Stephanie Kelton - The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the Peoples Economy

The Deficit Myth is simply the most important book Ive ever read. Stephanie Kelton carefully articulates a message that obliterates economic orthodoxy about public finance, which assumes that taxes precede spending and deficits are bad. Keltons work is on a par with the genius of DaVinci and Copernicus, heretics who proved that Earth revolves around the sun.

David Cay Johnston, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, an Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. Medal, and the George Polk Award

A remarkable book both in content and timing. A must-read that is sure to influence many aspects of policymaking going forward.

Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic advisor, Allianz

In a world of epic, overlapping crises, Stephanie Kelton is an indispensable source of moral clarity. Whether youre all in for MMT, or merely MMT-curious, the truths that she teaches about money, debt, and deficits give us the tools we desperately need to build a safe future for all. Read itthen put it to use.

Naomi Klein, author of On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal

Keltons game-changing book on the myths around government deficits is both theoretically rigorous and empirically entertaining. It reminds us that money is not limited, only our imagination of what to do with it. After you read it you will never think of the public purse as a household economy again. Read it!

Mariana Mazzucato, author of The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy

The Deficit Myth is a triumph. It is absorbing, compelling, andmost important of allempowering. Embracing a well-researched framework that focuses on how real-world economies actually operate, she lays out a realistic path to true economic prosperity. It is an approach that focuses on Main Street and not Wall Street and will permit us to not only revitalize the struggling middle class, but address critical social problems like chronic unemployment, poverty, health care, and climate change. We of course face many binding constraints on our ability to act, but Kelton argues that the intentional underemployment of our own resources that results from the pervasive influence of deficit myths should not be one. We have needed this book for a very long time. Everyone should read it, and then reread it, before it is too late to change course.

John T. Harvey, professor of economics, Texas Christian University

Keltons mission in this powerful book is to free us from defunct orthodox thinking about fiscal deficits rooted in the bygone era of the gold standard. Her theoretical canvas is modern monetary theory. At its core MMT offers a simple proposition: In a fiat currency world, the finances of we the people aint the same as a summing up of our individual budget constraints, because we the people cant go broke, only deficit-spend our collective self into inflationary excesses. In the prevailing era of too-low inflation, the macro policy implication should be obvious: We the people presently have far more fiscal space than the deficit scold, pay-for crowd preaches. Kelton is a gifted writer and teacher and I confidently predict that The Deficit Myth, brilliantly written and argued, will become the defining book on what MMT isand what it is not.

Paul Allen McCulley, retired managing director and chief economist, PIMCO, and senior fellow, Cornell University Law School

Clear! Compelling! Eye-opening and persuasive, The Deficit Myth is an adventure in the world of budgets, jobs, trade, banking, andabove allmoney. With the great force of common sense, Stephanie Kelton and the MMT team have broken through the closed circles of so-called sound finance, a stale orthodoxy that has weakened and impoverished us all. This book shows how they did it, and it blazes a path forward, toward a better world built on better ideas.

James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin

A robust, well-reasoned, and highly readable walk through many common misunderstandings. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand how government financing really works, and how it interplays with economic policy.

Frank Newman, former deputy secretary of the Treasury