---
product_id: 274709133
title: "The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and How to Build a Better Economy"
brand: "stephanie kelton"
price: "₨905"
currency: SCR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 5
url: https://www.desertcart.sc/products/274709133-the-deficit-myth-modern-monetary-theory-and-how-to-build
store_origin: SC
region: Seychelles
---

# The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and How to Build a Better Economy

**Brand:** stephanie kelton
**Price:** ₨905
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and How to Build a Better Economy by stephanie kelton
- **How much does it cost?** ₨905 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sc](https://www.desertcart.sc/products/274709133-the-deficit-myth-modern-monetary-theory-and-how-to-build)

## Best For

- stephanie kelton enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted stephanie kelton brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and How to Build a Better Economy

## Images

![The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and How to Build a Better Economy - Image 1](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41q+DkO9oZL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    This book could not be more timely
  

*by A***E on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 June 2020*

It is now nearly 5 decades since many governments, including those of the US and UK, achieved monetary sovereignty, with their currencies not tied to each other or to gold. But it has taken many of those decades for economists to grasp the implications. Prime among these implications , Stephanie Kelton suggests in this ground-breaking book, is that these governments are freed from financial constraints on spending, so long as most of their borrowing is in their own currency,. If economists have been slow to realise what this made possible, most politicians are totally oblivious - indeed, many of them use pre-1971 thinking to argue for austerity and a reduced economic role for the state.Central to the rigidity of both economists and politicians has been a myth that governments have to budget like a household. Kelton starts her book by demolishing this myth. Households cannot spend more than they bring in, without incurring debts that have to be repaid. In contrast, governments with monetary sovereignty can simply issue the money they need. How much they take back, in taxes or in debt repayment, is a political choice. The only constraints, Kelton argues, are real (resource availability and inflation) not budgetary.Kelton goes on to demolish other myths - that government deficits result in insolvency (rather than inflation),  or that national debt is a burden (rather than a vehicle for private savings deposits). She draws on her experience as chief economist on the US Senate Budget Committee to provide detailed evidence to back up her arguments. Obviously, much of this evidence is from the US, but the same principles apply to the UK and other countries whose governments have monetary sovereignty.Towards the end of the book, Kelton explores the political choices that monetary sovereignty makes possible. Instead of striving for debt reduction and a balanced budget, with all the austerity that entails, Kelton suggests that governments should be using public spending and taxes to re-balance the economy. That means prioritising aims like full employment, a fairer distribution of income and wealth, quality health, education and housing, and decarbonisation. These are political choices, she emphasises, which are constrained by real resource and ecological limits, not artificial limits on the ability of governments to issue money.We are living through a time of acute crisis - both immediate (Covid-19), and longer term (climate change). Addressing these crises will require governments to spend money, money that they can and should create. And the constraints on that money creation are weak at present - inflation and interest rates are near zero, and there are huge under-employed resources. The last thing we need is a return to austerity, justified by out-dated  notions that we need to reduce the deficit.Stephanie Kelton’s book could not be more timely.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Buy This Book for Friends, Family and Children - Teach Them To Expect More From Their Government
  

*by M***C on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 July 2020*

First of all, I'd like to associate myself with all the 5 star reviews below which all in their way explain the book and its concepts very well.The book is based on what passes for American fiscal policy but also ANY country that is a sovereign issuer of its own currency (like here in the UK) could do what Stephanie Kelton and other pro-Modern Monetary Theorists (MMT) advocate in this book. EU countries whose currency is issued by the European Central Bank cannot carry out MMT.I have learnt about MMT chiefly through Richard Murphy's blog (highly recommended) but I also bumped into Warren Mosler and his book 'The Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy' earlier and this to me opened up the subject, as did looking at Economist Bill Mitchell's blog although Mitchell is not convinced of the role of taxation.I choose to go with Kelton, Murphy et al on the latter - tax is fundamental to MMT because the cash injection can cause inflation: tax however is the cooling agent - the other half of the coin - what you put in at one end has to be taken out at the other, otherwise like a bucket over filling with water, money will overflow and inflation will happen. The other issue is that this is spending and then taxing - the Government is not taxing to spend - another lie that is constantly told to people in the USA and the UK - if not world-wide.This is why Thatcher and the Neo-liberals wrongly thought that using unemployment (very cruel and unnecessary) and curtailed state spending (a dereliction of a Government’s promise to provide) plus just using interest rates (monetarism) would control inflation when they took power in 1979. It did not. Why? Because Thatcher also reduced taxes, especially for the rich. Much of Thatcher's boom was created by privately created debt - whether from the expansion of consumer debt in households or leveraged take overs of public utilities and an exponential growth in the real estate sector- a lot of it was under taxed rich money pouring into the City of London as private investment to help the rich's money make more money AND relaxed credit and banking rules and that is why inflation was a continuous problem for even Tory Chancellors. Inflation came about because of a lack of tax and more credit being available. These were all Thatcher's decisions. Bad ones that persist to this day because politicians of all colours do not understand tax.In the practice of MMT, tax is not needed for spending - just for controlling inflation. Spending is from printing fiat money - money that the Government just creates by choice (or not!) out of thin air for its policy choices, for its people. Because it can. It always could since the day the State was founded.  And there are people with money to save who can act as the counter party and buy Government bonds and gilts with confidence because they will always get their money back.The pivotal part in this book for me though is from p.142 where Kelton explains the facts of sovereignty (the power of the Kings of old) to enable a State to print its own money for its people. She says it is key to understanding MMT and I totally agree with her. At a time where most politicians (whether Right or Left) seem to agree that the States they are meant to be in charge of are not as good as the market at allocating resources, this is a breath of fresh air. A State printing enough money for its people (all of them - not just enabling the rich to get richer by under taxing them and allowing the rich through their under-taxed income to charge us poorer folk through privatised utilities they buy and pay day loans they fund) is what we want both now during the Covid crisis and in the future.BREXITEERs will tell us that sovereignty is in our laws and borders. But the most powerful form of sovereignty in a country however is printing your own money - whether the pound or the dollar (Kelton contrasts this by telling us what happens in countries that don't print their own cash). And rather than leaving money to be circulated by un-elected and greedy not to be trusted private sector (think now about 2008 and all the crashes we had up to then, as well as the accounting fiascos and money laundering of criminal money as well as how the rich have got richer after 10 years of austerity whilst the rest of us lost it and jobs), MMT puts YOUR Government firmly in the seat of responsibility for ensuring that all our services (the NHS, Adult Social Care, schools and even our needs over Covid -19) are funded sufficiently.BTW - that Government could be Left or Right - MMT is politically neutral - it explains a factual, extant, practical State power that any British Government  could use - Tory, Green, Labour, Marxist, Trotsky, The BREXIT Party, The Official Monster Raving Lunatic Party - ANY of them could choose to use this power for the good of its citizens.If MMT is such a good idea then, why is it not more widely known? Why do people - even the supposedly well read middle class and those who go to Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard still think - politicians included - that tax pays for everything?Well, there are a number of reasons for this. Kelton thinks that efforts to add contributory and qualifying payments to citizen's State funded help has helped to muddy the waters and helped certain politicians over-egg the contribution side because those contributions have become a means by which we might choose to elect them (tax cutting/service cutting competition in elections). But there is also the Neo-lib myth of the State 'crowding out' the private sector - that when the State prints money into its society, the private sector does not get the opportunity to turn that activity into a profit making enterprise. So, States are encouraged to privatise, spend less money on direct support, turning over those budgets to the private sector instead for what can be a worst service. If we look at the amount of privatisations over the years, it is clear that rich capitalists - the same ones that fund parties of all persuasions who don't mind privatising (and financially support leading universities too) - are having their needs met before millions of voters.Look at British Rail today - it receives more state subsidy as a private concern than it did when it was owned by the Government even at pre-privatisation prices; look at how those water & utility bills have gone up since privatisation; Crowded out? The private sector has been 'crowding in' more like - to grab hold of money that should be being used to help people like me and you.There is also the inherent anti-Statism seen in Neo-liberalism - one of the dominant but not necessarily right economic philosophies of our time - the State bad/private good mantra for example.Kelton goes on at the end to advocate MMT being used to address the increasing pauperisation of the commons in America but also prevalent in the UK - we can look around most inner city areas and outer regions in the UK and see that lots of work needs to be done; there are potential jobs everywhere. We need new green technology start ups to deal with globalised climate change. And we need to realise that deliberate unemployment and constant market collapse is leaving people increasingly angry and frustrated - ripe for exploitation by neo-Fascism and potential social breakdown and instability throughout the world.So what to do?Start by reading this book but also buy it  (from Amazon!) for your family, your kids (especially for them) your friends and even work mates if you can. We have to start by raising our expectations of our politicians - expecting them to know about MMT, sovereign currency creation and demanding that, in return for our votes, they use MMT to help us and those we love and value - not just the well heeled who lobby politicians and make donations and push to the front.Expecting better than we have now - that is where we voters have to start in my view. This may well help us to have a proper public debate on MMT and see it put into practice to the point that it reaches its objectives - full, well paid employment and inflation controlled by a progressive tax system and happier, supported people with a future.Buy it and spread the word. It's worth a go.  We can't go on like this.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    World changing...now it’s up to us!
  

*by A***R on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 June 2020*

Thank you Stephanie. Beautifully clear for the lay person (that’s me!), this potentially confusing subject is made abundantly clear. Money can work for us in completely new ways, and if we all decide, globally and in our own countries that we want to approach money in society in this logical and succinct way that MMT allows, then we are at the birth of a new egalitarian society where everyone has a chance regardless of colour, race, creed, country of origin, sex....everyone can have equal opportunities in the world that MMT describes. Now it’s up to us to ask for this from our leaders wherever we are. 👍😀 Peter of Peter and Sandria

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sc/products/274709133-the-deficit-myth-modern-monetary-theory-and-how-to-build](https://www.desertcart.sc/products/274709133-the-deficit-myth-modern-monetary-theory-and-how-to-build)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Seychelles*
*Store origin: SC*
*Last updated: 2026-02-13*