Monday, August 02, 2021

Modern Monetary Theory kind of enshrines what we have been already doing for decades; running huge deficits; the economy remains intact.

The federal government is coming up to the debt ceiling again. I've often thought the debt ceiling should be scrapped since it's never adhered to anyway.

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) kind of says that the debt is less of a problem than often perceived.

MMT kind of enshrines what we have been doing for decades. Running large deficits over the years and the economy continues to function. Maybe we don't need to worry about deficits if our past is any indication of how things work. The economy remains intact.

I remember when some people said that George Bush JR. was "spending like a drunken sailor." Tax cuts while starting two wars. The war in Afghanistan and the second Iraq War.

Now there is more pushback saying that if we have run these huge deficits for years with what seems to be little consequence, we can continue and even ramp it up a bit. We can better tend to our domestic needs.

There are consequences, but the economy, as a whole, has survived. One of the consequences of relying more and more on new money from the Fed to finance the government is inflation.

For many years, we have seen pretty high inflation in asset prices; such as home values. Deficit spending may be what has been propping up these values. If it wasn't for this high level of spending, the economy would likely fall into deep recession eventually pulling down asset prices.

Now there is more pressure for other things, such as the wages of lower income workers, to catch up so people can still afford things like housing and healthcare. This has an effect at causing price increases for things people take for granted; such as the cost of a hamburger at the local drive in.

Much of this whole situation is created by the strong anti tax sentiment in this country. People tend to not like taxes. Meanwhile most people take a lot of services that government provides for granted.

Public safety is a service mostly provided by government. There is a phrase that was pushed last summer, by some folks on the left, called "defund the police." I haven't been a fan of that phrase as I don't, personally, have an axe to grind against the police, but it does point out that police are expensive.

It's almost like we are a nation of spoiled brats. The kind of society we expect to live in, with public safety and so forth, doesn't happen without some cost.

The same can be said about the military. Maybe we have spent too much on these things, but it seems like those who always want to cut taxes are the same folks who advocate for these things; thus the deficits.

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