October 9, 2020

MMT: nice try to paint it pink

Comment on Aaron Wistar on ‘Mainstreaming MMT’*


Aaron Wistar recounts “The past few years have been good ones for Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). A decade ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find a mainstream economist who had even heard of this fringe school of left-Keynesian economics. But ever since Bernie Sanders made MMT proponent Stephanie Kelton a senior economic advisor for his 2016 presidential campaign, it has gradually trickled into the mainstream. In June, Kelton’s new book, The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy, landed on the New York Times Bestsellers list, no small feat for a tome about monetary issues.”

Aaron Wistar makes it appear that MMT's “meteoric rise” is due to its scientific merits and to the final triumph of the true theory over old mainstream myths. This is NOT the case. The scientific value of MMT is zero. And is meteoric rise is a fine marketing success of Wall Street's Warren Mosler ― one of the two founding fathers of the MMT movement. It's an easy task for these folks to produce any New York Times bestseller they want.

The macroeconomic foundations of MMT are provably false.#1 Because of this, MMT is proto-scientific garbage.#2 And the claim that MMT benefits WeThePeople is a political fraud. MMT benefits Oligarchy.#3 The insane distribution of income and financial wealth between the 1% and the 99% is the direct result of the MMT policy of deficit-spending/ money-creation.#4

The fact that Stephanie Kelton sells MMT as the Birth of the People’s Economy is breath-taking political infamy. That she is assisted by the mainstream media, Bernie Sanders, and a Ph.D. candidate in History of Consciousness in selling a Wall Street agenda as a progressive/left project is just another proof of widespread political corruption.

Make no mistake, after globalization had run its course, the goal for Wall Street as the avant-garde of the Oligarchy is to “reclaim the nation-state” by bringing the Fed and the Treasury under their control and to produce as much deficit and money and profit as they ever need for their self-perpetuation according to the macroeconomic Profit Law that implies Public Deficit = Private Profit.

Egmont Kakarot-Handtke


#2 For the full-spectrum refutation of MMT see cross-references MMT


***

REPLY to Jacob Richter on Oct 11 and Blog-Reference

You say: “This is an excellent article on the *need* to incorporate MMT into any actual left reform planks of Marxist political strategy!”

The macroeconomic Profit Law for the basic three-sector economy reads Q≡(G−T)−S, i.e. the public deficit G−T generates the business sector's profit Q. For the proof see here.

The Profit Law tells everyone that the MMT policy of deficit-spending/money-creation is for the benefit of the Oligarchy. MMT's Stephanie Kelton, though, claims that MMT is the “Birth of the People’s Economy”. Obviously, just the opposite is the case.

Now you want MMT to be incorporated into a “Marxist political strategy.”

It is interesting to learn that it is “Marxist political strategy” to provide permanent free lunches for the Oligarchy.