does Gates think of MMT?“That is some crazy talk,” he told me. “It will come back...

  "Radical socialists" now. This person has no idea of what a radical socialist is based on history and policy, or else he is using the term as a smear. Oh wait, Cato Institute. There's a third possibility. Ideological bias. Ocasio-Cortez and her cohorts are disciples of a new macroeconomic worldview called “Modern Monetary Theory” (MMT). This postulates that governments with sovereign currencies face no financing constraints, and can spend as much as they like through new printed money....

"Common sense" arguments against MMT. Zero operational understanding. Bonkers.The American ThinkerWhy the Radical Left (and No One Else) Touts Modern Monetary TheoryWilliam Sullivan

In short, Liu et al present an entirely different set of expected consequences for extremely low interest rates. Instead of faster growth, they lead to slower growth. Instead of higher productivity growth, the lead to lower productivity growth. While in theory enabling government to address income inequality, they actually exacerbate it by encouraging market concentration and monopolization. More time and research is needed, of course, to see how much impact the market concentration effect...

"Socialism." Cato Institute, what to expect? At the same time, Ryan Bourne's objection that the GND goes way past what is needed to address climate change and that its true agenda is broadly imposing progressive policy needs to be addressed. Ryan Bourne also brings up a point I often make myself. Economics is fundamentally about choice involving tradeoffs and opportunity cost. Rational choice is ruled by effectiveness and efficiency in doing so. Effectiveness is about setting goals,...

Finally, some constructive criticism of MMT.  Civil engineer and manager Sig Silber suggests many points that he feels need to be addressed in debate. They are well taken. No doubt many encountering MMT will have similar questions. MMT economists have anticipated a number of them and addressed them already. Some just disappear on correct understanding of MMT. The remaining one are generally political issues as much as economic, which MMT also admits. Such issues have to be decided...

More bloviating. Every one of the scores of known cases of hyperinflation dating back over 700 years bears witness to a reckless, breakneck campaign of money creation preceding it. Post hoc, propter hoc fallacy.All hyperinflations can be traced to scarcity of real resources for different reasons preceding money creation. Weimar was the result of war reparations. Zimbabwe was the result of fall in production. Venezuela was the result of pegging its currency to the dollar, thereby abandoning...