Government deficits have gotten a bad rap, says economist Stephanie Kelton. In this groundbreaking talk, she makes the case to stop looking at government spending as a path towards frightening piles of debt, but rather as a financial contribution to the things that matter — like health care, education, infrastructure and beyond. “We have the resources we need to begin repairing our broken systems,” Kelton says. “But we have to believe it’s possible.”
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When things break, we have an opportunity.
We can pick up the pieces
and put them back together the old way,
or we can look for better ways to build.
Covid broke everything.
It put a spotlight
on the many deficits in our economy —
in employment, education,
health care, housing —
and it showed how inequality
made it all worse.
Here in the US and around the world,
governments did some extraordinary things.
They sent money to people directly
to help them buy food and pay rent.
They provided free Covid testing
and expanded health care
to cover more of the population.
They gave money to businesses
to help keep them afloat
while much of the economy
was temporarily shut down.
They offered debt relief
to millions of people
who borrowed money to go to college.
They did all of this and more
without raising taxes
or having a prolonged battle
over the usual question
of how to pay for it.
To me, this was exciting,
and I’m an economist,
so I don’t say that a lot.
(Laughter)
But as someone who’s been trying
to change the way we think
about deficits and government spending,
I saw this as an opportunity
to show why government budgets
don’t work like household budgets.
Why all of their red ink
is really our black ink.
And why our nation can afford
to keep investing in the things we need
even after spending trillions
to fight the pandemic.
For a while, it looked like
the US and other countries
were starting to break the mold
on the old way of thinking
about deficits and taxes.
But now here we are,
just a handful of months
after all of that bold action,
and we’re sliding back
into our old habits of thought.
Can we build affordable housing
and fix crumbling infrastructure?
Can we expand Medicare
to include dental, vision and hearing?
Can we tackle our climate crisis?
As Congress debates these questions,
everyone is back to asking,
how will you pay for it?
It’s the wrong question.
In fact, the right questions
don’t involve money at all.
Instead of worrying about
where the financing will come from,
we should be asking,
are these things worth doing
and do we have the real resources,
the people, the equipment,
the raw materials
and the technology to do them?
Well, they make society better off.
And do we have the political will to act?
I’m one of a handful of economists
who contributed to the body
of academic scholarship
known as MMT or Modern Monetary Theory.
MMT provides an accurate description
of how a fiat currency like the US dollar
or the British pound actually works.
It reminds us that we’re
no longer on a gold standard,
so finding the money
to pay for the things we need
is never an issue
for countries like the US or the UK.
If we’re going to fix
what’s broken in our economy,
we have to fix the way we think
about the limits on government spending.
Let me give you an example
of the kind of broken
gold standard thinking
that still permeates our discourse.
Back in 1983, the prime minister
of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher,
said these words:
“If the state wishes to spend more,
it can do so only by borrowing
your savings or by taxing you more,
and it is no good thinking
that someone else will pay.
That someone else is you.
There is no such thing as public money.
There is only taxpayers’ money.”
Maybe you’ve heard the contemporary
version of Thatcher’s dictum.
“There is no magic money tree.”
It’s just another way of saying
that everything must be paid for
and that the taxpayer
is ultimately on the hook
for whatever the government spends.
It sounds worrying.
As individuals, we know
that when we borrow money
to go to college,
start a business or buy a home,
we’re personally saddled with that debt.
We have to find the money to pay it back.
Taking on too much personal debt
can lead to all sorts of problems.
Even small businesses
and large corporations
have to walk a fine line
when it comes to debt.
But the federal government
is fundamentally different.
Unlike the rest of us,
Congress never has to check
the balance in its bank account
to figure out whether
it can afford to spend more.
As the issuer of the currency,
the federal government
can never run out of money.
It can afford to buy whatever is available
and for sale in its own currency.
Now that might mean
spending on roads and bridges,
a military arsenal
or hospitals and schools.
Finding the votes to pass
a spending bill can be hard,
but finding the money
is never a problem.
They just create it.
So here’s how it works.
Whenever Congress and the president
agree to spend more,
the government’s bank,
the Federal Reserve,
works with the rest
of the financial system
to get that money into our accounts.
Everything’s done electronically,
so there’s no physical printing
of money involved.
If you got a 1,400-dollar check
from the federal government
earlier this year,
or if your company received money
to help cover payroll and other expenses,
then you received some
of the newly minted digital dollars
that were created to support our economy.
No taxpayers were involved
in that process.
It was all done using nothing more
than a computer keyboard.
So why are we hearing so much
about the need to raise taxes
to pay for infrastructure
and make other investments in our economy?
In a word,
deficits.
We’ve all been conditioned
to worry about deficits,
so lawmakers are looking
for ways to spend more
without adding to the deficit.
That’s what this whole
pay-for game is about.
Unfortunately, deficits
have gotten a bad rap.
They’re almost always seen
in a negative light.
And I would like to change that.
When we hear the word “deficit,”
we probably think
of a deficiency or shortfall.
A deficit always sounds ominous.
So when we hear
that the federal government
just ran a three-trillion-dollar
budget deficit,
it can sound worrying.
And it can even anger people.
But there’s another way
to think about government deficits.
Just as a six becomes a nine
when we view it from a different angle,
a government deficit
becomes a financial surplus
when we look at it
from another perspective.
A deficit hawk might look at this picture
and see nothing
but a sea of worrying red ink.
That’s not how I look at it.
Here’s what I see.
I see what’s happening
on the other side
of the government’s ledger.
When the government spends
more than it taxes away from us,
it makes a financial contribution
to some other part of the economy.
Their red ink is our black ink.
When you look at it this way,
it becomes clear that every deficit
is good for someone.
The question is for whom
and what are those deficits
being used to accomplish?
It matters how the money is spent
and who ends up
with the resulting surplus.
Tax cuts that deliver huge windfalls
for those at the top
without sparking
investment and opportunity
for the rest of the population
don’t make good use of deficits.
On the other hand,
spending trillions to support
the economy during the pandemic
put the deficit to good use.
We just had the shortest
recession in US history.
To me, that was fiscally responsible.
Being responsible shouldn’t mean
running the government’s finances
like a household.
Instead of trying
to keep the deficit in check,
Congress should be focused
on keeping inflation in check.
That’s the real limit on spending
and it’s the thing to watch out for
if you’re thinking
about spending trillions
on things like infrastructure,
health care and free college.
Instead of asking,
“How will we pay for it?,”
Congress should be asking,
“How will we resource it?”
To answer that question,
think of people, factories, equipment
and raw materials like wood and iron.
If we’re going to build high-speed rail,
fix crumbling infrastructure
and green our economy,
then we’ll need concrete,
steel and lumber.
We’ll need construction workers,
architects and engineers.
We’ll need companies that can fill
thousands of orders for solar panels,
EV charging stations
and electric school buses.
If our economy has the productive capacity
to quickly supply all of those things,
then we can easily resource it.
Or take health care or free college.
Paying the bills to expand Medicare,
to include dental,
vision and hearing is easy.
The challenge is making sure
we have enough dentists,
optometrists and audiologists
to treat everyone who needs care.
And if you want to resource free college,
then you need the faculty,
the classrooms and the dormitories
to teach and house more students.
In a full-employment economy,
all of the resources you need are, well,
fully employed.
There’s no spare capacity
anywhere in the system.
So if the government suddenly tried
to make all of these investments at once,
it would quickly discover
that it doesn’t have the people
or the building materials to do the work.
To get the resources it needs,
it would have to compete
with the private sector,
bidding up wages and prices.
That would be inflationary
and it would be fiscally irresponsible.
We are a long way from full employment.
We have the resources we need
to begin repairing our broken systems.
But we have to believe it’s possible.
We can’t let words like debt
and deficits hold us back.
With a better understanding
of public money,
where it comes from and how it works
we can take aim at the many real deficits
that are bearing down on us.
In every crisis lies an opportunity.
We can pick up the pieces
and try to reassemble the fragile systems
that were in place before the pandemic
or we can build anew,
shaping our bountiful resources
into the kind of world we want to live in,
one that cares for our people
and our planet.
I truly hope we choose to be bold.
Thank you.
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Robert Buckey
October 13, 2021 at 8:00 pm
She must need a lifeguard when she eats soup.
Cara Dianne
October 13, 2021 at 10:22 pm
………….
jbcola74
October 13, 2021 at 8:09 pm
Doubt in monetary stability and infkation is rotting the roots of the Magic Money Tree
Necate
October 13, 2021 at 8:45 pm
It sounds like bullshit at first, but she actually makes a valuable statement.
-> The sum of money a government spends is not important, but the impact on inflation and how it is spent are.
Although the first half sounds like “the government can throw money around without consequences”, that’s not the point she’s trying to making (I hope)
bj0rn
October 13, 2021 at 9:07 pm
Her message reminds me of Mark Blyth.
Denis Goddard
October 13, 2021 at 9:12 pm
Sounds like central planning to me.
Cara Dianne
October 13, 2021 at 10:22 pm
In other words… A federal governing system…..
Cr0uch1ng71g3r
October 13, 2021 at 9:23 pm
Makes sense. Money is a human agreement, physical resources are not.
K Scott
October 13, 2021 at 9:26 pm
Having recently survived an excessively vitriolic election here in Canada, I break out in a rash every time someone mentions The Deficit, usually in reference to pandemic spending. Our “Deficit” happened because government saved, and continues to save lives while ensuring people and businesses (especially small businesses) aren’t left high and dry. What would the Loyal Opposition have suggested we do? This Talk makes perfect sense to me.
Joe Cool
October 13, 2021 at 9:28 pm
They didn’t GIVE businesses any money they loaned it to them and only if you are a big company.
ThexBorg
October 13, 2021 at 9:30 pm
The board of every central bank is filled with company directors… so yes, free money for them from taxpayers is a given commodity.
Mr. C
October 13, 2021 at 9:38 pm
Fort Knox is an empty building.
mimosveta
October 13, 2021 at 9:45 pm
delusional
Allen Markham
October 13, 2021 at 10:03 pm
With this description, why do we pay taxes? I seems that we should, but if the Government doesn’t really care about money, why do we pay taxes (which they tell us is paying for the Government)?
Andy Fletcher
October 13, 2021 at 10:11 pm
Fantastic, the US government robs it’s own people and you applaud. Excellent understanding of economics and the monetary system.
Tone G
October 13, 2021 at 10:50 pm
Hmm,, if what you’re saying is true, then why collect taxes, to pay down the debt and fund programs? Why not let the people keep everything they work for, and the gov can print the money for everything it needs. If what you’re saying is true, why isn’t this the case?
Gillen's Restored Properties
October 13, 2021 at 10:51 pm
This is extremely flawed thinking.
Basically you just keep printing money and it doesn’t lose value?
Have you ever even cracked a single book on economics?
Steinar Ørstenvik
October 13, 2021 at 11:03 pm
If America never pays its debt the dollar loses its value. I’m never putting my money in US dollars or currencies tied to it if i have the choice ever again. What Kelton is saying is basically that the government doesn’t need to repay its expenditure, and that it is ok to devalue the dollar. Ok Kelton, i will devalue the dollar then. I will then not use the dollar, it’s simply not a safe investment or currency.
Maximiliano Santillan
October 13, 2021 at 11:03 pm
Esta todo mal lo que dice esta mujer!!!! Cree en la multiplicación de los panes. Las medidas transitorias tomadas por los gobiernos inyectando dinero sin respaldo en bienes o servicios, pudieron palear una situación que los mismos gobiernos crearon a traves de restricciones mayormente incostitucionales y basada en predicciones erroneas. Pero los efectos se empiezan a ver por ejemplo con la suba de la inflación en el mundo y la perdidad de poder adquisito del dólar por ejemplo. Lo que plantea esta economista es profundamente colectivista e inmoral y no funciona. El gobierno no puede quitarle a unos para darle a otros, o en el caso de la emisión monetaria sacarle a todos para que unos burocratas elijan en que hay que invertir dinero, ya sea con las mejores intenciones, NO FUNCIONA!!!! Los individuos son únicos y tienen objetivos diversos, y la única forma que funciona y genera progreso es el libre comercio, con la menor intervención estatal posible (si es cero mejor) defendiendo la propiedad privada y la vida. Como diria el gran profesor Anxo Bastos, CAPITALISMO, AHORRO Y TRABAJO DURO!!!!
Alex1986Sevilla
October 13, 2021 at 11:03 pm
What is she smoking? Nothing she said makes any sense.
Gareth K Music
October 13, 2021 at 11:26 pm
Free education, basic housing, water, energy, healthcare and a universal basic income. Done.
Smith
October 13, 2021 at 11:47 pm
Investing in crypto now should be in every wise individuals list. In some months time you’ll be ecstatic with the decision you made today..
Yvonne Merkel
October 14, 2021 at 1:17 am
I could invest in Crypto but always got confused by it’s volatility in nature
Angela Richy
October 14, 2021 at 1:20 am
@Yvonne Merkel That won’t bother you if you trade with a professional like Mr Donald Marshal .
Larry Jonathan
October 14, 2021 at 1:23 am
Some people worry so much about stimulus check, government empowerment, gambling,etc while there is enough room to make money in crypto investment
Tiwa Jessica
October 14, 2021 at 1:26 am
Count me in, I’m placing my trades with Expert Donald Marshal ASAP
Stella Kristen
October 14, 2021 at 1:28 am
Trading crypto with Donald is life changing moves
edi
October 14, 2021 at 12:01 am
When was it tried without resulting in out of control inflation?
Even if we could estimate sufficiently accurately the impact on inflation, the voters and politicians usually think in short term gains and not long term consequences…
Scott Pulver
October 14, 2021 at 1:21 am
Uhhhh this talk is complete nonsense… Ted talks really went down the tube…
James Lapeyre
October 14, 2021 at 1:22 am
Not enlightening. How does this pass for thinking? Fed policy has resulted in enormous transfer of wealth from wage earners/ saver to asset/ owner class.
FunLeague
October 14, 2021 at 1:27 am
Federal government is not the issuer of the money, the FED is, which is a bunch of private banks ! Also not a government bank !
I LIKE STOCKS
October 14, 2021 at 3:56 am
They do not want happy citizens. They want debt slaves. They want us to suffer. It’s a made up world. Deficits don’t exist budgets don’t exist, it’s all a lie. Why would they need tax money if they just create money. It’s to keep us down. We could have a utopia but they prefer subjugation under a demonic rule. They’re no happier, being actors playing parts as a politician, judge, or the President. Everyone has a master. Get closer to the power and money the worse off you are.
Machine Mechine
October 14, 2021 at 9:01 am
That isn’t our system at all.
I LIKE STOCKS
October 14, 2021 at 1:21 pm
@Machine Mechine No your system is living off your parents now go get a job…😂
Gary DeWitt
October 14, 2021 at 3:57 am
6:33 “the government’s bank, the federal reserve…” I don’t think so. The “Federal Reserve” is a gross misnomer, it’s a private institution, NOT a part of the government. So the national debt is owed to private concerns?!
Nelsonomics Runs
October 14, 2021 at 6:06 am
Print up infinite amounts of worthless money and buy up real assets with it. Quite a scam, yeah? Ask Jefferson said, eventually they print up enough money to own the whole Earth.
Somebody famously said “Robbing a bank is nothing compared to owning one”
Machine Mechine
October 14, 2021 at 9:00 am
The USD tanks; the government tells the FED to raise the value of the USD. It’s not magic. There are other things the FED does, but nearly all of it is controlled by legislature. If you are saying the same interests that control the FED are some of the interests that control our legislature through large amounts of money side aside to lobby the government; then maybe yeah. But that isn’t what you said. You said it was private; while ignoring how large parts of the government are privatized for the greater good, and while implying there is somehow spooky amount of evil involved…
TheJamesRedwood
October 14, 2021 at 9:07 pm
“the government’s bank” does not imply ownership, any more than “Gary’s bank” implies that you own the bank you use. One of your premises is correct, in the US the government does not own the central reserve bank. The other – that her choice of words implied ownership, does not.
WhiteSpatula
October 14, 2021 at 4:35 am
That sounds great but it would require a potency of compassion for the entirety of humanity that even religionists can’t seem to afford these days, what with the battle of zero-sum animal survival still going on strong and every square of land owned by someone who probably wouldn’t mind a financial umbilical for the hard work of charging others for the fact that we occupy space.. so no wilderness for down-and-outs to retreat to and try again. And yet we still want old wilderness rules for some reason. Hm.. Well, anyway, we still need to see who outsurvives their fellow rivals the best before dying! To go from a planet of great successes and catastrophic failures to one of great successes and standard successes.. .. .. I’m thinking that might actually require that ancient magic man to find his other shoe already, fall from the sky, and rescue us all from each other. I see no other way. But, I confess I’m a pessimist so, I’ll still cross my fingers for her version of humanity’s future. It sounds really great. And so much less death-y. Thank you! And Cheers! -Phill, Las Vegas
Tarek Z
October 14, 2021 at 5:40 am
Don’t agree. How is this a Ted talk?
Emma Leonardus
October 14, 2021 at 5:42 am
Karen is lying us to keep her and his husband status quo. 🤡
Machine Mechine
October 14, 2021 at 9:13 am
Talk is cheap.
Justin Miller
October 14, 2021 at 10:37 am
I’m not an economist. I am a Geospatial Engineer; however I think I can help you out here.
1.) The rules of supply and demand apply regardless of the type of economy. If you have alot of something it’s value to you is not as high as the value of something you’re short of.
2.) “Printing currency” regardless of if it is digital currently or physical currency increases the amount of money in society. Increasing the amount of USD currency available will inherently decrease the value of it. Remember, the supply and demand rules still apply. This is the essence of inflation. The more of something you have the more worthless it becomes.
3.) This means that the word deficit is directly tied to inflation and the two words are in a symbiotic relationship. Inflation requires the deficit and the deficit can’t exist without causing inflation.
Therefore your suggestion of, “Don’t worry about the deficit. Worry about inflation.” Is summarily ridiculous. It’s literally the same as saying don’t worry about supply and demand in economy just flood the market. That is the most unsustainable and economically disastrous thing I think I have ever heard. How can you ignore the eventual inevitability of inflation when you tell our government to, “Just make more money.”
AFDAL MAGHREB
October 14, 2021 at 3:17 pm
The foundational assumptions of aggregate demand are erroneous hence the conclusions.
that’s why the other word for the cyclical nature of the system is crisis management. The invisible hand failed miserably; the Keynesian school did not do much better, The monetarists gave us the current state of affairs.
aaron jackson
October 14, 2021 at 10:51 am
The system is outdated thats why your seeing all the problems in the world today. We already have the technology to fix a lot of the environmental issues but sadly there locked away in black projects!
Dave DuBay
October 14, 2021 at 11:29 am
Question: What happens when payments for interest on the debt become the biggest budget item? Does this crowd out other spending? As debt goes up and up will interest payments crowd out more and more? Or is this 6 really a 9?
Wurst Zeit
October 14, 2021 at 7:41 pm
It’s a good question and I would encourage you to be curious and maybe start with Paul Mason’s book ‘Post Capitalism’. Money is funny stuff and this book does a really good job of taking the reader through the origins of the stuff.
Avi Richar
October 15, 2021 at 12:55 am
Dave: that sounds like you’re fundamentally (and fairly rudely and ignorantly) ignoring the core premise proposition (and factual reality empirically warranted by simply observing the actual extant data), that federal budgets aren’t household budgets. Period.
The only way to cling with a death-grip to that fallacious myth, that somehow something as complex as an entire state’s financing is magically the exact equivalent (or even just a bigger version of same) as some relatively small handful of people, is to ignore how systems of every kind work, in nature, in human context, always — and how that fundamentally differs by scale, because emergent properties increase, when you have more factors involved, more elements, more components, just plain more.
Here the simplest debunking of the foolishness of the entire misplaced paradigm and ignorant way of thinking is this, inherent in your own off-base questioning’s basis: as described clearly and hard to misunderstand in the vid (unless mired in a whole worldview that blocks even looking at the point and hearing any single word said), when the government spends money, and so increasing what is mis-named “debt” overall and each year’s “deficit,” it isn’t borrowing from anybody, ever, not really, and certainly in no way whatsoever like when we individually do that, or as families, again, in households.
Simplest to see, because that money “spent” is actually going into the very same *revenue* sources that pour in money *to* the government, and *not* by “increasing taxes” as in raising a rate (even though that of course could and should be done for certain very small and resource-hoarding subsections, extremely rich individuals, and incessantly profiteering-to-insane-levels corporations). But rather, simply because when *people* have more money, they can actually spend it, as well as afford to do other things that cost more money, including set up businesses, move to where higher paying jobs are, buy houses and other owned homes, not to mention just live longer, and be more productive, etc. etc. etc — all of which, at the *same* tax rates will nevertheless pour *more* money into the federal (and state/province/etc.-sub-federal governing levels, city and county and so on as well) funding coffers.
It’s really as simple as understanding math, and knowing that the numbers mean nothing unless you correctly apply units, i.e. the names of whatever the numbers apply to, aka context.
Of course you’ll probably intentionally perpetuate your own misunderstanding by misreading this, per the obsolete legacy “gold standard” etc. bs paradigms (such as scarcity model, chicago model or whatever of economics, aka racketeering imposed on you by perpetrators past, and which you become the perpetrator of as long as you buy and swallow that feces continually as a sewn-together human-centipede segment).
But hey, maybe you could become humanized again and stop pushing the lies and violence that protection rackets always peddle. Who knows? If so, welcome to the human race again!
Adam K
October 14, 2021 at 12:31 pm
We need labor! Without labor, spending is pointless.
Julie Fisher
October 14, 2021 at 12:47 pm
Instead of asking “can we afford to do this?” we should be asking “how can afford NOT to do this?”
Cob
October 14, 2021 at 1:18 pm
As in with healthcare, screening and medication is cheaper than ER visits
libai tony
October 14, 2021 at 2:08 pm
东拉西扯一大堆，根本没有核心思想
Paulo Costa
October 14, 2021 at 2:21 pm
What a load of crab. Someone has to tell this lady that we all live in a close environment with limited resources.
Sparkyar
October 14, 2021 at 4:34 pm
While I agree that a controlled deficit isn´t bad per se, printing money to keep that deficit will create inflation for sure, no matter where and how you spend it. And if you start that wheel, there´s no stopping, an annual inflation of 3% or 4% can easily jump to 10+% in less than a decade… any argentinian could teach this woman a thing or two about inflation
Mark Egan
October 14, 2021 at 6:52 pm
I can’t help but to think in the future bright eyed undergrads will use the phrase, “but real MMT hasn’t been tried yet”. I’ll probably be dead. Good luck 👍
Matthew Gillespie
October 14, 2021 at 7:23 pm
This kind of monetary policy is dangerous and undermines one of our nation’s founding principles. Regardless of its good intentions, an overbearing central government is the very thing our federal system was meant to discourage.
josh winsett
October 14, 2021 at 8:00 pm
This is an asinine take. It is an argument for uncontrolled inflation (essentially a tax on your savings). Further – central planning will never be as efficient or effective as a market. I don’t think she understands “investments” – she conflates it with govt spending…. which takes away from investment. Finally, what is the role of govt. Is it the govts roll to ensure full employment? to compete with the private sector? to build culture? No. The govt exist to ensure our (inherent) rights as citizens are protected. Not to take from some and give to others. Not to decide winners and losers.
آيات الله في الكون
October 14, 2021 at 9:01 pm
سلام عليكم
Stella Dalmeida
October 14, 2021 at 9:41 pm
Getting threats sos.. direct treat!!!!
Stella Dalmeida
October 14, 2021 at 9:41 pm
Sos
Key B
October 14, 2021 at 10:51 pm
The system, US has global reserve status. Every other country holds it. US private central bank prints money on black swan event to pump stocks and enrich exec class who hold majority of stocks. Other countries get exported US debt and poor get poorer. Inflation ensues from all sectors to de-leverage the leveraged and economic collapse. So a reset can happen and we can all start at 0 again. Just hope every country approves or get a very deep bunker.
R S
October 14, 2021 at 11:19 pm
There’s a problem with the video in which she’s assuming it’s a closed economy and lightly touches the inflationary aspect. G20 people earn 10-50x more than some of the poorest. When government does spend for products there is a gain, but when it gives out money for no purpose then asset holders get richer than “welfare” recipients.
Money spent by USA also goes outside the american economy as many goods are imported. So if USA prints money above the world rate, then inflation skyrockets.
Money spent carelessly, sends money from the poor to the asset holders. Think of a building owner which takes money from subsidies due to housing low income families. The building debt get paid off from the money given by tax payers. The holder of the building has a massive asset.
Lastly spending other people’s money has an enormous chance of corruption. When you spent your money you can only be foolish but not corrupt.
🌱Christian Motivation Media
October 15, 2021 at 12:41 am
In a world full of anxieties, remember this verse tonight, “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” Psalms 4:8
Keith Brilhart
October 15, 2021 at 12:59 am
She’s one step away from advocating 5 year plans like the old Soviet Union. Yes, the experts always know what’s best, and it always works as planned.
Taconic66
October 15, 2021 at 2:20 am
“Just resource it”, sure a snap of this statist’s fingers. People just do things like serfs for your imposed goals. We decide amongst ourselves and freely trade using using money as a representational way to trade our resources for goals WE decide as free thinking individuals. MMT = government slavery no thanks.
Harshit Jain
October 15, 2021 at 3:55 am
Yeah, the sky high inflation and supply shortages sure seem like a wonderful thing for the middle class. Utopia, indeed!
Harshit Jain
October 15, 2021 at 4:05 am
Unbelievable! TED is pushing the left’s agenda so blatantly. With the sky-high inflation, the purchasing power for everyone is reduced. You want to know what this socialist lunacy does, look at Sri Lanka, where 80 percent of governement revenue is spent on debt financing. Stop this, before it’s too late.
Bonsai&Beyond
October 15, 2021 at 4:19 am
Maybe she should consider moving to a socialist country. Some people just dont understand and value freedom.
Richard Marshall
October 15, 2021 at 6:43 am
Printing more money comes at the cost of currency devaluation , which if a net importer spells death spiral.
Giancarlo Giuffra
October 15, 2021 at 7:47 am
I get the reasoning. If the industry sector that will support the new government spending has the necessary excess capacity, then there shouldn’t be inflation in that sector. However, the households employed in said sector, will have more money to spend. Wouldn’t that in theory put pressure on the average household basket? I suppose there has to be a bet on where that money will ultimately flow, right? Maybe we just have to hope that the average household has healthy expenditure habits or something like that.
Jorge Pb
October 15, 2021 at 8:41 am
No way this is a actual economist.
Jorge Pb
October 15, 2021 at 8:50 am
No mam, no takes, just inflation, which in a way is also taxes.
Keynesianism already has slow down our economy too much. Please, no more Keynesianism and more common sense.
PAVLOVS WORLD
October 15, 2021 at 10:02 am
Laughable… Debts dont matter… Great im not paying my mortgage
TheAleatoriorandom
October 15, 2021 at 10:06 am
Watching an actual economist using the “just print more money!” argument is rough. Inflation is pretty severe with savings, so it does still damage the economy. Also, this idolizes goverments a lot. They mess up as much or more than they do good. Here in Spain we were told not to worry abit Covid, that we wouldn´t have many cases and that we should totally still go to the crowded political events of the different political parties (this was when Italy was already in really bad shape). Turns out it didn´t go so great… And that´s not even talking about all the corruption and/or wasted money.
LTVoyager
October 15, 2021 at 11:43 am
Wow, the fantasy of MMT continues to amaze. If you really want to understand macroeconomics and the monetary system, I recommend “Economics in One Lesson” by Henry Hazlitt. It was written in the 1950s, but real economics, like physics or mathematics, doesn’t change with political narrative.
Jason bishop
October 15, 2021 at 1:21 pm
Just a reminder, it’s called economic theory for a reason. There isn’t just one way to perceive economics. And it certainly does change, like physics and mathematics. All of those things have developed and changed over time with new studies or discoveries.
Daniel Ardelean
October 15, 2021 at 6:26 pm
@Jason bishop Economics is about human nature and resources! So no, economics does not change because the way humans relate to resources (in general) does not change over time! The principles remain the same! Maybe the best book to read about this is ‘Human action’ by Ludwig von Mises!
LTVoyager
October 15, 2021 at 10:16 pm
@Jason bishop Theories are explanations. Laws are descriptions and predictions of what will happen given a set of circumstances or initial conditions and subsequent actions. Physics and mathematics laws do not change over time. Fundamental economics laws do not change over time. I agree that MMT is at best a theory, but it even fails there as it doesn’t really explain anything. It makes claims, but offers little in the way of explanation and there are many actual historical examples that have proven it wrong. The US economy is the largest in the world so it will take a lot to push us into hyperinflation, but it is very naive to think we can keep printing money, real or digital, with impunity.
LTVoyager
October 15, 2021 at 11:48 am
MMT is simply a euphemism for wealth transfer and central government planning, aka communism. This is been tried numerous times and has failed every time. The only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn anything from history.
chair lum
October 15, 2021 at 12:06 pm
Andrew Yang 2024
MATH = Make America Think Harder
MoniCast A New Way of Podcast
October 15, 2021 at 12:09 pm
Is it only me not convinced at all?
triforcelink
October 15, 2021 at 1:22 pm
We have infinite money, yet taxes keep going up
Mentalidade Define Você
October 15, 2021 at 1:46 pm
2 questions are enough to destroy her “thesis”:
1) If the government can “create money simply using a computer keyboard” without consequences, then what is the need for taxes? We could simply exit them, as the government “creates” its own wealth.
2) Why is inflation in the US skyrocketing?
Allysia Brown
October 16, 2021 at 1:21 am
I haven’t done much research but I thought inflation was happening because of climate change? Places like Brazil are getting hit and they aren’t able to produce as many crops… Which means less food = higher prices.
Also…. The system can be revised… These things don’t have to be set in stone. Things can change. They just don’t because not enough people want it to/agree on the way the system could work. Imagine living in a world where money is your only motivation for being something bigger than yourself. Oh wait, we already do (for many). And the people who aren’t motivated by money are often seen as “failures”. Conditioning at it’s finest my friend.
Ariancia Adelsdotter
October 16, 2021 at 9:00 am
Taxes is used to manage the inflation, if you don’t tax enough you remove the demand for money and without any demand for money money becomes worthless. So taxing doesn’t exist to pay for things, it exist to make sure the demand for money continues and keep the economy moving. So nations with their own currency can technically print as much money they want but if they do they need to keep a close eye on how that money moves in the economy so they can tax back the money that stops moving. So they can remove the overflow and stagnate money from the economy.
Clearly USA failed the taxing balancing act, not taxing where the money actually piling up to keep inflation under control. If you put the heaviest taxes on the people that needs to spend the money to survive or even live a good life, you block the flow of the economy. Taxes really need to target the money that are no longer moving. But beside that you also need to protect the people in the bottom of the economy as money always move upwards. Either by making sure workers are payed fairly and/or social programs for people that just can’t work for whatever reason. If the people in the bottom of the economy got enough to live a fair and functional life, that money will always go back in to the economy and keep it moving.
Mentalidade Define Você
October 16, 2021 at 12:50 pm
Allysia Brown and Ariancia Adelsdotter, I think you still don’t understand the real problem: the market will always find more efficient solutions to humanity’s problems than governments and the STATE. Understand this for God’s sake. If by 2050 there is a lack of food, the market will have to find a way to solve this problem. There is always a payoff for humanity’s problems. You who are adherents of socialist and populist ideas have unfortunately been deceived by the so-called “Social Welfare State”. I don’t understand how you believe that taxing is a way to reduce inflation. It’s just a matter of the government not throwing money in an unbridled way in the economy and trying not to interfere so much in the market. Unfortunately, with all due respect, the way you think is too harmful to society. And another: money is important for every human being to evolve in their dignity as well. Even though he is not everything in the human being’s life, he has an important part for everyone’s evolution.
Mentalidade Define Você
October 16, 2021 at 1:34 pm
If you really feel people’s pain and oppression, you should really care about actually helping. Giving people thanks is the worst way to harm her, because someone always pays the bill and that bill is not paid by the State. We have to encourage our State to be more and more minimal. This will help all the downtrodden.
Ariancia Adelsdotter
October 16, 2021 at 3:56 pm
@Mentalidade Define Você No market won’t always find the more efficient way to solve problems. Market will only find the most efficient way to make a profit and that’s not the same thing.
Which leads to food getting destroyed because it’s to unprofitable to transport it to people that need it, because they can’t pay “enough” for it. It leads to water in bottles instead of making sure the infrastructure for water is clean and useable so people can drink tap water. It leads to big businesses paying off politicians to make sure they don’t put more rules on them. So they lose out of profit because they need to offset the social harm they do.
I live in Sweden, we aren’t perfect but at least I know that if I need help to get back on my feet I will get it.
Only people with no humanity think poor people deserve to be poor because it’s “character building”. A society is only as great as how we take care of those that can’t take care of themselves, for whatever reason.
Avery Lemons
October 15, 2021 at 3:09 pm
I’m unable to follow a lot of this, however I do agree that using money as a measure of capability is inferior to using resources as a measure.
John Galt
October 15, 2021 at 3:11 pm
She is ignoring the Chantilon Efect.
daniel aduna
October 15, 2021 at 4:49 pm
What if a contry is not Us ? Would you still do not care That a goverment just invent money?
Bob Sullivan
October 15, 2021 at 4:53 pm
Wow! Some ideas (like MMT) are SO STUPID, you have to be a Radical Leftist “Economist” to believe them.
Bob Sullivan
October 15, 2021 at 4:53 pm
She also doesn’t seem to understand (or is lying about) how the Fed and Treasury work.
Bob Sullivan
October 15, 2021 at 4:54 pm
Hey Dummy — what about M2/M3 INFLATION?! 🙄
Warren White
October 15, 2021 at 10:16 pm
Leftist logic is to print money until we get to prosperity.. then print more, adding massive regulation & using taxis to punish the successful & reward irresponsible sloth, irresponsibility & failure.
Invox
October 15, 2021 at 10:54 pm
Goverment only care about “deficit” when they don’t wanna give money.
When they do, they call it “investment” EVEN if it fails and ultimatelly becomes… Deficit.
Agir Verde
October 15, 2021 at 11:39 pm
yes it´s important to use the money iin the places that we really need it: education, health, carbon zero,, florest, electric car´s……..
PAULTJENE
October 16, 2021 at 2:09 am
Clueless
John Breeding
October 16, 2021 at 2:10 am
Didn’t learn anything from Venezuela
西村京太郎
October 16, 2021 at 2:43 am
英語学習教材が日本語の広告は草
evilspacemonkeyman
October 16, 2021 at 7:47 am
If the government keeps on printing more money we’ll all be millionaires.
Don’t spend your millions all at once. On a bottle of coke for example.
pinned-by tdx tks
October 16, 2021 at 3:37 pm
Thanks for watching
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pinned-by tedx taks
October 16, 2021 at 3:37 pm
Thanks for watching
Send a direct msg right away
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♜ Pinned by TED e
October 16, 2021 at 3:37 pm
Thanks for watching
Send a direct msg right away
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seven 793
October 16, 2021 at 3:45 pm
インフレに注意すれば、どんだけ赤字出しても問題なしってこと？
Pootie Putin
October 16, 2021 at 6:30 pm
MMT is yet another chapter in the Orwellian world we now live in.
Pootie Putin
October 16, 2021 at 6:40 pm
Kelton’s circular argument doesn’t work….. her MMT theory promotes “full employment” as it’s main tenant….. yet MMT also promotes all of the free stuff (UBI, college, housing, medical, etc.)….. which in turn acts as a “disincentive” for the population to work, thus never ending high unemployment. Under MMT the country will never come close to “full employment”. This woman’s idea of endless money printing that never has to be repaid is insane!
Hoàng Nguyễn
October 17, 2021 at 3:39 am
1:00 Vietnam intensifies
albud999
October 17, 2021 at 6:00 am
*jerrome powell wants to know your location*
Also, bitcoin has no top cuz fiat has no bottom
Fuvity
October 17, 2021 at 7:25 am
i hope people look back on clowns like this woman that simply do not understand inflation with the disgust they deserve
MovieViking
October 18, 2021 at 11:43 am
Please explain why spending money on the things she mentions will result in more inflation than spending the same amount on lost wars.
Fuvity
October 18, 2021 at 9:32 pm
@MovieViking if you increase spending by 10 trillion dollars on guns, the price of guns will go up. If you increase spending by 10 trillion dollars on apples, the price of apples should ????
Fuvity
October 18, 2021 at 9:33 pm
@MovieViking there’s no free lunch. Anyone saying otherwise is looking for a way to spend your money
MovieViking
October 18, 2021 at 10:20 pm
@Fuvity Did you even watch the video? Your use of the concept of my money makes it obvious you are politically motivated, not using any deeper understanding of economics.
Fuvity
October 18, 2021 at 11:58 pm
@MovieViking i’m not even american, friend. Modern monetary theory is behind all modern credit crisis and america is building it’s biggest bubble yet
Tienga Ngale
October 17, 2021 at 8:11 am
This is the talk I have long been waiting for an economist to make. We pay for wars without questions but can’t fund people basic needs. Every country in the world in debt but it only ever seems to be use as a political tool.
wolflarson71
October 17, 2021 at 4:32 pm
There is a free lunch afterall.
yoyodawgsupbrah
October 17, 2021 at 5:51 pm
353 corporate lobbyists (OFF WITH THEIR HEADS) disliked this video.
Jeff916
October 18, 2021 at 4:27 am
“when the country is controlling its own money supply, it practical can’t run out of money”. The Zimbabwe government used to think the same thing, the rest are now history.
CT T
October 18, 2021 at 5:40 pm
Who exactly is dignifying this self important unbridled gibberish? All it will take for the house of cards to fall is the progressive evolution away from the unipolar global reserve currency.
seiko Hahn
October 18, 2021 at 5:42 pm
She said put the deficit to good use which are college, health care, and infrastructures, but are those really good use at this era??
cliffne fromne
October 19, 2021 at 8:06 pm
Health care, maybe. Infrastructure as long as my brother-in-law isn’t involved, but college? Only if they start cranking out common sense again.
Of Man
October 18, 2021 at 9:33 pm
**Jedi hand wave** Deficits don’t matter. Government spending is a bottomless well of benevolence. Just trust me on that.
J Westney
October 19, 2021 at 12:27 am
COOL! GIMME MY FREE STUFF!! I’ll be on the beach!
10secondsrule
October 19, 2021 at 10:48 am
Fixing environment with concrete, wood and steel… yep sounds about right. Just like endless money printing.
LegendLength
October 19, 2021 at 12:05 pm
Let me guess without even watching this one: Deficits are no problem right? The exact left wing view of economics?
cliffne fromne
October 19, 2021 at 8:04 pm
I am waiting for the AOC thesis to be written… you know the one where she explains that you can keep writing checks as long as their are check to be written? There is no need to worry about the balance in the bank!
Professor Jay Tee
October 19, 2021 at 2:40 pm
Includes a brief but excellent explanation of exactly WHEN governments need to be careful of spending too much. And when they can (and should) be spending much more.
cliffne fromne
October 19, 2021 at 8:08 pm
I like TED talks. They have so many smart people who present new ideas. and then there is Stephanie…
Charles Chen
October 19, 2021 at 10:18 pm
Great ideas, but there’s no incentive/ political will for the government/fed to stop printing. We currently have the resource problem described. Not enough human, productive capital… but so much money and demand. When/where are those taxes, interest rate hikes coming to suck up the excess demand?
Jobe Gerlach
October 19, 2021 at 11:35 pm
inflation is an invisible tax on people who dont have enough money to invest. if you really “care” about inequality and minorities then stop printing money, stop bailing out banks, and start helping people understand what fiscal responsibility entails. its easy to claim MMT will work, but if people cant invest then your saving accnt interest will never keep up with inflation and thus the CPI will slowly outstrip their ability to live comfortably… this is why millennials like myself have a more difficult time affording housing than our parents. also its really easy to say printing money will fix things when you have a tenured position that safe and hermitically sealed off from the markets at large.. shaking my head sadly right now…