This post concerns ten recent Marxist claims about MMT and one about Kalecki (a forerunner, in certain respects, of MMT). Some Marxists claim that:
- MMT fixates on the monetary, ignoring the real.
- MMT ignores social structure in favor of tweaks of the monetary system.
- MMT is incompatible with Marx on money.
- MMT falsely claims that fiat money changes the role and nature of money.
- MMT ignores the value of money.
- MMT-informed policy would destroy the value of money.
- MMT-informed policy would be inflationary.
- MMT-informed government spending would crowd out private investment.
- MMT supports a preservation of capitalism and opposes socialism.
- Government spending fails to stimulate private investment and employment.
- Kalecki is confused on causation between profits and capitalist investment.
This is a stylized list of claims that have appeared in various posts and articles written by Marxists. Claims (6) to (8) have also been made by non-Marxists. The chief motive for Marxist criticism seems to be a perception that MMT, in itself, somehow favors capitalism over socialism (claim 9), and so threatens to misdirect political energies on the left. There may also be a perception that MMT is incompatible with Marx and so poses a theoretical challenge to Marxism. These are misperceptions, in my view, for reasons to be explained.
