If you can just print money, why pay taxes?

A radical economic proposal has been gaining traction among politicians, activists, and academics. It argues that governments can strategically use money creation to end unemployment, fight climate change, repay debt, and more—without the limits imposed by traditional budgets. This proposal is known as Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT.

Notably, Zack Polanski recently dismissed the pressure exerted by interest payments on national debt. He said, “We don’t need to spend that money. So, that money has been created as an idea.” These comments appear to be directly inspired by MMT, which Polanski has been learning about.

In his new book, If you can just print money, why do I pay taxes?, Emmanuel Maggiori distills and debunks MMT step by step. The book shows that, while MMT is thought-provoking and worth a read, it is ultimately unsatisfactory—it suffers from numerous flaws, and it fails to formulate credible policies to increase prosperity.

In this talk, the author will discuss the tenets of MMT. We’ll try to answer questions such as “Is MMT the same as quantitative easing?”, “Is MMT the key to prosperity?”, and “Is MMT a recipe for disaster?”

About the speaker

Emmanuel Maggiori, PhD, writes books that distill and deconstruct trendy, hyped-up topics in business, technology, and economics. When he’s not writing or doing research for his books, he’s helping technology companies build challenging software products.

Mani Basharzad is an economic journalist and will be a panellist in this event.

The panel and event will be moderated and chaired by Dr. Bryan Cheang, Director of Hayek Program and Research Fellow, LSE.

Find out more from the LSE Events page. 

Read Emmanuel Maggiori's blog post for LSE Review of Books.