Some thoughts about MMT: 0) If you, as a layman (and why not, if you're an expert as well), are going to have an informed opinion on economic issues, you owe i

Some thoughts about MMT: 0) If you, as a layman (and why not, if you're an expert as well), are going to have an informed opinion on economic issues, you owe it to yourself as well as whoever you're going to discuss it with, to educate yourself broadly and study both sides of an issue. Seems that too many people who discuss on the internet happened for some random reason to read a book, then (maybe) continue to read books in the same vein, and are subsequently unable to look out of the ideological pigeonhole they have jumped into. Don't become that old bore that rants endlessly about "libtards/global financial capitalism/whatever" at xmas dinner, while the rest of your family sits there in an embarrassed silence wishing you to drop dead or at least STFU so that the kids can have their presents! For some background that explains the thought behind MMT, I can recommend Mitchell & Fazi, Reclaiming the State. 1) I don't understand the obsession with the gold standard that some in the Austrian school seem to have. Or if not gold, some other valuable commodity, energy, basket of commodities etc. Whatever. Bretton Woods is over, deal with it. The only underlying reason I've been able to find is that to people who dream of a nightwatchman-state, the notion of a state with fiscal and monetary power is poison. 2) The core of MMT, namely the description of the macroeconomics of a sovereign government with a monopoly on issuing its own floating fiat currency, is not new per se, but it's explained maybe slightly differently than usual, but it explains it pretty well. And given how confused people seem to be about macroeconomics, fiscal policy, and fiat currencies, being able to explain it clearly is a big deal. 3) As for the policy implications of MMT. MMT teaches us that in terms of monetary and fiscal policy governments are not as constrained as is commonly thought (the usual anti-MMT slurs of "printing your way to Nirvana" and subsequent hyperinflation tells more about the ignorance of whoever is presenting those). Now, most of the MMT proponents are pretty left-leaning, so they tend to want to use that extra fiscal space for various social programs, but one has to keep in mind that's a policy choice and not something inherent in the theory itself. Another policy choice would be to buy weapons and engage in various foreign policy adventures, but again, nothing that MMT per se prescribes.