Check out my latest at the Mises Wire. It’s about how the Modern Monetary Theory clowns use something like the Motte and Bailey fallacy to gain influence with politicians and feed them really bad ideas. The negative consequences of those ideas are well known to MMTers, but they can omit them and pretend they’re “unintended.”
Here’s a little bonus bit that I wrote about it:
My focus was how MMT’s use of odd definitions, convenient tautologies, and strategic vagueness leads to politicians thinking they be more aggressive parasites without negative consequences.
Court intellectuals remain so by justifying the actions of their state masters. MMT is just another place for would-be court intellectuals to do this. It’s as easy as omitting secondary consequences (“unintended” consequences) from their writing.
The modern capital structure is vast and complex but can quickly and easily be destroyed by an overzealous state. The USSR’s policies turned Ukraine from a breadbasket into a valley of death in just a few years, and it can happen again.
Good economists stand in the way of idiots demanding our seed corn. Bad economists cheer the thugs on. They omit vital caveats and let the state’s greed take its course.