Letter to the NYT about MMT
To the editor: After having just read “Biden Can Go Bigger and Not “Pay for It” the Old Way, I wanted to write in support of the basic premise of this argument and of the principles of Modern Monetary Theory in general. While Dr. Kelton’s article had to be short, she makes several points that your readers should know. First, there is a big difference between a currency user (Me, states) and a currency issuer. She is absolutely correct in saying that we can literally spend dollars, that we issue, on whatever we want. She is also absolutely correct in that the real concern is not the debt, but inflation. Decoupling spending policy from tax policy and looking at the potential inflationary effects of each is how we should look at the problem. It is time that politicians begin asking the right question about spending and taxes: Will it cause inflation? Will it provide a rising standard of living? Do we have the productive capacity to absorb the spendi