On one hand, if inflation is the only check on spending that tells us its time to rein it in or impose new taxes, we should really know what level we consider acceptable and have safeguards to protect against the most disastrous outcome of hyperinflation. I'm open to these arguments and consider them well-intentioned but I didn't find that this book really substantiated many of its points. Increasing taxes to pay for such things are not even necessary, since taxes don't fund spending and the alleged dangers of money printing are vastly overblown. If true, these arguments would mean that the government can and should be spending much more on improving society and that concerns about large deficits are entirely misguided. Taxes do not fund spending, MMT theorists argue, but are more like a release valve to reduce the total money supply and thereby cool off inflation. Modern Monetarist Theory (MMT) of which Kelton is a proponent argues that demand for national currency is created by the initial act of money issuance and a subsequent requirement imposed on citizens to pay taxes in that currency. This book begins from the seemingly radical premise that as long as a government can issue its own money it need not be concerned with running deficits and can spend as much as it deems fit until inflation starts signalling the need to slow down.
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