The Difficulty of Accepting MMT

I've been immersed in the MMT movement for over a year now, and I have been reflecting a little bit on the incredibly enlightening journey that MMT has taken me on. The issue that is most present in my mind is the difficulty that other have in accepting MMT. I will openly admit that the operational descriptions that back MMT are somewhat difficult to understand. Since I had fairly little experience with economics beforehand, it took me four or five readings of Warren Mosler's "Soft Currency Economics" to really understand everything he was saying.

Thankfully, all the MMT blogs and videos were  tremendously helpful in rounding out my understanding of MMT; and once I did, it was an incredible feeling. I felt like I had entered a new stage of understanding in my life. I felt like a dark cloud of confusion and cynicism had finally been lifted off me, and I couldn't stop smiling for days. Macro policy made so much sense now, and I gained a new confidence in my ability to discuss economics with others.

Since then though, it has been more difficult. Understanding MMT, while living and working in Washington DC can be quite the emotional struggle. While I always want assume the best of people and give the benefit of the doubt whenever possible, I am constantly astounded by the ignorance of people in This Town. As far as I can tell, this ignorance is pervasive at all levels- from the lowliest Hill intern, to both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, and all up and down K Street.

Its one thing for Republicans to be ignorant of economic realities, since the entire party is based on ignorance of basically everything. However, as someone who used to consider himself a Democrat, it is significantly more difficult to see fellow Dems/Progressives stuck using gold standard thinking and rhetoric. While it did take me a few years to stumble upon and learn MMT, I did so at the end of my undergrad years. What excuse do the career economists/policymakers have? Its really not that difficult people! To be fair, this journey was probably easier for me than others. I am fairly young, and do not have a long career in economics/politics that could be invalidated by accepting MMT.

I have come to realize that for most people, the barrier to accepting MMT is not intellectual deficiency, but a timid and pathetic desire to cling to the status quo. For many people, especially in the economics profession, accepting MMT would mean turning their backs on their entire careers of bullshit, and the income and prestige that came along with it. No matter how many times we try to explain monetary operations to so called experts, they cannot bring themselves to admit we are correct. The cognitive dissonance that MMT creates often leads, at best to denial (See Sumner, Scott), and at worst, to bitterness and anger (See Palley, Thomas). However, this also means that the few that have accepted MMT later in life, and possibly putting their careers in jeopardy, posses rare forms of courage and integrity. These people are true patriots.

Accepting MMT  means realizing that involuntary unemployment is an evil curse upon the human species, and not a natural cycle brought on by God. Accepting MMT means realizing that the vast majority of our policymakers and elected leaders are hideously incompetent, and are causing unbelievable harm to the people of the United States and the world. Accepting MMT means coming to the depressing conclusion that economic policymaking, unlike almost every other field of human endevour, has actually gotten worse, not better, over the past 100 years. 45 years after passing from this earth, Marriner Eccles' grave is spinning so fast, its probably hovering somewhere in the Utah desert.

We are making progress. To my great excitement., it appears that Dylan Matthews and Matt Yglesias, both members of the new "Vox Media" venture, are publicly accepting MMT. So despite the challenges described above, we have to shamelessly press forward. Only MMT can affirmatively answer the "how do we pay for it question". Only MMT has the firepower to defeat the evil empire of austerity. At this point, saving our country, and possibly our entire planet, requires using MMT to elevate policy discussions into the 21st century. Its up to us.

The Fallacy of Scale (or Composition) Is All That Prevents Aggregates Of Intelligent People From Coalescing Into A Group Intelligence Greater Than The Sum Of It's Parts.

   (Commentary posted by Roger Erickson)



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