Mmmmm, not having a dig hawkie but that's like saying you're not a fan of gravity. MMT is just a theory about how our modern currency system works. I don't like the fact that governments have a monopoly on issuing currency, but I accept the explanation that MMT offers about the implications for our economies in governments having a monopoly on the issuance of currency. I'm not 100% confident either as it relies on our central planners making a choice between "the really dumb road to take" or "the not as dumb alternative" all the while being immune from raving left-wing lesbians with multiple triggers or ageing opiate munching rednecks intent upon enhancing their values at the expense of normal people.
Well, they have whipped the Monetary Policy horse to death and it is now a bloody corpse on the ground that they are staring at and wondering what to do now. Not sure about your gravity analogy. I concede that money can be printed from thin air, and will be, in great quantities. I saw something today that said the US money supply had expanded by 25% in the last year. I'm going to make several comments regarding MMT, but take them in the context that I do think this will be tried for several years, maybe a decade or more. The first thing is, I don't think they can accurately measure inflation. When measuring inflation, they lean towards removing volatility from the measurement. Is there any wonder that they can't find any? And honestly, I don't think there is anyway to measure it anyway. Society is too complex and there are too many variables. Different people buy different things and have different experiences of inflation. As I understand it though, one of the core tenets of MMT is that inflation can be measured and controlled. The second thing, as far as I understand it, is that inflation will be brought under control by raising taxes. I can just imagine how that is going to go. People experience rising prices and a rising cost of living and politicians say they want to raise their taxes? Is that going to work politically? All in all, MMT reminds me of socialism. It's a great theory. So with all that said, what is my solution? Don't really have one honestly. I've thought for a while that monetary policy has basically been an enabler of bad fiscal policy. My philosophy now is just to move to the parallel financial system, the crypto space, which is rapidly building up infrastructure and I believe will one day replace the existing system. How orderly or disorderly this will be, how long it will take, I really don't know. It's risky times and everyone needs to pay attention and stay on their feet. My 2 sats.
I've learnt two things which have helped me enormously, both of which mean I generally don't get as pissed off about other people (and politicians) as I would have say 10 years ago. From the Austrian school (tip hat also to Jevons and Walras) which you and @bordsilver directed me to I learnt of the subjective nature of value. That individuals value things differently and measure the worth of a good or service based upon their own experience, feelings or understandings. From the MMT school, that governments don't spend my money, it's theirs, so as long as I'm still free to value goods/services subjectively, I really don't care if they buy another 10 floating whale-tits. Most certainly the advent of crypto-currencies has helped as well.
Bill Mitchell, who in my completely unqualified opinion is the most knowledgable economic theorist in the MMT school (doesn't mean I agree with him, he just operates on a cerebral level about 12 floors up from me) would probably argue that it's the unemployment figures that would be the most useful measure of how much cash should be injected into the real economy by governments. But point taken about tax rises and cutting employment programs in order to control inflation, shit, enough people whinge about handing out tax cuts now let alone increasing them.
Funny you should mention 10 years because that's about the time I started looking into finance, economics, money, etc. GFC was my catalyst for asking "what the fuck's going on?". Which just led to more questions and then answers to those questions which led to more questions and so on. And diving down many blind alleys. It's been some journey. And I'm still learning. It was hard to get my head around MMT for awhile. I didn't know what I thought of it. I was trying to figure it out before taking a position either way. Anyway, at some point I heard people raving about the Stephanie Kelton book so I got it and ironically, I ended up being against it after reading it.
