Thread by @StephanieKelton

Thread

The evolution (turnaround) in fiscal thinking from left economists has been remarkable. What explains it? Is it Blanchard 2019?

Jan 2017: Deficits Matter Again nytimes.com/2017/01/09/opi…
Krugman

Nov 2017: Just prior to full passage of the GOP tax cuts
“Our country will be living on a shoestring for decades because of the increases in the deficit”
newsmax.com/politics/treas…
Summers

December 2017: GOP tax cuts become law, adding (what turns out to be) ~$1.9 trillion to deficits

April 2018: A Debt Crisis is Coming washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-deb…
Furman, et al.

January 2019 “debt may not have a substantial fiscal cost”🔥
aeaweb.org/aea/2019confer…
Blanchard

March/April 2019: “Congress should pay for new measures with either spending cuts or extra revenues, except during recessions”
foreignaffairs.com/articles/2019-…
Furman/Summers

February 2019: “Investment [including “much of what seems to be in the Green New Deal”] can and should be debt-financed”
nytimes.com/2019/02/19/opi…
Krugman

March 2019: “Policymakers going forward will need to engage in some combination of greater tolerance of budget deficits...”
brookings.edu/wp-content/upl…
Summers

Quite the

Someone asked me for the MMT timeline.

There is no debt or deficit crisis. Same narrative applies over recent decades.