Stop Poor Mouthing

YOU'RE NOT TAPPED OUT!

What’s up kinfolk? I’ve finally did it. Finally got around to writing our uncle about his incessant complaining. Not about his health. Not about his kids. Not about his boss. Not about none of that. I wrote unc about his ceaseless whining about his money being funny. About him being short of cash. About him being busted. About him always crying “I ain’t got it.” About that damn annoying question of his: “You think money grows on trees?” His whining is wearisome. And I, for one, am sick of his po' mouthing.

By the way, kinfolk, I should let you know I’ve already hit the key and that this letter about his constant money laments is in his box. In fact, I’ve sent uncle several letters. And I want to share them with my peeps. All of them. Let me give it to you straight, no chaser: I ain’t buying Uncle’s claim that he’s damn near busted. That his pockets are full of lint. My hope is that you won’t buy it. Or if you have been buying it that you’ll at least press pause on the purchase. Trust me, much is at stake. Anyway, here’s my first letter to our uncle.

To: Uncle Sam

From: Doc Greene

Subject: Stop Po Mouthing

What’s up Unc?

I don’t have a lot of time so let me get straight to the point: Why are you out here playing the pauper? Whining about being busted. That you can’t pay no more bills. That you got more money than month. That you’re so poor you can’t even pay attention. That you’re going to have to tighten up. That you’re going to have to make sure that what goes out is balanced by what comes in. That you’re running short of dollars. That you can’t take on any more debt. That the dangers of a growing deficit have you damned.

Why are you out here making these exaggerated claims of poverty?

Why do you stay poor mouthing?

WHERE’S THE MONEY GOING TO COME FROM?

And you know what really gets me? That question of yours:

You think money grows on trees?

I flinch every time you fling that question back at me and others. It’s your way of cutting off the conversation, of flipping the script in such a way that it seeks to stifle any challenge to your incessant claim that you’re out of cash. Tapped out.

But a lot of us aren’t buying your tapped-out tale. In fact, some of us are convinced that it’s not even possible for you to run short of dollars. Some of us are convinced that it’s downright impossible for you to be tapped-out. And here’s why.

THROUGH THE LENS OF MODERN MONETARY THEORY

Look, before I go any further, let me come clean: I am a devotee—an enthusiastic follower—of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). Leading proponents of MMT include economists like Stephanie Kelton, L. Randall Wray, and Pavlina R. Tcherneva. And, for what it’s worth, the MMT camp also includes several prominent Black pastors—including, for instance, the Rev. Dr. Delman Coates.

But what does this have to do with you being busted? With you poor-mouthing? With you not being able to be short of dollars? Out of cheese? Tapped about?

Plenty.

You see, unlike me, you’re what advocates of MMT call monetarily sovereign. That’s just a fancy but truthful way of saying that only you’re the only one legally empowered to issue dollars. I mean I could, I suppose, purchase some high-tech equipment, set it up in a room in my crib, and get busy printing dollars. But I’m not constitutionally empowered to do so and, therefore, would be engaging in an illegal activity. If I got caught making dollars, well, I’d could end up in the joint. People who know me will tell you that I’m risk adverse. So, I’ll never get wiggle into your terrain. No matter how lucrative it might be, I’ll always take a pass on those kinds of opportunities. I’ll content myself with being a currency user and leave the currency issuing part of up to you. I’ll content myself with letting you to have a monopoly over the issuance of dollars.

But being monetarily sovereign goes beyond you having a legal monopoly on the issuance of money. Monetary sovereignty also means that you don’t promise to convert your currency into something that can run out. You don’t, for instance, link your money to stocks of bubble gum, toothpaste or, for that matter, to gold. Further, all your debts are denominated in the very currency that you have the exclusive right to issue: Dollars. Dr. Stephanie Kelton captures all of this in her recent book The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy.:

“To take full advantage of the special powers that accrue to the currency issuer, countries need to do more than just grant themselves the exclusive right to issue the currency. It’s also important that they don’t promise to convert their currency into something they could run out of (e.g., gold or some other country’s currency). And they need to refrain from borrowing (i.e., taking on debt) in a currency that isn’t their own. When a country issues its own nonconvertible (fiat) currency and only borrows in its own currency, that country has attained monetary sovereignty.”

That’s you Uncle Sam! You’re monetarily sovereign.

Because you’re monetarily sovereign it makes no sense—NONE—to do something that is popularly done: Analogizing the management of your budget to the management of a household budget. Or the budget of a City. Or even a state. You can do something that none of these other entities can do. Your constitutionally empowered to issue money that is not tied to something else and all your debt is denominated in the very currency that over which you exercise monopoly rights of issuance. To quote Kelton again: “Countries with monetary sovereignty, then, don’t have to manage their budgets as a household would.”

Cities can go bankrupt.

Counties can go belly up.

Businesses can become busted.

Individuals can become indigent.

That’s because they’re currency users, not currency issuers. They don’t have the power to print money. They can run out of dollars.

But not you. Countries that are truly monetarily sovereign can never run short of the currency that they’re legally empowered to issue. Granted, there’s some other issues that need to be discussed. MMT theorists recognize that there are certain constraints that prove problematic. I’ll talk about that in my next letters to you. For the moment, though, I just want to make the point: You are not busted. You—if you’re monetarily sovereign—cannot go bankrupt.

I don’t know whether you’re a basketball fan. Don’t worry. I’m not much of one either. I used to be, but I don’t really pay much attention to it nowadays. But the highest scoring game in history took place on December 13th, 1983. Remember that one? That was a duel between the Detroit Pistons and Denver Nuggets. The Pistons prevailed. 186-184. Not much defense but the “O” was off the chain. Zeke—Isiah Thomas—dropped in 47. And his two of his boys, Kelly Tripucka and John Long, put up 35 and 47, respectively. But it was Kiki VanDeWeghe of the Nuggets who lit up the board with 51 points. That’s a lot of points. Dudes were scoring like crazy. But guess what? The scorekeeper never worried about running out of points. In fact, had he—the scorekeeper—stopped the game to warn the players that at the rate they scoring there was a danger of running out of points, the people would have looked at him side-eyed. People would have look at him as if he were ridiculous.

Well, guess what? You’re like that score-keeper. You can’t run out of points. Dollars.

I know I’m probably not telling you anything you don’t already know. But the myth that analogizes your budget to a household budget is an intoxicating one and causes a lot of drowsy thinking about what we can and cannot afford in this country.

Drowsy thinking about eradicating student loan debt

Drowsy thinking about providing access health care to all

Drowsy thinking about ensuring decent jobs to all those available and willing to work

Drowsy thinking about a so-called “social security crisis.”

Look, man, I’ve gone on long enough. I’ll speak on some related issues in my next correspondence. But right now, I’ve got to get up in the wind. But in the meantime, Uncle, do me favor:

Stop po' mouthing. You ain’t tapped-out.

Catch you on the rebound,

Doc Greene