I've been deep diving on MMT lately (per Rohan Gray, Stephanie Kelton, and L. Randall Wray); while I'm not entirely convinced, one thing that's surprised me is that it's less prescriptive than is oft assumed from its elevator pitch, and is much more focused on accurately describing what states do already. The claim is not that we can starting printing money willy-nilly without consequences; it's that we do that already, and we can be smarter about it if we're honest about that fact.

A couple other interesting outgrowths from that premise:

- the Federal Jobs Guarantee concept, which in addition to any positive externalities of putting the under-employed to work, also pegs the value of the dollar to labor (@$15/hr, $1=4min), while also providing a negotiating BATNA for the working class with their private employers.

- Because money is printed into existence, rather than an empty ritual of collecting revenue before spending it, taxation exists only for money to exit the system, reducing inflation and creating demand for dollars; tax payments aren't used to pay for anything, and are effectively burned. Kelton also makes an interesting point: rather than taxes being a "necessary evil" policy to pay for some other good, they can actually be reconstrued as positive goods in and of themselves: to price externalities (pollution tax) or discourage behavior (sin tax), etc.

The strongest argument against MMT, regardless of its theoretical merits, is simply the practical one: that Congress already perpetrates vast quantities of graft and fiscal short-sightedness, and it's unwise to trust such a transparently corrupt and dysfunctional institution with additional leeway for limitless spending.