Doug Henwood has posted up at Jacobin an MMT critique that amounts to little more than a character assassination. It is what I’d expect of him in his reincarnation as a Neoliberal critic of progressive thought. (https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/02/modern-monetary-theory-isnt-helping). It adopts all the usual troll methodology: guilt by association, taking statements out of context, and paraphrasing (wrongly) without citation....
New Economic Perspectives
Response to Doug Henwood’s Trolling in Jacobin
L. Randall Wray | Professor of Economics, Bard College
3 comments:
Randy Wray is probably my favorite of the MMT economists. He knows economics as well as anyone I've encountered. Along with Bill Mitchell, he has little patience for the nonsensical reactions. Eric Tymoigne is another MMTer whose work I admire.
A great post. Thanks as always for the link, Tom.
Dan, I reckon the founding MMTers are all exceptional intellectually. The more I read their work, the more I realize that, though it was pretty darn obvious from the get-go. The critics - including Nobel prize recipients - may not yet appreciate what they are up against. One thing's for sure: the MMTers won't lose on theoretical or intellectual grounds. It's yet to be determined whether this causes anything to budge politically or in the academy.
The MMT economists integrated a lot of the work of outstanding economists before them. So, yeah, there's a lot of depth to MMT.
On the other hand, New Keynesians such as Krugman rely on "wonky" old school ideas. Generally, in my experience, "wonky" corresponds to hard to understand and with questionable assumptions.
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