The Deficit Myth, Stephanie Kelton
The Deficit Myth, Stephanie Kelton
7 Rating(s)
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

The Deficit Myth
Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy

Author: Stephanie Kelton

Narrator: Stephanie Kelton

Unabridged: 10 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 06/09/2020

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

A New York Times Bestseller The leading thinker and most visible public advocate of modern monetary theory -- the freshest and most important idea about economics in decades -- delivers a radically different, bold, new understanding for how to build a just and prosperous society. Stephanie Kelton's brilliant exploration of modern monetary theory (MMT) dramatically changes our understanding of how we can best deal with crucial issues ranging from poverty and inequality to creating jobs, expanding health care coverage, climate change, and building resilient infrastructure. Any ambitious proposal, however, inevitably runs into the buzz saw of how to find the money to pay for it, rooted in myths about deficits that are hobbling us as a country. Kelton busts through the myths that prevent us from taking action: that the federal government should budget like a household, that deficits will harm the next generation, crowd out private investment, and undermine long-term growth, and that entitlements are propelling us toward a grave fiscal crisis. MMT, as Kelton shows, shifts the terrain from narrow budgetary questions to one of broader economic and social benefits. With its important new ways of understanding money, taxes, and the critical role of deficit spending, MMT redefines how to responsibly use our resources so that we can maximize our potential as a society. MMT gives us the power to imagine a new politics and a new economy and move from a narrative of scarcity to one of opportunity.

Reviews

Goodreads review by David on April 09, 2020

We’ve wasted a century looking at government as if it were a family or a business. It isn’t. As the monopolist controlling American currency, the government doesn’t ever have to worry about running out of money. It can always fund social security and Medicare, and many other programs besides. Instea......more

Goodreads review by Roy on September 30, 2020

Deficits can be used for good or evil. Robert Skidelsky, in his enormous biography of Keynes, remarks that economics today occupies the same position as theology did in the Middle Ages—as a complex a priori logic that can be used to reach any number of contradictory conclusions. The more I read i......more

Goodreads review by Sebastian on July 21, 2020

(a reminder: I'm NOT rating the MMT, but the book about MMT - there's a huge difference between these two) I have a few significant problems with "The Deficit Myth": 1. The rhetorics are purely "American style" - which means: "if you repeat something 100 times, readers will treat it as truth, if you d......more

Goodreads review by Kevin on January 03, 2025

Money 101: National Accounting… Preamble: --To learn real-world economics, it makes sense to follow the money, in 2 senses: a) political: cui bono? (“to whom does it benefit?”, i.e. power relations) b) technical: accounting --This book brilliantly introduces the latter; my review will also consider the......more

Goodreads review by Murtaza on March 23, 2021

This book begins from the seemingly radical premise that as long as a government can issue its own money it need not be concerned with running deficits and can spend as much as it deems fit until inflation starts signalling the need to slow down. Modern Monetarist Theory (MMT) of which Kelton is a p......more

Quotes

"Kelton writes clearly and directly, and does well to keep the lay reader in mind throughout. This comprehensive, lucid explanation of a much-buzzed about economic theory will resonate with progressives."—Publishers Weekly

"Stephanie Kelton is among the most prominent of the dozen or so economists associated with MMT. Her new book The Deficit Myth is intended to bring MMT to a broader audience. In addition to an impassioned call for a bigger, more active public sector, The Deficit Myth contains a number of distinct economic arguments."
—The American Prospect

"Clear and vigorously written book."—Foreign Affairs

"She has succeeded in instigating a round of heretical questioning, essential for a post-Covid-19 world, where the pantheon of economic gods will have to be reconfigured."—The Guardian

"Kelton and her colleagues have brought a great many non-economists into the economic conversation in a way that no other contemporary branch of heterodox economics has been able to....[Sh]e's dead right about a central political fact of our times: A large, active public sector is more needed today than ever, and unfounded fears of public debt are a big reason we haven't gotten it. Which means her eloquent, accessible book is performing an important public service."—The American Prospect

"Kelton certainly offers food for thought at a time when governments are spending eye-watering sums to mitigate damage from the coronavirus pandemic."
—Spear's Magazine

"The big thing she gets right is in the way she structures her book around our current beliefs. In addressing our current understanding of how the world works - interpretations she identifies as myths - Kelton leads us step-by-step towards a new understanding of how federal spending works."—Inside Higher Education

"Stephanie Kelton convincingly overturns the conventional wisdom that federal budget deficits are somehow bad for the nation. ...Kelton argues that our government's inability to provide for citizens isn't due to a lack for money; instead, our leaders lack political will."—Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times

"The Deficit Myth is simply the most important book I've 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. Kelton's 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

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List