I READ IT SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO

I Read It So You Don’t Have To: ‘The Deficit Myth’

We’ve been thinking about the government’s finances all wrong

Matthew McFarlane
Marker
Published in
6 min readJun 28, 2021

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Photo Illustration: Save As/Medium

I Read It So You Don’t Have To is a series that gives you the TL;DR on a business book you want to read — but don’t have time to.

What did I read?

The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy by Stephanie Kelton

So who’s this Stephanie Kelton?

Stephanie Kelton is a professor of economics and public policy at Stony Brook University. She is a former chief economist on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee (Democratic Staff), and is a leading expert on Modern monetary theory (MMT), a macroeconomic framework about federal government spending.

Give me the 30-second sell.

There’s a longstanding myth that’s holding back the U.S. economy, keeping millions unemployed, and paralyzing us in the face of once-in-a-generation challenges. Yet this myth is considered dogma by most economists and policy wonks, as well as practically every politician in Congress, on both the left and the right.

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Marker
Marker

Published in Marker

Marker was a publication from Medium about the intersection of business, economics, and culture. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Matthew McFarlane
Matthew McFarlane

Written by Matthew McFarlane

Reader, writer, content provider. Fan of hand-made guitars, racket-based sports, and houseplants. You can find me in St. Louie.

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