again: the issue with mmt is not inflation. the idea that printing currency leads to hyperinflation has been thoroughly debunked, and don pitts doesn't seem to know a "mainstream economist" from the friedmanite fringe - his opinion should be taken very lightly, on the matter.

the reason mmt is called mmt is because it reflects how monetary policy is done in real life, already - not over the last two years, but over the last thirty. the guy that really invented this was ronald fucking reagan.

the issue with mmt is that the idea that a country like canada has truly sovereign debt creation is somewhat naive, in the context of the existing neo-liberal order, as run by the imf and the world bank. the united states has total sovereignty here, and countries like russia and china have seized de facto sovereignty. but, countries like canada and the uk, while better off than greece was in the eurozone, are still subject to severe fiscal restraint by the international bodies, under threat of the dire consequence of "imf restructuring".

so, while mmt is economically sound, it is of questionable value in the real world. our policy leaders need to be looking a few cycles ahead, to a return of a stephen harper like figure that will willfully embrace the global bodies and do whatever they say.....if trudeau is even a substantive break from that, at all, in the first place.

further, we've been through this before. what happened in the 90s was not a result of local mismanagement. there was no economically coherent reason we had to balance the budget, we just had the imf down our necks threatening us with reforms and sanctions if we didn't comply. and, that's what this government needs to try to avoid.

what's scaring me is that an oligarch like chrystia freeland may reverse the logic, and essentially try to starve the beast as she sells the country off to her banker buddies in the financial industry.

this is the only valid observation in the article:

If Canada were the only one doing this, the loonie would likely lose value (the imf may threaten structural reforms or ratings downgrades), he said. But as countries around the world all do the same thing, so long as the Canadian central bank doesn't get ahead of the pack, there is little to worry about.

fair enough.

but, this is playing with fire.

and, my official position is that i think we should raise taxes to take a bite out of it while we still can.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/economics-modern-monetary-theory-spending-1.5704124