Letter to the Editor
19 February 2019
Socialist Quackery
It is interesting that the Economist has lately started to mention MMT (Modern Monetary Theory), a school of thought that, after all, wasn’t born yesterday but goes back to a seminal 1913 essay about money by A.Mitchel Innes, a banker whose understanding of money was arguably superior to that of Keynes even post his Mesopotamean epiphany.
To dismiss MMT as dangerous quackery will do nicely for all those who still believe in money as neutral, Mainstreamers and Marxists alike.
But for many free thinking liberals money has become a problem waiting to be an essential part of future solutions.
“Money Is Neutral” need not be the defunct doctrine enslaving the minds of practical people, let alone economists and liberals who should engage intellectually even if that turns out to be painful or embarrassing. It will be interesting to see if the Economist still harbours sufficient esprit.
