How to Trade MMT Is Wall Street’s Great Unknown

There’s no avoiding it: If you work on Wall Street, you should probably have an opinion on modern monetary theory.

Just this week alone, BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink weighed in, calling it “garbage,” while former New York Federal Reserve President Bill Dudley reiterated that it’s a “crackpot theory.” Larry Summers insisted MMT was “fallacious at multiple levels,” and the back-and-forth between Paul Krugman and Bloomberg Opinion contributor Stephanie Kelton rages on. Bloomberg News’s Emily Barrett interviewed Paul McCulley, who sort of spoke up for the doctrine. The article points out that “few Wall Streeters have been willing to seriously debate the theory’s merits,” and, indeed, the former chief economist at Pacific Investment Management Co. at least takes a stand in dismissing those who say America will inevitably turn out like Venezuela and Zimbabwe.