Indeed, while the terminology is different, one can make the case that MMT builds on fundamental precepts of Keynesian economics seasoned with a dash of Milton Friedman’s provocations. But as Stephanie Kelton, an economics professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the most visible (and persuasive) advocate of MMT, makes strikingly clear in The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy, much of what underpins the theory is widely accepted by mainstream economists - if not mainstream politicians and the public. It’s certainly been used that way by the political left, much as supply-side economics has been used by the right to justify tax cuts for the one percent. Economists at any stage in their career will enjoy revisiting this treatise and observing the relevance of Keynes’ work in today’s contemporary climate.If you think Modern Monetary Theory is a rationale for ignoring federal budget deficits and spending whatever’s necessary to fund an ambitious progressive agenda - everything from tuition-free college to Medicare-for-All - you’re correct, in part.

Highly provocative at its time of publication, this book and Keynes’ theories continue to remain the subject of much support and praise, criticism and debate. It gave way to an entirely new approach where employment, inflation and the market economy are concerned. Keynes’ argument is based on the idea that the level of employment is not determined by the price of labour, but by the spending of money. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money transformed economics and changed the face of modern macroeconomics. Reissued with a fresh Introduction by the Nobel-prize winner Paul Krugman and a new Afterword by Keynes’ biographer Robert Skidelsky, this important work is made available to a new generation. It was voted the top Academic Book that Shaped Modern Britain by Academic Book Week (UK) in 2017, and in 2011 was placed on Time Magazine's top 100 non-fiction books written in English since 1923. This book was originally published by Macmillan in 1936.

The deficit myth book