The Myth of Federal Debt in Modern Monetary Theory, Where Money is a Public Monopoly

Tags

Business, Cash, Currency, Economics, Federal Debt, Fixed Incomes, Inflation, M.M.T., MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, Monetary Public Monopoly, Monetary Theory, Money, Productivity, Soft Currency, Trillion-Dollar Deficits, Uncle Sam

Stephanie Kelton writes at the NY Times about

“Our country’s myth about federal debt, explained”

in her article

Learn To Love Trillion-Dollar Deficits

where she puts forward the observation of Walter Mosler,

author of the book “Soft Currency Economics”,

in explaining Modern Monetary Theory (“M.M.T.”, “MMT”), that

money is a public monopoly:

“Since the U.S. government is the sole issuer of the currency … it was silly to think of Uncle Sam as needing to get dollars from the rest of us.“

Well, yes, absolutely right … short term.

But long term one still has to deal with:

1) inflation and the problem, for example, of invariable viz. fixed incomes and

2) the necessity of productivity by the economy, regardless of the cash,

because you nevertheless have to have something to buy.

If money were always perfectly “free” as a “give away”,

why would anyone work?

So, there still has to be “something” beyond the monetary public monopoly,

because from “nothing” … comes “nothing”.

Hat tip to CaryGEE.