Professor Joseph Stiglitz: Debt does matter, both economically, and, perhaps even more, politically. Let me first try toexplain MMT, the modern monetary theory, which has argued that it does not matter at all. I also want to make it clearthat the view held by many people, that it is the most important thing, is wrong. I am not at all worried about the level ofdebt in the United States. So the view that we face an existential crisis because of the debt is wrong, but the other view, that we do not have to think about it, is also wrong.
The origin of the view that it does not matter at all goes back to the 2008 financial crisis, where we expanded the basemoney supply enormously—by fivefold in the US and Europe—and there was no inflation. That led people to believe that you could increase the money supply enormously without any inflationary consequences. There was no inflation, because the money went from the Government into the banks’ coffers and they did not lend it, so it did not have any inflationaryeffect, but it did not have any benefit either.
If that money had gone into the banks, the banks had lent it, and the people to whom it had been lent had spent it, wewould have had enormous inflation, but we would not have needed to increase the money supply that much. We kept doing it, because we hoped that increasing the money supply would stimulate the economy, but it had a very weak effect.That is the fallacy in MMT: if you increase the money supply and nobody spends the money, it does not cause a problem, but it does not solve a problem, either.
That’s Joe Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate.
No, he is not saying it because I did, not did I because he, both because that’s actually correct. As everyone was in fact saying back then.
Here in a retired acciountant from Wandsworth on the subject:
So we have to conclude that Stiglitz did this deliberately. I stress, that I really would not mind if Joe Stiglitz had offered an honest critique of MMT to this committee. He is, of course, entitled to do so. Economics is full of disagreements. But he did nothing of the sort. He did three things.
First he revealed his ignorance, not just of MMT, but also of banking, the role of the national debt, and the fact that there is such a thing as double entry so that when discussing that issue we also have to consider the preferences of those who own wealth and their desire for safe places to save.
Second, he misrepresented the truth, and I am really not sure that this is what anyone should do before a parliamentary committee.
Third, as a consequence, he might have served his purpose but he made himself look stupid in the process. He might, like many economists, think that a worthwhile thing to do, but I would have thought that he had by now reached a sufficient stage of maturity to get over playing such silly games.
Who to believe, eh, who to believe?