I don't know about "cult" but everything I've read by MMT advocates assumes either that governments serve the public interest or that, if they don't they *should* serve the public interest. Yeah? Well, I agree they "should" but what is going to make them? That's what I find distressing. A political disconnect. Marx at least posited a revolutionary subject, the proletariat. The big question for me is not would MMT work but who is going to implement it?

I continue to operate on the premise that the State is inherently hostile or at best is passive and will only reluctantly pursue a progressive program, however it may be couched technically, if compelled to by a mobilized civil society.

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 2:05 PM, <ideasinc@ee.net> wrote:
 From Stephanie Kelton at the UMKC economics department


Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:15:13 -0400

Have these folks look at our Twitter following.  Journalists, progressive
groups, reporters (Reuters and such, not crackpots), MPs (two of them,
actually, one a Labor MP from Wales and one from Netherlands (socialist
party).  Randy and I are now recognized as "contributors" at Truthdig.
Anything we write for them (as our New New Deal piece of 2 weeks ago) will
be picked up by scores of other progressive sites (Counterpunch ran our
latest after it appeared in Truthdig), as well as less progressive places
like Global Economic Intersection (which also ran it).  Roughly half of
MMT blogs are run by traders -- not economists (Pragmatic Capitalism,
Center of the Universe, Naked Capitalism, CreditWritedowns (and Ed Harris
was an Austrian before he discovered, and then wrestled with, MMT).  We
are becoming the mainstream in economics, and history will not be kind to
the holdouts.  We have been right about every major economic event (both
forecasting it and then explaining why the policy response would fail to
bring about the desired results).  Krugman didn't say that QE wouldn't
work.  We did.  Dean Baker is moving toward OUR position.  His latest
piece on SocSec is a clear indication.  In it, he says that there is no
reason that SocSec can't be funded out of general revenue FOREVER.  That
IS MMT.  Affordability is not the issue.  Why do you think he said that?
We know Dean.  We like him as a person.  But he is NOT a macro economist,
and he does not understand the monetary system/government finance.  Same
goes for Krugman.  Not a macro person.  Ellen Brown has gotten much
better.  Why?  Because behind the scenes, she is sending e-mails like
crazy, seeking input from Randy, Marshall and other MMTers!!!  It's nuts.
They love these guys, and they are getting their material from us.

snip

Stephanie

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Sandwichman