As with all fallacies, Modern Monetary Theory rests on some real insights into a matter, but seems to hinge on one or two key assumptions that are more matters of faith that historical or even practical experience e. In this is it can become not so much an economic theory, as a cult belief.
I do not say that lightly. It can become a cult because it is a matter of believers and unbelievers, those who will drink the koolaid, and those who cannot. And those who cannot must be ignored, because their arguments cannot be answered rationally. While this may be of some use in religion, which addresses matters beyond the scope of reason, it does not sit well in such a practical issue as the working of a monetary system.
"The sovereign government cannot become insolvent in its own currency; it can always make all payments as they come due in its own currency because it is the ISSUER of the currency, not simply the USER (as a household or private business is).
This issuing capacity means that the government does not face the same kinds of constraints as a private sector user of money, which in turn exposes the fallacy of the household analogy, so beloved in popular economics discourse."
The finances of a sovereign are most assuredly NOT like those of a household. And those of a Bank are not like a household either.
In several ways they can be the inverse of a household in their motivations. For example, when household spending is slack because of an economic shock, the government may wish to engage in more spending to counteract this. Some think it is the role of government to keep the economy out of what is called a liquidity trap or as I understand it a feedback loop of cutbacks that greatly exacerbate the problem of slack demand.
This is one of the points of having a government, that is, to do things that the individual cannot do well alone, no matter how powerful they may think that they are, and to protect the rights of the many from those who are more powerful, both foreign and domestic.
But here is the matter of disputation, emphasis in caps theirs, in italics mine. "The sovereign government cannot become insolvent in its own currency; it can always make all payments as they come due in its own currency because it is the ISSUER of the currency, not simply the USER."
Do you see what is missing here, and more importantly, what is implied?
What is missing is the acknowledgement that the users of a currency, call them 'the market,' can and will and have quite often throughout history questioned the valuation of a currency, and often to the point of practical worthlessness, if certain actions are taken by the sovereign in creating their currency.
This gets back to an insight I had some time ago, that the practical limit on a sovereign in printing money is the willingness of the market to accept it at a certain value. And this applies to any sovereign, moreso if they are smaller and weaker, but always nonetheless.
If Russia, for example, were to merely start printing more rubles and set a target valuation for them, they could enforce this internally. And in fact, many sovereigns have done so throughout history. I remember visiting Moscow shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, and marveling at the disconnect between the official stated valuations and the actions of the ordinary people in seeking alternatives like the US Dollar, gold, diamonds, and even Western style toilet paper, a more useful sort of paper than the ruble.
Technically Russia could not become insolvent in rubles, because they could always print more of them to pay all their debts, make purchases, and salary payments. The great caveat in this is that Russia had to maintain a measure of control and enforcement to make that principle 'stick.'
And this is what probably makes MMT inadvertently statist, and dangerous. That is because this belief only works within a domain in which the state exercises complete control over valuation.
In the case of the US dollar as a global reserve currency, if this theory is applied, and one of my great fears is that it will be, then there is an inherent need for the Dollar Cartel to continuing expanding their span of control over all of the producing and purchasing world, in order to enforce this belief.
I am sorry to have to disagree with people whom I like and enjoy reading, but as you can see I think there is an important point of disagreement here. And given the number of sovereigns who have defaulted, causing significant pain in their people and in the lives of others, it is not a trivial thing.
I suppose that there are many other things in MMT that are correct, as it seems to be quite the usual thing in many ways, but there is an important exception in the assertion that the state has no limit to its power to set value, because that is exactly what is implied in the canard that a sovereign cannot default in its own currency. Technically it cannot because it can always print more than enough pay off debts and make more purchases. But it can create money in such a way as to break the confidence of the market, and call its valuation into question. And this is a de facto default.
What happens when the people refuse to accept it at their stated value? What happens to people who do not agree that the State can do no wrong? Because if the State can never be at fault in creating and spending money, that makes it a problem and a source of great mischief.
In the historical examples the government always resorts to force, and official exchange rates, and other draconian actions on their neighboring sovereigns who refuse to submit to the valuation of a currency by official diktat.
It is a dangerous statement that could simple be cured by an acknowledgement that there are practical limitations on the power of the State. And if the adherents of a belief cannot agree with this, then it calls into question all the other aspects of a belief that is based on such an absurdity a priori principle.
So it was with the 'efficient market hypothesis, which believed that people acting in a group are naturally good and rational, which was blatantly incorrect to anyone who is familiar with the reality of the marketplace, or has ever driven on a modern high speed motorway. People in groups are not naturally rational, good, and self-regulating. And a persistent minority among them are so much not inclined to the good as to be sociopaths and inclined to be criminals.
And States are not unnaturally good and beneficent either. But this is what is implied in creating a system that allows for their acquiring unlimited power that is beyond question in anything, but in particular something as important as the means of exchange and valuation.
