The other day I was having a pseudo-intellectual discussion with an old friend of mine who is an economist (I brought the pseudo- ; he brought the intellect). As an aside, I like to poke fun of this guy because in public appearances he always begins his introduction with “I am in economist.” (Isn’t it funny how all economists seem to do this ?).

Anyway, my friend is a disciple of Stephanie Kelton and L. Randall Wray, so I asked him for an informal lesson in Modern Monetary Theory for dummies.

Color me still skeptical, but my friend’s explanation of MMT proved compelling, and he’s brilliant, so it’s impossible for me to be entirely dismissive of the concept.

Naturally, our conversation evolved into a deeper one about the impact of MMT on the US dollar, and more broadly about the future of fiat currencies in general.

Here is a graphical depiction of the current confusion in my brain:

My economist friend has clearly staked out his position firmly in quadrant IV. I’m personally more comfortable in quadrant II.

Quadrant I, however, is the one that intrigues me the most at present. In the current macro economic environment, I’m struggling to reconcile how one could predict impending doom from MMT while remaining a non-believer in BTC.

Yet a lot of really smart people do hold this position, so I suspect I am missing something here.