An MMTer on Carney's View of Austrian -MMT Similarities

MMTer Cullen Roche has also responded to John Carney's view on the similarities between Austrian economics and MMT.

I don't agree with most of Roche's MMT views, and I am not sure that he gets exactly what the differences are between Austrian economics and MMT, but he knows there are some. He writes:

But while there are certainly elements of Austrian economics that MMTers agree with there is one large hurdle….

I agree with John that there are more overlaps than most presume. But the largest hurdle is substantial. MMT is based on the state theory of money. We acknowledge that anything can be money. Gold can be money, pieces of paper can be money, credit cards can be money, a simple promise can be money. But what MMTers are very precise about is the fact that a sovereign nation with monopoly supply of currency in a floating exchange rate system names that which is money as defined in economic terms within that particular nation.

I don't think you will find Austrians disputing that the dollar is the medium of exchange in the United States, what they will dispute is that the medium of exchange must be defined and managed by the government of a country. This is simply not so, there is no theoretical reason why a country could not operate on a gold coin standard that was not in any way managed by government. THAT is a big difference between Austrians and MMTers.

Roche also writes:

We can quibble over the size of that government (I tend to prefer less government than most other MMTers), but we cannot ignore the reality that governments exist for very practical purposes and will likely always exist in some form (if for no other purpose than to provide a legal system and a coordinated military). Austrians tend to veer towards the misconception that governments are these exogenous entities that infringe on our personal liberties when the truth is that we create governments for some public purpose. We do not create governments to impose hardship on ourselves. That’s not to say that governments can’t become corrupt or excessive, but it’s rather naive to claim that a moderately sized government cannot provide some level of services that benefit the society as a whole.

Again, I reference Rothbard, who states quite clearly that when choices are left up to the government, there is no way to measure how they "benefit society" and that they are for the most part act as a negative on society.

As far as I can determine the views on issue after issue tend to be much different between the Austrian camp and the MMT camp. The MMTers have nothing, zero, to offer Austrians.