MMT or Chartalism

In Krugman's blogpost on the quasi-monetarists he links to Mike Konczal who mentions MMTers alongside Richard Koo, i.e. those who are skeptical of monetary policy. From Wikipedia:

"Austrian economist Robert P. Murphy states that "the MMT worldview doesn't live up to its promises" and that it seems to be "dead wrong".^[18] Daniel Kuehn of the Urban Institute has voiced his agreement with Murphy, stating "it's bad economics to confuse accounting identities with behavioral laws [...] economics is not accounting.""

"New Keynesian Brad DeLong has suggested MMT is not a theory but rather a tautology"

Proponents:
"Bill Mitchell, from the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the University of Newcastle, Australia, refers to modern Chartalism as Modern Monetary Theory in the body of work he has developed in the field."

"Cullen Roche, a California based investment manager, published one of the most widely read pieces on MMT titled "Understanding The Modern Monetary System." ^[28] Roche has become one of MMT's most vocal proponents and has engaged Paul Krugman in several debates on the subject of MMT."

"Hyman Minsky seems to favor a Chartalist approach to understanding money creation in his Stabilizing an Unstable Economy^[32], while Basil Moore, in his book Horizontalists and Verticalists^[33], delineates the differences between bank money and state money."

"James K. Galbraith supports Chartalism and wrote the foreword for Mosler's book Seven Frauds in 2010."

The DeLong quote is linked to blogpost titled "Is "Modern Monetary Theory" Modern or Monetary or a Theory?" which is a reaction to a blog post by Steve Randy Waldmann.

I really enjoyed these comments by Waldmann:

In general, the MMT community would be well served by adopting a more civil and patient tone when communicating its ideas. I’ve had several conversations with people who have proved quite open to the substance, but who cringe at the name MMT, having been attacked and ridiculed by MMT proponents after making some ordinary and conventional point. Much of what is great about MMT is that it persuasively challenges a lot of ordinary and conventional views. But people who cling to those views, even famous economists who perhaps “ought to” know better, are mostly smart people who simply have not yet been persuaded. Neither ridicule nor patronizing lectures are likely to help.

My complaint is a bit unfair. The MMT community has been sinned against far more than it has sinned, especially within the economics profession. Whether you ultimately agree with them or not, the MMT-ers have developed a compelling perspective and have done a lot of quality work that has pretty much been ignored by the high-prestige mainstream. But a sense of grievance may be legitimate and still be counterproductive.

The internet is a fractious place. Many MMT-ers are civil and patient, and devote enormous energy to carefully and respectfully explaining their views. There’s no way to police other peoples’ manners. Still, even by the standards of the blogosphere, MMT-ers have a reputation as an unusually prickly bunch. That might not be helpful in terms of gaining broader acceptance of the ideas.

Sometimes I tend to get abusive on the Internet in response to perceived abuse.

Krugman on MMT