MrOllie, Avatar317, BBB23, and Knitsey vs MMT aka Modern Monetary Theory
Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2024 7:11 pm
MrOllie, Avatar317, BBB23, and Knitsey seem to have an issue with modern monetary theory, an economic school supported (in public) almost primarily by leftists to argue for stuff like universal health care. They are also trying, so far successfully, to WP:OWN the page and make the lede sound negative. While not a perfect economic school, it's also arguably the only left-friendly economic school which has any conscious, broad and stated public support in 2024 outside academic circles no one cares about. The school alone has moved the entire economic discussion on federal government debt in America to the left and one of their primary economists, Stephanie Kelton, was (is?) a primary economic advisor to Senate Democrats. What is surprising however is that the lede of the Wikipedia article reads negative about the school in a way that is bizarre even after summarizing sources, and has for years.
So, a few people tried to source the article properly to remove misleading and inaccurate statements, but were met with resistance from aforementioned patrollers. This is also not a new phenomenon.
Anyone familiar with those behind the scenes of this Ayn Rand-lovers founded wiki know it is not left-wing wiki, it is at most a 2009 liberal wiki, with some juvenile antifa ppl thrown in. There's tons of left-wing editors but it doesn't manifest much outside liberalism due to the more prominent editors and admins. There's a left-wingish admin i won't name who was afraid to jump in to that page for fear of being outnumbered.
The first part of the MMT page some page patrollers didn't like was mentioning Stephanie Kelton's history in the Senate. As an aside, Kelton's influence in the Senate is arguably the only meaningful Congressional result of the Sanders' campaigns of 2016 and 2020. Although Sanders did have influence beyond that in state laws about minimum wage.
The second, more important, thing they have an issue with MMT about, seemingly including BBB23, is something about taxes, which is not clear, but they want the wording to be as negative as humanely possible.
Original MMT economists usually advocate broad tax cuts, and the founder advocates for a complete abolition of income taxes. A few more tax-friendly MMT economists like Randall Wray allegedly advocate tax increases during inflation, but not to everyone. Anyway, Knitsey, MrOllie , Avatar317, and BBB23 insists the page state that MMT supports "increasing taxes on everyone" (which is false) , and that a WSJ source says Wray advocates an "everyone-tax" during inflation, which the source they keep inserting does not say. It's also worth noting that MMT ecnomists disagree on things, which the patrollers refuse to contemplate. An example beyond taxes being Wray was against broad portions of the stimulus that Kelton liked.
The lede of [[MMT]] after the first sentence has been carefully constructed to tell a bizarre story about MMT. I'm well aware of nuance.
The lede is constructed to make the reader assume MMT advocates issuing treasury securities, and printing money to avoid default on that interest. First, every MMT economist does not think it is possible for the USA to default. Second. the originator of the theory is categorically against treasury securities and only argues a limited amount be issued for political purposes. The rest of the sentences are constructed to imply inflation would result from paying interest on treasury securities, among other things, and that MMT would subsequently raise taxes on everyone to compensate. In other words, they are trying their hardest to make it seem that debt dovishness is always a lose-lose through misrepresentation and misquoting.
So, a few people tried to source the article properly to remove misleading and inaccurate statements, but were met with resistance from aforementioned patrollers. This is also not a new phenomenon.
Anyone familiar with those behind the scenes of this Ayn Rand-lovers founded wiki know it is not left-wing wiki, it is at most a 2009 liberal wiki, with some juvenile antifa ppl thrown in. There's tons of left-wing editors but it doesn't manifest much outside liberalism due to the more prominent editors and admins. There's a left-wingish admin i won't name who was afraid to jump in to that page for fear of being outnumbered.
The first part of the MMT page some page patrollers didn't like was mentioning Stephanie Kelton's history in the Senate. As an aside, Kelton's influence in the Senate is arguably the only meaningful Congressional result of the Sanders' campaigns of 2016 and 2020. Although Sanders did have influence beyond that in state laws about minimum wage.
The second, more important, thing they have an issue with MMT about, seemingly including BBB23, is something about taxes, which is not clear, but they want the wording to be as negative as humanely possible.
Original MMT economists usually advocate broad tax cuts, and the founder advocates for a complete abolition of income taxes. A few more tax-friendly MMT economists like Randall Wray allegedly advocate tax increases during inflation, but not to everyone. Anyway, Knitsey, MrOllie , Avatar317, and BBB23 insists the page state that MMT supports "increasing taxes on everyone" (which is false) , and that a WSJ source says Wray advocates an "everyone-tax" during inflation, which the source they keep inserting does not say. It's also worth noting that MMT ecnomists disagree on things, which the patrollers refuse to contemplate. An example beyond taxes being Wray was against broad portions of the stimulus that Kelton liked.
The lede of [[MMT]] after the first sentence has been carefully constructed to tell a bizarre story about MMT. I'm well aware of nuance.
The lede is constructed to make the reader assume MMT advocates issuing treasury securities, and printing money to avoid default on that interest. First, every MMT economist does not think it is possible for the USA to default. Second. the originator of the theory is categorically against treasury securities and only argues a limited amount be issued for political purposes. The rest of the sentences are constructed to imply inflation would result from paying interest on treasury securities, among other things, and that MMT would subsequently raise taxes on everyone to compensate. In other words, they are trying their hardest to make it seem that debt dovishness is always a lose-lose through misrepresentation and misquoting.
