The Deficit Myth
by Stephanie Kelton · first published 2020
74% recommend26% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Accessible, non-technical introduction to Modern Monetary Theory, explaining how money, taxes and deficits work for currency-issuing governments, with examples. Suits readers new to MMT or confused by the word debt.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The leading thinker and most visible public advocate of modern monetary theory - the freshest and most important idea about economics in decades - delivers a radically different, bold, new understanding for how to build a just and prosperous society. Stephanie Kelton's brilliant exploration of modern monetary theory (MMT) dramatically changes our understanding of how we can best deal with crucial issues ranging from poverty and inequality to creating jobs, expanding health care coverage, climate change, and building resilient infrastructure. Any ambitious proposal, however, inevitably runs i
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Read Stephanie Kelton’s book “The Deficit Myth” for an elaboration on your questions. It’s a non-technical introduction to Modern Monetary Theory. Spoiler: you are correct, the rules are different for nations that control their sovereign currencies…
on “Global debt soars to 356% of GDP” ↗Read 'The Deficit Myth' by Stephanie Kelton. TLDR; It's not the US Debt Clock, it's the US Savings Clock.
on “$28 Trillion of US Debt” ↗I just finished the book "The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy" by Stephanie Kelton. Highly recommend to anyone who hasn't heard of MMT and wants a good intro with examples of how MMT could help today.
on “The Covid-19 pandemic is forcing a rethink in macroeconomics” ↗I recommend Stephanie Kelton's "The Deficit Myth" for more background on MMT: https://www.amazon.com/Deficit-Myth-Monetary-Peoples-Economy...
on “Banks, QE, and Money-Printing” ↗You really ought to read Stephanie Kelton's very-accessible book, The Deficit Myth. What we call "money" is, at bottom, simply a set of widely-distributed tokens that we use in lieu of centralized bookkeeping. When you accept any kind of money, including gold, in return for goods given…
on “The NYT article on MMT is bad” ↗The broadest audience book is probably Kelton's The Deficit Myth: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45731395-the-deficit-myt... If you want a deeper dive in audio form, I really liked the MMT podcast sub-series embedded in Current Affairs' bird seed podcast. However…
on “What is the Eurodollar System? (2020) [pdf]” ↗If you want to make sense of the economy and economics generally read everything Stephanie Kelton writes. She has a good book called the deficit myth and a newsletter called The Lens https://stephaniekelton.substack.com/
on “Ask HN: Do you think the economy makes sense?” ↗After reading some supporting material associated with this topic, I became a fan of MMT. For those interested, I recommend Stephanie Kelton's "The Deficit Myth", and Randall Wray's work. The latter has recently published a really ELI5 for the subject: "Money for Beginners" (NOTE: pay attention to the author - there are quite a few books with similar title)
on “US debt ceiling: Democrats and Republicans agree deal in principle” ↗Understandable, it’s a somewhat new way of thinking called “Modern Monetary Theory.” See Kelton’s “The Deficit Myth” for more info. Many interesting threads in the last year on this: https://www.google.com/search?q=modern+monetary+theory+site%...
on “The U.S. can now set its own rates for mail from China and other countries” ↗…as many dollars as people want to save to feel secure. That’s how a sovereign currency works. If nobody wants to save then by definition whatever is spent will be collected by tax. Perhaps read The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton to understand how that works
on “The Tragedy of the New Coronavirus Spikes” ↗I would strongly recommend getting a copy of "The Deficit Myth" by Stephanie Kelton. It's a useful primer on how modern money systems work and will help you get past the word "debt". Essentially whenever you see that word substitute "private wealth" and look at…
on “Central Banks Have Become Irrelevant” ↗Read “The Deficit Myth” by Stephanie Kelton, it’s a primer for MMT and covers essentially everything you’re talking about.
on “Why inflation is not a threat” ↗Except the reason governments tax is to create markets and to provide sticks (or carats) to certain behaviors. Taxes are not for revenue. Read the 'Deficit Myth' by Stephanie Kelton or Debt the First 5000 Years by David Graeber.
on “Yellen calls for a global minimum corporate tax rate” ↗The most important idea like this in the world right now is expounded in the book The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton which everyone should read. MMT fits this article exactly except for the fact that PG says it doesn’t extend beyond “hard sciences”. It also extends to the dismal science
on “Crazy New Ideas” ↗Curious how many of the respondents have read MMT literature. Seems to be a theme of believing MMT ignores inflation, which is not at all the case and is addressed directly in Stephanie Kelton's The Deficit Myth. Credit is created at the point of contract. This was revealed in a 2014 Bank of England report. The current economic arrangements bake in certain percentages of unemployment. MMT suggests reimagining…
on “IRS Poses as Bitcoin Trader ‘Mr Coins’ in $180k Sting” ↗