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Comment by raincom | Hacker News Reader

MMT works well, if exporters want to swap their real assets (commodities, food, chips, metals, labor) with US dollars (nominal). No one wants to export their real stuff to Venezuela unless the latter pays in US dollars.

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Don't know why you're being down voted, it's widely accepted that it only really works for currencies that are reserve currency status. It could also work if you were entirely self-sufficient with no exports/imports. All on the proviso that humans are quick to react to inflation, using perfect information, which we're not and which we don't have.

It works for all currencies. Some currencies have higher savings rates than other currencies.

The problem is calling that saving 'debt' and then catastrophising about it.

Most countries are not self-sufficient and do export/import and many countries are not able to issue debt in their own currencies.

So what? You can only import what you can export. In a floating system that swaps the currencies around just fine.

Draw it out and do the balance sheets. Local importers end up paying the local currency costs of exporters.

IIUC, it works for all currencies that are coupled to the economic and political policy making process. It does not work when the currency value is controlled to any significant degree by parties outside that process. These are sometimes called "sovereign currencies", and US dollar is one example thereof.

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