Finding the Money

As the US approaches its ‘debt ceiling’ limit yet again, is Uncle Sam going broke, unable to find another penny to fight climate change or provide social services?

Not according to the new economic theory known as “Modern Monetary Theory” or MMT. Stephanie Kelton – face of the theory, and former economic advisor to Bernie Sanders – asserts that for the US Federal Government, the issuer of the US dollar, “finding the money” to pay for public priorities is never actually the problem. Currency issuing nations face other limits – namely real resources, labor, and inflationary constraints. MMT bursts into the mainstream media, with journalists asking, “Have we been thinking about how the government spends money, all wrong?”

But top economists and politicians from across the political spectrum condemn the theory as “voodoo economics”, “crazy” and “a crackpot theory”. FINDING THE MONEY traces the conflict all the way back to the story we tell about money, injecting new hope and empowering democracies to tackle the biggest challenges of the 21st century.