Modern monetary theory, or MMT, supposedly explains how “We Can Pay for a Green New Deal,” as one of its leading advocates recently argued in HuffPost. The United States, MMT advocates say, should decouple spending decisions from taxing decisions. The debate between MMT advocates and other economists gets arcane very quickly; it’s a technical subject, and the two sides often speak past one another. The question of how much additional spending MMT would actually permit is unclear. Viewed that way, MMT might not be too different from Keynesianism after all.

Source: Washington Post April 19, 2019 16:18 UTC