Economics

Modern Monetary Theory and Populism

ABSTRACT

This conference explored the most recent restatements of the “State Theory of Money,” the neo-chartalist school, currently referred to as “Modern Monetary Theory” or MMT. MMT policies are being touted today as the potential source of resources for their big spending proposals by government, notably, the ones intended to address environmental concerns, such as the “Green New Deal” proposal in the United States.

READING LIST

Conference Readings

Dooley, Ben. “Modern Monetary Theory’s Reluctant Poster Child: Japan.” The New York Times (2019 June): 1-3.

Dornbusch, Rudiger and Sebastian Edwards. The Macroeconomics of Populism in Latin America. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1991.

Dowd, Kevin. “Against Helicopter Money.” Cato Journal 38, no. 1 (February 2018): 147-169.

Edwards, Sebastian. American Default: The Untold Story of FDR, the Supreme Court and the Battle over Gold. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.

Edwards, Sebastian. Left Behind: Latin America and the False Promise of Populism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Edwards, Sebastian. “Modern Monetary Theory: Cautionary Tales from Latin America.” Hoover Institution, Stanford University, April 25, 2019.

Fujioka, Toru. “Japan Denies Policy Influenced by Modern Monetary Theory In Any Way.” Bloomberg (October 2019): 1-2.

Harari, Yuval Noah. Money. London: Vintage Minis, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2019.

Horan, Patrick. “5 Problems with MMT.” The Bridge (March 2019): 1-2.

Hummel, Jeffrey Rogers. “Interpreting Modern Monetary Theory.” The Library of Economics and Liberty. https://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2019/Hummelmonetarytheory.html (November 18, 2019).

Lerner, Abba. “Functional Finance and the Federal Debt.” Social Research 10, no. 1 (February 1943): 38-51.

Mitchell, William, L. Randall Wray, and Martin Watts. Macroeconomics. London: Red Globe Press, an imprint of Springer Nature Limited, 2019.

Nersisyan, Yeva and L. Randall Wray. “How to Pay for the Green New Deal.” Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, May 2019.

Noizet, Julien. “Friday Flashback: The Problems with MMT-Derived Banking Theory.” Alt-M. https://www.alt-m.org/2019/03/15/friday-flashback-the-problems-with-mmt-derived-banking-theory/ (November 18, 2019).

Selgin, George. “The Nice Limits of Modern Monetary Theory.” Alt-M. https://www.alt-m.org/2019/05/10/the-nice-limits-of-modern-monetary-theory/ (November 18, 2019).

Sumner, Scott. “MMT is wrong.” The Library of Economics and Liberty. https://www.econlib.org/mmt-is-wrong/ (November 18, 2019).

Sumner, Scott. “Keynesianism, NeoFisherism, and MMT.” The Library of Economics and Liberty. https://www.econlib.org/keynesianism-neofisherism-and-mmt/ (November 19, 2019).

Wray, L. Randall. Modern Money Theory: A Primer on Macroeconomics for Sovereign Monetary Systems. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2015.