Alexander Douglas — The Big Modern Monetary Theory Debate

Philosopher Alexander Douglas on the monetary debate, with particular reference to Jonathan Portes and Simon Wren-Lewis. About economic models and modeling. 

I used to think I agreed with MMT by and large. But when I write things on what I think is wrong with macroeconomic theory, MMTists seem to disagree with me. I think I’m more comfortable with the high levels of abstraction and conceptual shorthand rampant in economic models, even if they’re literally untrue. My problem is with the logical puzzles that emerge even taking the shorthand as read. But never mind; here I’ll just say what I think about the policy debate.

The debate that most interests me is over what Portes and Simon Wren-Lewis have called ‘The Consensus Assignment’. Portes describes it thus in the article linked:

Medium
The Big Modern Monetary Theory Debate

Alexander Douglas | Lecturer in Philosophy, University of St. Andrews