Bill Mitchell — Don’t say its over until its over – MMT is not close to dominating the narrative

Don’t say its over until its over. There has been progress in the macroeconomics narrative since the GFC, which accelerated during the pandemic. Governments have certainly expanded fiscal deficits and taken on more debt and the usual hysteria, which many of those same governments helped to ferment in the public debate, has fallen away. Obviously, for political reasons, a government that has previously been terrorising the population about the dangers of deficits and rising debt as a cover for ideologically-driven austerity programs, has no incentive in continuing those narratives while they have been dragged into maintaining capitalism on life support. The question has been whether these narratives will return once the health emergency starts to fade a little. There is clear evidence emerging that the lessons that the pandemic has taught us are not being absorbed by the economics commentariat, who dominate the public space with their opinions. Two clear examples of this came out this week (already) in the Australian press, which replicates the sort of commentary I am increasingly seeing around the globe. Deeply sad.

What I am noticing is that much that is written about MMT or mentioning MMT is based on caricature rather than accurate description. The consequence is that "MMT" is coming to means something different from actual MMT. Much of this is deliberate disinformation coming from ideologues, while some is due to ignorance, including some of those favorably disposed to MMT as an explanatory framework based on institutional analysis of money, finance, and economics, and their structural and functional interrelation in an economy. Generally, the commentary exhibits shallow understanding about MMT. Very little is grounded in the literature, which is now abundant and widely available, much of it free to download, e.g., at Levy Institute.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Don’t say its over until its over – MMT is not close to dominating the narrative
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia