The author of the book “The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy,” which you can find on Amazon and read for yourself, champions reimagining money.
If you’re in the private sector and have a basic comprehension of Austrian economics, listening to Stephanie Kelton, you’d know INSTICATELY she’s an academic that has little experience in the real world.
By real world, I mean PRACTICAL applications of the ideals she is promoting. We all have ideas of how we think the world should be, but it’s when you put your ideas into practice that you see what works and what doesn’t work.
Why deficits matter in the REAL WORLD is that running a PERTITUAL deficit where you can’t even pay the MINIMUM BALANCE on a loan without assistance from a CENTRAL BANK is a clear sign your idea(s) is NOT working.
Stephanie Kelton comes from the expectation that Central Banks are not PRICE CONTROL mechanisms. Price controls are a function of the GOVERNMENT; there’s no such thing as a Market minimum wage, a market rent control, or a market FIXED interest rate.
All price control mechanisms REWARD our existing governments, and even with the benefit of these price control mechanisms, the governments still run deficits, and what Stephanie Kelton is arguing is that how about we simply change the WORDING 😂
No, no, it’s not a deficit; it’s a surplus😂. Sure, Stephanie, w/e you want. When the government prints money, it’s no longer a debt; it’s a surplus, sure, whatever, let’s go with that.
Although I lean towards Austrian Economics, I like the angle Stephanie Kelton took in her approach, as one of my annoyances with Libertarians is that they tend to focus on CENTRAL BANKS instead of Democracy itself.
Clearly, Stephanie Kelton sounds like a progressive, Far-Left Socialist. Like most people who imagine the world through a Marxist lens, she sees money, currency, Gold, the medium of exchange as something that can be or should be CONTROLLED by a CENTRAL POWER.
I should remind people that most of the “money printing” comes from PRIVATE BANKS, whose solvency relies on their BORROWERS, repaying their loans, and paying their bank fees.
If you want me to dive deeper into PRIVATE banking, you also have to talk about INSURANCE COMPANIES, who insure some of the losses, and the entire solvency of the insurance industry relies on MARKET activity, one of the main problems most undeveloped nations have is that they have a very tiny INSURANCE industry.
Most investors, innovators, banks etc. rely on INSURANCE to obtain CAPITAL, so if you’re creating an Modern monetary theory(MMT) along with say, Central Bank Digital currencies(CBDCs) you’re pushing for an expansion of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation(FDIC), which by the way, is inherently bankrupt. The FDIC is a joke, why can’t depositors insure their own deposits😂?
If you don’t want to insure your deposits from bank-bankruptcies, how is that my problem? The insurance industry has re-insurance, and the private sector has already done all of these things.
If you don’t want to pay the premium for INSURANCE, that’s fine, but if you think giving the government more power is going to solve anything, you’re imagining the government is more honest than the private sector, which is ridiculous. How about ENFORCING existing laws and ARRESTING the people who steal from the public?
When Wall Street got a bailout, I think ONE or Two people got arrested, and nobody from the GOVERNMENT got arrested; if you take away all the fancy WORDS, the Wall Street Bailout was the government screwing over the people.
If Democracy or the Republic was this PERFECT thing, why didn’t either hold those responsible for this disaster accountable? It’s because most people are DISINTERESTED in POLITICS; most people KNOW politics, politicians, “experts” in the GOVERNMENT, don’t fix problems; they create them.
Western society was created to LIMIT the power of the elites and limit the power of the government, not grant them more power, which is what ELIMINATING GOVERNMENT deficits would do. None of us can agree on everything now, so if the government has unlimited wealth, the POWER will not be to the people. The power will go to GOVERNMENT into perpetuity.
Do you know how many innocent and honest people are in prisons and/or are broke because the government has more resources than it deserves via deficit spending?
Do you know how many problems the government has CREATED because it’s ALLOWED to run perpetual deficits? Sure, let’s call deficits surpluses instead. Are you so stupid to think that changing the word from deficit to surplus will solve ANYTHING?
Again, if you know about Latin American economics, you’d already know that what Stephanie Kelton is pushing for has already been tried in many parts of the world. There’s nothing new about politicizing money.
Humans want the-MONEY because the-money buys STUFF, but humans also HATE POLITICAL money, and the politicization of money, which is something Stephanie Kelton doesn’t appear to comprehend, is how she is framing her entire narrative.
Countries outside of the U.S. like using U.S. dollars because their local governments have already EMPLOYED the ideas Stephanie Kelton is recommending. My favorite people to listen to regarding SOCIALISM are Leftists in Latin America because they’re way ahead of the curve in what Stephanie Kelton is talking about; they’ve already tried similar ideas. Peronism would be a perfect addition to Stephanie Kelton’s book, as she doesn’t appear to comprehend what the POLITICIZATON of money does to PRODUCTIVITY.
You’ll notice that Leftists in America are starting to “borrow” words being used by Libertarians; Leftists already hijacked the word “Liberal,” which Conservatives helped them to do.
Leftists now appear to have their sights set on hijacking the Libertarian movement, which often talks about CENTRAL BANKS as the root cause of the money problem.
As someone who “identifies” with anarcho-capitalism, I know that the real problem with the Western World is PROPERTY RIGHTS. Government deficits strip you of your PROPERTY rights. Government deficits aren’t simply an attack on the money supply. They’re an attack on your PROPERTY, your liberty, and your freedom. Good luck DEFENDING yourself against a government that doesn’t have a DEFICIT.
I think people tend to forget that a PLEA deal is the result of governments having financial RESTRAINTS; if the government no longer has a “deficit, every branch of government will have a 100% conviction rate, just like in Communist China and Communist Cuba. That’s what the POLITICIZATION of money is.
What does a conviction rate have to do with MMT? Well, if the government doesn’t like your POLITICS, you’re going to jail, and you will be censored because the government will have unlimited access to all the money and all the POWER. After the government gets rid of people like me, they’re going for you MODERATE socialists next. Don’t forget that people like me are the ones doing a lot of the heavy lifting to keep society afloat.
There’s no such thing as a “perfect” economy, there are trade-offs, however, humanity flourishes when we’re FREELY able to INNOVATE our way out poverty.
Socialists like to use “social justice” to steer the economy in their POLITICICAL direction. Now, let’s look at an economic definition of social justice.
Social justice is justice in relation to a fair balance in the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals’ rights are recognized and protected.
Fair, balanced distribution of wealth and opportunities? So, if I’m born rich, I must be forced to share my wealth with people who are poor.
Let’s say we do that, but because my parents invest more in my economic education than your parents do, and you become an ARTIST while I become an engineer.
In life, chances are I, as an engineer, will be richer and more HARD-WORKING than you, the artist. Sure, there are instances in which an artist outperforms engineers, but this is rare.
If central powers make it a policy to reward the less productive with free money in perpetuity, Stephanie Kelton doesn’t seem to comprehend that people will start to look at money/currency as the source of their problems and start DUMPING the money.
A lot of people assume that the strength of the U.S dollar in comparison to other global currencies will always be as strong as it is in 2024, and that’s why I used the LATIN AMERICA example because, in Latin America, there are SERIOUS consequences to employ the ideas Stephanie Kelton is promoting. Because hyperinflation of the currency is usually the consequence of ignoring the deficit.
There’s nothing unique or new about what Stephanie Kelton is promoting, she merely is trying to take the Libertarian angle; she’s imagining that America, winning those wars, didn’t have anything to do with the American dollar being chosen as the world’s reserve currency.
The reason why the world hasn’t dumped the U.S dollar globally is because America, to date hasn’t politicized their money as much as other countries, but in case you’re not paying attention, that’s what Environmental, social, and governance(ESG) is trying to accomplish.
You’re noticing that America is even trying to FORCE countries to accept HOMOSEXUALITY, this is the politicization of the U.S. dollar, and it’s a guarantee that if a BETTER alternative to the U.S. dollar shows up (which gets easier every time the Progressives “win” an economic argument) more and more countries will indeed dump the U.S dollar, which will equate to high INTERNATIONAL consumer prices in U.S. dollars rising.
The U.S. dollar has lost a lot of its purchasing power, especially DOMESTICALLY. However, it still remains one of the most powerful currencies in the world. With that said, ESG is forcing the cost of living to rise DOMESTICALLY, which equates to fewer Americans having disposable income.
Where Stephanie Kelton gets it wrong, and where most Libertarians also get it wrong, is that they’re ignoring EXISTING government regulations on productivity, which GUARANTEES that no matter how many dollars the U.S. government spends, will REWARD inefficiencies in the U.S. marketplace.
What does that have to do with deficits, you ask? Well, if I am paid or rewarded by the government whether I work hard or not, sure, some of us will still work hard, but most of us won’t work at all, if you’re unfamiliar with Latin America, and other undeveloped nations, the real problem is that most people do not work or if they do work, they’re not being PRODUCTIVE.
Many people who go to developing countries for a few days on vacation only get to meet the PRODUCTIVE members of those societies, ignoring the majority of the people who do nothing productive all day long.
Unproductive people buy unproductive stuff. For example, why cook when I can go out to a restaurant? Why clean? Why learn? Why educate myself, when the government is going to bail me out anyway, right?
That’s what a perpetual deficit economy creates. In third-world countries, the smarter parents will focus on giving their children an education that positions them to PROFIT, from where the MONEY and POWER will eventually be.
You’ll notice that in India and Nigeria, for example, parents push their children to become doctors, engineers, dentists, etc. That’s what SMART people do if they know the government’s money is worthless. Productive members of society will ALWAYS be in demand, and when the money gets corrupted, BARTER becomes the new norm. For example, in India, GOLD is huge, not gold BULLION.
Libertarians like Gold Bullion. Gold Bullion is GOVERNMENT gold, but in India, GOLD is shaped into whatever form is in DEMAND and is what the people want. Get me out of the Indian Rupee and give me that gold please. Because that Gold I can pass on to future generations, whereas the Rupee will lose value tomorrow..
For the time being, the U.S dollar has international purchasing power, but in case you’re not paying attention. Lately, the U.S. federal government has been trying to RESTRICT access to the U.S. dollar to countries that don’t align with its SOCIAL JUSTICE agenda, which does not, by the way, include homosexuality.
Homosexuals make up a small minority in the WORLD, and forcing entire nations to accept a homosexual agenda might have ramifications for the U.S. dollar. Progressives like to PROGRESSIVELY look for enemies to destroy, and in the mind of a progressive all they need is more money and more power for their social utopia to become a reality.
Sure, the use of the U.S. dollar to bully other nations strategy is working now, but there’s no guarantee it works forever. If it becomes part of U.S. policy that deficits and INTEREST RATES don’t matter, you’re signaling to the global marketplace that productivity doesn’t matter.
There are serious ramifications for the United States, if it’s citizens recognize that they no longer have to work to be rewarded by their government.
This is one of the reasons the Roman Empire fell: the productive Roman people saw nothing worth fighting for. Why should I cut stone and build things when someone who does nothing all day will be rewarded with the same money that I’ve worked so hard for? The Roman government politicized their money so much that productive Roman citizens wanted nothing to do with it.
What Stephanie Kelton is promoting is nothing new; the only thing new about her old failed ideas is her presentation.
Interesting times ahead