Making Money Work for Us: How MMT Can Save America

Is money precious and scarce, necessitating iron fiscal discipline? Must the government always balance the books or risk ruin? Or is money, in fact, a flexible tool that can be used to mobilize our collective resources to serve those who need them?

In this book, leading Modern Money Theory (MMT) advocate Randy Wray explains that the only real constraints on public policy are physical resources, technological capacity and political will: but never money. He shows how modern sovereign governments spend by keystroking money to bank accounts. While taxes serve other important purposes, they do not – contrary to popular belief – fund spending. If we recognize this, and totally reframe how we think about money and debt, we can marshal our national wealth to make us all richer, eliminate unemployment and “look after our own.” We can make money work for us – the US.

This book's account shows how MMT can become a new American political and economic orthodoxy, replacing the dominant conservative framework forever. It is essential reading for all progressives.

L. Randall Wray is an expert on MMT, Professor of Economics at Bard College and Senior Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute.