Proponents of modern monetary theory have come up with their own idiosyncratic definition of savings in support of their theory. But the common usage of the term shows MMT doesn't work the way its supporters think it does.
According to Keynesians, wealth effects result from money creation, and they have a beneficial impact. The Keynesians are right that wealth effects exist. But they're wrong about who benefits.
The average American has no memory of the gold standard or even the stagflation of the 1970s. The collective mindset is now the classic “kick the can down the road.”
If we choose to break the state monopoly of money and allow private digital currencies to compete, a myriad of different solutions will emerge to serve a myriad of different needs.
We're now seeing an economic system where both supply and demand depend on government subsidies, handouts, and monetary schemes. This isn't a market economy.
Old coins vaccinated me against trusting politicians long before I grew my first scruffy beard. I began collecting coins when I was eight years old in 1965, the year President Lyndon Johnson began removing all the silver from American coins.
The COVID panic gave the world's regimes a new reason to claim that physical cash should be outlawed. But this is just one of many strategies now in play to end the relative privacy and freedom cash provides.
The good news is that Stephanie Kelton has written a book on MMT that is very readable and will strike many readers as persuasive and clever. The bad news is that Stephanie Kelton has written a book on MMT that is very readable and will strike many readers as persuasive and clever.