The U.S. government, the IMF, the Federal Reserve and major Central Banks have all been moving gradually from old Monetarist and “budget balancing” shibboleths to adopt forms of “Modern Monetary Theory.” There are many ways this is likely to change the way we think about taxation, “locked boxes,” and federal government spending. Here is a short excerpt from Warren Mosler, the original popularizer of this theory:
“There is no such thing as having to ‘get’ taxes (or borrow) to make a spread sheet entry that we call ‘government spending.’...
The Federal Government doesn’t ever ‘have’ or ‘not have’ any dollars
[anymore than a scorekeeper at a football game or bowling alley “has” or “doesn’t have” a fixed stock of points to give out] ...
“When it comes to the dollar, our government, working through its Federal agencies called the Federal Reserve Bank and the US Treasury Department, is the scorekeeper (and makes all the rules!)....
“You now have the operational answer to the question: ‘How are we going to pay for it?’ Answer, the same way government pays for anything, it changes the numbers in our bank accounts.
“The Federal government isn’t going to ‘run out of money’... Nor is it dependent on ‘getting’ dollars from China or anyone else. All it takes for the government to spend is change numbers up in bank accounts at its own bank, the Federal Reserve Bank. There is no numerical limit to how many dollars our government can spend, whenever it wants to spend. (This includes making interest payments, and Social Security and Medicare payments.) It includes all government payments made in dollars to anyone.
“
This is not to say excess government spending won’t possibly cause prices to go up (which we call inflation). It is to say the
[Federal] government can’t go broke and can’t be bankrupt
[unless it wishes to] ...
“So why does no one in government seem to get it? Why does the Ways and Means Committee in Congress worry about ‘how are we going to pay for it’? One reason might be because they are stuck in the popular notion that the federal government, just like any household, must somehow first ‘get’ money to be able to spend it.
“Yes, they have heard that it’s different for a government, but they don’t believe it ... What they all miss is the difference between spending your own currency that only you create, and spending a currency someone else creates.”
http://moslereconomics.com/wp-content/powerpoints/7DIF.pdf
Here is a summary of the principal tenets of Modern Monetary Theory:
“A government that issues its own
fiat money:
“1. Can pay for goods, services, and financial assets without a need to collect money in the form of taxes or debt issuance in advance of such purchases;
“2. Cannot be forced to default on debt denominated in its own currency;
“3. Is only limited in its money creation and purchases by inflation, which accelerates once the real resources (labour, capital and natural resources) of the economy are utilized at
full employment;
“4. Can control
demand-pull inflation by taxation which removes excess money from circulation (although the political will to do so may not always exist);
“5. Does not compete with the private sector for scarce savings by issuing bonds.”
From: Modern Monetary Theory - Wikipedia
(Which also explains the differences between mainstream Keynesianism and MMT.)