In my understanding of MMT, issuing of domestic Treasury bonds to cover gov deficit must be abolished. Not only would that eliminate corresponding interest payments (to those who already have money) but also might utilize some resources for better purposes than issuing/trading unnecessary bonds.
Interest on the national debt will hit $1 trillion this year. How does MMT address this?
The best solution is to direct the Treasury to issue sovereign currency -- digital Greenbacks -- as new base money to replace the $32 trillion in bank money that we've borrowed.
Stephanie Kelton has just posted a critique of the same New York Times editorial I was discussing, as well as a similar piece of Debt Panic writing in the Atlantic magazine. See: https://stephaniekelton.substack.com/p/it-turns-out-that-no-one-wants-to
In my understanding of MMT, issuing of domestic Treasury bonds to cover gov deficit must be abolished. Not only would that eliminate corresponding interest payments (to those who already have money) but also might utilize some resources for better purposes than issuing/trading unnecessary bonds.
FWIW, the Washington Post editorial board has a very similar take on the national “debt.”
I'll have a multi-part treatment of this Washington Post series appearing starting Monday, July 17.
Looking forward to it.
Yes, thanks for noting that. I've been meaning to do a deep dive on the Post's series that began here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/09/us-debt-biden-budget-failure/. However, I need to keep enough mental space clear to handle other issues of political economy -- so I'm not promising to get to that series anytime soon.
Interest on the national debt will hit $1 trillion this year. How does MMT address this?
The best solution is to direct the Treasury to issue sovereign currency -- digital Greenbacks -- as new base money to replace the $32 trillion in bank money that we've borrowed.