MMT-rump

Hi Stuart!  Very timely question, as I was just reading an article on the subject.  My take on the article is that, 

1. Yes, MMT is being validated as a description of how the modern monetary system works.
2. Trump is hoping to take advantage of this to unleash the power of the federal government in a New Deal manner.  

Excerpt from the linked article:

we also had Mr. Trump tweeting:

 

“With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do our decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill. It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country! Phase 4”

 

What fiscal deficits! $5.8 trillion is being bandied around in the way $580bn was two years ago. And yet, as Trump implies, what fiscal deficits? Rates are zero and are unlikely to be anything other than zero for a looooong time. The Fed will see to that. There is enormous domestic demand for some decent US infrastructure. And there is enormous global USD demand. In short, this is potentially about as clear an argument as one is going to see put forward by a politician for MMT – or here MMT-rump. As another aside, I had many conversations with colleagues when Trump was first elected, and the conclusion was always that if there was ever a US president prepared to use a crisis to go MMT, it was T: nobody even once went ‘Mmm’ about that prospect. Would you want to be a Democratic candidate running against spending $2 trillion on infrastructure in a weak economy? Good luck with that! 

In the same way that "only Nixon could go to China", it appears that only a Republican such as Trump can unleash the constructive power of the federal government in our current political climate.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.