The Deficit Myth

with Stephanie Kelton

Hosted by Sean Wilson Podcast Politics Non-Fict

Admission

Free

Friday

Mar , 2021

12:01pm

Eastern

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Stephanie Kelton

Stephanie Kelton convincingly overturns the conventional wisdom that federal budget deficits are somehow bad for the nation. ...Kelton argues that our government's inability to provide for citizens isn't due to a lack for money; instead, our leaders lack political will.

The New York Times

Our Artistic Director, Sean Wilson, hosts a conversation with Stephanie Kelton, the leading thinker and most visible public advocate of modern monetary theory. Her book, The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy, is a bold, new understanding for how to build a just and prosperous society.

Stephanie Kelton's exploration of modern monetary theory (MMT) dramatically changes our understanding of how we can best deal with crucial issues ranging from poverty and inequality to creating jobs, expanding health care coverage, climate change, and building resilient infrastructure. Any ambitious proposal, however, inevitably runs into the buzz saw of how to find the money to pay for it, rooted in myths about deficits that are hobbling us as a country.

MMT, as Kelton shows, shifts the terrain from narrow budgetary questions to one of broader economic and social benefits. With its important new ways of understanding money, taxes, and the critical role of deficit spending, MMT redefines how to responsibly use our resources so that we can maximize our potential as a society. MMT gives us the power to imagine a new politics and a new economy and move from a narrative of scarcity to one of opportunity.

Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.

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The Authors

Stephanie Kelton

Stephanie Kelton is a professor of economics and public policy at Stony Brook University and a Senior Fellow at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research. She is a leading expert on Modern Monetary Theory and a former Chief Economist on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee (Democratic staff). She was named by POLITICO (2016) as one of the 50 people most influencing the policy debate in America, as one of the 50 people who defined 2019 by Bloomberg Businessweek, as one of Barron’s top 100 Women in Finance (2020), and by Prospect Magazine (2020) as one of the World’s Top 50 Thinkers. Professor Kelton advises policymakers and consults with investment banks, and portfolio managers across the globe. She is a regular commentator on national radio and broadcast television. Her most recent book (June 2020), The Deficit Myth, became an instant New York Times bestseller.