Modern Monetary Theory

Just What in the [bleep] is Modern Monetary Theory?

Questions, Questions, Questions

When you pay federal taxes, what do you use? Yen? Rubles? Dinars? Chickens?

There is only one right answer: ($) dollars. The federal government will not accept anything but U.S. dollars for the payment of taxes.

Where do those dollars come from? Think about it. U.S. dollar banknotes are printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and, since 1914, have been issued by the Federal Reserve. U.S. coins are produced by the United States Mint. And it is strictly illegal to print your own dollars, which is known as counterfeiting.

Back in the gold ole days, without a central bank like the Federal Reserve in place, anyone with the means to do so and the reputation to back it up could issue notes of legal tender. With cities, private businesses, and banks issuing their own money, an estimated 10,000 different kinds of currency were in circulation in the United States in 1850. Unluckily, most of that money was utterly worthless outside the area in which it was being printed and circulated. In an extreme example, mining companies of the time often paid their workers in scrip that could only be used in the overpriced company stores near where the mine was located.

Can you please explain to me why the federal government needs to tax me to get the money it then uses to finance its operation? After all, it is creating the money in the first place. Could it be possible that the feds don't need my money to pay for the military? or the National Institutes of Health? or NASA? or SNAP? or any other federal program?

Modern Monetary Theory

A Few Answers

Modern Monetary Theory, explained

The US Federal Reserve System

DIAGRAMS & DOLLARS: modern money illustrated (Part 1)

The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy

Robert Wenzel wrote book highly critical of MMT calledProblems With Modern Monetary Theory: A Comment on Stephanie Kelton's The Deficit Myth He “considers the writings of Ludwig von Mises, F.A Hayek, Murray Rothbard, Henry Hazlitt, and Harry Browne as the most important influences on his thinking.” He strongly promotes Austrian Economics (Anarcho-Capitalism) in which there is almost zero government intervention and regulation of markets. Refer to my short essay Money for Nothing: The Rentier Class Versus the Precariat to see why this is a completely horrible position in modern society. Even Milton Friedman, the man most responsible for foisting the concept of the free market on the United States strongly disagreed with the Austrian economic school.

Yes, Government Creates Wealth