[sdenton4]

MMT works so long as you've got the ability to conjure your own money. (Eg, not on the Euro, or a currency pegged to another currency.)

The idea is that you create money to pay for things, and then pull back excess money through taxes. (As opposed to pulling in money through taxes, using it to pay for things, and whining that you don't have enough.) So it 'works' as long as you have your own independent national currency.

Another mind flip: the scarce resource isn't money - it can always be generated - but labor. Inflation starts when there's a labor shortage, because up to that point you can just employ more people to meet demands.

[spurgu]

Another mind flip: the scarce resource isn't labor - but energy.

Edit: A gallon of oil is equivalent to roughly 400 hours of human labor. Manual work is nothing compared to the energy contained in fossil fuels (or external energy sources in general). An argument could be made that the economy is in decline due to this, that the sources of fossil fuels are getting more expensive. Most of the cheap sources have been used up already. There is still a lot of oil left, but it's a lot more expensive (offshore, fracking) to extract than it used to, and it's getting worse.

[platz]

Mark Blyth on MMT:

https://youtu.be/2ONGvkAoOI0?t=1550

- it only applies to the US

- depends on having a hegemonic currency (i.e. everyone else earns in your currency and has to convert it, so that you can run a deficit and others supply the capital to fill it)

- contingent on control of the house, senate, and presidency, for about 3 terms in a row, to do all the things you want to do (in the MMT program)

- though sure, we could spend more on stuff we care about; we're not at "capacity" yet.

- you've already got a bond market in the US... why do do we need to re-invent everything in the world when the bond market allows you to already do it?

- hardly any other country actually sets their own monetary policy because the dollar is so dominant. When the fed goes up or down, it's effect is global.

- since every country has to import, if you print a lot of money, you'll get inflation through exchange rates & the import channel

Haven't listened to this one yet: https://youtu.be/NfKiW0Gfn04

[drivebycomment]

What do you mean by "economy is in decline" ? And, on what basis do you claim fossil fuel is getting more expensive ? The oil price hasn't gone up significantly over the past decades. The cost of electricity, adjusted for inflation, hasn't gone up.

[spurgu]

There are many ways GDP is being "padded" (by excluding certain liabilities for example), things like unemployment numbers as well. The "true" economy has been stagnating or in a downward trend for at least a decade already.

And the actual cost (EROI) of extracting fossil fuels isn't necessarily (directly) tied to consumer prices.

[imtringued]

Renewable energy is cheaper, so cheap that some people on HN sarcastically suggested to use renewable energy to extract oil from tar sands.

[chii]

> you create money to pay for things

only your own citizens would accept this money, and if the citizenry cannot "create things" (for example, the country does not have the capital investment to have created machinary/automation or infrastructure), this printing of money is meaningless. MMT is crackpot theory that is lacking imho.

[sdenton4]

Well, you've basically just argued against fiat currency, not MMT specifically. So, shrug emoji?