Make Me Smart

Hey smarties! We’re on a break for the holidays, so we’re revisiting some favorite episodes from 2020. We want to say a big thank you for being part of the Make Me Smart family this year — every voicemail, question and donation makes a huge difference. None of us is as smart as all of us, and we couldn’t do this show without you. There’s still time to help us raise $500,000 for Marketplace before the end of the year! Donate here. Thanks, happy holidays and we’ll see you in the new year! Does debt matter? For an individual, a household or even a generation, sure it does. But what about a nation? Modern Monetary Theory says no. To help us understand MMT and why it matters in this crisis is Stephanie Kelton. She’s a professor of economics and public policy at Stony Brook University, and she served as an adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. Here are links to what we talked about today: “The Economist Who Believes the Government Should Just Print More Money” in the New Yorker “Is modern monetary theory nutty or essential?” in The Economist “Stephanie Kelton: ‘They’re going to have massive deficits. And it’s fine’ ” in the Financial Times “Dr. Fauci says NFL season is feasible” in the L.A. Times “Twitter Will Allow Employees To Work At Home Forever” in BuzzFeed “Uber Technologies Makes Takeover Approach to Grubhub” in The Wall Street Journal