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L. Randall Wray's Congressional testimony, 11/20/2019 – highlights for MMTers

Oct 25, 2020

This contains highlights (from the point of view of an MMTer!) Congressional testimony of Professor of Economics, Bard College; and Senior Scholar, Levy Economics Institute, L. Randall Wray, at the November 20th, 2019 hearing called "Reexamining the Economic Costs of Debt." The hearing is partially in response to the March, 2019, Republican-led Senate Resolution 182: "A resolution recognizing the duty of the Senate to condemn Modern Monetary Theory and recognizing Modern Monetary Theory would lead to higher deficits and higher inflation."

Here is Professor Wray's written testimony (which includes a question from MN Representative Ilhan Omar, and a detailed answer) and related blog post.

Here is the video that this audio comes from. Here is the full audio of the hearing.

Specific highlights

  • 32:30 (37 minutes, 30 seconds) to 37:20: Opening statements
  • 52:30 to 55:10: Representative Smith. "taxpayer debt, not government debt"
  • 1:00:30 to 1:01:00: Representative Horsford: "Do you think the long term economic and fiscal consequences of neglect could be more damaging than 'debt'?"
  • 1:03:30 to 1:09:30: SC Representative Norman: "Taxpayer debt, government term misused by the left." "Dr. Wray, have you ever run a private business?", "GND is top of the list, above national defense?" Forcing all to put a pricetag on the GND
  • 1:15:30 to 1:19:10: China
  • 1:27:20 to 1:31:20: Representative Woodal: debt ratio, Representative Scott: Economist Jared Bernstein: "Government is like a household is very misleading because they can borrow at low rates."
  • 1:34:40 to 1:41:00: Representative Hern. MMT says we don't have a responsibility, MMT is a left Trojan horse for big spending and our kids and grandkids will have to pay for it.
  • 1:59:50 to 2:05:50: Entitlement reform and "crowding out."
  • 2:07:40 to 2:10:40: Representative Johnson. Green New Deal and Representative Schakowsky
  • 2:21:40 to 2:35:00: Arkansas Representative Steve Womack. (This segment is featured in episode 34 of Activist #MMT with Mark Collins. Here is the specific snippet.)
  • 2:45:50 to end: Kind of closing statements. Automation. Sectoral balances.