Lay person’s intro to Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)

In simplest terms for lay persons (can you improve this? Contact me)

Significantly improved Nov 2019

MMT is a Story of Restoration for government spending theory, of major benefit for the 99% of people, a story elite oligarchs do not want advertised nor promoted.

The confusion people have over grasping MMT is not about what it is; or, what it says. The main confusion concerns replacing old, dearly held beliefs about how money works, with a newer, more accurate set of facts to believe in.

Changing old beliefs takes effort and time.

One old belief is gold and precious metals are hard to get; once got, they must be conserved. This is true for government spending too if no sovereign currency exists.

Another old belief is an economy built on sovereign money — the dollar for example — operates the same way an economy built on gold operates. This is not true, was never true.

Yet because elite oligarchs wish the 99% to think this way, economics has continued to be taught this way. College economics has been taught to obscure everything learned in successful local currency experiments since the end of WW II.