MMT: REPORT FROM THE FRONT

As many readers know, the third annual MMT conference was recently held at Stonybrook, and you can find the program as well as videos of the conference at the link: ( https://www.mmtconference.org/ ).

正如许多读者所知，第三届MMT年度会议最近在Stonybrook举行，您可以在链接中找到会议议程和视频：（https://www.mmtconference.org/）。

In addition , real-world economics review has just issued a new volume devoted to MMT ( http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue89/whole89.pdf ).

此外，《现实世界经济学评论》刚刚出版了专门讨论 MMT 的新卷（http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue89/whole89.pdf）。

I’ll briefly address both, in two parts.

我将分两部分简要讨论这两个问题。

I’ll talk about the conference in this one, and about the RWER papers in the second part.

我将在第一部分中讨论会议，并在第二部分中讨论 RWER 论文。

Unfortunately, I missed the first day of the conference as I was the plenary speaker at the annual ABFM (Association for Budget and Financial Management) conference in Washington DC.

不幸的是，我错过了会议的第一天，因为我是华盛顿特区年度 ABFM（预算和财务管理协会）会议的全体发言人。

This invitation resulted from a chance meeting with a member of the group when I was teaching on a Fulbright to Estonia.

这个邀请是我在去爱沙尼亚教授富布赖特项目时与该小组的一名成员的一次偶然会面的结果。

At first he was shocked at the views I was propagating, but quickly became a convert, converted another member, and that led to the invitation.

起初他对我所宣扬的观点感到震惊，但很快就皈依了，又皈依了另一位成员，这才导致了邀请。

This group mostly researches state and local government finance—obviously those are currency users and need to balance budgets—but they tend to apply what they know to the federal budget.

该小组主要研究州和地方政府的财政——显然这些是货币使用者，需要平衡预算——但他们倾向于将他们所知道的应用于联邦预算。

MMT of course explodes that because the finances of the sovereign currency issuer are nothing like those of the non-sovereign government entities.

现代货币理论当然会驳斥这一点，因为主权货币发行人的财务状况与非主权政府实体的财务状况完全不同。

However, many of the attendees were open to MMT—or, at least, now they want to know more.

然而，许多与会者对 MMT 持开放态度，或者至少现在他们想了解更多。

It was a pleasant experience—and I learned more about a whole sector of the academy that I didn’t know much about.

这是一次愉快的经历，而且我对学院中我不太了解的整个部门有了更多的了解。

Many of those attending are in Masters of Public Administration schools.

许多参加者都是公共管理硕士学校的学生。

My own Professor Minsky’s first graduate degree was an MPA.

我自己的明斯基教授的第一个研究生学位是 MPA。

I actually wrote a paper on the topic of the problems of state and local government finance, up here at Levy ( http://www.levyinstitute.org/publications/fiscal-reform-to-benefit-state-and-local-governments-the-modern-money-theory-approach ).

实际上，我在 Levy 上写了一篇关于州和地方政府财政问题的论文（http://www.levyinstitute.org/publications/fiscal-reform-to-benefit-state-and-local-governments-the-modern-money-theory-approach）。

And I missed most of the second day doing a nearly 4 hour interview.

我错过了第二天的大部分时间，进行了近 4 个小时的采访。

I’m pretty sure I’ve never talked for 4 hours in my life.

我很确定我这辈子从来没有聊过四个小时。

Fortunately, I finished in time to attend the evening’s special panel featuring Ndongo Samba Sylla on “Money, Imperialism, and Development”, with our own Fadhel Kaboub as the discussant.

幸运的是，我及时结束并参加了当晚由恩东戈·桑巴·西拉 (Ndongo Samba Sylla) 主持的特别小组讨论“货币、帝国主义和发展”，我们自己的法德尔·卡布布 (Fadhel Kaboub) 担任讨论者。

This one-two punch is the best panel on MMT I have ever seen.

这个一打二拳是我见过的关于 MMT 的最好的面板。

Whether you love MMT or hate it, you must see the video either on the conference website or here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=507&v=lSCpJ3dSJ24 .

无论您喜欢还是讨厌 MMT，您都必须在会议网站或此处观看该视频：https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=507&v=lSCpJ3dSJ24。

This shows that people like Jerry Epstein who criticize MMT because it supposedly applies only to the USA, and for supposedly neglecting poor developing countries are all—to put it in the most charitable light possible—ignorant or dishonest.

这表明，像杰里·爱泼斯坦这样批评现代货币理论的人，因为它被认为只适用于美国，并且被认为忽视了贫穷的发展中国家，从最仁慈的角度来说，他们都是无知或不诚实的。

Let me repeat that.

让我重复一遍。

Ignorant.

无知。

Dishonest.

不诚实。

He labels MMT an “America First” fascist approach.

他将 MMT 称为“美国优先”的法西斯主义方法。

He’s ignorant or dishonest.

他无知或不诚实。

Watch the video again.

再次观看视频。

Tweet it at him.

发推文给他。

Do it again.

再做一次。

And again.

又来了。

Send it to Doug Henwood while you are at it.

当你在做的时候把它发送给 Doug Henwood。

Repeat every time you see one of their accusations.

每次看到他们的一项指控时就重复一遍。

Ignorant or dishonest.

无知或不诚实。

My own presentation came at the end of the conference.

我自己的演讲是在会议结束时进行的。

Since I had to catch a train, and to give more time to Q&A, Stephanie and I agreed to forgo formal presentations.

由于我必须赶火车，并且要留出更多时间进行问答，斯蒂芬妮和我同意放弃正式演示。

I had jotted mine down as notes.

我把我的内容记下来作为笔记。

I mentioned that I had come up with a half dozen fronts on which we had battled for MMT over the past quarter century.

我提到我已经提出了在过去四分之一个世纪里我们为现代货币理论而奋斗的六条战线。

Some have written to me asking for the full accounting (as I only mentioned a couple of fronts in my responses to questions).

有些人写信给我，要求提供完整的会计信息（因为我在回答问题时只提到了几个方面）。

So here we go: fighting for MMT on the frontlines.

所以我们开始吧：在前线为现代货币理论而战。

Everyone knows by now how MMT began—it grew out of an early 1990s PKT online discussion group.

现在每个人都知道 MMT 是如何开始的——它源自 20 世纪 90 年代初的 PKT 在线讨论组。

That is where Bill, Warren, Mat (Forstater) and I met.

那是我和比尔、沃伦、马特（福斯特）相遇的地方。

We took our discussion offline because most of the other participants could not understand what we were talking about or were hostile to it.

我们将讨论线下进行，因为大多数其他参与者无法理解我们在说什么或对此抱有敌意。

Mat and I tried to set up a center at the University of Denver, but the Dean nixed it.

马特和我试图在丹佛大学建立一个中心，但院长拒绝了。

We started CFEPS at Levy but moved it to UMKC in 1999 because it had a pre-existing pluralistic and interdisciplinary PHD program—and because we wanted graduate students, for reasons I’ll discuss in a minute.

我们在 Levy 创办了 CFEPS，但于 1999 年将其搬到了 UMKC，因为它有一个预先存在的多元化和跨学科的 PHD 项目，而且因为我们想要研究生，原因我稍后会讨论。

Pavlina had been Mat’s student, and then helped Warren to put together the first “manifesto” (if you want to call it that) on MMT—called “soft currency economics” at the time.

帕夫利娜曾是马特的学生，然后帮助沃伦起草了第一份关于现代货币理论的“宣言”（如果你想这么称呼的话）——当时被称为“软货币经济学”。

Pavlina also helped Warren to organize the very first MMT conference at Bretton Woods in 1996.

帕夫丽娜还帮助沃伦于 1996 年在布雷顿森林组织了第一届 MMT 会议。

I attended, as did Charles Goodhart (UK, Bank of England) and Basil Moore (Post Keynesian “horizontalist” endogenous money).

我参加了会议，查尔斯·古德哈特（Charles Goodhart，英国，英格兰银行）和巴兹尔·摩尔（Basil Moore，后凯恩斯主义“水平主义”内生货币）也参加了会议。

Warren also helped to finance time off from teaching for me to write the first academic book on MMT—titled Understanding Modern Money , 1998.

沃伦还资助我从教学中抽出时间来写第一本关于 MMT 的学术书籍，名为《理解现代货币》，1998 年。

The title came from Keynes, and according to tradition, the term MMT itself came a comment on BillyBlog.

这个标题来自凯恩斯，按照传统，MMT 一词本身来自于 BillyBlog 上的评论。

Bill had created Coffee at about the same time that we created CFEPS; he then later created his blog and Stephanie followed with the NEP blog.

比尔大约在我们创建 CFEPS 的同时创建了 Coffee；后来他创建了自己的博客，斯蒂芬妮也创建了新经济政策博客。

In 2007 Bill and I began to write the MMT textbook, which was finally published in 2019—Martin joined us a couple of years ago and without his help the publication likely would have been sometime around 2029.

2007 年，比尔和我开始编写 MMT 教科书，最终于 2019 年出版——马丁几年前加入了我们，如果没有他的帮助，出版可能会在 2029 年左右。

If you are not in academia you may not know how bizarre this behavior is.

如果你不在学术界，你可能不知道这种行为有多么奇怪。

It is entirely unprecedented.

这完全是前所未有的。

The idea in academics is that you discuss and have open debate.

学术界的想法是讨论并进行公开辩论。

Critics are supposed to let you comment on drafts.

批评家应该让你对草稿发表评论。

They are supposed to do actual research—that is, read what you write, provide citations to your writing, and engage in due diligence to ensure they’ve got it correct.

他们应该进行实际的研究——也就是说，阅读你所写的内容，为你的文章提供引用，并进行尽职调查以确保他们的研究是正确的。

Our critics virtually never follow normal procedure, and the journals did not require it (more in Part 2 on this).

我们的批评家实际上从不遵循正常程序，期刊也没有要求（更多内容请参见第 2 部分）。

It is always “gotcha” with secret, often commissioned, attacks that are never revealed until published and with critiques that have little to do with what we actually write.

秘密的、通常是委托的、直到发表才被揭露的攻击以及与我们实际所写内容无关的批评总是“陷阱”。

The rules of engagement have always been ignored when it comes to criticizing MMT.

在批评现代货币理论时，交战规则总是被忽视。

It continues up to the present day.

这种情况一直持续到今天。

This sort of thing goes on in places like Nazi Germany where the state controls thought.

这种事情在纳粹德国等国家控制思想的地方时有发生。

But remember, these were heterodox economists with no influence, operating on the obscure margins of the discipline and publishing in journals that have no influence in policy circles.

但请记住，这些都是没有影响力的非正统经济学家，他们在学科的模糊边缘运作，并在政策圈没有影响力的期刊上发表文章。

It’s like cheating to win the cow pie flinging contest at your local county fair.

这就像在当地县集市上作弊赢得扔牛馅饼比赛一样。

Why bother?

何苦呢？

I really do not know.

我真的不知道。

Bill has called it ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder.

比尔称之为ADD，即注意力缺陷障碍。

As heterodox economists, they were sidelined and were not receiving enough attention, so they saw their attacks as the way to get it.

作为非正统经济学家，他们被边缘化，没有受到足够的关注，因此他们将攻击视为获得关注的方式。

Professional jealousy?

职业嫉妒？

No doubt.

无疑。

Hostile editors of heterodox journals?

非正统期刊的敌对编辑？

Absolutely.

绝对地。

Whatever the motive, it is truly hilarious to see all of them crawling out of the woodwork now that MMT is on the front pages to either accuse us of fascism, or to suddenly embrace MMT after 25 years of all-out war on it.

无论动机如何，看到现代货币理论登上头版后，看到他们所有人都突然冒出来，要么指责我们法西斯主义，要么在与现代货币理论进行了 25 年的全面战争后突然拥抱现代货币理论，这真的很搞笑。

Look at me, look at me, look at me now!

看看我，看看我，现在看看我！

Mugging for the cameras with the kind of grin you’d see on the face of the winning cow pie flinger at the local fair.

在镜头前做鬼脸，脸上带着你在当地集市上获胜的牛馅饼投掷者脸上看到的那种笑容。

The way forward.

前进的道路。

The global challenges we face will push MMT forward.

我们面临的全球挑战将推动现代货币理论向前发展。

While climate change is the most obvious challenge, it is linked to rising inequality, marginalization of displaced workers, ruthless austerity policy, growing waves of refugees, and the take-over of national governments by neoliberals and even fascists.

虽然气候变化是最明显的挑战，但它与日益加剧的不平等、失业工人的边缘化、无情的紧缩政策、不断增加的难民潮以及新自由主义者甚至法西斯主义者接管国家政府有关。

Our “progressive” friends will push for market-friendly solutions: taxes on financial transactions, taxes on pollution, taxes on rich folks to pay for goodies.

我们的“进步”朋友将推动有利于市场的解决方案：对金融交易征税、对污染征税、对富人征税以支付商品。

None of those helps.

这些都没有帮助。

We have to return to the WWII mobilization to see how to tackle the current challenges—so MMT will eventually win out.

我们必须回到二战时期的动员，看看如何应对当前的挑战，这样现代货币理论才能最终获胜。

It is all about resource mobilization, not finance.

这完全是为了资源调动，而不是融资。

And we must include all the necessary social programs in the Green New Deal: jobs for all, healthcare for all, food for all, shelter for all, education for all, decent retirement for all.

我们必须将所有必要的社会计划纳入绿色新政：为所有人提供就业机会、为所有人提供医疗保健、为所有人提供食物、为所有人提供住房、为所有人提供教育、为所有人提供体面的退休生活。

Bernie, AOC, and Naomi Klein recognize the scope of the challenges.

伯尼、​​AOC 和内奥米·克莱因认识到挑战的范围。

The climate crisis cannot be resolved without taking on the social crisis—the financialization of the economy, the financialization of housing, food, healthcare, education, the electoral process; the entire society.

如果不解决社会危机，气候危机就无法解决——经济的金融化，住房、食品、医疗保健、教育、选举过程的金融化；整个社会。

We probably are not the first intelligent life form to go through this.

我们可能不是第一个经历这种情况的智慧生命形式。

Any advanced alien species on other planets that survived 10,000 years of civilization have already successfully navigated a crisis similar to the one we face.

其他星球上任何在一万年文明中幸存下来的先进外星物种都已经成功地度过了一场与我们面临的危机类似的危机。

They discovered fossil fuels and smoked their planet.

他们发现了化石燃料并熏染了他们的星球。

Their financial sector took over the economy and produced intolerable inequality.

他们的金融部门接管了经济并造成了难以容忍的不平等。

But they greened the economy, overthrew their Wall Street, and took back their societies and economies and put them to work for the benefit of their species.

但他们绿色经济，推翻了华尔街，夺回了他们的社会和经济，让他们为自己物种的利益而工作。

Otherwise, they would not have survived.

否则的话，他们就不可能活下来。

We can take comfort and inspiration from that.

我们可以从中得到安慰和启发。

We might just survive, too.

我们也可能只是生存。