Warren Mosler makes the New York Times

They say that there is no such thing as bad publicity, so by that logic it's great to see Warren Mosler in the New York Times. While I don't think that the article is particularly fair, I think that it does illustrate how reporters use Google just like the rest of us and the blogosphere can be genuinely influential.

I discovered Mosler back in 2008, where I think I called him "mad" and "delicious". Since then I've gone "mad" too I suppose, and now, 5 years later, I'm scratching my head over why MMT hasn't gone mainstream. It's just correct, but that seems to carry little weight, which has been a big learning for me.

The NYTimes article continues the trend of relegating Mosler & MMT to the lunatic fringe, but by not ignoring him they have inadvertently moved to step 2 of the Gandhi 4 step plan to revolution. We'll see if he continues to get publicly attacked.

MMT does not fit into traditional left/right narratives, and you can see this confusion in the first paragraph:

But his prescriptions for economic policy make him sound like a warrior for the 99 percent. When the recession hit, Mr. Mosler said, the government should have spent and spent until unemployment came down to a comfortable level. Forget saving the banks through the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Washington should have eliminated the payroll tax, given every state $500 per resident and offered a basic job to anyone who wanted one. 

So first he is set up as a left winger ("99%", "government should have spent and spent") and then the first policy prescription is a tax cut. In general, the article is focused on personal details and designed to make Mosler look bad. But the NYTimes usually makes me feel like I'm watching the Olympics on NBC.