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I love MMT in theory but it is terrifying to consider actually making policy decisions with MMT as the justification. The downside risk of MMT being wrong and

I love MMT in theory but it is terrifying to consider actually making policy decisions with MMT as the justification. The downside risk of MMT being wrong and the resulting runaway hyper inflation would destroy the dominant economic standing that the US has spent the entire post war era cultivating.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
helen___keller 7y ago
That risk exists independent of MMT. We could deficit spend an airdrop of a million bucks to every American with a bill today under modern economics, and still destroy the economy with hyperinflation. We could borrow trillions in a foreign currency and face hyperinflation risk today. As I understand it, MMTs actionable insights range from issuing less/no debt for the same government spending, offering jobs to the unemployed and underemployed through a federal jobs program, and tinkering with government spending /taxation as a tool for controlling inflation (as opposed to interest rates as a tool for controlling inflation). Note that regardless of your economic beliefs, these are all still subject to the same political system we live in today. Most of the worst case scenarios people imagine with MMT look like "we gave someone the power to print money and they printed too much money". But in the real world that's a problem with autocracy, incentives, and feedback loops. If we keep autocracy out and still monitor/alter incentives and feedback loops as needed, it's hard to imagine MMT having a massive downside risk any moreso than existing economic orthodoxy.