What the Future Holds

Andy Snyder|January 7, 2021

We had an interview yesterday morning with one of the nation’s top news outlets.

We had no idea that later that day, the breaking news would be so dour.

The topic of our conversation was modern monetary theory (MMT) and the many consequences of it. The reporter had read one of our recent essays and had some questions.

She said the topic was controversial… and that an opinion either way was sure to anger some readers.

At first, we were perturbed. Journalism is about the facts. If something is dangerous, the people should know it’s dangerous.

But we bit our tongue and promised we’d behave.

We’re glad we did.

The conversation was robust. And although we stuttered as we tried to detail the benefits of free-for-all money printing, we managed to pull it together.

We have no idea what the reporter will publish. We’ll read the piece along with the rest of the world when it goes live tomorrow. But we did our part.

The people can decide.

But there’s one part of the conversation that we feel urged to reveal to you this morning… or, more succinctly, after yesterday.

It’s the idea of a half-cocked theory.

We almost dubbed it a half-assed theory… but then we remembered our promise to behave.

We, the People

We said that MMT looked good on paper. But then again, so do a lot of things. But in reality, economics is not a science. It’s an art. It’s more psychology than mathematics.

And with that, we came to the obvious conclusion that MMT would fail… not because of the idea, but because of the people.

All it takes is one of the legs of MMT to fail and the whole thing falls apart. Inflation, we told the interviewer, is the inevitable conclusion.

If just one part of the theory gets messed up with “human half-assery,” it’s doomed.

But… being fair to our promise, we continued.

The same is true of capitalism. It’s the best system we’ve got. It shines nearly as bright under the clouds of reality as it does on a piece of stark white paper.

But again, half-ass it and we’re in trouble. Things fall apart.

And so, we wake up this morning wondering what the future holds for our nation… her people… and her economy.

We don’t know.

Dare to Be Great

But we can’t help but recall our conversation yesterday… and the message we tried to pound home.

Lots of ideas are good. MMT makes sense to a lot of folks. Unfettered capitalism sounds great to a whole bunch more folks.

But humans are humans. We tend to screw things up.

We’re afraid that democracy is no different.

Human half-assery can mess it all up.

But it’s like we told our interviewer at the top of our call. The facts must speak for themselves. They must be displayed unvarnished and breathed in as free as the air around us.

When they are… we know what happens.

Humans may screw up a lot. But we do great things.

Smart, forward-thinking men and women created the greatest democracy this planet has ever seen. We’ve half-assed the system they created for decades… generations even.

We’ve messed with its money. We’ve trampled on its laws. And we’ve put a political filter on its facts.

The result is the headlines today.

We will survive.

And if we dare to learn the facts and do what’s right, we’ll be a better nation for it.

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