Recommended new movie: Finding the money

Extracts from an article by Steven Hail (source)

“Between the U.S. economist and fund manager Warren Mosler, Post-Keynesian economists like Stephanie Kelton and L Randall Wray, and the Australian economist William Mitchell, a new economic school of thought has been born and is gaining traction. It is now known as modern monetary theory (MMT). For many years, its developers were largely ignored.

“MMT has been widely applied on Wall Street to guide large-scale financial decisions, including by Warren Mosler himself and also championed on Main Street by advocates that use social media.

“Whatever your opinion of MMT, this is quite a story. The tale is well told by U.S. filmmaker Maren Poitras in an award-winning documentary movie entitled Finding the Money, which has been touring film festivals in the United States since September. The movie will be shown in major Australian and European cities during 2024.

“Employing modern monetary theory would create more economic stability and less reliance on politicians to use the monetary system for public needs.

“Finding the Money follows Stephanie Kelton around, as she engages with often sceptical business economists, politicians, journalists and billionaire taxpayers. In between, leading MMT economists explain a variety of policy insights and missed opportunities, drawing on Mosler’s original description of how monetary systems work.

The evidence of how and why money was first developed more than 5,000 years ago by early governments is presented convincingly, and Poitras links the emergence and history of money to the nature of government and bank money in the 21st Century.

“Perhaps the most shocking sections of the film are those where the director invites leading establishment economists to explain different aspects of the mechanics of monetary systems. That two chairs of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers and one former member of the U.S. Accounting Hall of Fame are unable to do so, with one of them apparently at one point confusing borrowing and lending, is both confronting and captivating.”

Source: Independent Australia, 15 Nov 23
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/modern-monetary-theoryopens-range-of-economic-possibilities,18076