Prof. Antony Davies: Modern Monetary Theory is Wrong - Here's why

The United States government is, yet again, facing a budget crisis. Government funding is set to expire on December 3, 2021 and Congress has a deadline of December 15 to raise the debt ceiling. Otherwise, the U.S. will default on its debts, and a worldwide financial collapse becomes a possibility.
‎️‍🔥 Watch Prof. Davies' Latest Video: 7 MYTHS ABOUT THE GREAT DEPRESSION - • Prof. Antony Davies: 7... ️‍🔥
🎙️ Professor Davies also co-hosts a PODCAST! Find him and James R. Harrigan in the Words & Numbers podcast: wordsandnumbers.libsyn.com/ 🎙️
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is an economic school of thought based on John Maynard Keynes's writings which has provided theoretical legitimacy to policymaking based on deficit spending. The theory goes that because modern states control currency and have the power to levy taxes, they can print as much money as they want.
In this video, we enlist Professor Antony Davies to explain why real-world economics aren't so simple - and why, under this theory supported by politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Bernie Sanders, we would end up with more hand grenades and fewer avocadoes.
(See more from Professor Davies: • Prof. Antony Davies: 1... )
Of course, MMTers, led by Professor Stephanie Kelton, a senior economic advisor to the Sanders presidential campaigns, make impassioned arguments, too. So what do you think? Watch our analysis, do some research of your own, and tell us in the comments: Is Modern Monetary Theory valid, or would it lead to financial ruin?
#ModernMonetaryTheory #MMT #budgetcrisis #debtceiling #inflation
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[@LearnLiberty]

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[@Mpivovitz]

Hi - MMT student here. This is a complete mischaracterization of MMT. When you say MMT gives a larger footprint to the government over the private sector, that's not true. It's says when congress authorizes new spending it's creating or "adding" new/fresh (electronic) dollars to the economy (bank recipients receiving NEW +net additional reserves), and not being "financed" by existing private sector dollars (reserves) already existing in someones bank account (ie the buyers account) - as the "crowding out investment" theory and fear mongering goes of increasing interest rates, etc. The easiest way to think of it on a macro banking level is new spending is NOT converting existing reserves in to securities ,aka investors holding liquid cash as reserves and using these reserves to purchase government bonds which ultimately moves their purchase amount from their reserve account in to their securities account as a bond with no net change to their account balance (like moving money from your checking account to your savings). neo classical econ incorrectly states that new spending taking money out of the economy to purchase the bonds, aka no longer moving money from your savings to your checking rather "using up" the total amount of reserves in the system thereby making them more scare and "driving up interest rates" and crowding out investment, etc.

[@andersberggren598]

Clarification: El Salvador hasn't "pegged" their currency to the US dollar or Bitcoin. They've declared them both legal tender (US dollar in 2001, Bitcoin in 2021), i.e. the people can buy/sell in those currencies without having to pay capital gains tax etc.

[@lexer_gacha2419]

And your point, for every bitcoin, you need to cash it in, otherwise all you have is bitcoin, can you pay your rent with bitcoin, purchase your groceries etc. Without a countries currency bitcoin is worthless, you need a countries currency to have anything in your wallet.

[@jichaelmorgan3796]

@@lexer_gacha2419 crypto cities will be working on solving these problems. It's very very early in the game. But technology will naturally progress as always. Btc is the tip of a huge iceberg.

[@ancestralpolitics7433]

@@lexer_gacha2419 This is just patently not true. I can purchase whatever I want with bitcoin so long as the seller is willing to accept it. You don't need a countries currency to do this. There are places around me that accept bitcoin for rent, and I can buy groceries with bitcoin because I have. Bitcoins value doesn't come from fiat currency, it's value is a social construct (i.e. what will someone give me for it), just like all currencies. The difference is that governments can't randomly print more bitcoin to suit their needs at the expense of the poor/middle class.

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

Now I'm sitting here wondering why the CIA hasn't changed the regime in El Salvador.

[@mc.builder8267]

@@nonyadamnbusiness9887 because politicians don’t see any monetary gain in doing so.

[@coachcvetko9490]

I feel this misrepresents MMT. In my research, MMT states governments (with a fiat currency not pegged to other currencies) can increase money supply as they wish. The only concern is inflation, however it also says inflation will not occur if the country has enough resources (human, natural, and capital resources) to increase output. Quantitative theory of money says price level x output = money supply x velocity. If money supply increases 10%, you will not get a change in price level if output increases by 10%. Everyone seems to ignore all this. The left says "oh we can spend whatever we want and anti-MMTers say printing money causes inflation. Both are ignoring what the the theory actually says.

[@jaqssmith1666]

what makes them think there's just idle production sitting around doing nothing? why on earth would that be the case?

[@Andredias164]

In the real world it doesn't work like that. Imagine thinking that too much interventionism is good for the economy. Mises has explained it.

[@cameronhoward99]

Except you can't increase the money supply by 10% and simultaneously increase productivity by 10%. Generally speaking if you give someone 10% more cash they will just work 10% less.

[@ovariantrolley2327]

This sounds right but im a layman

[@ovariantrolley2327]

​@@cameronhoward99yeah and i guess too that if giving money to the poor just means they work less thats why they dont wanna do it.

[@austinbyrd1703]

The main claim of mmt is that "the only thing to worry about is inflation when offering cheap credit" Which is simply not true. A misallocation of resources propping up wasteful undemanded/lesser demanded industries, over consumption from lower rates, asset bubbles building a false sense of wealth, a misallocation of resources into present-oriented ventures at the detriment of our future, a discoordinated time-capital structure creating risk of long-term projects being unable to finish as foreseen, *and* consumer price inflation are issues of monetary expansion. They also define inflation differently. They define it as the cpi, & a terrible measure of it at that.

[@zacharyneilson9220]

Your comment is a counter to a straw man argument of MMT. I agree the problems you listed are valid concerns. The nuance is that the theory works when we use actual inflation and not the one people that don’t understand economics use (CPI). I could find idiots that agree with your economic theories that would make it sound stupid also but then I’d be straw Manning also. Anyways all those things you mentioned would be reflected in actual inflation. My understanding is that MMT says the government could spend unlimited money without going bankrupt. This is true. The reason they shouldn’t is that it would cause inflation in the forms you describe. MMT is a valid theory which like any theory can be misinterpreted to justify stupid things. Just because stupid people like that lady misinterpreted it, doesn’t mean it isn’t valid. It’s better to say, yes MMT says you can spend unlimited money if you create an equal amount of goods and services to offset the money creation. However, the government has a horrible track record of doing this unlike businesses. So let’s keep the money with the businesses that can create $2 of goods and services with $1 of capital.

[@austinbyrd1703]

@Zachary Neilson You're not disagreeing with anything I said. I made the same point in my comment. You said that the government can spend as much as it wants, as long as it's offset by rising market demanded goods & services, then went to say that the government is terrible at doing this. That's exactly what I stated.

[@gamal01]

@@zacharyneilson9220 I was under the impression that you were countering his point but instead it sounded more like an agreement with a bit of explanation or I missed something?

[@zacharyneilson9220]

@@austinbyrd1703 yeah I think we agree on the negative effects of government spending and also on the definition of inflation. My point of disagreement is that MMT doesn’t disagree with us and isn’t wrong. It’s the statists taking half of MMT that are wrong and defining inflation wrong. I understand that most people claiming to follow MMT are statists but that’s only because they only know half the equation. They heard government can spend unlimited money and not go bankrupt and stopped listening before the inflation part. I think our approach should be to explain why MMT supports limiting government spending as opposed to saying it is wrong…, because it’s not.

[@katiecannon8186]

@@zacharyneilson9220 Inflation doesn’t care if you spend government issued dollars or bank issued credit money. The basic questions are: What should our government pay for when it issues our currency? What should banks fund when they issue loans? Who/what to tax to help regulate inflation and inequality by removing excess government spending from the private sector? What should interest rates be? You use government issued dollars to shop & settle our trade deficits, pay your bank back, pay tax & net save. While popular discourse about MMT is dominated by talking about government spending, MMT itself is just as concerned about the role of government chartered banks in our economy.

[@VincentWeisTheThird]

This isn't a great representation of MMT. MMT does appear wrong, but not just for the reasons stated here. Kelton's own argument is that inflation is a problem, but that it can be controlled by managing demand, and therefore a role of state power should be to control aggregate demand to curtail inflation, while using increases in the money supply to fund state spending. So long as productivity increases outpaces inflation, that would work. The problem is that it wouldn't do that. The problem is that it relies on an omniscient government who can accurately predict aggregate demand, retain confidence in the value of US assets, including issued debt and the USD, and that there are idle resources available for the state to use that the private sector isn't using. In other words, MMT is fine if you think that the natural interest rate is zero, you think there's no such thing as opportunity cost for state use of real resources, and you trust the state to effectively and consistently use inflation targets responsibly instead of budget targets. Our government hasn't demonstrated a great efficiency in the use of our resources, or fiscal responsibility. I have no idea why any MMTer would think this is reasonable.

[@gabethompson3211]

You're getting it wrong. Demand driven inflation has not really been a thing in developed nations and so controlling inflation with taxation is also not a thing. Could be one day, but for now it's not a thing. If you actually listened to Kelton and others you would know that there is not a single action to be taken to control inflation. Inflation is not straight forward. It can be caused by a variety of factors so the idea is to determine the cause before choosing an action.

[@VincentWeisTheThird]

@@gabethompson3211 Theres no world in which you can say "demand driven inflation has not really been a thing". That's highly contestable, and in some cases just flat out not backed by evidence. We have had both inflation and economic stagnation before, rather than coupled with and sustained by supply shocks. The 70s were a good example. Even if you ignore the evidence, that's a debated matter of public policy, but to argue that we simply don't see demand-pull is just absurd. The primary driver behind Keynesian stimulus is to manipulate and increase aggregate demand, to tolerate a rate of inflation in the short term and decrease unemployment. The whole point is to risk a demand-pull inflation in order to avoid cost-push. So I don't see how your contention has any ground to stand on, it's not backed by the evidence, and it's not even consistent with contemporary macroeconomic theory. I haven't even heard Kelton or Wray say anything like that. I did listen to Kelton, and as I said in my comment, assuming you can accurately gauge and determine the cause of inflation is begging the question. My point is that her argument is fundamentally tautological even if you accept the premise of MMT. Yes, if you know enough to solve a problem, you know enough to solve a problem. But Kelton's prescriptions specifically rely heavily on the assumption that we know exactly how to spot inflation, rises in the nominal price level, as compared to rises in the real price level caused by natural disasters or other shocks. This is highly contestable even historically, let alone in trying to predict the future. We don't know everything. Stable monetary policy is important for this reason, to let the market correct itself, because we don't know how to fix it better than it does on its own. Her prescriptions, however, should not be oversimplified to "just know how to do better lol". She focuses on increases in spending on jobs programs, measures to reach full employment, which assumes not only that we know what full employment is and that we want it (if it means Japan's situation, we don't), and also assumes a great deal of idle resources and that there's no opportunity cost to private industry that would decrease efficiency and productivity. In other words, she assumes that government spending is equal in productive value to private spending, and that government institutions have the capacity to set and manage inflation targets. I listened to every word, but that doesn't mean I agree. I listen to flat earthers too. Don't assume someone didn't listen just because they disagree. That kind of arrogance has no place in effective discourse.

[@marcusgaunt8222]

This was well said

[@Rob-fx2dw]

Yes MMT is an absurd belief that relies on blind acceptence of an authority (government) that is headed by politicians having acquired by being voted in the specialist ability to know the costs of and benefits of doing every thing in the economy that produces goods and services people need. It is hard to believe anyone could be foolish enough to swallow this rubbish theory.

[@Rob-fx2dw]

You say "therefore a role of state power should be to control aggregate demand to curtail inflation, while using increases in the money supply to fund state spending". How would any country do that even if they followed what you said ? It is Not possible to control ' aggregate' demand if there is increased demand created by the state spending. All that would happen is the state would have more spending and the private sector have less thus causing more poverty because the private sector is the wealth producer not the state. If the state was the wealth producer it would not need taxes at all but would live off it's own profits. So you have shot yourself in the foot by arguing against your own theory. Besides that the so called "aggregate demand " idea ignores the fact that in the real economy there are prices which are part of the component of the demand supply price concept and leaving out one part of that concept leads to all sorts of incorrect conclusions. So stating there is a thing called "aggregate demand" that can be manipulated is just nonsense. If you disagree then show one instance where prices do not exist in any purchase.

[@ChatwithMatt]

Yeah next time I need to cover rent I'll just print it in my office......oh yeah if I do that I go to jail.

[@01nmuskier]

I think that is the biggest tell for any government policy. When they outlaw you doing it, but say they need to do it for your own good. LOL

[@ChatwithMatt]

@@01nmuskier Keynesian BS right lol.

[@katiecannon8186]

@@ChatwithMatt Ah yes, our courts should force you to accept Katie Bucks as compensation for some harm I may do to you. 🙄 You guys really need to try to understand really basic stuff if you’re concerned enough to comment about stuff.

[@tacomonkey222]

@@katiecannon8186 i hope you know its only a recent phenomenon that out currency is valued by faith and trust

[@marcuschamp9881]

As MMT explains, you are not ISSUER of the currency...so yes, you would be counterfeiting and go to jail. Your statement actually proves a key argument of MMT. Thanks for the example.

[@teddybruscie]

This whole video is a strawman. MMT says the limit to government spending is inflation. Inflation does not happen when you print 1 dollar more than you have. If they actually studied MMT they would know this.

[@christophergreen3809]

This is the real "voodoo economics".

[@gl0b4lcitiz3n7]

Fairy tail economy

[@pamelakrause9311]

No... the voodoo economics is the taxpayers narrative. Starting point where does the money come from for you to pay taxes given under law no one can create money but the Federal Reserve, or they would be imprisoned for counterfeiting. TAXES DO NOT PAY for Congress spending... rather Congress must spend as the monopoly issuer of the USD via the Federal Reserve before anyone has USD to pay TAXES. Learn how sovereign currency works... because the wealthy corporates certainly know and take advantage of it! We are not going to get out of the economic doldrums as long as we continue to be obsessed with the unreasoned ideological goal of reducing the so-called deficit. The “deficit” is not an economic sin but an economic necessity." ~ William Vickery Nobel Laureate. Vickrey was awarded the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences Based on defintion of sovereign currency and the role of the Fed, apply some simple logic with basic accounting knowledge, and legislation which you can look up and it is clear that the taxpayers money narrative is one huge myth. a) The USA is a sovereign money nation... What that means is the USD is the currency issued by the USA. Sovereign money is legal tender issued by a monetary authority, in most cases by a nation-state's "independent" central bank. In the USA that is the Fed. b) Central Bank (The Fed) is an integral part of the financial and economic system. They are usually owned by the government and they are given certain functions by legislation raised by the Congress to fulfil. These include printing/creating money (which primarily occurs via key strokes in a computer every time they spend), operating monetary policy, lender of last resort (to the commercial banking system) and ensuring the stability of financial system. Ever hear of "supply bills" or "appropriation bills" those are the instructions from Congress to the Fed to fund spending by creation of money. Based on this information it is clear that the monopoly creator of the USD is the Congress via the The Federal Reserve. Making state and local Governments along with everyone else money users. And we know this because if anyone else tried to create the USD they'd end up in prison for counterfeiting. So from an understanding of sovereign money and the central bank, we know that logically USA along with other sovereign money nations must be a spend then tax economy... Congress spends money into existence. From an accounting prospective that creates a Liability for Government, and an asset for whomever the recipient of that Government spending is. As the Government is the source of money and the creation of money creates a Liability for the Government, we then know when people pay taxes it simply reduces that initial liability. Thus basic Accounting General Journal Ledger principles clearly show it is impossible for taxation to fund Congress spending. Note: Banks create credit not currency which they do under Government licence and we already know due to the function of the Central Bank that they underwrite that "credit"... lender of last resort. The mathematical equation of the above is Sectoral Balances which state: (G - T) = (S - I) - (X - M) The above linear equation states that government spending (G) minus taxation (T) will equal savings (S) minus investment (I) minus exports (X) minus imports (M). In general terms, whatever the federal government spends minus taxation, that exact amount will be deposited in and distributed between the domestic private sector and the external sector as income. We can now aggregate (put together) the right side of the equation using brackets and define two sectors: (G - T) = [(S - I) - (X - M)] In other words... The Federal government sector = The non-federal government sector OR quite simply put: The Federal government sector’s deficit is the non- federal government sector’s income. The Government's red ink IS the Private sectors black ink. A Government surplus = Private sector debt. AND as the Congress is the monopoly issuer of the USD they have no affordability issues as money is infinite. The restriction is the real resources including labour to produce or do the work not the money to finance the work.

[@pamelakrause9311]

To quote Harvard University "The most important misperception is that MMT is in some way outlining an ideal or a new regime that could be introduced. The reality is that MMT just describes the system that most countries in the world live under and have lived under since 1971, when the US president at the time, Richard Nixon, suspended the convertibility of the US dollar into gold. At that point, the system of fixed exchange rates-in which all countries agreed to fix their currencies against the US dollar, which was in turn benchmarked in price against gold-was abandoned. So since that day, most of us have been living in what we call a fiat currency system."

[@MrScarduelli]

@@pamelakrause9311 money does not run the economy, production of goods and service does. As Government spending gets a bigger and bigger part of the economy you produce less of consumer goods and stuff get more expensive to the public in term of work hours, you have to work more and more Of course government will not default, but that does not mean your quality of life will not deteriorate in the process

[@MrScarduelli]

@@pamelakrause9311 but you are corect, government does that since 71, and came up with a cool name now rather than trying to hide it. That’s why, other than technology, our life standards is basically the same, and stuff like housing, with our parents afford early in life is now but a dream to younger generations.

[@jerryyoung5862]

Gold standard era thinking in a fiat world

[@Skipbo000]

exactly

[@soulfuzz368]

It’s no longer a fiat world. Globalism has outdated your theory. The value of a currency is so very relative now.

[@JGS2295]

I did as was suggested and researched MMT for myself and read a bunch of stuff online, as well as Stephanie Kelton's book The Deficit Myth to actually try and understand it. My conclusion is that this video doesn't really explain why MMT is wrong at all. From what I have read and digested, one of the central pillars of MMT is the seemingly correct observation that monetarily-sovereign governments do not need to "balance the books" in order to work properly. This is extremely obvious when you just consider that the US, and the UK for instance, have run annual budget deficits for the majority of the last few hundred years. So any economist advocating budget surpluses to "pay down the debt" for its own sake is clearly talking nonsense. Another core tenet of MMT from what I understand is the sensible suggestion that government budget deficits are an artificial constraint, with the real, tangible constraint being the productive capacity of the economy and its ability to absorb deficit spending, etc. This certainly is a novel perspective, as governments all over the developed world have, for decades now, been artificially concerned with their deficits in and of themselves when actually they should be more focused on the REAL economic constraints of an economy - its capacity to produce the goods and services we all need and want. In many cases, increasing the deficit to invest in skills, machinery, infrastructure, healthcare provision, or anything else a country might require and has the physical capacity to accomplish, isn't a bad thing. Inflation will only occur if the government injects TOO much deficit spending at the WRONG things such that the actual real people doing the work that the money is paying for can't keep up and so prices will rise. But that has nothing inherently to do with a budget deficit.

[@PressureOnJulian]

Yes, and this argument about reducing consumer space is just trash. Government spending goes to people who work for the government in salary and wages - and guess what they do....they consume! And I don't think they consume from the public sector do they?

[@EGarrett01]

@@PressureOnJulian Government wages aren't market efficient since the government can print whatever it wants to pay the workers and has no competitors, so that money gets misallocated and thus does not feed or create efficient markets. In the same way that I could print a trillion dollars and pay only you the money. You'd buy what you want, but the food sector would collapse because you could only eat or store so much for yourself, and if you try to choose what food other people need, you wouldn't actually know as well as they do. In the meantime everyone else's savings become crap because of all the free money you just threw around.

[@EGarrett01]

"Monetarily-sovereign governments do not need to "balance the books" in order to work properly." Define "work properly."

[@JGS2295]

@@EGarrett01 A monetarily-sovereign government with a fiat currency (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, China, EU as a block, etc) can ALWAYS meet its financial obligations. This is crucial since it means there's literally no way this type of government can be "forced" to default on debt payments or social security obligations through lack of funds, a luxury not enjoyed by countries such as France or Germany who are not monetarily-sovereign. The only way that happens for the UK or US etc is if the individuals in charge of the Treasury and government choose to take that path.

[@EGarrett01]

@@JGS2295 "Meeting your financial obligations" by printing up money is not necessarily "performing well" since government is in theory supposed to improve society. Printing up money to pay your debt is siphoning value out of American's savings. Do that too much and you'll have "met your obligation" while destroying your citizens' lives.

[@shawn45713]

This video basically made an argument against our current politicians, not against modern monetary theory, which is a sound theory.

[@chrisg0901]

The notion that the government can simply raise taxes to offset inflation completely ignores political realities. The Democrats can't even get their full caucus to agree on it now. It also ignores a well-understood intersection between politics and psychology: loss aversion. People are much more driven to avoid the financial loss if taxes than any kind of gain.

[@katiecannon8186]

MMT does not rely on post hock taxation. And taxes are just one of our inflation management tools. Not the only one. I honestly do not understand folks who pretend to understand what MMT is when they obviously haven’t read any MMT stuff.

[@chrisg0901]

@@katiecannon8186 it's spelled "post hoc"

[@katiecannon8186]

@@chrisg0901 Whatever. But MMT: Evaluate each spending proposal for its potential inflationary impact. If inflationary, add a tax offset within the legislation itself. Also MMT: We have a variety of inflation dampening tools: Suppressing bank lending - especially for speculative purpose - through credit guidance, issuing nonnegotiable household savings bonds, etc.

[@VincentWeisTheThird]

@@katiecannon8186 Randall Wray argues this explicitly. He argued that taxation is necessary to curb aggregate demand and reduce inflation. He's wrong, but the idea that this is some straw-man suggests either you yourself aren't up to date on MMT, or as usual, MMT doesn't actually mean any single coherent theory because it means different things to each proponent so all of them can handwave any concerns about it as "not real MMT".

[@katiecannon8186]

@@VincentWeisTheThird Wray’s point is that taxes just *do* remove government issued dollars from the private sector. So, they reduce demand. So they reduce inflationary pressures that too much government spending may cause. So, you’re correct re Wray. And also, MMT explicitly relies on multiple inflation dampening tools. Just because you don’t understand this doesn’t mean anything other than you don’t understand this.

[@_winston_smith_]

My biggest concern with MMT is the dynamic effects that have timescales of years or decades. Just as they say, "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." That same concern applies to the economy 100x. As we are seeing right now, there are many complex interactions and threshold effects in a large economy that can hold back inflation. You can irresponsibly create an excessive amount of money happily for many years then suddenly lose control.

[@duffdingelmeyer7101]

So how long are we talking? QE has been a thing for 15 years. One of the weird assumptions orthodox economists make is that your predictions will happen at a vague time in the future. 0 predictive power.

[@Frankincensedjb123]

Only one concern, that it exists. Oppose at every cost. Just the term "deficit spending" should set off major alarms. Avoid at ALL costs. All costs.

[@grimaffiliations3671]

That's why MMT puts a lot of emphasis on assessing the risk of inflation associated with any piece of spending. Analyzing inflation risk is far more important than assessing deficit risk, which what what the US currently does

[@ashleystovalldaman]

@@grimaffiliations3671as it should, but we need hard guard rails because politicians love buying votes and without hard rails they will run amok. That’s my fear

[@grimaffiliations3671]

@@ashleystovalldaman If the spending they're doing helps imprive people's standards of living, and the relevant inflationary assessments have been done, then there is no problem with that spending

[@AusFirewing]

Prices, as a whole, are simply the ratio of the number of dollars currently circulating and the amount of goods and services being sought after in the economy. Saying that inflation doesn't occur when you print money and inject it into circulation is like saying the ground doesn't get wet when it rains.

[@katiecannon8186]

You guys just pretend banks don’t exist. Or that too much bank lending can’t cause inflation Banks adore folks like you

[@LearnLiberty]

Agreed! MMT means to increase the money supply, which causes growth in prices.

[@katiecannon8186]

@@LearnLiberty No. That’s not at all what MMT is.

[@AusFirewing]

@@katiecannon8186 You just gonna leave that assertion hanging without an explanation?

[@katiecannon8186]

@@AusFirewing Which one? Ask me any question and I’ll try my best to answer. I’m no expert, but am pretty good at understanding MMT. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll provide links. Really, it’s important that as many people as possible have a basic understanding of how our monetary system works. There’s a reason politicians, talking heads and far too many economists don’t explain this to us. And that reason isn’t a good one.

[@woodchuck003]

I find MMT to be a good explanation of how the Fed functions, but not how it should ideally function. The MMT expert on here does do a good job at providing an example for why MMT will never work. The founding economist of MMT do say you can control inflation through taxation. The biggest supporters of MMT, politicians and economists, constantly demonstrate a complete ignorance of what MMT actually is.

[@katiecannon8186]

MMT explains how our monetary system as a whole works: Treasury, Fed, and banks. Also, MMT understands that we used a variety of inflation dampening tools during WWII when we spent like crazy and kept inflation in check. Including suppressing bank lending (especially for speculative purpose).

[@LearnLiberty]

MMT is the monetary instrument to increase the money supply, but it has many adverse effects on the economy.

[@katiecannon8186]

@@LearnLiberty MMT is simply a description of how our monetary system works. With a few policy suggestions. But you guys need to focus on understanding how our monetary system works. You guys don’t have a basic understanding of how our monetary system works. That’s a problem

[@woodchuck003]

@@katiecannon8186 I would be more concerned about your MMT advocate failing to explain MMT if you're a fan of the theory.

[@katiecannon8186]

@@woodchuck003 I can’t help it if someone asks someone on who doesn’t understand what MMT is actually saying. So, for instance, MMT relies heavily on employing auto stabilizers to regulate inflation.

[@TheLoveMonkey]

My understanding of monetary theory is as follows. The most important rule is that there is an ideal amount of money that should be in circulation at any given time. If there is too little money in circulation, it causes economic recessions and too much unemployment. If there is too much money in circulation, it causes inflation. When a nation is experiencing an economic recession and high unemployment, and businesses and individuals are not borrowing enough to increase the amount of money in circulation, then governments must borrow and spend that money. If there is already the ideal amount of money in circulation and the government sharply increases its borrowing and spending, then it will cause inflation, unless measures to decrease the money supply by an equal amount are simultaneously implemented. These measures could include raising taxes and/or increasing interest rates. This, of course, would result in a small shift in the labor force as labor that was previously going to private industry would now be going to the new government projects. I'm not sure if this understanding qualifies as MMT. I have to admit that I was surprised to hear Stephanie Kelton say that raising taxes to fight inflation is not part of MMT. Given this understanding, the question should be - Is the public benefit from the projects that the government is borrowing and spending to fund greater than the benefit from the labor those people who are now working on the government projects were doing before? If you're answering this question from a self-interest perspective, how you answer will depend a lot on how wealthy you are. If the government wanted to borrow and spend to make our dilapidated roads and bridges safe, I think everyone would agree that it would be in the best interest for everyone. But if the government wanted to borrow and spend money to pay for free community college or free no frills healthcare for everyone, and compensate for the increased money in circulation by increasing taxes and/or interest rates, than the wealthy, who can afford private high-quality healthcare and to send their kids to private high-quality universities, won't benefit from those programs, but would have to pay the higher taxes and/or interest rates. So they would be against it because it is a kind of wealth redistribution program.

[@erikeparsels]

This guy's statement that MMT people say "the government doesn't have to worry about inflation" is the exact opposite of what MMT proponents actually say. MMT says inflation is in fact THE thing the government has to be concerned about. The government cannot be forced to default on any commitments denominated in its own floating exchange rate fiat currency, but if it spends in excess of the available labor or material resources available for sale in that currency, inflation will result. But ALL spending comes with an inflation risk. Excess bank credit issuance can drive prices up. There is nothing special in that regard about government spending. If, for example, severe supply shocks occur, inflation will result due to restricted supply regardless of what the government does.

[@cyberjunk2002]

IMO Davies makes kind of a poor argument because everyone who supports MMT will of course think the money won't be used for tanks but for social services. The real issue is it's gutting the actual economy. Trying to print money to give to someone and pretending it means something when there isn't actual productivity that generated it in the first place is an illusion. A very dangerous one because in the process it undercuts actual productivity and leads to incredible abuse and corruption. You can't close Pandora's box.

[@jesseesquire5807]

I find it interesting u said that because thats how we got in this mess lol... Selling dreams and trying to fill the gaps with bubbles. Thats y bitcoin is taking off. I resolve we go back to the barter system but im not sure one half of the world wont destroy the other half. Capitalism is about knowing a price. We need to get back to understanding the VALUE of things

[@cyberjunk2002]

@@jesseesquire5807 agree with your points although not sure about the barter system -- makes us all poorer due to the friction. Better would just be non-government controlled money.

[@jesseesquire5807]

@@cyberjunk2002 but that's the thing.. does less "money" mean poorer? I feel like wealth would be based on tangible substance. I grew up in capitalism. Working for your share is fine but how many people would choose to work as opposed to those who would say "money doesn't pay bills anymore so fukk it"? These types of people will ruin the equilateral concept of Bitcoin still. Bartering services encourages a better quality American in my opinion. As long as there is a a conduit of currency... There are gonna be corrupt people to try and hoard it all.

[@droe2570]

@@jesseesquire5807 Money is not wealth. Assets are wealth. Money is a means of trade and holding value. Barter is a strange word and you'll have to define how you mean it. Barter/trade happens all the time; whenever you negotiate a price, whenever businesses trade service for service. But if you mean the tomato farmer is going to trade his tomatoes with GM for a truck, that will never work. "does less "money" mean poorer?" All things being equal, yes, it has to mean that. Less of any asset or value device means you are by definition "poorer". That does not mean you are "poor". After all, if you go from a billion dollars to having 900M, you are poorer, but hardly poor. And when you say money, you have to say instead currency. Having fewer US dollars can still be more than a larger number of Mexican pesos, for example. At any rate, like I said at the start, you seem to be confusing wealth with value. Money is a value device, assets are a wealth device.

[@h.a.s.42]

​@@droe2570you contradict yourself. If money is not wealth how with less money can you be poorer? Stupid really. Just admit money is and should be a store of value. That's the only way you put a value on your time, your life, your energy. MMT distorts that function of money.

[@kmeisterus]

What concerns me is this video is coming out as a response to raising the debt ceiling - where not doing so is a way to GUARANTEE the disasters it describes. Why aren't we focused on lowering the BUDGET?!? Through cost-cutting measures like negotiating prescription drug prices for Medicare/Medicaid, and reducing the defense budget by a third, and raising more revenue to cover the social programs through removing the Social Security tax ceiling? Better still, do the cost-cutting measures and amend the Constitution to replace income tax with a sales tax or, better still, a transaction tax, which weights the tax burden towards things individuals can control? It's scary we think we should fix things by not paying our bills rather than by making sure they are covered in the first place.

[@VincentWeisTheThird]

Some would argue that by letting ourselves hit that ceiling, it would force an otherwise politically expedient and unhelpful Congress to curtail increases in spending. Many people do want the budget to decrease. But increasing the debt limit won't do that. How many governments do you think ever operate UNDER budget sustainably? They always will find ways to hit the limit, because it's more politically profitable.

[@droe2570]

People on the Left whine about the defense budget, but never whine about social spending, which is more than double the defense budget. The defense budget is only about 1/5th of the federal budget. Social spending is more than half the budget. Cutting the defense spending will have little to no impact; we will still overspend. The social spending is what is always growing, and that is where cuts are required.

[@tungsten8332]

@@droe2570 Actually, I pretty sure the defense budget is actually only 10% of the federal budget.

[@droe2570]

@@tungsten8332 I looked it up, and for 2020 it was 11%, so you are correct for last year.

[@tungsten8332]

@@droe2570 Was just correcting about the information but, everything else I pretty much agree with.

[@rickkern5785]

MMT is not here to stay, Unbridled spending by Congress is here to get the current politicians re elected. Huge overspending is like the cocaine addict. The initial result is more business activity and more pork for the politicians supporters but the pain of addiction rapidly overtakes the spree.

[@Dre2Dee2]

If the democrats didnt buy their support thru programs they wouldnt have any

[@rickkern5785]

@@Dre2Dee2 I agree..

[@Sosa-gs3rz]

The USA went from sound money with the gold standard to this. The US can’t raise interest rates because of how much debt they owe. They can’t keep printing money or else we’ll get hyperinflation. Either way we’re fucked.

[@gabethompson3211]

Why isn't there hyperinflation already. Why should gold reserves have anything to do with the money supply?

[@gabethompson3211]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3nGf6l9aJmEbLM

[@Sosa-gs3rz]

@@gabethompson3211 The United States used to be on a gold standard. The gold standard forced the United States to have to collect taxes if they wanted to pay for something. Nixon taking us off the gold standard allowed the government to print money in order to fund their expenditures. This introduced the inflation tax. A silent tax that takes away the purchasing power of the dollar. The United States is headed for hyperinflation if they don’t raise interest rates and pop all of these asset bubbles.

[@gabethompson3211]

@@Sosa-gs3rz Japan has a debt to GDP ratio of over 250% and it's inflation rate in 2020 was -0.03%. America' debt to GDP ratio in 2020 was 133.92% and the inflation rate was 1.4%. I recall folks saying the same thing in 2008 with regards to the bailouts. The truth seems to be that the inflationary pressures are not coming and a need to raise interest rates is not coming either. With more than 10 years perspective on the global financial crisis I think that it is clear that the bubble was caused by bad lending practices and the collapse caused by shady financial products like credit default swaps. The gold standard or lack there of had nothing to do with it but a lack of regulation definitely did. Privately held debt can take down an economy. It has not been demonstrated that government debt can have the same effect. The inflation that we're seeing now is all connected to supply chain issues that relate to tariffs and COVID. It's not connected to extra government spending. I'll take a bet that hyperinflation is not on the horizon and I wonder how long until you admit that the Austrians are wrong? Why would tying the value of your currency to gold, a metal with few industrial applications, lead to better outcomes. I think the American economy has done rather well since they abandoned the gold standard.

[@Sosa-gs3rz]

@@gabethompson3211 The Austrians were wrong? The Keynesians have been feeding this propaganda into our schools for years. Japan is in the same boat as us but they have a longer rope because they still have a manufacturing sector. The 2008 financial crisis happened because of artificially low interest rates and quasi government entities. The low interest rates flooded the market with cheap liquor that made Wall Street drunk. Wall Street had no moral hazard because of government backed bank accounts. Big banks aren’t scared to gamble because even if they lost they knew the taxpayer would bail them out. The US has been better ever since we got off of the gold standard what planet are you on? Food prices have never been higher. Government subsidies that go to farming, schools, and healthcare have made them all unaffordable. This debt fueled economy is a fluke.

[@efanjohnson8207]

Mmt is a true policy outlook. Not to see it's the right thing to do. There are many different perspectives to policy choice, this is just one. The main problem I have with mmt is how it is marketed as infinite money hacks. Thinking about it this way will undoubtedly lead to more government market socialism and higher taxes. Mmt has a fully working method and it's justifiable on some grounds. Another issue is who's hand the infinite money printer is in. Obviously not all spending is built equally. Some of the best applications of mmt would be to support the internalisation of costs in market failures due to externalities and also to open new markets through education and research. Mmt must support growth otherwise the inflation craze by money printing will quickly turn into popped bubble and steep recession. Wise investments facilitate growth. Not money printing.

[@Nuvendil]

Don't often agree with Krugman, but he was dead on when he said MMTers are just playing calvinball. Any time any elemenent of MMT is criticized, they counter that you just didn't describe it properly.

[@01nmuskier]

Antony Davies is brilliant.

[@ryanberelowitz7464]

Yeah because they didn't 🤷‍♂️

[@zacharyneilson9220]

Haha, unfortunately I do feel it wasn’t described properly. It’s not complicated so I don’t understand how it gets described so poorly all the time. I’m curious what you would criticize to MMT properly described. MMT says the government can spend unlimited money without default. This is a fact. It also says spending without an equal or greater amount of goods and services being created will cause inflation (not limited to CPI). Poor descriptions happen when statists hear the first part and disregard the second part. Businesses have been good at creating money by borrowing $1 and using it to produce $2 of goods and services. Government has historically created $2 and produced $1 of goods and services. I think the obvious conclusion to be drawn using MMT is to limit government spending and let free market banking control the money supply.

[@01nmuskier]

@@zacharyneilson9220 says under MMT, government can spend unlimited money. Then says the answer to MMT is the government spending limited money. 🤣 That's how we know it is a shell game.

[@katiecannon8186]

@@01nmuskier Just because someone on a comments section may not be perfectly clear doesn’t mean anything The core of MMT is that the limit on both government spending and bank lending is availability of real resources for money to buy and inflation. Bank lending is further limited by our ability to pay our banks back in government issued dollars. The above should not be at all controversial Of course it gets more complicated, because economies are complicated But let me know when you understand how our government spent like crazy during WWII and kept inflation in check at the same time. When you understand this, you’ll have a better grasp of MMT

[@dantean]

Someone explain to me why it's not just this simple: More dollars decreases their value because scarcity and value are more or less pegged to another somewhat directly. No one will pay for tap water because it's freely available in unlimited supply, whereas gold fetches good money because it is not. Making the dollar more abundant lowers its value for just this same reason which is why prices go up after the Fed works its magic (i.e., it's printing press), because producers want more of a now-less-valuable dollar than they did a MORE valuable one in exchange for what they have to sell. Why is it not as straightforward as that? Or is it?

[@Rob-fx2dw]

You are basically right but the problem is politicians are stupid enough to not understand this basic reality or are arrogant and willing enough to deceive others to get into power and manipulate the money system to keep in power so they go along with anyone who is willing to join in an help them no matter how stupid their economic ideas are.

[@h.a.s.42]

Because when we need to grow we don't look left or right, we just print. And then we wrap things in a non-transparent wrapper so we don't see that in order to get more NOW we made our lives more difficult in the long-term. But wait, why that should be a problem if only this year's election matter?

[@FletchforFreedom]

MMT is neither modern, solely monetary or a theory (which requires basic viability). It is neither more nor less than Moronic Magical Thinking. One (small) correction to the narrator. Every printed (or electronically created) dollar does not, in itself result in inflation. The problem is that fiat money has expanded materially more *than the increase in goods and services in the economy.* More than a century ago, this country enjoyed long-term and beneficial low level deflation as the increase in goods and services outpaced the increase in the money supply that stemmed primarily from gold mining (ah, the wonders of commodity money!). The reality (as the actual economics demonstrates) is that every dollar created and/or spent by government comes from the people either via taxation, devalued savings or higher consumer costs. It is simply the belief that there is some magical source of wealth (which is impossible for government to create) to be bestowed on the people (specifically those whose votes they are buying), without consequence. There are those who recognize MMT as an idiotic fairy tale and those who should have the sleeves of those stylish jackets retied behind their backs.

[@FletchforFreedom]

@@finchbevdale2069 It's really quite simple. There is no risk at all with today's electronic currency of there being a currency shortage - none. There is no chance that we will return to the days of company scrip which resulted from exactly that problem. What would happen is that, as normal economic growth increased the pool of goods and services available to consumers, the dollar would strengthen and there would be a period of gradual deflation which happened only once in US history - an incredibly prosperous period in the late 19th century. Savings would become more valuable, investment would increase and we would all be better off. There is no downside (except a very slight one to borrowers as the dollars they would need to pay off debts became more dear).

[@Leftistattheparty]

Mmt just explains what happens. Anyone in the banking industry knows this.

[@captaingerbil1234]

If money is printed, then spent on interest bearing assets, and then it's paid back thus taking the money out of circulation again and using the interest towards the deficit you can get by without inflation. We're not though. We're printing money for consumption in the form of transfer payments. We're just consuming now at the price of consuming later. That is going to cause inflation to continue to climb.

[@sbains6096]

Isn't MMT already in practice with quantitative easing, however the gains are going to the top 1%.

[@harutosunaa3881]

Yes. This channel is a billionaire propaganda mill.

[@Shogun-my5nc]

MMT can also be used to distribute and balance wealth.

[@buddyjenkins7188]

Only in Washington is the answer to not being able to pay our current bills, is to spend more money.

[@derekrethman5834]

Would y'all be able to explore the topic of the pros and cons of a full or partial default?

[@gabethompson3211]

The video is dishonest and a default is impossible. The debt ceiling is elective and congress will not create a economic crisis for the sake of petty politics.

[@derekrethman5834]

@@gabethompson3211 what was dishonest? Also improbability does not negate that it might have positive and negative impacts

[@gabethompson3211]

@@derekrethman5834 The first line of the video is something like "A global economic crisis could ensue if the government defaults on it's debt" This is just not a plausible outcome and they know that. It'll be another show with the two parties trying to score cheap political points but the outcome will be that they will fire up the printing press and avert the crisis. That's all it takes. What will the effect of the deficit spending be is a legitimate question. Again this is where I find the video to be dishonest. They know the difference between floating and fixed exchange rates. USD is a fiat currency with a floating exchange rate. Learn Liberty knows this. However they pretend that the effects of printing the money would have an effect as if USD were still pegged to gold. It isn't. They are liars.

[@derekrethman5834]

@@gabethompson3211 irregardless of fixed vs free floating, inflating the supply will still have an effect. We cannot know the entire effect but we do know a lot through some theories like the Austrian business cycle. It highlights the expansion of credit as the reason why the boom bust cycle happens. And any more expansion through increased spending on part of the gov will create bigger bubbles that will crash even harder than any other in the past

[@gabethompson3211]

@@derekrethman5834 Default is not the effect. Let's agree on that. In my opinion the Austrians have failed to move past the gold standard and they are not the people to pay attention to. If these theories were true we'd be seeing the results in America right? We'd be seeing examples of this somewhere. Explain Japan. Explain America.

[@psyberplaylist4688]

Under a central bank system (Federal Reserve act) The economic systems is pretty much screwed if the US had stuck with ‘only the government shall coin monies’ instead of voting in the Federal Reserve Act then eliminating currency by taxation would work, however in reality taxation recycles the currency, not eliminate it while the government goes deeper in debt which is borrowing more money from the private corporation “Federal Reserve” central bank. So you compound inflation with less value of labor (your earnings are reduced with higher taxation as cost increases being inflation from excessive currency being used/borrowed) so this will eventually collapse and regardless of emotional narratives, reality will takes down earnings being the devaluation of labor to the point where average persons can’t afford basic necessities due to basic necessities costs increases.

[@stevengordon1424]

There is a lot of misrepresentation of mmt here. The irrefutable fact is that in a fiat economy with a sovereign currency(such as the US), the amount of money that can be spent is not limited by any commodity (such as gold) or by the debt ceiling. Like it or not, the government can 'print' as much money as it wants because it is not anchored to anything physical). The debt ceiling is an arbitrary limit. The real cause of inflation is indeed supply and demand of goods and services, not by the supply of money. That is why the federal reserve's monetary policies don't work, and in reality tend to increase inflation. In the 1970's they cranked up interest rates for a decade without effect. It reached 16.65%. The real cause was OPEC which raised the cost of oil to unseen heights in the US, which caused a supply side crises. The mmt stance is that fiscal measures are needed, not monetary. For example, to deal with the supply chain issues we saw after covid, training and hiring more licensed truck drivers would have helped. I will agree that it is a bit frightening to think of how congress might abuse this more accurate way of thinking about money.

[@jimg8413]

This entire video misrepresents MMT. MMT in no way claims that the Fed can just print as much as it wants. It merely claims that federal spending creates US dollars and that taxing destroys already creared dollars; that deficits provide the dollars that the privste sector and foreign countries use; and that federal "debt" is not money the government "owes" but money the private sector "owns" as savings.

[@Rob-fx2dw]

You misrepresent reality just like MMT does. MMT is rubbish that is badly thought out !! Don't expect the MMT theorists to be able to do accounting or explain things like their claim of how taxes create a value and acceptance of money but when the money failed due to inflation in over 30 countries in the past 80 years there were also taxes that did not keep the money in any way valuable Even their own governments dumped their own currency in favor of another country's money. The ideas they push have failed time and time again.

[@durfdurffigan8680]

@@Rob-fx2dw some lost a debate in their econ class.

[@Rob-fx2dw]

@@durfdurffigan8680 Yo may have hit Mosler's and Kelton's nerve there.

[@alanponikvar3921]

I have seen enough videos on MMT to realize that most critics make basic mistakes when they describe what MMT is about. Davies fits this profile.

[@lukekent9386]

So far, all I can tell about MMT is that no matter what you say about MMT, a MM theorist will show up to say you're wrong but not explain anything.

[@rickkern5785]

True MMT only allows Govt to print more money to EMPLOY the unemployed when there is high unemployment. Like when unemployment is above 5%. And the Govt wages (not unemployment) are below what the market pays most workers with the basic idea that employed people have an easier time getting a job than unemployed people. Therefore people will migrate back to private industry when jobs there become available. Basic theory of MMT is everyone will always have a job. Even Friedman believed there needed to be extra money printed every year in an amount slightly larger than GDP yearly growth. This would keep the economy from experiencing deflation.

[@dannymuskardin9482]

Can I print $ to pay my bills? Or is it technically counterfeiting?

[@Rob-fx2dw]

Of course you can't print the official money of any country. Why?- because it would destroy the whole value (it's buying power) of money if everyone did it or if any institution did it excessively. The evidence is in all of the countries where their money was expanded (printed) in ever increasing amounts like what happened in Zimbabwe and the Weimar republic where governments wanted to pay for more than they taxed the private sector for. MMT economists preach that governments can just increase the amount of money for their own ideas (politicians' ideas) of what is needed. That is just naive foolishness since politicians don't know what is needed or care for or what the costs of things are or should be and take no responsibility financially or otherwise for their failures so why would anyone trust them to have more control than they do over finance. All they really care about is their own salaries and getting elected by saying what they think people want to hear no matter how stupid it is.

[@funkydiscogod]

2:17 She makes a good point. Obviously everyone is wrong except her. I guess I'm on the MMT train now.

[@alt842]

She talked a lot but said nothing

[@FullHammer]

@@alt842 At least you could watch the whole answer: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nZTKdZSwiNisiNk Then you'll realize that she do said a lot.

[@gabethompson3211]

Don't fall for Learn Liberty shady tactics. That sound bite is taken out of context and an incomplete idea. Listen to everything she has to say.

[@colin1818]

@@FullHammer - That's a fair point. We should watch her entire clip. Unfortunately, she's still wrong.

[@roughhabit9085]

In the full clip does she talk about unicorns and rainbows?

[@zacharyneilson9220]

This is your first video I somewhat disagree with. I believe that professor Davies was mostly correct and actually seems to understand MMT better than the girl presented as understanding it. However, MMT is actually a viable economic theory under my understanding of it but that girl is absolutely wrong about taxes. Taxes are one of the levers that offset inflation. Also, I think the policies recommended on this channel actually fit well in the MMT framework. The part where I disagree with professor Davies is that $1 of money printing will create inflation. If that printing is paired with $1 of production it will be neutral and if paired with $2 of production it could even be deflationary. Businesses and banks take advantage of this all the time. Borrow $1 for equipment that allows them to make $2 of goods and services. Here is why MMT supports the policies recommended by the channel. Even though the government could print unlimited money and never go bankrupt, they need to spend it in a way that creates an equal amount of goods and services to prevent inflation. As we know, the government doesn’t have a good track record of doing this. It’s better for businesses to create money by borrowing from banks because they are more likely to create enough goods and services to offset the money they borrowed. Also, 100% any country other than USA pegging their currency to the dollar instead of BTC is shooting themselves in the foot. As a US citizen, I appreciate them reducing the inflation I’d otherwise be experiencing even if we’d be fine without their subsidies.

[@LearnLiberty]

Zachary, thanks for your comment! The negative side of MMT is that the government prints money when it needs it, not when it is necessary for the market. Also, during this process, the value of the funds owned by people and countries decreases, which puts the dollar in jeopardy as an international currency.

[@zacharyneilson9220]

​@@LearnLiberty I would say the negative side of reality is that the government prints money when it wants it. I agree that is a problem that causes inflation (decreased value of everyone holding that asset, USD in our case). My position is that MMT doesn't make the government print money, it only describes that it will cause inflation if it isn't used to increase goods and services a proportionate amount. I think the point of contention is that many MMT people are too optimistic about the governments future ability to spend effectively.

[@moredac2881]

This is not accurate. Everyone should check out Economics Explained video for a more accurate summary of MMT. The first problem is in the title. Modern monetary theory is not a policy. It’s a theory. It’s a way of thinking about the economy not a prescription to solve public problems. The implication of MMT is that we can spend a lot more than we want, but that’s not necessarily central to theory of MMT. You say that MMT is rooted in Keynes. This is true, but misleading. Keynes is the founder of modern economic theory and monetary and fiscal policy. Literally everything is rooted in Keynes. Germany is the extreme exception. Not the rule. Hyperinflation does not happen in modern economies with a stable government. The Weimar Republic was unstable leading people to loose confidence, and thus loose confident in the central German bank, and finally loose confidence in the Reichsmark, leading to hyperinflation. As long as the US government remains stable is not on the brink of collapse (like Weimar Germany was) then people remain confident in US dollar. (Although to be entirely recent events last Jan 6 suggest that America might be on the brink of collapse). Davies criticism claiming “there will be more things that the government wants and fewer things that people want,” is fair but once again misleading. MMT does logically conclude that there should be more tanks than cars, but it also concludes that there should be more public health care than $800 bottles of insulin. Who do you trust more, the corrupt politician or the oil baron? I trust neither but I’ll argue that the public has more control over the politicians than CEOS. We need to watch our politicians carefully.

[@toddodell70]

Does our current system of favoring higher military slice of the budget somehow not have us right where we're told MMT will take us? ( "more tanks" ). MMT specifies we need to look at the productive capacity of the economy to avoid inflation. Our system today in DC seems to think that they have THE spreadsheet where only government input/output to ensure avoiding inflation. Somehow it doesn't occur to them to look at the real economy to see what's happening. Then unsurprisingly Wall Street freaks over routine misses by DC on what the economy is. More serious people think MMT is A way to look at government public/private economy. Non MMT are 100% that not only is MMT incorrect but 'everything else' is incorrect and should never be looked at. Gaps in this video make people wonder and start looking. Ironically it's not uncommon to see those who argue taxes pay for government also supporting having the Fed, out of thin air, creating funds to buy junk bonds and dumping money into credit market, etc.

[@marcuschamp9881]

High military spending undermines capacity of the economy. MMT very clear on this point that real wealth based on the real resources available, with money being essentially a mechanism to harness those resources. An understanding of MMT would provide the insight into how broken the current system is and how to fix it.

[@neilanderson891]

This video fails to explain the difference between MMT and our current monetary system, which is "Central Banking". The US central bank, the Federal Reserve ("the Fed"), increases the money supply to accommodate population growth, and/or GDP growth, by taking newly-printed money to the Bond Market to buy "high-quality" bonds, because high-quality bonds maintain their value. (The bond-sale proceeds are deposited in thousands of bank accounts, which increases the Banks' excess reserves, which enables Banks to make more loans, which further increase the money supply, via fractional-reserve lending. But a couple years ago, the Fed temporarily reduced the reserve-ratio to 0%, so, presently there's no lending-constraint.) To fight inflation, the Fed retrieves money from circulation, at any time, by simply selling some of the high-quality bonds previously purchased, which reduces the money supply, and kills inflation. However, if the Fed sells too many bonds, a recession could result, like the infamous 1982 recession. MMT proponents argue that newly-printed money can be put into circulation by purchasing "goods", instead of bonds. The goods so purchased would provision government social programs, infrastructure, the military, hospitals, foreign aid, etc. But these "goods" can never be "re-sold" to retrieve money from circulation, if significant inflation ever threatened the economy. Instead, MMT proponents argue that reducing the money supply (to fight inflation) can be accomplished by issuing more Treasury Bonds, or raising taxes, to drain excess money from circulation. (MMT proponents acknowledge that the bond-sale proceeds and tax-proceeds must be destroyed, because spending said proceeds would put that money right back into circulation.) MMT proponents fail to acknowledge the obvious problem with raising taxes-or-debt to fight inflation, i.e., it needs to be to be done ASAP, before inflation becomes significant and re-establishes "inflationary-expectations", which was the plague of the 1970s. MMT proponents also fail to acknowledge the obvious problem hoisted upon taxpayers, if taxes were suddenly raised, because taxes are paid throughout the year, not in lump sums. Most taxpayers would be forced to tighten their belts, which reduces consumption, which reduces Aggregate Supply (a.k.a. GDP), which fans inflation (because there are fewer goods). How can I say this? Well, it already happened during 1970-1981, when the U.S. suffered through 3 "inexplicable" episodes of "stagflation" that no mainstream economist could explain. Only one economist, Robert Mundell, could explain the causation: Mundell explained that stagflation sadly resulted from backward economic policies, which I've simply parroted, above, without giving Mundell due credit until now. The problems with "borrowing-money-out-of-circulation" are also subtle, but just as dangerous.

[@jakubperiut7960]

Good synthesis of what varying theories and their consequences are. What are the consequences of borrowing out of the money supply?

[@Rob-fx2dw]

The additional problem with MMT is that the money collected in taxes to pay off bonds has to actually be used for that purpose and politicians don't have a good record of using taxes to pay off bonds but have a long record of borrowing more and more and kicking the can down the road. MMT policy (Kelton) is printing more and more money to pay of previous bonds that mature. - Utterly stupid stuff that just increases debt and burdens taxpayers which resembles what happened in Zimbabwe early this century and is about to happen again. See their Zimbawe government bond scheme of a few years ago that paid stupidly high interest and now is resulting in what you might guess - another round of growing inflation

[@01nmuskier]

The foundation of MMT is that government creates wealth through taxes. If that were true, absent of taxation, your product or service would have no value. No one would give you anything in trade for it. So, 1st try ending taxes. Then try ending people offering goods and services. See which one collapses the economy first.

[@EGarrett01]

We already saw Somalia's government collapse completely in the very early 90's. Their GDP skyrocketed. Literally 800% growth over the next decade.

[@toddodell70]

Specifically it says that taxation is what puts value on the dollar. IRS accepts only US currency to pay taxes. Otherwise if we remove the US government who is assigning the value of the dollar? IE Who will sell you real goods for pieces of paper, that no one is obligated to accept? The origin story is who compels people to give the taxes on day 1 in order to form a government? The government has the monopoly of force to compel people to pay but before that who did? I agree without taxation the dollar would be useless but MMT does not propose to say anything on value or private aggreements. If anything MMT is fairly limited to government monetary relations versus many non MMT thinkers believe their theories encompass all of economy, value, etc.

[@01nmuskier]

@@toddodell70 the IRS was formed when the U.S. $ was backed by gold. It is dishonest to claim that the IRS put value on the $ it collected. So run the experiment both ways. 1. Dissolve the IRS. See if the economy continues to run on dollars. 2. Everyone stops providing goods and services (working). The U.S. keeps issuing dollars and recovering them through the IRS. MMT only appears to work if limited to a proportion of real value created by real goods and services.

[@toddodell70]

@@01nmuskier The IRS is who collects, thats it. They have nothing to do with what the taxation is. Prior to IRS we had lots of excise taxation. Well unfortunately neither party agreed to your test. ( ie to tax, somehow stop markets ). However #1 should include stopping all Fed bonds. #2 If you stop all markets then there is no way to generate funds for taxation anyway. We disagree, you think that without the government people would still treat the US dollar just like today and I don't think so. MMT is specifically how the government monetary mechanics work. People can learn from that but its that the government does not need to collect taxes to spend ( or print ) money. Even selling bonds are a political choice.

[@01nmuskier]

@@toddodell70 ah, the MMT'ers move the goalposts again. YOU said IRS. Bonds are not taxes. You verified my point that the economy does not need taxes. You verified my point that MMT is currency manipulation. When you stand on the currency side of the MMT fence, you claim that government can just print infinite $. In the e commerce age, government can just direct deposit infinite $ into bank accounts. So the USD has no value (hyperinflation). Now, you need to jump onto the "taxes create wealth" side of the fence. It is a shell game of currency manipulation that steals value from people's labor in order to excuse limitless spending, which encourages fraud, waste, abuse, corruption. But sure. Keep shilling for the big guy. Keep working for the people who make your paycheck in October worth less than your paycheck in January. Move the goalpost again. We know your game.

[@thepunadude]

YOUR FRICKIN KIDDING RIGHT? FED/CABAL DEBT SYSTEM ... OR FREE ENTERPRISE/MONETARY SYSTEM?

[@macro_adam]

Love how Prof Davies projects his own economic theory onto MMT and says that's how it is - as if monetarists won't end up "printing" money. What a joke of a professor

[@henryannis8752]

If your goal is to turn the worlds greatest economy into a third world country, then it is valid.

[@bradlarabell9412]

Is the US a third world country? Because our monetary system is entirely how it is described here.

[@henryannis8752]

@@bradlarabell9412 Our legislative branch, both sides of the aisle and our executive branch sure seem to be moving the country in that direction. Have a great day.

[@martinszathmari1107]

I think MMT should be pushed. The faster centralized banking collapses the better.

[@katiecannon8186]

Lol. You don’t “push” MMT because it’s just a description of how monetary system works. Also, you don’t understand what The Fed does. You gotta understand the basics before you can critique Fed policy. And there’s certainly critiques that can be made of Fed policy

[@LearnLiberty]

The collapse of the central bank is possible without MMT as well.

[@katiecannon8186]

@@LearnLiberty You guys don’t understand what our central bank does. You need to have a basic understanding of what it does before you can critique it

[@martinszathmari1107]

@@katiecannon8186 Enlighten us. We are listening.

[@epsilon3821]

@@martinszathmari1107 That bot won't because it's a shill

[@jsimonlarochelle]

The video starts right at the beginning with a misrepresentation of MMT. MMT does not say (or assume) that the government can print arbitrary amounts of money. Not at all. In fact it states very clearly that spending by the government is constrained by resources, mainly the employment level. Once you reached full employment further spending will be inflationary. Starting from a falsified version of MMT of course it is easy to show that "it is wrong" since it ignores fundamental mechanisms in the economy and is simply NOT MMT. The real "controversy" is about what constitute full employment. So unfortunately, this video is not very useful.

[@Rob-fx2dw]

You say "Once you reached full employment further spending will be inflationary." - That strongly infers inflation only occurs when there is full employment. This of course is wrong since they are not dependent of each other. Go and look at the records of inflation and unemployment . They tell another story. .

[@jsimonlarochelle]

@@Rob-fx2dw There is an expression that we economists like to use: "all other things being equal". In the context of your comment this means that there are several variables impacting inflation and the level of employment is only one of those. Again, MMT economists clearly state that the government is resource constrained but employment is not the only resource. However, employment/unemployment is an important variable because it is one of the key parameters that economists try to manage. Economists try to minimize unemployment and to stabilize prices. So it is important to talk about it. As for your statement that there is no relation between the level of employment/unemployment and inflation you cannot be more wrong. Orthodox economist (not MMT) even have a name for this relation : the Philips Curve. Although the relation between employment and inflation might be more complicated than what was identified with the Philips curve you will have a hard time finding an economists (orthodox or heterodox) to support your statement that there is not relation between the two variables (employment/unemployment and inflation). Now of course, like in the current crisis, inflation can be triggered by other factors and at the moment those are mainly supply chain issues (war in Ukraine, COVID in China and thye world, ...).

[@PyroShredder982]

That Kelton quote is totally out of context. She is saying that taxation serves many purposes, not just warding off inflation.

[@caster863]

Raising taxes to lower inflation is just like throwing torches to put out a fire.

[@-Zardoz-]

Also it’s a pathetic mentality. Raising taxes on the consumers to hopefully mitigate the problem created by the government and corporate elite. Any citizen proposing raising taxes is a cuckold.

[@onebeanyboi9204]

Surely raising tax would mean people have less money. Less of a currency makes it more valuable no?

[@derekisthematrix]

​@@onebeanyboi9204 that money is simply being confiscated and redistributed by government. The physical dollars aren't being destroyed or removed from the economy. Printing/creating currency that isn't tied to any real world value devalues the currency and is the definition of inflation.

[@alonsoACR]

@@onebeanyboi9204 Are... are you assuming governments put the collected taxes in a pit and burn it? That collected money goes straight back to the economy, my friend. I don't think any country actually puts that cash in a vault.

[@Shogun-my5nc]

@@alonsoACR Everything is done over the internet. You’d be surprised. Also MMT is not saying you can’t control inflation with the IOER, federal funds rates, and other interest rates… MMT provides the framework and informs the reader/person how the real economy of a fiat currency works. MMT also adheres to how our current banking system works. A home loan for example is done by a bank typing out the balance you have on a very secure excel sheet. No transaction between accounts are actually made.

[@REV1517]

I believe in Austrian economics but that is just me.

[@larrdd9]

The Austrians have been saying hyperinflation is imminent for the last 40 years, isn't there any part of your brain that questions the theory that has been wrong consistently for that long?

[@user-dw1zb3fh5n]

“Slavery is always noble” -The first amendment

[@Frankincensedjb123]

How about surplus spending? If that will ever come again. Look at the term: deficit spending. You're already at a deficit, $33 trillion federal at this time (which doesn't even take into account the debt owed by citizens, banks, and businesses), so if you add to that, monetized debt, borrowing or spending, whatever term you use, it needs to be paid. How is that done? In order to pay the current federal debt, every taxpayer would have to shell out about $250 million, but of course, we don't have that. So where does our government go? It goes to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, rich foreigners, and foreign countries, like China--who we currently owe $1 trillion. This is why so many are worried about these government funded entities running out of money in the future. Also, lets consider revenue. Currently, revenue is at an all-time high. It's the spending that's killing us. The Biden admin alone has spent $20 trillion in three years. Just look at the cost at the pump, the grocery store, housing, etc. There's your proof that what the Dems and the current admin is feeding you is complete hogwash. Good luck with that Marxist regime and its methodological destruction of America via the economy, family, and crime syndicate.

[@pinnacleroofing9841]

MMT is basically having a stupid idea but thinking if you give it an official sounding name the idea somehow becomes valid

[@gabethompson3211]

Stick to roofing bud!

[@katiecannon8186]

You just hate the government issued dollars you use to shop, pay your bank back, pay tax and net save. Because you’re very smart

[@pinnacleroofing9841]

@@katiecannon8186 your comment is nonsensical, do you know what money is, or federal reserve notes, or the difference between the two? The Gov't want another trillion dollars so they call the federal reserve (fr) to get it, the fr makes a leger entry for 1 trillion and poof, it exists, the the fr loans that "money" they created from nothing back to you and me WITH INTEREST. If there is a trillion dollars worth of stuff and the Gov't prints another trillion for free and adds it into the system the effectively make the first trillion in real goods and services, YOUR GOODS AND SERVICES, worth half as much. That is inflation. Right now real inflation, the amount of your wealth the government is intentionally taking from you is around 12 to 15 percent per year compounded. If you have any savings or a 401k and you hope to retire one day in 10 years you will have lost about 90% of your wealth. So, ya, not a fan of that.

[@katiecannon8186]

@@pinnacleroofing9841 1/. That’s not how our monetary system works. 2/. Banks create most of our money supply. And inflation doesn’t care if you spend government issued dollars or your bank issued credit card. 3/. You’ve just been brainwashed into hating your government issued dollars & loving banks. Banks appreciate your undying concern over their bottom line at your expense

[@ivandigaeta8214]

Nice and clear

[@GoldenRockefeller]

Inflation is not bad if the value of the dollar increase. The value of the dollar increases if there are amount of goods/dollar being produced by those who accept dollars for payment, increase faster than the available amount of dollars in the money supply. Thus, a 3% rise in inflation is justified by a 3% rise in productivity. What matters today is whether the loans issued by printed money will pay for themselves.

[@mrroboto680]

It is still bad. The ones printing the money aren't adding any value to the system while feasting on those that are creating value. The issuing of any dollar should be bound to something finite and valuable like gold, or to any other value lik3 work, products services etc . and not just thin air.

[@GoldenRockefeller]

@@mrroboto680 "The ones printing the money aren't adding any value to the system while feasting on those that are creating value. " This is technically true, but you can say the same thing about taxes, and most people are okay with it and understand the utility of collecting it.

[@Unsensitive]

@@GoldenRockefeller taxes are adding value, except the overhead lost by management/maintenance of the process and distribution. But as you say, there is a utility to some of it. The issue with taxes is the value added is not always fit what I value, or my society's value, which reduces it's utility. As for "the ones printing money not adding value" Mr. Robot mentioned. It's not the printing of the money that takes away the value. Double the money supply, the value stays the same, but the # of dollars something is worth increases. The issue is lag in the system, and not all areas inflate at the same rate. For example my wife recently got a 10% market adjustment in addition to her yearly raise. I have yet to receive such a market adjustment 😅. In effect, I am making less now, since my money is worth less. My house on the other hand has maintained its value by increasing in dollars.

[@maximus4765]

No. Modern monetary theory is basically "Printing money won't cause inflation because shut up". It's just a theory for a reason.

[@mutton_man]

That's the opposite of what they say. Mmt is one of the most misrepresented subjects. Most of the thing the professor's says incorrectly mischaracterises mmt, I would says it's almost the opposite of what mmt is saying.

[@mfsalatino]

@@mutton_man mmt is arentina and venezuela monetary policies

[@mutton_man]

@@mfsalatino how so?

[@mfsalatino]

@@mutton_man because they use the central bank to print all the money they, causing inflation

[@mutton_man]

@@mfsalatino that's not what mmt is.

[@hag12100]

MMT ignores history of hyperinflated countries, such as Weimar Germany and others.

[@zacharyneilson9220]

It absolutely doesn’t ignore those countries. People using MMT as justification for their stupid ideas ignore those countries, but the theory explicitly says if you spend on stupid stuff that will happen. You need to understand MMT better than the people using it to justify their stupid plans do if you want to convince them how stupid their plan is.

[@katiecannon8186]

No it doesn’t. MMT 101 makes a clear distinction between a monetarily sovereign government and non-sovereigns like Weimar Germany There’s never been a hyperinflation event in a monetarily sovereign country with decent productive capacity. Monetary sovereignty: Issue own currency, don’t borrow in foreign currency, float currency (versus peg).

[@drugmate9710]

@@katiecannon8186 No country has limitless resources so it's absolutely irrelevant what their productive capabilities are. Germany is one of the biggest producers in Europe, but they still heavily rely on imported products. Having your own currency would help nothing, if anything it could make things worse because you'd have a currency for a very limited market and printing more money and destabilising the currency would only hurt the local producers and savers.

[@katiecannon8186]

@@drugmate9710 You guys are nuts. Seriously. It’s like you haven’t noticed that banks exist and create most of our money supply. You use euros to shop, pay your bank back, pay tax & net save. Government spending stabilizes private debt. You’ve just been trained to hate being able to save & to love banks a whole lot

[@drugmate9710]

@@katiecannon8186 Some banks are allowed to print money, but not all of them. Most of the money out there is created by central banks. Oh and yes, governments spending that requires them to go in debt themselves that they'll have to pay off by taxing the hell of citizens that it's supposed to help is a great way to end debt. You know, the more you talk the more ignorant you seem which is not helped by the arrogance you dare to have in your ignorance.

[@timgwallis]

The Professor was almost immediately wrong. MMT Economists make it very clear that you absolutely DO have to worry about inflation. What you DON’T have to worry about are deficits and debt. This breakdown is wildly inaccurate.

[@LearnLiberty]

Tim, thanks for your comment! I can't fully agree - deficit and debt are big problems, but inflation is very alarming because it significantly affects the economy's stability. Also, printing harms everyone and reduces the value of money that people hold. If you are interested in what Antony Davies says about the debt, watch the video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4HNo3mgdt2qotk

[@douglasbroccone3144]

Printing money is inflation. Not rising prices which are just an effect of inflation. Japan has spured inflation. Look at the cost of real estate in Japan. Imagine how much richer the average Japanese citizen would be if they hadn't inflated ....

[@AtrusOranis]

it's one side (the most common side) of inflation, where increase in liquid capital causes a surge in demand. the other side is where product is decreased or slowed (say, during a lockdown), causing a dearth of supply.

[@dabronx340]

Legally the US is required to pay its debts first(senior position) then and only then they can fund the government. Other government agencies would have to be cut before they could actually default.

[@Anti-CornLawLeague]

The federal budget has been in red since 2000. MMT seems to be what has been happening since Clinton ran that budget surplus.

[@jebremocampo9194]

I stumbled on MMT last year. I watched some lectures on it and listened to debates. I adhere to the Austrian School of Economics. MMT is somewhat logical in explaining the creation of money. But their policy plans are just STUPID

[@marcuschamp9881]

Am very curious as to what you think "MMT Policy" is? MMT factually describes how the monetary system works and doesn't have a "policy framework" in it...indeed, it is apolitical in so far as the core framework only describes how the economy works.

[@mutton_man]

I too would like to hear what you think mmt policy is?

[@D4PPZ456]

They're acting like this has been a one-time experiment with MMT, but we've been doing MMT for decades already. Also, the idea that the USD will lose reserve currency status is bogus. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be better than any other competitor currency, which it is. The strength of the US military and its tendency towards freeish markets is what distinguishes it from other theoretical holders of the reserve, unless you let someone convince you that the world will simultaneously agree that a Communist country like China is a better future bet towards currency stability over the US, which is a ridiculous thought. The power of "fiat" will be cemented when the US, like China, transitions its currency to a digital one.

[@sael40]

False dilemma fallacy. You seem to be proposing that the Chinese Yuan is the only other option. Have you heard about EUR or GBP? Also, it'd be just stupid to just have USD as a reserve. That's why countries have other currencies as well. USD accounts for under 60% of the global currency reserves. EUR ~21%, GBP ~5%. If the USA just keeps printing this much money (and assuming others don't do the same), USD could lose the podium - and not to a communist country.

[@EGarrett01]

The digital US dollar will not be able to compete with Bitcoin as a preferred international currency unless the US hard-codes in an inability to print them at will. Including not coding in a pegging to the US dollar which they can already print at will. We know they won't do that so Bitcoin will become the reserve currency.

[@LearnLiberty]

USD became international fiat money because the USA had the most considerable gold reserves. But today, money is not dependent on gold, and when other country sees that the USD is depreciating, the desire to use USD or save their money in this currency will be reduced. So MMT is harmful to State. I believe cryptocurrencies represent future money because they are decentralized and dependent on the market.

[@Jack-mw9lw]

@@LearnLiberty you cant pay taxes in crypto

[@gabethompson3211]

@@LearnLiberty You people must know that the debt ceiling is self imposed and the a default is impossible but your video starts with a very dishonest claim that the US is at risk of default. Please, if you have the courage of your conviction, can you advocate for your position without making videos that are full of lies. Inflation may result from the present monetary policy but default will only occur if congress decides not to print the money. Congress does have a tendency to play political games with the debt ceiling but default is not a real possibility and you have to know this already. Shame on you. Advocate for your position with honesty and integrity.

[@GT-012]

In order for MMT to work it needs a couple of things : 1. Extremly more formality in economy 2. Extremly more bureaucracy to guarantee formality 3. Extremly more data analytics and trafic information to guarantee bureaucracy 4. Artificial inteligence to analise data ( couse human resources cant at this level ) 5. All this leads to FED regulating the taxes not the goverment to control inflation and the Banks acting as FED to decide who is going to take a loan. 6. Who takes a loan acording to a business plan and accomplish it 100% or more is not going to pay back the loan 7. Who takes a loan and fail to accomplish it totaly will be immediately closed 8. The data analytics its enormous and the most likely MMT can be applied is the State and Enterprenours ( in order for MMT to be applied in consumers it need an insane amount of data to be analised by AI ) 9. Wages can be controled thrugh indexing monthly 😁 ( means you may take a diffrent wage evry month but with the same purchaseing power ) Ps. its welfare that drives the system to be pushed to its limits and print money and couse inflation etc etc.

[@yancowles]

Congratulations, you've managed to pull nine nonsensical thoughts out of your arse with a liberal helping of spelling mistakes that really add a lovely sheen to the undertaking. All the best for your future endeavours on the internet.

[@GT-012]

@@yancowles liberal arse 😁 What i said, desperately needs like the perfect justice system and the liberals are far from just. They are a ideological garbage destroying not only the justice system. I dont think im liberal buddy, i just think capitalism is being stretched almost at its limits

[@MrHarveyrex23]

Libertarians are interpreting a monetary system on how they believe it should work rather than describing and acknowledging on how the system actually works in reality

[@krapul007]

One might argue that we already practice MMT. Since QE

[@gabethompson3211]

MMTers think that QE does nothing.

[@maketheconstitutiongreatag5038]

No

[@jorden9821]

I encourage everyone who enjoys Davies to look into the work of Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, and other Austrian Economists.

[@katiecannon8186]

None of whom who understand how our monetary system actually works. Nor do they understand the role of law, lawyers and court decisions in creating markets. So I’d suggest you listen to an interview with legal scholar of finance and corporate law, Katerina Pistor on her book “The Code of Capital”.

[@gabethompson3211]

While you're at it you should study migratory patterns of dinosaurs. It will be about as useful and relevant to your lives. Probably less misleading.

[@mutton_man]

1:43 mmt economist have never said never worry about inflation, fed can print as much as they want. This is so far away from what mmt are saying.

[@S85B50Engine]

Just print more money, because it worked so well for Weimar Germany

[@Junglelove20mm]

But this time it will be different.

[@Desperado202]

Great sarcasm!

[@S85B50Engine]

@@Junglelove20mm what is the result of 2+2?

[@Junglelove20mm]

@@S85B50Engine Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?

[@S85B50Engine]

Exactly

[@mutton_man]

Mmt is one of the most misrepresented subjects. Most of the thing the professor's says incorrectly mischaracterises mmt, I would says it's almost the opposite of what mmt is saying.

[@Andredias164]

MMT is the biggest scam of our current times. There's no such thing as free lunches. This system only benefits the wealthiest and government institutions. Moreover, it devalues its currency. It's based only on the trust of the institutions and indirectly in the US military power. That's what they want, more taxes to fund the military industry complex and increase the dollar hegemony worldwide, as well as the oil sector in a global scale.

[@pavelkoudelka8934]

MMT is not just about printing money. It is about the definition of money and its essence. Most countries target 2% inflation, and for that logically NEEDS to print more money... Moreover, as the economy expands and grows, it logically demands more money in circulation - if 100 people spend $100 a year, theoretically I need 10,000 in existence... but if my population grows to 150, and everyone spends $200, I need $30,000 in circulation... And this money can be created as A) national debt, or as B) a bank loan to an individual... this logically creates more debt, but who do we owe the money to? The state owes them to the central bank (FED), which is itself a state institution (in simple terms)... And to whom does the state pay interest? Again to itself... The private sector has a limit to how much debt it can safely create... So at some point you MUST have a government deficit to even be able to produce and print enough dollars... And at the same time, since the government's biggest creditor is the government, and the state can print any number of dollars for itself, there is a certainty that the state cannot go bankrupt... Of course, the problem of inflation and confidence in the currency remains, this is the limiting factor... To say that I can print money without restrictions is wrong, but anyway, it is also wrong to claim that the amount of the national debt (in the case of the US) has any real meaning...

[@doctorinternet8695]

Nicely said. Yeah, money isn't a resource, but a social relationship, a method of allocating resources, a measure of wealth, a method, an abstraction. So the numbers are just a tool that the economy uses.

[@roelsvideosandstuffs1513]

According to Prof Davies, we should given free tanks and grenades

[@LearnLiberty]

In the video, Prof. Davies explains that we need a free market with fewer government interventions, not free tanks and grenades.

[@roelsvideosandstuffs1513]

​@@LearnLiberty 2:47 explanation? Also what is he for or against mmt? cause in one hand he seems for it. but in other against it. I don't have a side, though mmt is kind of wrong for me.

[@LearnLiberty]

Prof. Davies is against MMT.

[@roelsvideosandstuffs1513]

@@LearnLiberty I see

[@Noosa21]

Most economists don't know how inflation works. Kelton in my view knows the situation very well.

[@gabethompson3211]

For starters I'd like to point out the ways that this video is misleading. The debt ceiling is a self imposed limit on debt. Congress has decided to make default a possibility. This is elective. Deficit spending has already been going on for decades and what are the negative results? There certainly has been Austrian economists freaking out the entire time, but the results are a robust economy and a lot of growth. How much longer are you going to believe these people? It's far too simplistic to say that deficit spending is inflationary. It can be, but it can also be deflationary. America has the most expensive health care system in the world with far from the best outcomes. Socialized healthcare systems are far cheaper. Canada's system is about half price and everyone is covered. If government cut out the corrupt insurance and pharmaceutical companies by deficit spending prices would most likely go down and not up. To not believe that would be to ignore all the data from the countless numbers of models worldwide that exist in present day. There is no MMTer that thinks that you can just print money endlessly without consequence. Rather than believe that tax revenue is the limit, they believe that the resource base is the limiting factor. If a country has a food shortage and the government prints money and sends everyone a check to buy food with that will be inflationary because there isn't enough food to go around. If the government instead incurred the same amount of debt by importing food and developing crop yield boosting technologies it wouldn't be inflationary. My point is that inflation is oversimplified in this video. There are many other misleading things here. I think that most of what Dr. Davies says is complete nonsense. I think it's likely that he doesn't even believe the garbage that he's spewing. This stuff about production no longer catering to consumers is bonkers. What's your proof? Also the way that they take Stephanie Kelton's sound bite out of context and put it in their own framing is the stuff of political ads. If Learn Liberty had the courage of their conviction they wouldn't resort to such shady tricks. For the record if the government has outspent it's resource base and caused inflation the right thing to do, if that circumstance were to exist, would be to cut the spending and not to raise taxes. Taxes would be used to reduce aggregate demand in an overheating economy. If anyone would like to learn more there are many interviews on KZbin. There's one done by Anthony Scaramucci. The Mooch seems to be a believer. Warren Mosler a guy worth listening to in my view. His success investing should make you think that he just might know what he's talking about. Every dollar in your pocket is a dollar that the government has spent into existence and has not yet taxed out of the economy. A national debt of zero is national wealth of zero. This stuff isn't even theory. It's the observations that the theory is based on.

[@davidmcculloch8490]

So nothing is allowed to interfere with the idyllic worship of the free market and control by financiers. There is no such thing as perfect competition. We need national coordination of infrastructure projects and regulation of financial instruments. Fiat money has changed the world, which should not be controlled by an unregulated free market. The problem is created more by neoliberalism and MMT challenges this. It's not just a question of economics.

[@georgeemil3618]

"Here's why" I watched this video three times. I couldn't find why. So far it seems like NOT increasing the debt ceiling is the bigger risk. Recent inflation is due to the limited supply-chain issues when world economies emerged from Covid lockdowns. And then there's the Russian invasion if Ukraine and the price of oil. But after almost a year of sanctions, Russia's economy hasn't collapsed. The Ruble is not a reserve currency but it IS a fiat currency. And then there's the world's richest people who hoard all their money in tax havens, shell companies and secretive bank accounts. If treasuries don't print money, there will eventually be none in circulation. Germany's currency in the 1920s was still based on gold. Japan's Yen currently is not.

[@MBarberfan4life]

MMT=Magic Money Tree

[@meritholdingllc123]

We need a gold based dollar, or needs to be tied to something of value.

[@LegalAutomation]

Gold failed because governments lied about actually being on the gold standard in the 70’s and caused inflation. I don’t want government to handle my currency anymore. I want independent currency. I want BitCoin

[@theakountant8444]

@@LegalAutomation How about a digital currency that is actually backed by something, like gold. A decentralized, non-government controlled currency isn't all that great if it's not backed by something in the real world. Something that has value that extends beyond its potential to record a transaction.

[@austinbyrd1703]

I say let the market decide what's the best currency. Crypto really shows potential.

[@austinbyrd1703]

@@theakountant8444 That requires faith in the government to not just debase it again, which is unlikely. If we're going down the road of faith, then why not go with something more convenient in every way? Crypto

[@LegalAutomation]

@@theakountant8444 I’m not opposed to gold… except that leaves the exact same problem of: who on the planet retrieves, stores, and does the bookkeeping? I don’t trust ANY government agency to do it. I don’t want it. I want decentralized currency without any central authority.

[@jeffreywenger281]

Davies throws up a straw man: The Dollar is not a reserve currency because of its stable value, because its value has in fact declined significantly. It is a reserve currency because it is the widest used medium of exchange. Any why is that? Because of the dollars "superior liquidity", or in other words, "availability", or in other words, because we print a lot of it, every year. Since 1930 when we actually had a national surplus of 0.8% of GDP, the budget has been in surplus 13 times, with an average surplus of 1.2% of GDP, while we have been in deficit 85 times, with an average of 4.3% of GDP. For a long time now, we have been far more likely to run a budget deficit rather than a surplus, and those deficits have been good bit larger than the surpluses.

[@jamesquivey1538]

So what you are saying is that Reagan practiced Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) when he cut taxes on the rich (taking away money needed to pay the bills) while increasing spending for the military? He then tried to fix it by taking money from Social Security and other social programs to offset his shortfall. I believe inflation has much more to do with corporations raising prices to increase earnings (as witnessed by events post covid). If Congress practiced real oversight of these large companies, then aggressive price hikes would happen much less often and inflation along with it. I believe that "deficit hawks" are just Robins Hoods stealing from the poor to benefit the rich. They only care about deficits when they are not in power.

[@NeilGastonguay]

As frightening idea as I have ever heard. We seem to be headed for collapse, and are eager to get it done.

[@marcuschamp9881]

Then you will be gratified to learn that whats in this video isn't MMT and strongly suggest to read some actual MMT articles and books. Start with Deficit Myth.

[@marklucious1194]

Investing in Bitcoin is the best investment anyone can do this seasons, because Bitcoin investment made a lot of people millionaires

[@jasonbourne9819]

And people who lost money, lost a lot.

[@zacharyneilson9220]

@@jasonbourne9819 correction. People that sold BTC too cheap trying to speculate lost money. No investors lost money with BTC.

[@jasonbourne9819]

@@zacharyneilson9220 For you to make a fortune on Bitcoin, it must be a complete disaster for some who were left carrying the bag when the market price finally crashes or corrects itself. And when bitcoin crashes, it crashes big.

[@LearnLiberty]

What do you think about Ethereum as a better option for investment?

[@CoffeenSpice]

How can taxes decrease inflation? Does it matter if it's the people or the government who has the money? The money is already printed. Until the government willingly burns the money I don't see a solution.

[@Rob-fx2dw]

MMT can't answer that so I will. - MMT is rubbish that is badly thought out !! Don't expect the MMT theorists to be able to do accounting or explain things like their claim of how taxes create a value and acceptance of money but when the money failed due to inflation in over 30 countries in the past 80 years there were also taxes that did not keep the money in any way valuable Even their own governments dumped their own currency in favor of another country's money.

[@CapiSocialist]

If all MMT’er tells you high tax is a mischaracterisation of what MMT is, and you’re telling them that IS what it’s about, you’re really just refusing to understand what they’re telling you

[@Herbwise]

This is one of the worst videos on the topic. The key factor that is the problem with this video is the so-called law of supply and demand. These variables do NOT determine prices. Credit rating is nonsense when a country is able to create its own money without taxing or borrowing. The El Salvador example is cited by MMT folks as an example of what is wrong when countries denominate their spending in another country’s currency. And the silly statement by the announcement at the end of the video that “MMT is here to stay” is correct because it has been here for many decades but not understood. MMT is a descriptor NOT a prescription.

[@drugmate9710]

I see someone does not even understand economics 101 here.

[@LearnLiberty]

The only function of MMT is to finance the government's program. When the government prints money, it does not mean they are creating something new because the value of the existing dollars decreases, harming people. This threatens the dollar as an international currency.

[@gabethompson3211]

It's nice to find people that understand this topic. This is a VERY dishonest video and I find it hard to believe that Learn Liberty doesn't understand this.

[@gabethompson3211]

@@LearnLiberty What you say would be true under a gold standard. I think you understand this and are dishonest.

[@drugmate9710]

@@gabethompson3211 Anyhow who claims that the law of supply and demand is myth does not "understand" anything. They are a hack.

[@BanBb1]

This is simply not true from start to finish. It implies that MMT supports endless government spending, which is incorrect. MMT limits spending at a level where resources can no longer support it. There has to be something to purchase otherwise it is wasteful. MMT supports putting currently unused resources to work to increase GDP. For example, we have unemployed or underemployed people who want to work. This is a resource that is not being utilized so putting them to work would help our economy in two ways. 1. It takes people off the unemployment compensation rolls. 2. It gives more spendable income to people which helps everyone. The same analogy can be applied to any of our unused resources. MMT states that if the government stays within this limitation it will not be inflationary. MMT is apolitical although it does counter some of the Neoliberal beliefs, such as the opposition to government participation in the so-called free market. MMT is merely a description of how our government finance actually works today. In 1971 President Nixon took us off the Gold Standard and replaced it with our current Fiat monetary system. The professor presents his criticism using an argument that may have been more legitimate in 1970, but the rules of Fiat currency are much different and in some ways antithetical to the Gold Standard rules. We do not have to limit outstanding currency to the amount of a commodity like gold. Under a Fiat system, which is in place in every industrialized country in the Western world today, our currency is backed by the good faith and trust in the United States. That is the way it is and so far it has served us well. If the good professor wants something different, he should be more honest about it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/inWvZZZum7KCes0

[@RuinDweller]

The only way to "prove MMT wrong" is to either grossly misunderstand it, or to intentionally misrepresent it. No matter which this video is doing, it presents a completely distorted, unrealistic view of MMT's ideas. This guy either doesn't get it, or he doesn't want you to.

[@Baxwell.]

"MMT says that the US doesn't have to worry about inflation". That's wrong. MMT says that the US doesn't have to worry about paying off debt. It absolutely has to worry about inflation. MMT understands inflation. This guy doesn't understand MMT.

[@LearnLiberty]

MMT supports money printing which causes inflation.

[@Baxwell.]

@@LearnLiberty Only if that extra money results in extra demand that can't be met by extra supply. This is basic supply and demand stuff mate.

[@testchannelpleaseignore2452]

I hope you realize that Trump cutting taxes without corresponding budget cuts(which is what he did) is literally the exact same thing.

[@kensheck2049]

"Modern monetary theorists will say at the outset that a country like the United States doesn't have to worry about inflation; the Federal Reserve can just print as much money as it wants." I have read or listened to at least a dozen MMT-aligned economists discuss MMT, and not one has ever said anything remotely like the above quote. Every single one of them has been clear that inflation is what defines the limit of the deficit spending of a government with a sovereign fiat currency. By starting his argument with this straw man, Davies makes clear he's not worth listening to.

[@kevinwilliams3694]

MMT has a main problem that only one side of politics is using it. For MMT to be a theory not just a call for spending it's ideas need to be usable for right leening people. The big flip in MMT is that the need to pay taxes gives money value instead of money just having intrinsic value. This could be used to argue for tax cuts for employees as this would reduce their need for money and hence reduce push price inflation. Meaning MMT could be used to argue for tax cuts.

[@marcuschamp9881]

You are clearly not understanding what taxes are, how they work, or their key functions or purpose. Cutting taxes is generally a very poor policy because it doesn't target need, generally increases inequality, and undermines the monetary system. None of which are desirable objectives, as MMT would explain. Also important to note MMT is apolitical, does care what politics you are from...as it accurately describes how the monetary systems works.

[@kevinwilliams3694]

@@marcuschamp9881 MMT is an argument about what Taxes are. MMT claims taxes are the reason anyone needs/values money. It's the total opposite to normal thinking.

[@kevinwilliams3694]

@@marcuschamp9881 I'm not sure what you are trying to say with your bit on politics. I have just noticed that people that already like government spending like MMT and small state types don't. If MMT is a natural theory there should be a way to use it to argue either sides general beliefs. I like the theory. It explains things better than the story the gold bugs tell. Sadly it's to much of a mind set change to have a realistic chance of going mainstream.

[@TheBoogerJames]

1:45 is not what MMT says at all. Typical for people to argue what they think it says and not what it actually says. good luck with your continued straw manning

[@TheSandkastenverbot]

Just a comment: this theory is still debated among scientists. What this video shows is drawbacks of MMT. It does NOT show MMT doesn't work. The best thing you can do is to listen to arguments and not take sides.

[@Rob-fx2dw]

Anyone who calls themselves a scientist and supports MMT as a credible theory of describing what the money system and economy works like must be disregarded because they will be ignoring scientific methods. MMt says absurd things that are contrary to historical fact and fails to describe what the actual money situation is presently. For example of their conflicting and contradictory statements just look at MMT's absurd beliefs such as taxes putting value into the money which is easily proven not to be so by the history of money in countries where inflation led to worthless money despite taxes. Taxes without money that was worth anything should ring a bell with those believing MMt is credible.

[@larrdd9]

This critique is truly flawed to its core, Davies doesn't recognize that we are on a Fiat currency system where the government issues the money first and then taxes some of it back later, he thinks that money somehow originates with the public and then the government is borrowing it from them. That is exactly backward. Davies doesn't recognize where the dollar comes from and as a result, he doesn't know literally, even the first thing about our economy.

[@Rob-fx2dw]

Totally wrong. The designated money of countries today is credit and debt based. It is all borrowed money. The government does not issue the currency. It borrows the money from the central bank (Federal reserve bank in the U.S.) in exchange for treasury securities all of which mature and the government must pay it all back when those treasury securities mature. They all mature in time. The government's source of funds to pay it back comes from taxes so people have to pay for those government borrowings. However most money in the economy is created by private banks and does Not come from government or the Federal reserve but is borrowed from the private banks by their customers as loans including mortgages.

[@SauceApple51]

MMT isn't wrong as an explanation for how the US budget works. What's wrong is the MMTers who somehow conclude that they can fund a bunch of shit without inflationary consequences. They make clear that taxes need to be used to balance things out. But they tend to then ignore that, like it was just lip service, and then they promote big spending, and just assume there won't be an inflation problem, or exchange rate problems, or confidence problems, or government mismanagement problems.

[@duffdingelmeyer7101]

The crowding out theory has been addressed in Kelton's Deficit Myth. I like how these libertarian dorks ignore the global reach of US military and its support of USD as global reserve.

[@Rob-fx2dw]

The "Deficit Myth" - the book that tells you government politicians are so smart they always know better how excessively of money above from what their income is and calls it "Policy Space" and at the same time forces everyone else to have to stick to what they call austerity even if they are on the lowest income bracket because nobody other than those same politicians can have any "Policy Space" because they are not politicians ! Some equality that is !!

[@mat86100]

I came here with an interest in MMT, hoping to hear valid counter-arguments (I have doubts about it's application in the global south, for instance). I have to say, while I appreciate the attempt at neutrality, I am dissapointed, there is no balance in this debate (Keaton has just enough screentime to say "wait, there's more" before being cut off) and the arguments given by the video seem flimsly. MMT is not about printing more money, although the potential exists, and from what I've read inflation is absolutely still a thing in MMT, it's just handled differently. In my opinion better. The video states that "even one dollar is inflationary" but that discounts economic capacity and the potential for expansion of production, it discounts supply-side or demand-side inflation, it discounts stagflation. At its heart, from what I've read so far, MMT is an argument for the inclusion of fiscal policy in monetary policy. For instance if the housing market is causing inflation, through a high demand *and* weak supply, then fiscal policy to expand that supply can be anti-inflationary. It doesn't all have to be the one big crude lever of interest rates that we currently use, "cooling down" the economy while we are at risk of a recession, because that's the only tool we have. MMT suggests looking inside the basket of goods that produces CPI, and taking a more surgical approach. That might mean allowing more debt, it might not. Certainly, the thought that debt is bad is a school of thought that has had to radically shift over the years. It used to be thought that countries should have a debt-gdp ratio of 0.5/1. Then it was 1/1, now it seems a higher ratio is not that bad after all, and countries are not flooding to sell their reserve dollars at all, despite the US having crossed the rubicon. At the end of the day it's not that debt is good, it's rather that a country is not a household, and its budget should not be treated as a household budget. The "government choices vs consumer choices" point is particularly poor. If people want houses, demand is high, but supply is weak and consumers are competing with very large leasing corporations, the government is hardly supplanting consumer choice by fasciliating increased supply. Is all fiscal policy is somehow anti consumer choice? I hesitate to disagree so strongly with such an educated economist as Davies, but it frankly seems silly. Maybe there is an underlying faith in the perfection of The Market (capital M) as some objective fascilitator of ideal choice that I just don't share. The real world is messy, people want things and need things that they don't currently have. Fiscal policy can absolutely play a role, and it absolutely need not drown out consumer choice, I can't believe that's an argument. Are we drowning out consumer choice by providing schooling, healthcare, by funding vaccines, by investing in promising industries? Sheesh. MMT is not about printing money, it never was. I've never seen a paper by proponents of MMT or a video explainer saying we should just print money. MMT says the budget doesn't have to be balanced, that doesn't mean we can just print money and not worry. It's an easy stick to try to attack an interesting theory with, but it's cheap, lacks research. I'd rather hear more about countries that don't have monetary sovereignty, I'd like to hear more about the ratings agencies and their role and potential reactions to a non-balanced budget. I'd like to hear about government bonds and what happens to the financial markets if they are expanded. I'd like to hear about MMT's rather strange thoughts on imports and what that could do writ large. I'd like to hear about market guarantees and when that hasn't worked (because at times it certainly has worked). There are so many potentially good counter-arguments to MMT without needing to trivialise it into the straw man of "printing infinite money".

[@MrHarveyrex23]

MMT is just a description on how the monetary system operates through the Treasury and federal reserve. Everytime the govt spends. It creates a deficit. Money is created out of debt through bonds and when commercial banks create loans/ reserve deposits out of thin air through prommisory note/ loan contact between the bank and the borrower. Doubt entry bookkeeping/ reserve accounting/ full and fractional reserve banking

[@psilon1749]

We have all that shitty MMT here in Argentina. the government prints TONS of money. It reached a point that they need to print MORE than the capacity of the printer, so we started to IMPORT banknotes printed in Brazil. The government blames the businessmen and applies price controls. Our highest bill is the 1000 pesos bill, which is equivalent to fucking 5 USD. They don't want to make a bigger bill because they don't want to give the "feeling" that there is inflation. PD: In Argentina we do not use the word "liberal" referring to progresist, so please do not misunderstand my name XD.

[@scotthendricks5665]

The whole point is you can print money until you hit NAIRU.