Executive Summary

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) seems to provoke a visceral reaction amongst the ‘great and the good’ such as Rogoff, Krugman, and Summers. However, when reading their criticism I am often left with the impression that they haven’t actually bothered reading anything on the subject of their critique. Rather, they seem to prefer to knock down straw men based on massively caricatured paraphrasing, and by using name-calling and scary (but empty) stories to make their case. These are not the actions of people interested in open and honest debate, but are more reminiscent of the actions of ‘mind guards’ in defense of groupthink. In my experience, MMT provides a much more accurate and insightful framework for understanding the economy than the precepts of neoclassical economics.

Download to read the full article.