I'm hoping that MMT proponents can make persuasive arguments, with numbers, that it's not deficit spending. Haven't seen any so far
Deficit spending is the only way to increase the net money supply that doesn't require the people to take on private bank debt. It only represented about 8-12% of GDP preCovid, which shows how our Congress is dedicated to market solutions to our economic well-being.
The market in general failed us during the years we were dealing with the pandemic, so currency creation was needed to "replace" what the market couldn't provide in money with sufficient velocity to hold supply chains together. The usual meager safety nets weren't up to the task, especially with a narrowly divided legislature that sees "any" public money creation as evil in deference to their banking and Wall St masters.
One only has to look to the numbers that tell us the market not only survived Covid but thrived at record-breaking levels. Shareholder equity gained considerably and stock buybacks were off the rails. Neither of those would give any indication that corporations were in dire straights and needed to raise prices as much as they did simply because they could in this unregulated environment where profits are the constant, regardless of sales volume, leaving only wages and prices as variables.
They found that wages had to rise if workers were going to place their very lives on the line so that only left prices as a controllable variable. The openly obvious way they did it was nothing but a "screw you" signal to workers for their audacity to demand a livable wage for their work and their newly discovered penchant for unions that had been mostly lost for decades.
There was no reason for inflation to rise above the 2-3% target set by the Fed except for the pure greed and entitlement of the ruling class. The current interest hike, and the others yet to come this year, are blackmail payments to entice the oligarch masters of the universe to accept their new higher bond yields instead of more price hikes.
The Fed knows that Congress is feckless and isn't about to piss off their donors by actually regulating commerce or allowing the working class a break from failed markets via money creation that reaches them as they are mandated to do in our Constitution. The shills for the oligarchy, like Larry Summers, are out in force telling voters that 10% unemployment is preferable to inflation, but is "agreeing to" 5% over a longer time.
That is not going to be an easy sell after Covid demonstrated that government can be a force for good in the economy and isn't the enemy the Reich wing claims it to be. Conservatives are already shouting their BS about government spending being the cause of inflation and calling for cuts to entitlements and safety nets, but I don't think many are buying it when the "true" entitled class is living large and in their faces. If I'm wrong, then we may prove to be too stupid for self governance.
