If you can just print money, why pay taxes?
A book launch event of If You Can Just Print Money, Why Do I Pay Taxes?: Modern Monetary Theory Distilled and Debunked.
A radical economic proposal has been gaining traction among politicians, activists, and academics. It argues that governments can strategically use money creation to end unemployment, fight climate change, repay debt, and more—without the limits imposed by traditional budgets. This proposal is known as Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT.
Notably, Zack Polanski recently dismissed the pressure exerted by interest payments on national debt. He said, “We don’t need to spend that money. So, that money has been created as an idea.” These comments appear to be directly inspired by MMT, which Polanski has been learning about.
In his new book, If you can just print money, why do I pay taxes?, Emmanuel Maggiori distills and debunks MMT step by step. The book shows that, while MMT is thought-provoking and worth a read, it is ultimately unsatisfactory—it suffers from numerous flaws, and it fails to formulate credible policies to increase prosperity.
In this talk, the author will discuss the tenets of MMT. We’ll try to answer questions such as “Is MMT the same as quantitative easing?”, “Is MMT the key to prosperity?”, and “Is MMT a recipe for disaster?”
About the speaker
Emmanuel Maggiori, PhD, writes books that distill and deconstruct trendy, hyped-up topics in business, technology, and economics. When he’s not writing or doing research for his books, he’s helping technology companies build challenging software products.
More about this event
The Hayek Programme in Economics and Liberal Political Economy is a research initiative based at STICERD.
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