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Modern Monetary Theory: Bill and Warren's Excellent Adventure
In this book, William Mitchell and Warren Mosler, original proponents of what's come to be known as Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), discuss their perspectives about how MMT has evolved over the last 30 years.
In delightful, entertaining, and informative way, Bill and Warren reminisce about how, from vastly different backgrounds, they came together to develop MMT. They consider the history and personalities of the MMT community, including anecdotal discussions of various academics who took up MMT and who have gone off in their own directions that depart from MMT's core logic.
A very much needed book that provides the reader with a fundamental understanding of the original logic behind 'The MMT Money Story' including the role of coercive taxation, the source of unemployment, the source of the price level, and the imperative of the Job Guarantee as the essence of a progressive society – the essence of Bill and Warren's excellent adventure.
The introduction is written by British academic Phil Armstrong.
In delightful, entertaining, and informative way, Bill and Warren reminisce about how, from vastly different backgrounds, they came together to develop MMT. They consider the history and personalities of the MMT community, including anecdotal discussions of various academics who took up MMT and who have gone off in their own directions that depart from MMT's core logic.
A very much needed book that provides the reader with a fundamental understanding of the original logic behind 'The MMT Money Story' including the role of coercive taxation, the source of unemployment, the source of the price level, and the imperative of the Job Guarantee as the essence of a progressive society – the essence of Bill and Warren's excellent adventure.
The introduction is written by British academic Phil Armstrong.
- GenresEconomics
359 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 17, 2024
12 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
William Mitchell
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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 14, 2025
William Mitchell and Warren Mosler really drive home the logic of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) in their latest book “Bill and Warren’s Excellent Adventure”.
The book provides not only a fundamental understanding of the original logic behind MMT, but also an entertaining history about how Bill and Warren came together to develop MMT despite coming from vastly different backgrounds.
Bill is an Australian Marxist economist and has spent decades focusing on macroeconomics, labour market studies, econometric modeling, regional economics and economic development.
Warren is an economist and theorist based out of the US Virgin Islands who spent decades in the financial services industry, ran a broker/dealer firm that managed large institutional fixed income portfolios, and has deep insider knowledge of monetary operations.
They are both deeply involved in the academic community, travel the world giving presentations at conferences, and contribute to economic journals, newspapers, and periodicals.
In this book they tell the story of how their journey began exploring the ideas that developed into MMT and the challenges and successes that they experienced along the way.
The main point that they hit home is a simple one: sovereign currency issuing govts are not financially constrained and the only constrains exist in the real resources of the economy (labor, materials, technology etc).
They also show how a federal jobs guarantee could really get the economy to full capacity, and only then can we really raise the standard of living for everyone and break down income and wealth disparities.
The current neoliberal ideology that has been pushed by mainstream economists for decades is that “natural” unemployment and high interest rates are needed to keep down inflation. This is incorrect and the main reason we have so much inequality, poverty, deindustrialization, and a financialized economy that only serves the ruling class.
Bill and Warren remind us that this austerity that is being pushed on us is a policy choice. Our ruling class is choosing to not use the power of govt spending to fix the problems of society. The politicians are lying to us when they say that the govt is financially constrained, going broke, needs tax dollars to “fund” spending, has to issue more debt to “balance the budget”, and that future generations will be burdened with the govt debt.
This book gives readers the information to debunk the lies of the ruling class. It reminds us that govt deficits are private sector surpluses and that any obligation in dollars can easily be met by our govt that issues dollars. We are not going broke.
The only constraints we have are not financial ones. They are resource constraints in the real economy. If we need more doctors, we have the money to pay for their schooling etc. If we need more hospitals or housing or other infrastructure, we just need to hire unemployed folks to work in constructing these facilities. These are policy decisions and so the fact that we have millions unemployed, do not have a great healthcare system, have huge homelessness problems and unaffordable housing in general, is because the ruling class is choosing for it to be that way.
Bill and Warren eloquently explain all of this and propose a framework for managing the economy in a way that ensures that our society can flourish and that we have the tools and knowledge to deal with real problems.
I think that MMT and all of Bill and Warren’s work needs to become mainstream if we are ever going to evolve beyond end-stage capitalism and the extreme inequality and poverty that accompany it. Also, if we are ever going to get serious about addressing climate change and ecosystem collapse, we will have to get honest about the real constraints of our economy and debunk the lies that the neoliberals have done such a good job of spinning.
Whole sectors of the economy, especially energy and healthcare, are going to need to be put in the public domain and we will need to be able to explain how this can all be accomplished with the tools we have.
We do not have to wait for a revolution or complete systems collapse before we start working on this stuff. Plus, reforming how we manage our economy will be a vital step in setting up the conditions that will be necessary for changing our system from capitalism to socialism.
Bill and Warren give us the truth and understanding needed to start making the right steps towards gaining democratic control of our economy and taking away the power of the capitalist class.
Anyone serious about gaining knowledge about how our current monetary system works and what the real constraints are for our economy should read this book. This is a playbook for achieving the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. Read it!
The book provides not only a fundamental understanding of the original logic behind MMT, but also an entertaining history about how Bill and Warren came together to develop MMT despite coming from vastly different backgrounds.
Bill is an Australian Marxist economist and has spent decades focusing on macroeconomics, labour market studies, econometric modeling, regional economics and economic development.
Warren is an economist and theorist based out of the US Virgin Islands who spent decades in the financial services industry, ran a broker/dealer firm that managed large institutional fixed income portfolios, and has deep insider knowledge of monetary operations.
They are both deeply involved in the academic community, travel the world giving presentations at conferences, and contribute to economic journals, newspapers, and periodicals.
In this book they tell the story of how their journey began exploring the ideas that developed into MMT and the challenges and successes that they experienced along the way.
The main point that they hit home is a simple one: sovereign currency issuing govts are not financially constrained and the only constrains exist in the real resources of the economy (labor, materials, technology etc).
They also show how a federal jobs guarantee could really get the economy to full capacity, and only then can we really raise the standard of living for everyone and break down income and wealth disparities.
The current neoliberal ideology that has been pushed by mainstream economists for decades is that “natural” unemployment and high interest rates are needed to keep down inflation. This is incorrect and the main reason we have so much inequality, poverty, deindustrialization, and a financialized economy that only serves the ruling class.
Bill and Warren remind us that this austerity that is being pushed on us is a policy choice. Our ruling class is choosing to not use the power of govt spending to fix the problems of society. The politicians are lying to us when they say that the govt is financially constrained, going broke, needs tax dollars to “fund” spending, has to issue more debt to “balance the budget”, and that future generations will be burdened with the govt debt.
This book gives readers the information to debunk the lies of the ruling class. It reminds us that govt deficits are private sector surpluses and that any obligation in dollars can easily be met by our govt that issues dollars. We are not going broke.
The only constraints we have are not financial ones. They are resource constraints in the real economy. If we need more doctors, we have the money to pay for their schooling etc. If we need more hospitals or housing or other infrastructure, we just need to hire unemployed folks to work in constructing these facilities. These are policy decisions and so the fact that we have millions unemployed, do not have a great healthcare system, have huge homelessness problems and unaffordable housing in general, is because the ruling class is choosing for it to be that way.
Bill and Warren eloquently explain all of this and propose a framework for managing the economy in a way that ensures that our society can flourish and that we have the tools and knowledge to deal with real problems.
I think that MMT and all of Bill and Warren’s work needs to become mainstream if we are ever going to evolve beyond end-stage capitalism and the extreme inequality and poverty that accompany it. Also, if we are ever going to get serious about addressing climate change and ecosystem collapse, we will have to get honest about the real constraints of our economy and debunk the lies that the neoliberals have done such a good job of spinning.
Whole sectors of the economy, especially energy and healthcare, are going to need to be put in the public domain and we will need to be able to explain how this can all be accomplished with the tools we have.
We do not have to wait for a revolution or complete systems collapse before we start working on this stuff. Plus, reforming how we manage our economy will be a vital step in setting up the conditions that will be necessary for changing our system from capitalism to socialism.
Bill and Warren give us the truth and understanding needed to start making the right steps towards gaining democratic control of our economy and taking away the power of the capitalist class.
Anyone serious about gaining knowledge about how our current monetary system works and what the real constraints are for our economy should read this book. This is a playbook for achieving the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. Read it!
Displaying 1 of 1 review