Monday, May 04, 2020

Comment on Project Syndicate Article

My comment on this Project Syndicate article titled "The Problem With MMT" by Willem H. Buiter, a former chief economist at Citigroup and a visiting professor at Columbia University.

Note, I have a subscription to Project Syndicate, the article may be behind a paywall :-(

"But when demand for the monetary base is constrained by interest rates and the level of economic activity (measured, say, by income or consumption), the unbridled monetization of state deficits eventually would eventually exhaust what slack there is, putting upward pressure on the rate of inflation." ??? What does this mean exactly? Is "slack" a recognized economic term? Is this something other than word salad? This is the only place in the article where he attempts to explain why there would be inflation.

"MMT ignores the demand for money"??? The world is awash in capital, a few $T in relief funds is a few % of total world wealth. Seems like there's plenty of supply of $$$ - in fact MMT basically says there's an infinite supply. Again, what does "demand for money" mean?

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