Is the Modern Monetary Theory becoming the Millennial Monetary Theory? Textbooks teaching MMT have sold out. Colleges and universities are adopting the unorthodox theory into their curricula. It’s quite possible the next generation of students will be influenced greatly by MMT. Bloomberg’s Enda Curran and Katia Dmitrieva report:
If book sales are any guide, then Modern Monetary Theory is gaining traction.
The unorthodox doctrine, which says governments have spare capacity to borrow and spend, has won attention on Wall Street and enemies (as well as a few friends) in Washington. Now, it’s trying to break into academia. And it’s off to a good start.
The first MMT textbook, a 600-page volume titled “Macroeconomics’’ and aimed at college students, has sold out of its initial print run, according to publisher Macmillan –- about two months after the launch party in London. Macmillan didn’t specify how many copies it printed. But it said more are on the way.
“I knew there was pent-up demand,’’ said Bill Mitchell, one of the book’s authors and an economist at the University of Newcastle, Australia, in an interview. His co-writers are Randall Wray, of Bard College in New York state, and Martin Watts, also of Newcastle.
MMT argues that governments in control of their own currencies, like the U.S. and Japan, aren’t constrained in the ways standard economics says they are. They may risk stoking inflation or running out of resources if they spend too much — but they can’t go broke.
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